Philadelphia museums open 19 galleries for 'A Nation of Artists'

The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts have opened a joint exhibition titled 'A Nation of Artists.' The show occupies 19 galleries at the PMA and nearly all available space at the PAFA Landmark Building. It marks the United States' 250th birthday with a comprehensive look at American art history.

The exhibition displays nearly 1,000 artworks gathered from three collections. For the first time on public view, about 100 masterworks from the Middleton Family Collection of American Art are included. These pieces are intermixed with the museums' permanent holdings. PMA curator Kathleen Foster said the two institutions collaborated with the Middleton Collection to enhance their ability to tell the story of American art history.

The two venues present the material in different ways. The PMA galleries are organized chronologically, bracketing the years from the 1680s to the 1950s. The first floor features early American art in galleries that reopened in 2021. The second floor tackles the 19th and 20th centuries. Visitors can see the Flag of the Second Continental Light Dragoons, dated 1776-77, and Charles Wilson Peale's George Washington at Princeton from 1779. Both are Middleton loans.

At PAFA, the exhibition begins in a section called 'A Nation of Experimenters.' The works here are grouped thematically rather than by date. Every piece in the introductory gallery references the American flag or issues of national identity. Standouts include Sonya Clark's ongoing performance work 'Unraveling,' which uses a partially deconstructed Confederate battle flag. Andrew Wyeth's 'Young America' from 1950 is also on display.

The show emphasizes the role of African Americans and Indigenous peoples in the nation's creative output. At the PMA, a stoneware vessel by Dave, an enslaved potter, sits among mid-nineteenth century works. Dave inscribed the jar with his name, a rhymed verse, and the date 1859. At PAFA, Horace Pippin's 1942 painting 'John Brown Going to His Hanging' depicts a crowd facing a gallows-bound wagon.

Benjamin West's 'Penn's Treaty with the Indians' is a centerpiece at PAFA. The grandly scaled painting from 1771-72 shows an exchange between Penn and Lenape representatives. West grew up near Indigenous communities in what is now Swarthmore, which informed his depiction of customs and attire. Marie Watt's 2012 mural-sized rainbow 'Skywalker/Skyscraper (Allegory)' uses reclaimed wool blankets to carry histories of use.

The exhibition runs into 2027. It encourages multiple visits to both museums. Works by celebrated artists such as Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, and Henry Tanner appear in both venues.