Love in American Art (original) (raw)

Love in American Art

Introduction

This section of the Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO) catalogue Topics in American Art is devoted to the topic "Love in American Art." Articles and essays specific to this topic published in TFAO's Resource Library are listed at the beginning of the section. Clicking on titles takes readers directly to these articles and essays. The date at the end of each title is the _Resource Library_publication date.

After articles and essays from Resource Library are links to valuable online resources found outside our website. Links may be to museums' articles about exhibits, plus much more topical information based on our online searches. Following online resources may be information about offline resources including museums, DVDs, and paper-printed books, journals and articles.

We recommend that readers searchwithin the TFAO website to find detailed information for any topic.Please see our pageHow to research topics not listedfor more information.

"Art must be an expression of love or it is nothing." Marc Chagall

"Love really does make everything beautiful, from the inside out." Jan Denise

(above: Norman Rockwell, Sunset (Boy and Girl Gazing at Moon, Puppy Love, Cover to the Saturday Evening Post on April 24, 1926. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)

Resource Library articles and essays honoring the American experience through its art:

Love and the American Dream: The Art of Robert Indiana (7/8/99)

Robert Indiana: Love and the American Dream (11/22/99)

Gifts of Pride and Love: Kiowa and Comanche Cradles (11/23/99)

Love Struggle: Paintings by John Gwinn (2/23/00)

For Love of Country (4/18/00)

Love and Loss: American Portrait and Mourning Miniatures (2/26/01)

Frederick Judd Waugh, 1861 - 1940: From Love to Knowledge -- An Artist's Journey (6/5/03)

The Red Rose Girls: An Uncommon Story of Art and Love (9/25/03)

EDWARD WESTON: A Photographer's Love of Life (11/11/03)

Edward Weston: A Photographer's Love of Life (11/15/04)

Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love (11/6/07)

Love Never Fails: The Art of Edouard and Luvena Vysekal (10/28/11)

(above: Robert Indiana, United States Postal Service 8c LOVE Stamp, 1973. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)

From other websites:

A Fine Romance: Images of Love in Classic American Illustration is a 2019 exhibit at The Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University. Mary Platt, Director, says: "Love is in the air in this assemblage of amorous images drawn from The Hilbert Collection's impressive selection of classic American illustrations. Many of these works were created to illustrate romantic fiction in the pages of popular periodicals of the 1940s to the 1960s, the golden age of magazine illustration." Accessed 8/23

Art of Family Living Curriculumis a set of digital books produced by a collaboration ofthe Grand Rapids Art Museum and Gatherings of Hope congregations. Each publication is authored by Delia Martin Venema and features artworks in the collection of GRAM. One of the publications is titled "A Study in Love," featuring the art of American artist Mark Sheinkman. Accessed December, 2015.

_Love for Sale: The Graphic Art of Valmor Product_s is a 2015 exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center which says: "Perfumes, hair pomades, incense, and a wide variety of other products came packaged in small bottles and tins with eye-catching labels affirming the mystical powers of the products within." Accessed 3/17

Love Me Tender, an exhibit held February 22 - May 26, 2013 at The Bellevue Arts Museum. Accessed August, 2015.

Hope Gangloff: Love Letters, an exhibit held January 30 to June 5, 2011 at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art. Accessed August, 2015.

Mickalene Thomas: All About Love is a 2024 exhibition at The Broad which says: "The exhibition highlights how Mickalene Thomas has mastered and innovated within several disciplines, from mixed-media painting and collage to installation and photography. The exhibition shares its title and several of its themes with the pivotal text by feminist author bell hooks, in which love is an active process rooted in healing, carving a path away from domination and towards collective liberation." Accessed 12/24

More Love: Art, Politics, and Sharing since the 1990s is a 2013 exhibit at the Ackland Art Museum which says: "Organized by consulting curator Claire Schneider,More Love: Art, Politics, and Sharing since the 1990s includes 48 works of art by 33 emerging and established contemporary artists who actively engage with love and the many ways it can be expressed through beauty, emotion, humor, texts, elaborate craft, sound environments, and interactive projects. For each of these artists, love is a significant tool or strategy that constitutes a creative practice built on generosity, inclusiveness, sharing, and questioning." Accessed 2/17

Partners and Adversaries: The Art of Collaboration was a 2012 exhibit at the Sheldon Museum of Art which says: "Drawn largely from the Sheldon Museum of Art's permanent collection, Partners and Adversaries: The Art of Collaboration explores the productive and often ambivalent partnerships that coalesce around artistic practices. These include familial and romantic relationships, where ambitions and successes may clash and collide at the expense of one partner; the mutually dependent yet divergent interests of artists and their dealers; the dance of imitation and distinction between student and teacher; the official sanction of government support, everywhere shadowed by the threat of moralizing censure; and, increasingly in contemporary art, new processes and technologies that empower fabricators whom artists must collaborate with to achieve the results they desire." Viewers may download the exhibition catalog. Accessed 1/17

The Pursuit of Love - Marilyn Holsing is a 2017 exhibit at the Delaware Contemporary which says: "Rococo painters' fanciful tales in lush, verdant woods with seductively extravagant foliage have long been of great appeal to Marilyn Holsing and a rich source for her imagination. In their narratives, figures clad in luxurious garments traipse through the woods, flirting and playing seemingly without worry." Also see artist's website. Accessed 12/18

SoArts HeART is a 2017 exhibit at Garfield Park Arts Center which says: "The art of love. Whether it's August Rodin's The Kiss or Robert Indiana's Love sculpture, artists have always had something to say about love. Love is a strong emotion, and is as difficult to define as art itself. SoArts and Garfield Park Art Center will be exploring the concept of love, the heart and Valentine's Day. Each artist will interpret the concept in their own medium based on their own life experiences and feelings." Accessed 1/17

Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate is a 2017 exhibit at the Fort Collins Museum of Art which says: "This dynamic exhibition...showcases the diverse work of 39 artists who have transformed thousands of anti-Semitic and racist books into a visually powerful, thought-provoking, and ultimately deeply moving exhibition." Also see website for touring exhibit. Accessed 3/17

Virtues & Vices is a 2019 exhibit at the TJC Gallery which says: "This exhibition invites you to reflect, question, and explore the ways in which art can depict moral virtue and vice, and the evaluative stances that artists might take toward their subject matter." Accessed 6/20

What Is left Unspoken. Love is a 2021 exhibit at the High Museum of Art which says: "Since love is better led than drawn, better inspired than obtained, maybe art is the best means with which to explore the subject. Artworks in the exhibition suggest ways in which love is experienced everyday yet also connected to the grand scale of human destiny." Accessed 4/22

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