Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Museum Hours of Operation 
Frederick William MacMonnies (American, 1863-1937)
Bacchante with Infant Faun, 1893
BronzeTampa Museum of Art. Gift of Joseph Veach Noble in honor of Lois C. Noble 1997.10
Bacchante with Infant Faun, 1893
BronzeTampa Museum of Art. Gift of Joseph Veach Noble in honor of Lois C. Noble 1997.10
Frederick MacMonnies developed his skills while an apprentice to famed sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and by his subsequent study at the National Academy of Design. As a result of MacMonnies’ friendship with prominent architect Charles F. McKim, a life-size version of Bacchante with Infant Faun was donated to the courtyard of McKim’s recently completed building, the Boston Public Library. When installed in 1896 its naturalistic figure, sensual exuberance, and its perceived reference to inebriation resulted in it being deemed inappropriate and offensive, causing it to be withdrawn and subsequently given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. MacMonnies often cast his bronzes in various sizes to make the works available to a larger audience. In addition to the full-scale version, three smaller sizes of the subject were also cast. The sculpture provides a valuable link between the work of Hiram Powers and C. Paul Jennewein, both represented in TMA’s collection.
Collections
The Tampa Museum of Art collects Greek and Roman antiquities and post-1900 and contemporary art in all media. Its primary collecting objective is to build a distinct and distinguished collection with a particular emphasis on photography and new media created since 1970, graphic art created since 1900, and contemporary studio glass (post-1950). The museum also has a special interest in regional artists of accomplished stature, particularly those working in the State of Florida and surrounding islands. The museum will also consider donations or purchases of art that may define new areas of collecting interest if the body of work offered or available is significant, and includes funding to assure the proper care, maintenance and research of the new collecting area. All prospective additions to the collection are evaluated on the basis of aesthetic quality, authenticity, documentation, physical condition and the degree of pertinence to the museum's existing collections. Objects from the museum's permanent collection are not on view at all times.
Greek & Roman Antiquities
The Tampa Museum of Art houses one of the finest collections of Greek and Roman antiquities in the southeast United States. The Joseph Veach Noble Collection forms the core of this important collection. Known for its outstanding selection of painted Greek pottery, including one of the finest groups of South Italian vases, the collection surveys the material culture of the Mediterranean area from the Neolithic period to the Roman Imperial period.
With approximately 551 objects, the collection illustrates the types of art works characteristic of ancient Greece and Rome: painted pottery; sculpture in marble, bronze, and terra cotta; personal ornaments of bronze and gold; struck silver and gold coins; and a variety of ancient glass vessels as well as other items that illuminate interesting aspects of daily life. These works of art offer valuable insights into the societies that produced them. They vividly depict a complex mosaic of beliefs and lifestyles, spanning thousands of years and forming the foundations of Western civilization.
Paintings
The museum's painting collection includes approximately 393 works by noted artists such as Willie Cole, Alma Thomas, Rockwell Kent, Abraham Walkowitz, Ralph Goings, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, and Purvis Young.
The painting collection has been assembled over the years largely through individual gifts. Because of this, there is thematic and stylistic diversity that reflects the individual tastes and interests of the donors. Work by influential regional artists, including Edgar Sanchez Cumbas, Leslie Lerner, William Pachner, Jon Corbino, Syd Solomon, Mernet Larsen, Jeff Kronsnoble, and Theo Wujcik, are a significant component of the painting collection.
Photography
The museum has over 2,149 photographs representing a wide variety of photographic techniques and formats: daguerreotype, albumen, salt, photogravure, stereographic, collotype, gelatin silver, carbon and chromogenic. Particular areas of strength include nineteenth-century photographs, especially expeditionary images related to Greece and Rome, and photography created after 1970.
The collection initially was established with an emphasis on photographs created by artists who stage, manipulate and otherwise transform their subject matter. Since then it has expanded to include examples by other important contemporary photographers. Examples include: Berenice Abbott, John Baldessari, Zeke Berman, Nancy Burson, Chuck Close, Eileen Cowin, Robert Doisneau, Robert Frank, Sally Gall, Phillippe Halsman, Bud Lee, Robert Mapplethorpe, Duane Michals, Abelardo Morell, Eliot Porter, Robert Rauschenberg, Sebastiao Salgado, Lucas Samaras, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman, Aaron Siskind, Sandy Skoglund, Jerry Uelsmann, Burk Uzzle, William Wegman, and Garry Winogrand
Part of the photography collection consists of works whose subject matter is exclusively related to archaeological excavations and classical imagery. These photographs were gifts from a single donor, William Knight Zewadski. This area of the collection serves as an impressive resource for the museum’s collection of antiquities and provides examples of many of the early techniques and practitioners of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Examples include such artists as Felix Bohfils, Constantin Dimitris, Roger Fenton, Francis Frith, and Robert MacPerson. An endowment for photography provided by the Frank E. Duckwall endowment within the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay provides some of the means to build the collection.
Recent Acquisitions
The Tampa Museum of Art collects Greek and Roman antiquities and post-1900 art in all media. Its primary collecting objective is to build a distinct and distinguished collection with a particular emphasis on photography and new media created since 1970, graphic art created since 1900, and contemporary studio glass (post-1950). The museum also has a special interest in regional artists of accomplished stature, particularly those working in the State of Florida and surrounding islands.
The museum will also consider donations or purchases of art that may define new areas of collecting interest if the body of work offered or available is significant and includes funding to assure the proper care, maintenance and research of the new collecting area.
All prospective additions to the collection are evaluated on the basis of aesthetic quality, authenticity, documentation, physical condition, and the degree of pertinence to the museum's existing collections. Upon approval from the Curator(s) and Director, all prospective gifts and purchases are presented to the museum's Collections Committee for review and consent, and then to the museum's Board of Trustees. The entire process can take up to several months.
Sculpture
Sculpture by renown artists such as Hiram Powers, Frederick W. MacMonnies, Georg Kolbe, Jacques Lipchitz, Harry Bertoia, Conrad Marca-Relli, and Betty Woodman are a few of the highlights in a diverse collection that includes a significant number of works by regional artists. In addition, there is an extensive study collection of the work of the twentieth-century architectural sculptor C. Paul Jennewein, comprised of approximately 30 completed sculptures and over 2,780 works on paper, sketches, medallions, studies, and related studio materials, most of which was bequeathed to the museum in 1978 by the Jennewein family.
In addition, the museum houses a small, yet expanding collection of studio glass. Turn-of-the-century glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Emil Gallé, and Antonin Daum compliment more recent contemporary objects by important artists such as Martin Blank, Sonja Blomdahl, Dale Chihuly, Jon Kuhn, Richard Royal, Therman Statom, Lino Tagliapietra, and Toots Zynsky. A gift of a fully formed collection of glass sculptures has been promised to the museum from Dr. Richard and Barbara Basch of Sarasota, Florida.
Works on Paper
The museum's collection of works on paper numbers over 1,585 and illustrates a variety of printmaking techniques, styles, and themes.
The print collection includes a number of contemporary examples produced at Graphicstudio, a nationally recognized printmaking workshop located in Tampa at the University of South Florida, as well as earlier historical works that provide context for contemporary printmaking developments. Prints by Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Georges Braque, and Mary Cassatt as well as later works on paper by such artists as James Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg, Chuck Close, Jim Dine, David Hockney, Mel Kendrick, Robert Motherwell, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, Bruce Nauman, Kenny Scharf, Jose Bedia, Pat Steir, and Beatriz Milhazes illustrate important modernist and contemporary artistic styles and themes. There is also a growing collection of works from the first half of the 20th century (1900-1950) that provides an overview of American art movements and the rise of printmaking as an important and accessible artistic medium in this country, with examples by such artists as Reginald Marsh, Thomas Hart Benton, Raphael Soyer, and Isabel Bishop. Many of these works were given to the museum by two generous donors, August and Tommie Freundlich and the Sybiel B. Beckman Foundation. In addition, a small number of prints serve as examples of early printmaking: John Audubon, William Chase, Paul Cezanne, Honore Daumier, Francisco Goya, William Hogarth, Giovanni Piranesi, Paulus Pontius, Albrecht Durer, Lucas Vorsteman and Hans Beham.