Stagestruck in America: Artists, Entertainers, & Audiences, 1906 - 1956
February 10—August 8 , 2004

This exhibition marks the Yale University Art Gallery's acquisition of two American paintings depicting aspects of New York City’s theatrical life in the first half of the twentieth century. Everett Shinn’s The Orchestra Pit, Old Proctor’s Fifth Avenue Theatre of 1906 and Walt Kuhn’s Chorus Captain of 1935 are the centerpieces of this Matrix Gallery show which includes paintings, drawings, photographs and prints from the Gallery’s collections by Lee Friedlander, James Van Der Zee, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Mabel Dwight and Reginald Marsh (Yale class of 1920), and others.

Organized by Robin Jaffee Frank, Associate Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture. Supported by the Friends of American Arts at Yale, the Jan and Warren Adelson Fund in honor of Eugénie Prendergast, and an endowment made possible by a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Traveling Exhibition:
The Scholar as Collector: Chinese Art at Yale
September 23 – December 11, 2004

Twenty-two years ago, the China Institute presented a selection of masterworks of Chinese art from the Yale University Art Gallery. Now, a second exhibition, The Scholar as Collector: Chinese Art at Yale, reexamines the collection from the perspective of Chinese scholar-collectors. Selections of calligraphy and painting, the two arts most esteemed by scholar-collectors, range from eleventh-century images of scholars to early twentieth-century writing in the ancient seal script. Antiquarian interests on the part of scholars led them to collect bronze ritual vessels, prized for their inscriptions, and to the creation of archaistic vessels, which met the market demand for antiques. The exhibition includes a selection of ceramics representing the types most frequently mentioned in scholarly writings. In order to create a context for all of the works of art, a scholar's studio has been assembled with a Qing-period bookcase, a seventeenth-century yoke-back chair, and a grouping of scholar's desk objects.

Exhibition and publication organized by David Sensabaugh, Curator of Asian Art, Yale University Art Gallery.
Livable Modernism: Interior Decorating and Design During the Great Depression
October 5, 2004 – June 5, 2005

Livable Modernism celebrates the Yale University Art Gallery’s collection of American modernist design from the 1930s. The exhibition features examples of furniture, tablewares, and accessories sold for the living rooms, dining rooms, and bedrooms of American middle-class homes during the Great Depression. American designers in these years experimented with modern materials, such as chromium and tubular steel, and streamlined, efficient forms, while aiming to satisfy consumers’ desire for comfort and familiarity.

A related symposium, "American Modernist Design, 1920–1940: New Perspectives," takes place on October 29–30. Conference program and registration information are available as a downloadable PDF.

Exhibition and publication organized by Kristina Wilson, Assistant Professor of Art History, Clark University, and former Marcia Brady Curatorial Fellow, American Decorative Arts, and supported by the Friends of American Arts at Yale and an endowment made possible by a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.