Connect with us

Create

Tampa Museum of Art celebrates a century

Bill DeYoung

Published

on

Highwayman art by Willie Daniels: "Untitled (Backcountry With Mighty Oak Tree and Coconut Palm)."

At 55 years of age, the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg is the grande dame of our city’s art museums. It was the first, and it certainly won’t be the last, and early on the MFA set the benchmark for quality in terms of an expansive permanent collection, and finely curated – and always interesting – visiting exhibitions.

St. Pete’s bayfront beauty is a mere youngster when compared to the Tampa Museum of Art, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this month.

Preliminary steps have been taken in the organization of a body whose purpose shall be to secure the establishment of an art gallery or museum of art in this city. That Tampa should have an art gallery or museum, and that there is already in this city a nucleus around which can be gathered, by gradual acquisition, a group of paintings and art objects of worthwhile proportions, is the expressed belief of a small but select gathering held Friday afternoon in the Woman’s club building in Plant Park.

Tampa Tribune/July 18, 1920

The story went on to say, with no less loquaciousness, that the purpose of the proposed Tampa Museum of Fine Art (as it was to be called) would be “primarily to aid the students of the public schools and other schools of the city and county to attain a better knowledge of art.”

The first exhibition, a collection of 30 paintings loaned by the Cincinnati Art Club, was on view for a month in an upstairs room at City Hall.

There’s been a lot of oil paint under the bridge since then; the city-owned Tampa Museum of Art was launched in 1979, and relocated to its current site, a 66,000-square foot facility along the Hillsborough River, in 2010.

Museum admins, board and staff have been planning a big centennial celebration for years – it’s Saturday (Nov. 7) and yes, it’s got to be virtual (no tux ‘n’ gown crowd) but it’s certainly an anniversary worth applauding. All information about the event is here.

Despite the necessity of a no-contact anniversary party, the museum is indeed open for business, albeit masked and socially-distanced business.

Coming Nov. 21 is Living Color: The Art of the Highwaymen, an exhibition of striking canvases created by African American Floridian artists. The first Highwaymen were tutored in the 1950s by Fort Pierce’s legendary painter/teacher A.E. “Bean” Backus, and they sold their vividly colored works, from their automobile trunks, along the sides of South Florida highways. That’s where the name came from.

Many of the early works were painted on used upson board and other found materials.

The history of the Highwaymen is fascinating, and no one knows it better than retired visual art professor and photographer Gary Monroe, who authored The Highwaymen: Florida’s African-American Landscape Painters (University Press of Florida, 2001).

Monroe is the curator of this new Tampa Museum of Art exhibit, in conjunction with the Orlando Museum of Art. The paintings come from five private collections; included are works by Albert Hair, Harold Newton, Roy McLendon, James Gibson and other significants.

The Museum also houses one of the largest Greek and Roman antiquities collections in the southeastern United States.

Check it out here.

“Untitled (Backcountry pond at sunset)” by Roy McLendon.

 

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By posting a comment, I have read, understand and agree to the Posting Guidelines.

The St. Pete Catalyst

The Catalyst honors its name by aggregating & curating the sparks that propel the St Pete engine.  It is a modern news platform, powered by community sourced content and augmented with directed coverage.  Bring your news, your perspective and your spark to the St Pete Catalyst and take your seat at the table.

Email us: spark@stpetecatalyst.com

Subscribe for Free

Share with friend

Enter the details of the person you want to share this article with.