On the eve of the opening of a new exhibit at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, curator Jay Williams coached a group of volunteers for their roles as docents this summer, as they give visitors insight into “From Painting to Video: Highlights from the Permanent Collection.”
In all, 49 pieces have been plucked from the 800 works in the museum’s collection, which focuses on 20th and 21st century American art.
As the group clustered around each work, their host, Williams, seemed to be introducing guests at a gathering. Some works were newcomers to the collection; others were sentimental old friends, dating back to the 1980s when the museum had just opened.
And then there was the life of the party, everybody’s favorite, Williams says: A huge soft sculpture in off-white cotton duck hovered inches off the wall like an upended king-size mattress in very rumpled sheets.
Edging closer, the fabric’s puckers morph into formidable human faces, clustered in terror over a stuffed white shark. The wall relief, “Watson and the Shark,” is the work of Sharron Quasius, a Sheboygan, Wisconsin, artist known for her sewn canvas recreations of famous paintings. This time, she chose to recreate the menace and angst in John Singleton Copley’s famous 1778 oil painting of a 14-year-old boy being rescued off Cuba.
“The figures have almost a Muppet-like look except for the fact that they’re all white,” says Williams, who shares the docents’ amusement with the piece. It was donated in 1990 by patrons Charles and Mary Jane Spahr.
Others are “favorites that haven’t been out for a while,” says Williams, including Florida nature photographer Clyde Butcher’s “Loxahatchee No. 1.” Butcher himself made the gift after the museum had a show of his works in 1992.
The favorite of museum-goers may well be a sculpture by Marshall M. Fredericks, a very prolific and well known historical sculptor from Michigan. The huge semi-abstract bronze is of an eagle, wings aloft, set in a corner of the room. Museum staff affixed a mark on the floor in front of it, one of several designated “selfie-spots” where guests are encouraged to take photos of themselves with the work.
“We wanted it even higher; it looks even better,” says Williams. “But it’s extremely heavy. As it is, we had to stuff the pedestal with all kinds of weight to keep it from toppling.”
The eagle and its startling deep turquoise patina, was a gift of three couples, members of the museum who were connected with the region of the country the artist came from. “They pooled their money together in order to purchase it from the estate of the artist.
“This was prior to the time of the Athena Society,” says Williams, referring to the group of supporters who pay a premium to be Athena members and, along with travel opportunities, get together for an elaborate dinner every year to choose which works they would like to acquire.
There are several Athena Society works in this show, including this year’s purchase: Richard Estes’ New York street scene, “Amsterdam Avenue and 96th Street.” There is also Janet Fish’s still life, “Orange Poppies/Fish Bowl,” a large oil on canvas purchased by the Athena patrons in 2009.
In the gallery, that work is next to one that will likely become close to Vero’s heart: a painting by island winter resident Janvier Miller called “Iris by the Sea.” That work was donated in 2014 by the children of the late Carol Lawson Booth; she and her husband, John McLaughlin Booth, were longtime museum supporters.
Another well-regarded local artist, Tim Sanchez, is represented in the show; one of his large abstracts, “Nexus,” was donated in 2014. Like Miller’s “Iris,” this is the first time the work has been on display at the museum. There is also a seascape by Gifford-born Highwayman George Buckner, one of three Highwaymen paintings donated by Nancy and Paul Morgan in 2009.
There is one very conspicuous piece in the exhibit sure to evoke a sense of déjà vu: “In the Common Interest,” a large folding screen painted in oils by Alabama artist Dale Kennington, who enthralled a Vero audience when she spoke at the Art in Bloom luncheon last year. A show of her series of screens took place around the same time and she surprised museum officials with the announcement of her gift.
“We were tweaking right down to the end of hanging the show,” Williams says of the year-long selection process that included the collaboration of Lucinda Gedeon, executive director, and relied on the museum’s chief preparatory, Matthew Mangold, for input in laying out the exhibit. “The layout of the gallery is really Matthew’s brainchild,” says Williams. “He’s great at coming up with groupings, and finding pieces that hang together and sort of talk to each other. That really makes the show sing.”
The exhibit is in place through mid-September. James Prosek’s remarkable paintings of saltwater fish is also up until the first week of September. Along with their beauty, the works are a great way to learn to identify – and respect – what’s swimming in our waters.