Now Showing at the Arkell

Please join us at the Museum for these current exhibitions.

Then & Now: Contemporary Artists Revisit the Past

On Display
May 15, 2009 – August 5, 2009

The Oxbow, After Church, After Cole, Flooded, 1979-1994, final study (Flooded River for the Matriarchs E. and A. Mongan) Stephen Hannock

The exhibition juxtaposes the work of contemporary artists with 19th and early 20th century painters that may have influenced, inspired or led them in an opposite direction. Contemporary artists in this exhibition include April Gornik, Stephen Hannock, Stanley Lewis, Jane Lund, Dennis Pinette and Devorah Sperber. The 19th century paintings in Then & Now were created by notable artists such as George Inness, Ralph Blakelock and Thomas Eakins. Museum visitors will have the unique opportunity to compare the subjects, themes, materials, and painting techniques found in works by American artists of today to earlier masters of landscape and portrait painting.

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Arkell’s Inspiration:
The Marketing of Beech-Nut and Art for the People

Permanent Exhibition

Bartlett Arkell’s collection of late 19th and early 20th century American paintings and the use of his collection to market Beech-Nut products is the focus of this exhibition. The exhibition will be on display in Arkell’s original gallery and in new exhibition spaces. Arkell’s collection of works by Winslow Homer, American Impressionists, and members of The Eight will be reinstalled in the restored original gallery.

Bartlett Arkell, founder of the Canajoharie Library Art Gallery and the first President of Beech-Nut Packing Company, encouraged his marketing staff to use his collection in their print ads. The result of this borrowing of images from oil paintings created by artists such as Edward Gay and J.G. Brown, was a series of ad campaigns that brought “art to the masses” and linked the virtues found in the paintings with Beech-Nut gum and food products. Museum visitors will have an opportunity to use images from the collection to create their own Beech-Nut advertisement to take home or mail as a postcard.

Exhibition funded, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.

 

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