Colby College Unveils Major Museum Expansion, New Acquisitions

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Colby College Unveils Major Museum Expansion, New Acquisitions

July 08, 2013 19:24

Inaugural installation of the Bernard and Barbro Osher Gallery, featuring modern works from the Lunder Collection, Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion. Colby College Museum of Art. ©trentbellphotography

This weekend, the new Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion will be unveiled at the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine. Already known for its vast and important American art collection, Colby now boasts the most exhibition space of any art museum in Maine. With recent gifts, it has become one of the nation's premier institutions of American art.

An event for friends of the museum on Saturday, July 13 and a special community celebration on Sunday, July 14 will mark the opening.

Director of the Portland Museum of Art Mark Bessire has said, "This takes Colby to another level. Instead of being a curiosity, Colby is a major player."

The Lunder Collection: A Gift of Art to Colby College, on view from July 13, 2013, through June 8, 2014, is the first exhibition dedicated entirely to the Lunder Collection. Colby alumni Peter Lunder '56 and Paula Lunder, longtime benefactors of Colby College, promised their collection of more than 500 works of art to the Colby College Museum of Art in 2007, inspiring the addition of the Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion.

Curated by a team from the Colby College Museum of Art, the exhibition will welcome the Lunder Collection to the museum by featuring more than 260 highlights of 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century American and contemporary art, including works by James McNeill Whistler, Winslow Homer, Georgia O'Keeffe, Donald Judd, Louise Nevelson, and many others.

Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion, east façade at night, with a view of Sol LeWitt's Wall Drawing #559. Colby College Museum of Art. © 2013 The LeWitt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. ©trentbellphotography

Organized chronologically and thematically, The Lunder Collection explores idealized depictions of American mythology, American artists' adoption and transformation of European aesthetic ideals, American landscapes and cityscapes, and subjects such as labor, childhood, camaraderie, and travel. An accompanying audio guide will provide historical context for many of the works through readings of literature, poetry, and music from the period.

Designed by Frederick Fisher and Partners Architects, the Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion is a modern glass structure that contrasts with the largely Georgian-style brick architecture of the Colby campus.

Georgia O'Keeffe, Birch and Pine Trees-Pink, 1925. Oil on canvas, 36 x 22 in. (91.4 x 55.9 cm). Colby College Museum of Art, The Lunder Collection

In addition to The Lunder Collection, the museum will present Spaces and Places: Chinese Art from the Lunder-Colville Collection and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; A Thing Alive: Modern Views from the Marin Collections; Nowhere But Here: Art From the Alex Katz Foundation; Alex Katz: A Matter of Light; American Weathervanes from a Distinguished Maine Collection; and Process & Place: Exploring the Design Evolution of the Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion.