June 12, 2014
It is with pride and a touch of wistfulness that we congratulate Sylvia Yount, Chief Curator and the Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art, who will be joining the staff of New York’s The Metropolitan Museum of Art this September as the Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of The American…
October 30, 2013
Allegory of Marital Fidelity, Jan Miense Molenaer. (1633) As a reference librarian, I am often asked to find things for people. These little hunts are often straightforward and informative. But sometimes I get to uncover funny little bits of history and lore along the way. Recently, I received a phone call from a woman in…
September 26, 2013
Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) was one of the towering geniuses of the Romantic period. Partly self-taught and partly trained by Carle Vernet and Pierre-Narcisse Guerin, he arrived at a wholly personal style with which to portray modern life – turning his back and the grand mythological and religious subjects that had dominated art up to his…
July 16, 2013
Conservation is one of many essential activities happening at VMFA. While you may be aware of some of the museum’s high profile projects, such as the removal and realignment of Caligula’s head or the discovery of condition changes and intentional artistic alterations in John Singleton Copley’s portrait of Mrs. Isaac Royall in the American galleries,…
July 16, 2013
Featuring more of the recently acquired pieces added to your permanent collection at the VMFA by our privately funded acquisition program, these pieces explore forms from small-scale bronze French sculpture to a black cut-paper silhouette depicting America’s racial and gender tensions. For more than a decade, Mrs. Nelson St. Clair Jr. has been enriching VMFA’s…
July 11, 2013
Kids summer camps are in full swing at the museum this week! The children are having a ball creating art at the MVW Art Education Center and learning about art in the galleries. From pastel still-life drawings to colorful sculptures, these summer camps offer a variety of artsy subjects to explore. After lunchtime today, a…
May 15, 2013
Today, VMFA volunteers planted over 500 pots of annuals contracted by the VMFA and grown for us by Stranges Wholesale growing division in Mechanicsville. Most are exotic, some native, and all reflect the colorful bedding planting that was the style during the late 1800’s as the world’s plants were coming to Europe and North America…
April 13, 2013
Most people do not typically see a museum as a fast-paced, dynamic and constantly evolving place. I think the popularnotion is that museums are stale and nice places to visit for a history class. Even though I have only been here for three weeks, I can honestly say VMFA is throwing a coup d’état on…
April 9, 2013
Today, April 9, 2013, marks the 20th anniversary of the death at the age of 96 of the internationally renowned singer and humanitarian, Marian Anderson. Since my childhood, I had known of Anderson’s great musicality and barrier-shattering reputation as the first African American artist to perform at the White House (in 1936) and sing a…
February 26, 2013
Nearly two-thousand years after his brutal assassination by members of his own bodyguard, Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (popularly known as “Caligula”) has lost his head yet again in an operation performed over the course of several months at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The operation was performed on a full-length marble statue…
