PHILADELPHIA — Showcasing works that have never before been seen by the public, Woodmere Art Museum’s fall exhibition Wild Flowers: Paintings and Drawings by Peter Paone is an exclusive look at a well-regarded local artist’s unusual oeuvre. On view September 28, 2013, through January 19, 2014, Wild Flowers is a visual diary of fantastical flower- and nature-based paintings and drawings that chronicle a 30-year exploration within Paone’s career.
Born and raised in South Philadelphia and educated at Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), Paone has exhibited nationally and internationally, and yet this collection of paintings and drawings, filled with unexpected symbolism, has until now remained in the confines of the artist’s Mount Airy studio. Paone’s invented flowers, together with an array of creatures including animals, birds and insects, interact unsettlingly with a menagerie of characters from Mother Goose and vampire lore, producing a unique artistic vision, rendered with the precision of a great realist painter.
“This exciting body of work will engage Woodmere’s visitors with a fascinating evolution of forms and images,” says William R. Valerio, the Patricia Van Burgh Allison Director and CEO of Woodmere. “Paone is among the distinguished artists of our city whose work represents a deeply thoughtful conversation with the artists of past generations. At the same time, the intensity of his symbolism is relevant to current generations of artists, many of whom are dedicated to reinterpreting narrative art.”
To celebrate Paone’s never-before-seen collection, Woodmere is hosting a free open house reception on Saturday, October 12, from 1 to 4 p.m. Two fall lectures on Paone’s work, as well as a family-friendly flower-making activity, will supplement the exhibition. (More information below.)
Woodmere Art Museum is located at 9201 Germantown Avenue. Admission to special exhibitions is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, and FREE for students, children and Museum members; exhibitions in the Founder’s Gallery and Helen Millard Children’s Gallery are FREE. (Woodmere offers free admission on Sundays, including all special exhibitions, but excluding special events such as Classic Sundays.)Museum hours are: Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m.–8:45 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. For more information, visit woodmereartmuseum.orgor call 215-247-0476.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Exhibition: Wild Flowers: Paintings and Drawings by Peter Paone
September 28, 2013, through January 19, 2014
Open House: Saturday, October 12, 1-4 p.m., FREE
Lecture: The Wild Flowers of Peter Paone
Sat., Oct. 26, 3-4 p.m., FREE
Peter Paone discusses his beautiful, fantastical, sometimes unsettling paintings and drawings of the exhibition Wild Flowers, which have never been exhibited before and reflect Paone’s private focus of the last 30-plus years. This lecture will explore how these works developed; Paone’s process and influences; and how he sees them in the context of all his work. Wine and cheese reception follows. For more information or to register, visit woodmereartmuseum.org/lectures.
Lecture: Peter Paone: Collecting and Sowing Seeds of Inspiration
Sat., Nov. 16, 3-4 p.m., $15 ($10 for members)
Swarthmore University’s List Gallery director and artist Andrea Packard will offer an overview of Peter Paone’s lifelong fascination with flowers as symbols of fertility, sexuality, mutability and mortality — essential aspects of the human condition and concerns that are at the center of his diverse body of work. She will discuss his many influences including artists such as Picasso, Braque and Dali; his close relationships with artists such as Ben Shahn; and his affinities with contemporary artists pursuing an illusionistic collage aesthetic. Packard will also describe how Paone selectively reinvents images and ideas distilled from his impressive collections of prints, photographs, books, toys, frames and other artifacts. Paone joyously and sometimes devilishly selects artistic blooms from diverse gardens, both art historical and commercial, cultivated and wild, but his hybrid arrangements are uniquely his own. Wine and cheese reception follows. For more information or to register, visit woodmereartmuseum.org/lectures.
FAMILY EVENT: Wild 3-D Gardens
Sat., Nov. 23, 3:30-5:30 p.m., FREE
Make your own three-dimensional flowers inspired by the whimsical plants in Wild Flowers: Paintings and Drawings by Peter Paone. Afterward, step outside to enjoy Chestnut Hill’s Circle of Trees, one of the community’s most enjoyable traditions in which family and friends come together to celebrate the annual tree lighting and the beginning of the holiday season.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
PETER PAONE was born in Philadelphia and educated at the Philadelphia College of Art. He has taught at Pratt Institute in New York, The National Academy of Design in New York and, since 1978, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. The artist has received a number of grants and awards such as two Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grants, a Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Grant, A Mid-Atlantic Foundation grant, the first Print Club Award of Merit, The 172nd Annual Painting Prize from The National Academy of Design and three years in London on a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.
His work has been featured in 52 solo exhibitions in New York, Houston, Fort Worth, Philadelphia, as well as in London, Vienna and Germany. Since 1960, his work has joined that of other artists in 60 national and international group exhibitions. A selected list of public collections in which paintings, drawings and prints are represented include The Museum of Modern Art (New York), The Victoria and Albert Museum and The British Museum (London), The National Gallery of Art and the Library of Congress (Washington), The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, The National Academy of Design, Yale University Art Gallery, The Jersey City Museum, The Arkansas Art Center and The National Portrait Gallery.
He has been affiliated with the exhibitions committee of the National Academy of Design, the Visual Arts panel of The Pennsylvania Council for the Arts and is a board member of the Appraisers of Fine Arts Society and a member of The National Academy of Design.
His most recent one-person museum exhibitions include, “Poets” in conjunction with his photography collection “ The Artist Revealed” at the National Academy of Design; “The Italians” at The Jersey City Museum; and “Imaginary Watercolors” at the James A. Michener Museum.
Support for this exhibition is generously being provided by two anonymous donors; Dr. Dorothy J. del Bueno; Morgan Stanley Wealth Management GFSP Group, Mt. Laurel, N.J.; Martha Morris; and Maude de Schauensee.
