Robert Colescott’s monumental painting “Miss Liberty” is on public display for the first time since it was acquired by a private collector shortly after it was painted in 1980. The painting is the centerpiece of Peoria Riverfront Museum’s latest exhibition “FRESH: New Directions in Contemporary Art”.
Ashley Holland, Curator and Director of Curatorial Initiatives for Art Bridges, said the recent acquisition of “Miss Liberty” by Robert Colescott to the Art Bridges Permanent Collection reflects their commitment to ensuring that diverse works of American art are accessible to museum audiences across the country. “Both humorous and biting, “Miss Liberty” is a celebrated example of the artist’s formal boldness and a fitting addition to Peoria Riverfront Museum’s exhibition.”
Bill Conger, Chief Curator at Peoria Riverfront Museum, said Robert Colescott examined tropes of European art and American history through the American point of view as early as the mid-1970s. “Colescott’s groundbreaking “Miss Liberty” bravely challenges issues of identity, culture, media, and overall aesthetic approach, resulting in fantastical revelations of the visual art vernacular.”
“FRESH: New Directions in Contemporary Art” highlights more than 20 artists whose work has radically shifted the paradigm of art over the past 40 years. It includes the works of Colescott (1925-2009), Richard Serra (b. 1938), who became the largest presence in monumental Minimalist sculpture, and Conceptual Feminist Sherrie Levine (b. 1947), who exploded the boundaries of gender by painstakingly, remaking important patriarchal works in the Modern Art canon herself.
This exhibition is the largest-scale collaboration and the seventh to date for the museum with the Art Bridges Foundation since beginning a partnership in 2019. The exhibition will be on display through September 2024, open to the public free of charge during Access for All Day every second Sunday of the month.
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