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Students submit photographs of their works online to be judged at Cheekwood by expert panels of jurors. Jurors pour over hundreds of works of art, looking for the following: originality, technical skill, and emergence of a personal vision.
Gold and Silver Key awarded works are displayed in the Frist Learning Center Great Hall during the Scholastic Art Exhibition.
Featured Image: Sophie Lee, Ravenwood High School, Grade 12, Identity Glitch
Featuring over fifty drawings, prints and photographs from a private collection by the great French artist, Edgar Degas (1834-1917), the exhibition is a delightful exploration into the art and personality of one of the world’s most skilled and complex artists. In addition, the exhibition includes a selection of more than forty works on paper by well-known artists, many of whom were close friends of Degas, including Mary Cassatt, Paul Cezanne, and Pierre-George Jeanniot.
Edgar Degas is regarded as one of the keenest artistic observers of human nature and the exhibition strives to illuminate the background and personality of this remarkable artist. Although often aloof to strangers, he shared warmth and loyalty with his family and his circle of friends, many of whom were some of the great writers and artists during his time.
Highlights of the exhibition include three rare self-portraits of the Degas and several portraits of those he was closest to: his father, brother Archille, his loyal housekeeper, Sabine Neyt, as well as friends such as Edouard Manet and Mary Cassatt. In addition, there are two rare Pierre-Georges Jeanniot portraits of Degas, who was famous for his reluctance to pose.
The exhibition is co-curated by Robert Flynn Johnson, Curator Emeritus of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Louise Siddons PhD, Assistant Professor and Curator of Collections at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater. Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA, in association with Denenberg Fine Arts, West Hollywood, CA organized the show. The exhibition is supported locally by the Marlene & Spencer Hays Foundation.
Featured Image: Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917), Before the Race, 1895, Colored lithograph on tan wove paper. Photo courtesy of Landau Traveling Exhibitions.
Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
in association with Denenberg Fine Arts, West Hollywood, CA.
Marlene and Spencer Hays Foundation
Collector Patrons
Clay Blevins
Dr. and Mrs. Howard S. Kirshner
Curator Patrons
Anonymous
Mr. Seth Perry Bernstein and Toni Schachter Bernstein
Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Eskind
Artist Patrons
Christopher Cardwell and Mary Taylor Gallagher
Drs. Rowena and Michael Cuffe
Helen Cummings
Sandra S. Frank
Kaye and Steve George
Drs. Lauren and Edmund Jackson
Leiyan and Larry Keele
Deborah and Keith Pitts
Harriet and Bob Sewell
Sheila Shields
Steve Sirls and Allen DeCuyper
Phyllis Fox Vaughn
This exhibition examines the development of figural studies in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the “rise of athleticism” – which dawned with the first modern Olympics in 1896 – brought about a renewed interest in the physique of both the male and female body. This period was one of many that revived Classical ideals following the synthesis of aesthetic values and anatomical studies by Renaissance art academies, which firmly establishing the tradition of figure drawing as it is known today. Comprised of 17 works on paper, drawings as well as newer media such as photography are represented, and aspects of movement, gender, and history are considered.
Featured Image: Everett Shinn (American, 1876-1953), Girl Sleeping, c. 1905-1920, Conte crayon on paper, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin Caldwell, Jr., 1976.4.45.
The luminous light installations featuring the work of renowned British artist Bruce Munro return to Nashville in the exhibition, LIGHT: Bruce Munro at Cheekwood. Munro first presented his award-winning outdoor art exhibition for only the second time in North America at Cheekwood in 2013. Cheekwood is honored to again host this exhibition for a special 10th anniversary celebration featuring immersive, grand-scale light installations that are displayed throughout Cheekwood’s beautiful vistas, manicured gardens, The Carell Trail, in the Historic Mansion & Museum and Frist Learning Center.
LIGHT is designed to respond to and enhance the outdoor garden and indoor gallery experiences, encouraging an awareness of our individual and collective journeys through time and space. The interplay between Munro’s three-dimensional creations and the surrounding environment—at dusk and after dark—heightens the sense of time’s passage, reinforced through works with expressed childhood and literary themes. Whether backlit sea glass or pigment on paper, his two-dimensional works likewise comment on life through the “language of light” as seen in the mansion galleries.
LIGHT: Bruce Munro at Cheekwood is made possible by
Leadership support is provided by
Barbara and Jack Bovender
Major support is provided by
Katie and Kevin Crumbo
Lisa and David Manning
Hospitality Sponsor
Cheekwood is funded in part by
Five boldly colorful, geometric sculptures by Cuban-born, American artist Carmen Herrera are featured in Cheekwood’s gardens. It’s an opportunity to celebrate this indomitable woman’s lifelong passion for creating art. Her skyrocketing ascent in popularity wasn’t realized until she reached the age of 89 and continued until her passing in 2022 at the age of 106. Her story is an inspiration to everyone confronting the challenges of age and gender.
The sculptures on display at Cheekwood are part of a series collectively entitled Estructuras (Structures.) Begun in the late 1960s, Estructuras were derived from paintings that, according to Herrera, were “really crying out to become sculpture.” Herrera’s work evokes a simultaneous sense of instability and order, encompassing symmetry and asymmetry, shadow and light, all of which convey movement and rhythm through a careful geometric balance of lines, forms, and color, teetering between the solidity of a three-dimensional sculpture and the weightlessness of an ethereal shape lifting off the ground.
Images: Carmen Herrera (Cuban-American, 1915-2022)
Featured: Angulo Azul, 2017, Acrylic and Aluminum, Courtesy the Estate of Carmen Herrera and Lisson Gallery.
Right: Untitled Estructura (Yellow), 1962/2015, Acrylic and aluminum, Courtesy the Estate of Carmen Herrera and Lisson Gallery.
Sponsored by
Underwriters
Installation Patrons
The galleries located on the second floor display a rotating arrangement of works from Cheekwood’s permanent collection. American paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts from the Centennial (1876) through the Second World War (c. 1940), including highlights such as works by the Ashcan School and selections of American Art Pottery. In addition, there are galleries dedicated to 18th and 19th century English porcelain, 20th century sculpture by William Edmondson and early American portraiture.
Girl with a Cape, William Edmondson (American, 1874-1951), n.d. Carved limestone. Gift from the Estate of Elizabeth Lyle Starr. 1982.8.1a.
John White Alexander (American, 1865 – 1915). Juliette (The Green Dress), c. 1897. Oil on canvas. Gift of the Marlene and Spencer Hays Foundation. 2019.07.(hero image)
