Last Day To View Wonder World April 2

Museumgoers look at Michael Waugh’s “Decline and Fall (Selected Readings from Volumes 1, 2 and 3)” in Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s Wonder World on Friday.
Museumgoers look at Michael Waugh’s “Decline and Fall (Selected Readings from Volumes 1, 2 and 3)” in Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s Wonder World on Friday.

— Lovers of the Wonder World Gallery at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art have until April 2 to soak up their fill of the gallery before it closes to prepare for an incoming temporary exhibit on the Hudson River School.

Some of the works in Wonder World will be displayed in other areas of the museum, while others will go into storage or travel to other museums. Many of the textile art or works on paper will take a break from the effect light, humidity and temperature can have on fibers.

At A Glance

Where Are They Going?

When the Wonder World gallery at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art closes April 2, its pieces will take different paths:

• “After the Last Supper,” Devorah Sperber: The unique take on Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” created from more than 20,000 spools of thread, will be going into the vault to rest.

• “Room,” Alison Elizabeth Taylor: The walk-in, wooden room will be placed in storage but might be back out in the fall, according to museum spokeswoman Laura Jacobs.

• “The Island,” Walton Ford: The work on paper featuring three panels of Tazmanian wolves and sheep will rest in the vault.

• “Enassamishhinjijweian,” Tom Uttech: The oil on canvas depicting birds and wildlife framed in front of a technicolor sunset will move to the Modern Gallery.

Source: Crystal Bridges Museum Of American Art

“Some of the works on paper need to go to bed,” said Laura Jacobs, museum communication director.

The gallery has been packed with visitors over the past few weeks taking advantage of spring break in Northwest Arkansas and neighboring states, Jacobs said.

Wonder World, which contains such favorites at Devorah Sperber’s “After the Last Supper” and Walton Ford’s “The Island,” focuses on nature and perception in contemporary art.

The gallery will be on hiatus until the opening of “The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision.” The 45-work exhibit will focus on 19th century American landscape painting, with works by Thomas Cole, John F. Kensett and Asher B. Durand.

“The gallery will be offline until May 5 while we transform it for the next exhibition,” Jacobs said.

The Hudson River School is dubbed the first uniquely American school of art. Hudson River painters Cole and Durand inspire a sense of awe for a majestic natural environment.

The traveling exhibit, on loan from the New York Historical Society Museum and Library, will be Crystal Bridges’ first ticketed event. The exhibit is free to members but will cost $5 for other visitors 18 and older.

The exhibit will require timed tickets for all visitors, much like the museum required for general admission last year. Jacobs said she envisions the exhibit will be a popular draw.

“This is its last stop,” she said. “It may be the last time these works are on view before they go back to New York.”

Crystal Bridges is the last in a yearlong, four-stop tour planned for the paintings while the New York museum undergoes renovation.

“This hiatus offers us an opportunity to share works that are not often available for loan,” according the museum’s website.

The exhibit will be on view at Crystal Bridges through Sept. 4.

Crystal Bridges will welcome another temporary exhibit, “New Frontier: Thomas Cole and the Birth of Landscape Painting in America,” on May 12. The exhibit was developed through a partnership between Crystal Bridges, the Louvre in Paris, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

The exhibit will feature six works — four by Cole, one by Durand and one by Pierre-Antoine Patel the Younger. Crystal Bridges’ Cole work, “The Good Shepherd,” is featured alongside landscape paintings owned by the other three organizations.

The exhibit will fill the space occupied currently by the Edward Curtis photo exhibit on Native Americans. The Cole exhibit is scheduled from May 12 to Aug. 13, according to a news release from the museum.

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