Washington County Museum of Fine Arts
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Enjoy a live reading of Jan Brett's "Gingerbread Baby" and enter the Gingerbread House Contest!

The Museum Shop is now online! Browse and buy items from our shop from the comfort of your home. Follow the link: https://washington-county-museum-of-fine-arts.square.site/

Tonight! Join us for the next Let's Talk Art! episode. This episode takes a trip to the Netherlands on this virtual visit to significant locations in the life of Rembrandt and also our sister museum the Singer Laren, located near the former home of Washington County Museum of Art founders William and Anna Singer. Click this link to access the program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84271291183

Through December 22, you can bring items for our Mitten Tree! Donated mittens, hats, socks, scarves, etc. will be given to the Bester Community of Hope. The Mitten Tree is inspired by Jan Brett's "The Mitten." The World of Jan Brett is on view at the Museum through January 10, 2021.

COMING ATTRACTION: The Dutch Golden Age: Prints by Rembrandt and his Contemporaries opens this Sunday, November 8! Curator Daniel Fulco brings to you some info about the exhibition.

Treasure Sale bidding begins this Friday, November 6! Make sure you are already registered so you can begin bidding. Right now, you can take a look at the wonderful items available. Thank you for supporting the museum! https://www.charityauctionstoday.com/auctions/mfa-12211

Today is the LAST DAY to view Seldom Seen! We are open today until 4 p.m. -- Drawn from the WCMFA’s permanent collection, Seldom Seen features works of art from European, American, and world cultures that have not been frequently exhibited in the Museum’s history. New research will reveal untold and intriguing stories about these works in relation to their cultural and historical contexts. This exhibition focuses on works produced in a wide variety of media and that range in date from antiquity to the present. Highlights include an Egyptian ushabti figure, Chinese temple bells and devotional objects, a Winslow Homer etching, Japanese woodblock prints (Ukiyo-e) and decorative arts, medieval manuscript pages, a Wladyslaw Benda mural, and a Yupik mask.

Halloween is a great day to visit the Museum! Maybe you could even come in costume. I'm dressed as "Mural of the Dance" by Wladyslaw Teodor Benda. See this painting in the Seldom Seen exhibition before it closes tomorrow!

Seldom Seen closes this Sunday, November 1! Make sure you stop by to get a chance to see this great exhibition. Curatorial assistant Audrey Scanlan-Teller brings to you some quite interesting discussion about "The Studying Astronomer," which can be seen in the show. --- This puzzling painting shows an elderly bearded man seated within the interior of a dark cave. He leans forward, looking downward with a somber expression. He rests his arms on an open book before him. The boo...Continue reading

Museum Curator Daniel Fulco discusses this battle scene painting, which can be viewed in Seldom Seen through November 1. --- As a result of new research, this painting has been attributed to the Neapolitan painter Aniello Falcone or his workshop. Initially trained by the renowned Spanish artist Jusepe de Ribera in Naples, Falcone became famous for his dramatic battle scenes derived from biblical and secular history that employ key compositional devices such as billowing cloud...s, ruined architecture, mountains, smoke, and figures engaged in intense combat. Among his students were Salvator Rosa, Carlo Coppola, Micco Spadaro, Paolo Porpora, and Andrea di Lione. Falcone’s style and choice of subjects influenced the work of other European painters of battle subjects, most notably Jacques Courtois, il Borgognone and Alexander van Gaelen. In Battle Scene, several mounted cavalry officers on the left converse with one another while their confederate in the center (holding a flag) extends his right arm in a gesture of command. On the right, one soldier has gained the upper hand over his enemy by striking him from his horse to the ground and sending his black steed to charge off toward the left. In the composition’s middle ground, the opposing army floods the battlefield and appears to advance quickly toward the right, thereby suggesting a strong counterattack from the left. Judging by the presence of soldiers who wear pointed helmets and armor and fight troops donning turbans and pony tails, it is likely that Falcone represented a military encounter between Europeans and Turks, subject that was common in Italian and Austrian Baroque painting during the Ottoman Wars of the seventeenth century. Attributed to Aniello Falcone or Workshop (Italian, 16071665) Battle Scene, ca. mid-17th century Oil on canvas 25 x 30 in. Collection of Washington County Museum of Fine Arts Gift of Mr. Stewart Huston, 1970

Seldom Seen takes you on a journey through Egypt, across Europe, and over to the Americas with a wide variety of fascinating art and artifacts. Be sure to see the exhibition before it closes on November 1. Today, Curatorial Assistant Audrey Scanlan-Teller talks to us about a Yup'ik dance mask featured in the exhibition. --- One of my favorite objects in the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts is this Yup'ik Dance Mask. The Yup'ik are a people from western and south western ...Alaska who have close-knit communities and provide for themselves by hunting birds, walrus, seal, caribou, moose, and fishing for salmon and other fresh and saltwater fish. To show their respect and gratefulness for the plants and animals which feed, clothe and sustain them, the Yup'ik traditionally perform dance ceremonies to honor their ancestors and the plant, animal, and elemental spirits that gave them life. The dances and ceremonies conducted under the guidance of a shaman (angalkuut), a community leader and healer, are intended to sustain harmony among human, animal, and supernatural realms for the coming year. Drums, music, fans, and masks are important elements in the dance ceremonies. Both men and women under the supervision of an angalkuut can make the masks used in the dances. The masks portray (abstractly) humans, animals, and a range of spirit beings. The sacred dance masks are often burned or buried following their use. The Yup'ik mask in the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts features at the center a round carved face of a bird with a fish in its mouth. The bird has round, frontally facing eyes, a black V-shaped marking on its forehead, and curved beak ornamented with orange-red pigment. This bird is possibly an owl, an important spirit being to the Yup'ik. The fish in his beak resembles a trout. Attached by four wooden pins are two closed concentric rings of bent wood that frame the central owl head. On the outermost ring at the top is a smaller carved bird’s head fastened to the wooden ring with a feather. Two carved wings are attached to the ring to the left and to the right with two feathers, and a carved bird’s tail is attached by two feathers below. Other carvings are attached by feathers to the outer ring including those representing fish, two webbed bird’s feet and seal flippers! The mix of different elements suggest the fluidity of transition from one being into another as envisioned in the Yup'ik spirit world. Unknown Artist (Yup'ik), Southern Alaska Dance Mask, ca. mid-20th century Wood, feathers, fur, paint and sinew Collection of the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts Gift of Dr. George W. and Mrs. Margaret K. Comstock

If you missed the most recent episode of Let's Talk Art!, A Conservation Conversation, check it out now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6wxv0YwL-w

This is the final week to see Seldom Seen. Stop by to see this magnificent work by Wadysaw Teodor Benda before the exhibition closes on November 1. From Daniel Fulco: Wadysaw Teodor Benda was renowned for his theater masks, large stage murals and theater designs, and magazine illustrations. This painting depicts idealized female nudes engaged in an enigmatic dance or performance-based rite in which they appear to celebrate the presence of a mischievous satyr at the cent...er of the composition. Benda accentuated the scene’s energy and dynamism by juxtaposing the palette of the women’s and satyr’s bodies against a Pompeian red background. Mural of the Dance was originally exhibited in the Architectural and Allied Arts Exposition, held in 1929 at the Grand Central Palace (NYC, destroyed 1964). Interestingly, this painting was published in the periodical Pencil Points, An Illustrated Monthly Journal for the Drafting Room (vol. 10, no. 5. (May 1929): p. 349, pl. 20). See this link to access the publication: https://usmodernist.org/PA/PP-1929-05.pdf In addition to owning another mural painting by Benda, the WCMFA also has in its collection one of the artist’s papier- mâché insect masks. As a result of two exhibitions devoted to Benda’s masks in 1952 and 1961, the artist’s widow, Romola, donated several of his works to the Museum in 1961. During the 1920s, Benda revolutionized the theater through his creation of life-like and grotesque masks that were used in both plays and dance performances staged in New York and London. Many examples of these theatrical accessories also were featured in illustrations for popular magazines such as Vanity Fair and Vogue. Wadysaw Teodor Benda (American, b. Poland, 18731948) Mural of the Dance, ca. 19201929 Oil on canvas 36 x 96 in. Collection of Washington County Museum of Fine Arts Gift of Mrs. W. T. Benda, 1961

Register for the Treasure Sale now and preview the items! Registration is easy. Be ready to bid on November 6! Click the link for full information and to early-preview the items. http://wcmfa.org/treasure-sale/

Our countdown to the conclusion of Seldom Seen, which closes next weekend, continues with another highlight chosen by Director Sarah Hall, who says, This triptych, with its beautiful setting, harmonious, rich colors, and fascinating details is a feast for both the eyes and the imagination. It's a great example of the enduring appeal of Japanese "ukiyo-e," translated as pictures of the floating world. The name refers to the era’s interest in the transitory pleasures of dail...y life. Ukiyo-e printmakers portrayed myriad subjects, but most reflected an interest in leisure activitiesfrom images of famed actors, and athletes to depictions of beauties, erotica, scenes from plays, and contemporized literary adaptations, artists captured new fashions, fads, and the sophistication of a flourishing urban life. Some of the wonderful details here include, the man at left, wearing a kimono spectacularly decorated with cranes in flight. In the center, an aristocratic woman with an elaborate flower-adorned head dress, sits on a tasseled cushion. Beautifully decorated screens (the one at right bearing in image of bamboo trees in an ornate frame) create privacy in the outdoor setting. The woman at far right seems to have just finished enjoying one of the tea cakes or dumplings available on the serving table. In the distance, attendants approach bearing more dishes. The scenic water view is dotted with flowering trees and the occasional fisherman. The flower mansion mentioned in the descriptive title could be a reference to beautiful women as much as to any nearby horticultural pleasures. Japanese (Late Edo Period) Utagawa Kunisada (Japanese, 17861864) Play Party in a Flower Mansion, ca. 18591871 Woodblock print, ink and color on paper Gift of H. Thomas & Virginia Seely in honor of the Museum’s 75th Anniversary