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About the Collection

A Landmark Collection
The WAAM Permanent Collection was established in 1973 to preserve and promote the work of important American artists who lived and created in the Woodstock area.  In 1992 the Phoebe and Belmont Towbin Museum Wing opened for the exhibition of the collection, as well as loans from prominent museums and private collections illuminating Woodstock’s formidable artistic heritage.  In recent years, a series of grants from the New York State Council on the Arts has facilitated digital documentation and improved storage for the over 1500 paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures, and crafts in the collection.  Featured artists include George Ault, Milton Avery, Peggy Bacon, George Bellows, Konrad Cramer, Andrew Dasburg, Philip Guston, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Andrée Ruellan, Eugene Speicher, and Bradley Walker Tomlin.  Museums throughout the United States have requested loans from the WAA Permanent Collection.  Our exhibition catalogues and the WAAM Archives provide a valuable resource for art historians, students, collectors, and the general public.

Most works in the collection have been donated by collectors or directly from artists and their families.  Purchase funds have been made available through bequests from Karl E. Fortess in 1993 and Aileen B. Cramer in 2006.

Past exhibitions in the WAAM Towbin Museum Wing include Philip Guston:  Brave New World, George Ault:  the Woodstock Years, Andrée Ruellan:  A Retrospective, At Woodstock, Kuniyoshi and The Maverick: Hervey White's Colony of the Arts.

Excerpts from WAAM Newsletter 

April 2007               

New Acquisitions

The WAAM Permanent Collection is pleased to announce the recent acquisitions of works of art by George C. Ault, Lucile Blanch, Petra Cabot, John Flannagan, Mary Frank, Marion Greenwood, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Stefan Lokos, Margaret Lowengrund, Austin Mecklem, Josef Presser, Rolph Scarlett, Carl Walters, and others.  Gifts finalized to the Permanent Collection in 2006 were donated by Geoffrey and Julie Ball, Jane Bouché Strong, Ira Brandes, Janis Conner and Joel Rosenkranz, Joseph A. DePaul, the estate of Polly Eddy Kline, Holli and Ed Gersh, Michael Heinrich, Peter and Chagit Heller, Douglas C. James, Peter Jones, Gregory and Eleanor Lindin, Manhattan Art Investments, Hermione K. Mills, Adrienne Owen, Jayne Suskin, Dr. and Mrs. Albert H. Tannin, Josef Treggor, Marilyn Vantosh, and an anonymous donor in memory of Eugene Ludins and Hannah Small.  In addition, four paintings by John Carroll were transferred from the Schenectady Museum.

 

New acquisitions and works received in the last twenty years will be featured in an updated catalog of the Permanent Collection, which is currently in the planning stages.  The WAAM Permanent Collection has tripled in size since the publication of Woodstock’s Art Heritage in 1987 and a new full-color catalog will more fully represent the significant gifts and other acquisitions that comprise our collection. 

For information regarding donating works of art, please contact Josephine Bloodgood, director and curator of the Permanent Collection, at josephine@woodstockart.org or by calling 845-679-2198, x 103. 

 

Woodstock’s Artistic Legacy in the News

In addition to ongoing exhibitions in the WAAM Towbin Wing, the work of historic Woodstock artists appears in exhibitions throughout the region and beyond.  A retrospective of the paintings by Charles Rosen entitled Form Radiating Light is currently on display at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz through May 13, 2007. The exhibition contrasts the early, impressionistic landscapes created by Rosen during his years in New Hope, Pennsylvania with the modernist-style paintings of man-made structures of his Woodstock years.  Fireman’s Hall (ca. 1925), on loan from the WAAM Permanent Collection, is an example of the later period in Rosen’s career.  The exhibition was curated by Brian H. Peterson of the James A. Michener Art Museum, Bucks County, PA, and was shown there this past winter.  A full-color catalog accompanies the exhibition, with essays by Peterson and Tom Wolf.  Tom Wolf gave a lecture entitled The Career of Charles Rosen, A Tale of Two Colonies on April 5. A related exhibition of works on paper was on display at James Cox Gallery of Woodstock through April 7.

 

Woodstock artists Olin Dows, Marion Greenwood, Anton Refregier, Andrée Ruellan, and Judson Smith were featured artists in the exhibition For the People: American Mural Drawings of the 1930s and 1940s (January 12 – March 11, 2007) at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College that was curated by Patricia E. Phagan.  In conjunction with this exhibition, Karal Ann Marling, professor of art history, University of Minnesota, gave a lecture on February 3 entitled “The New Deal Revisited,” in which she elaborated on her research in Woodstock in the 1970s.  William B. Rhoads, professor emeritus, SUNY New Paltz, also gave a tour of WPA murals by Charles Rosen and Georgina Klitgaard at the Poughkeepsie Post Office on February 24. 

 

Paths to the Press: Printmaking and American Women Artists, 1910-1960, organized by Elizabeth G. Seaton of the Beach Museum of Art travels to multiple venues through 2007.  The exhibition includes work by Peggy Bacon, Pele DeLappe, Wanda Gág, Ruth Gikow, Marion Greenwood, Victoria Hutson Huntley, Doris Lee, and Margaret Lowengrund.