Founded in 1919 by Joseph G. Butler, Jr., The Butler Institute of American Art is the first museum of American art. The original structure is a McKim, Mead and White architectural masterpiece listed on the National Register of Historic places. Known worldwide as “America’s Museum”, the museum’s collection totals over 20,000 pieces in all media, and spans four centuries of work. Plan a visit!
EXHIBITIONS
Life Examined: The Impressionistic Realism of Sam Rosenthal
Extended through August 16, 2020
Life Examined: The Impressionistic Realism of Sam Rosenthal is a collection of mostly large scale oil paintings of stimulating city and suburban landscapes. These works seek to draw the viewer into the image to experience the drama, mystery, and complexity of nature and humanity. Using his unique style refined to achieve a nuanced simplicity, Rosenthal shares his enhanced perspective of everyday life, creating comprehensively compelling and timeless imagery while eluding unessential details. The end result offers vignettes of the present, enlightened by the past, yet not limited by it. Learn more
Dorothy Churchill-Johnson: PATTERN and REALISM, In Search Of The Big Picture
Postponed – New exhibition dates to be determined
Dorothy Churchill-Johnson: PATTERN and REALISM, in Search of the Big Picture is comprised of three themes of large scale paintings. Kaleidoscopes, both fabric and nature, evoke the power of centrifugal force that runs the universe. Pavement and groundscapes express natural patterns and present the microcosm as a metaphor for the macrocosm. Surreal Landscapes have both waxing or waning transitional light evoking unique juxtapositions and a sense of isolated consciousness in a constantly changing universe. All the paintings are a synchronization of realism and abstraction through tiny details of ordinary things and expanding them to establish extremes. When viewing these works, the combination of color and enormous size can result in the viewer feeling as if they are looking at something familiar for the first time. Learn more