The Naples Art Institute was created in 1954 as the Naples Art Association. For 44 years, it had no permanent home. That changed in 1998 with the construction of its art center in the northwest corner of Cambier Park.
The establishment of a bricks-and-mortar art center not only gave the Institute a physical presence in the heart of downtown Naples, but also provided the opportunity to begin amassing a permanent collection of paintings and sculpture. A new exhibit at the Institute titled “Intersections” displays some of the works Naples Art has collected over the past 25 years.
“A lot of people may not be aware that the Naples Art Institute is a museum with an existing permanent collection of anywhere between 350 and 400 works, and growing,” Executive Director Frank Verpoorten said. “It was built or amassed over the years mostly by donors, art instructors, members, art aficionados whose lives intersected the trajectory of our organization.”
While Naples Art has only been collecting art for 25 years, the pieces in the exhibition span the institute’s entire 70-year history.
“The collection tells the story of the whole history of the organization,” Verpoorten explained. “It sort of breaks down like a legacy collection, with works that were created anywhere between the 1950s to late 1990s, and then on the other hand, there’s all these contemporary works of art that we’re acquiring.”
Headlining the works on display in “Intersections” is a portfolio of seven serigraphs by Jim Rosenquist, one of the world’s leading pop artists.
“I would also point to just several important selections of works by the late and great Olga Hirschhorn,” Verpoorten noted. “Olga Hirshhorn, as you know, was an important patron of the arts here in Naples. She was the wife of the late Joseph Hirschhorn, and together they were a very iconic art collector couple in the United States.”
In 1966, Joseph Hirshhorn famously donated his entire collection of some 5,600 paintings, sculptures, drawings and mixed media works to the United States, which established his namesake museum on the National Mall in Washington D.C.
“But Olga maintained a home in Naples, which was still full of her art, nothing but works by towering figures of European and American modern and contemporary art, and both the Baker Museum and Naples Art Institute were fortunate to receive several works from her collection.”
“Intersections: The 25-Year Journey of Our Collection” contains the Hirshhorn donations along with a sampling of the most significant works in the Naples Art Institute’s permanent collection in terms of their historical value, relevance to our times and their position as emblems of artistic creativity.
The exhibition is on display now through October 27.
THE BACKGROUND:
“Intersections: The 25-Year Journey of Our Collection” includes “paintings, sculptures, prints, watercolors, photographs and drawings by towering figures of contemporary art, such as James Rosenquist, as well as by accomplished and notable national and regional artists, such as Elsie Dorey Upham, to works by self-taught artists and former art students, creating surprising and new juxtapositions.”
“The last two years alone, [Naples Art Institute has] acquired an additional hundred works, through donation mostly,” reported Executive Director Frank Verpoorten.
Recent acquisitions include photographs by Suzanne Camp Crosby and paintings by Reisha Perlmutter and Carmelo Blandino.
One artist of notable repute with works in the NAI collection and the “Intersections” exhibition is Muffy Clark Gill, who is known for her mastery of the rozome technique, a Japanese wax-resist process known elsewhere as batik. Gill’s colorful artworks are based on historic photographs of the Seminole and Miccosukee people. She has breathed vibrant color into black-and-white or sepia-toned prints by researching the traditional palette and detail worn by her subjects. In addition to the Naples Art Institute, Gill’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the office of the Florida Secretary of State, Florida Gulf Coast University, Golisano Children’s Museum, Marco Island Historical Museum, Volusia County Courthouse, South Florida State College, and several other public art collections.
“Intersections” also features popular local artist Paul Arsenault’s 2000 oil on canvas “Standing Nude.” An Art Institute of Boston graduate, Arsenault came to Naples in 1974 to begin his professional painting career. Drawn to tropical settings, Arsenault has embarked on painting trips to destinations in the Caribbean, South Pacific, Indonesia, Australia and Hawaii. “Known for his colorful and uplifting use of light,” the exhibition catalog details, “Arsenault’s paintings frequently depict some of Naples’ most vivid beaches and harbors. His work celebrates the beauty and vibrancy of everyday life in Florida.”
The Naples Art Institute is at 585 Park Street in Naples.
For more information, visit https://www.naplesart.org or call 239-262-6517.
The institute is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
To read more stories about the arts in Southwest Florida visit Tom Hall's website: SWFL Art in the News.