Luce Foundation awards $75,000 to develop Blakelock exhibition

The Henry Luce Foundation has awarded a $75,000 grant to the Nebraska Art Association to support the development of an exhibition on the 19th-century American painter Ralph Albert Blakelock at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery.

The exhibition, "The Unknown Blakelock," will be feature more than 35 paintings from public and private collections throughout the United States. Following its presentation in Lincoln in 2008 (Jan. 26 through March 30), it will travel to two additional museums, including the National Academy of Design in New York.

Blakelock (1847-1919) was a self-taught artist whose paintings range from early romantic vistas to dark, intimate, lonely scenes reflecting an experimental style broaching abstraction. While Blakelock is well known for canvases featuring moonlight scenes and Indian encampments, the proposed exhibition seeks to enlarge understanding of his achievements, specifically recognizing examples with a proto-modern vision.

"The receipt of funding from the Luce Foundation reflects its commitment to supporting American art and our exhibition's potential to offer new understandings of an artist whose importance has been increasingly recognized," said Janice Driesbach, director of the Sheldon. "The grant is important national recognition of the quality of the project and the resources the museum can contribute to American art scholarship."

Sheldon Curator Daniel A. Siedell will organize the exhibition. It will offer new understandings of Blakelock's paintings, which are well represented in the museum's collections. The project is being developed with Norman Geske, director emeritus of the Sheldon, whose Blakelock inventory is housed at UNL. Geske's critical review of the painter's life and work will be published by the University of Nebraska Press in fall 2007. Geske will contribute an introduction to the catalogue for "The Unknown Blakelock," which will also feature essays by Siedell and Mark D. Mitchell, assistant curator of 19th-century art at the National Academy Museum in New York.

The Henry Luce Foundation was established in 1936 by the late Henry R. Luce, co-founder and editor in chief of Time Inc. The Luce Foundation supports projects in American art, higher education, Asian affairs, theology, women in science and engineering, and public policy and the environment. Through the Program in American Art, begun in 1982, the foundation has distributed more than $110 million to some 200 museums, universities and service organizations in 47 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, England, France and Germany.

The Philip Johnson-designed Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery houses a permanent collection of more than 12,000 objects focusing on American art. The Nebraska Art Association is the dedicated nonprofit support group of the Sheldon. The museum, 12th and R streets on the UNL City Campus, is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. For information or to arrange a tour, call (402) 472-2461. Additional information is available on the Sheldon Web site, www.sheldon.unl.edu.

The link below is to a color JPEG image of "Moonlight" by Ralph Albert Blakelock, oil on canvas, 22 by 27 inches, NAA-Nelle Cochrane Woods Memorial Collection.

CONTACT: Tom White, Public Relations Manager, Sheldon Art Gallery, (402) 472-1197