We could all use a little inspiration in our busy lives, and benefit from the context that art can bring to bear on our world, our times, and our history. Join us and museum directors from around the United States as we explore some of our greatest artistic treasures. We’ll take a closer look at a new masterpiece every two weeks, so be sure to tune in, learn more, be inspired and discuss with friends and family.
Bank of America’s Masterpiece Moment
At Bank of America, we believe in the power of the arts to help economies thrive, educate and enrich societies, and create greater cultural understanding. That’s why we’re proud to introduce Bank of America's Masterpiece Moment—a new video series that celebrates great works of art. Please join us throughout the year as we examine a varied array of masterpieces from museum collections across the United States.
Be sure to sign up for alerts so you’ll never miss a moment.
Art inspires, educates, and helps us see our world in a new way
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Graphic: Bank of America presents Masterpiece Moment
Video: Exterior and interior shots of the Art Institute of Chicago
On-screen text: Art Institute of Chicago
Video: The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
On-screen text: Georges-Pierre Seurat (French, 1859–1891), A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884, 1884–1886, Oil on canvas, 81 3/4 x 121 1/4 inches
Video: James Rondeau, President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago standing in front of the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
On-screen text: James Rondeau, President and Eloise W. Martin Director, The Art Institute of Chicago
Audio— James Rondeau: Hello, I’m James Rondeau, President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago. Welcome to Bank of America’s Masterpiece Moment. Today, I would like to talk about one of my favorite works from our collection….
Video: The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: ….Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat and tell you why I think it is truly a masterpiece.
Video: James Rondeau standing in front of the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: Georges Seurat has created a scene of leisure set on a small section of an elongated island in the Seine River just beyond Paris's city limits.
Video: The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: Seurat's canvas is filled with figures, including three dogs, eight boats, forty-eight people and, oddly, one monkey, who gather on a Sunday afternoon to enjoy and parade around in nature.
Video: James Rondeau standing in front of the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: A Sunday on La Grande Jatte was painted in 1884 and is generally considered to be Seurat's masterpiece and certainly one of the greatest paintings of the nineteenth century.
Video: The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: Like many of his Impressionist contemporaries such as Claude Monet, Seurat embraced the subject matter of modern life. Seurat, however, went beyond their prevailing concerns for translating in paint the qualities of light in the city or in nature. Seurat, inspired by recently published research in optical and color theory, developed his own "scientific" style called Pointillism, from the French word for "point" or "dot." Tackling the issues of color, light and form, Seurat's method juxtaposed tiny dabs of color, often complementary colors, to create hues that he believed, through optical blending, were more intense and luminous.
Video: A poster and catalog for the 8th Exposition, written in French
Audio: In 1886, Seurat debuted the painting at the eighth and final Impressionist exhibition. He was only twenty-six years old.
Video: James Rondeau standing in front of the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: It shocked the Paris art world when it was first shown. "Bedlam," "scandal," "hilarity" were among the epithets used by critics to describe what is now considered to be the artist's greatest work.
Video: The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: Recognized for its unusual technique, simplified figure types and enormous scale, this monumental work is a manifesto of a new style of painting that broke with Impressionism and would open the door for a more expansive European Modernism employed by the likes….
Video: The Vincent van Gogh painting Garden at Arles, July 1888
Audio: ….of Vincent van Gogh….
Video: The Paul Cézanne painting Mont Sainte-Victoire and Château Noir, c. 1904–1906
Audio: ….Paul Cézanne….
Video: The Pablo Picasso painting The Flower Seller, 1901
Audio: ….and Pablo Picasso.
Video: The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: This picture was only rarely seen in the three decades following the artist's death in 1891.
Video: James Rondeau standing in front of the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: When Art Institute trustee Frederic Clay Bartlett purchased the painting in 1924, he wrote to then museum director Robert Harshe, exclaiming that he had attained, and I quote, "almost by a miracle the finest picture in France," close quote. So the picture was placed on loan here at the Art Institute and gifted to the museum in 1926.
Video: The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: For nearly a century, this innovative and enigmatic painting has continued to intrigue, elude….
Video: Museum visitors looking at the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: ….and inspire — drawing millions of visitors to see it.
Video: A photographic portrait of Georges Seurat
Audio: Georges Seurat was born in Paris in December 1859 into a family that supported him throughout his life as an artist.
Video: A painted portrait of Georges Seurat
Audio: He studied at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, receiving a classical training in the arts.
Video: A drawing of Georges Seurat
Audio: After a year and a half, Seurat quit school. Following one year of military service, he returned to painting.
Video: The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: It is extraordinary to think that just four years after abandoning art school, Seurat was poised to begin….
Video: A Georges Seurat drawing for A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: ….the two-year period of intensive preparation that culminated in this landmark achievement.
Video: The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: The flickering color creates a sense of vibrancy that belies the actual stillness of the scene. Of all the figures, only one girl in an orange dress appears to be in active motion. The other figures seem almost frozen in place. Seurat sought to evoke a sense of permanence in his depiction of the figures by recalling the art of the past….
Video: An Egyptian sculptural frieze and a Greek sculptural frieze
Audio: ….especially Egyptian and Greek sculptural friezes….
Video: The fresco The School of Athens by Raphael
Audio: ….and even Italian Renaissance frescoes.
Video: James Rondeau standing in front of the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: As he explained to the French poet Gustave Kahn, and here I quote Seurat, "I want to make modern people, in their essential traits, move about as they do on those friezes, and place them on canvases organized by harmonies of color," close quote.
Video: The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: Two or three years after it was exhibited in 1886, Seurat restretched the canvas. To make the experience of the painting even more intense, he surrounded the canvas with a frame of hand-painted dashes and dots, which he, in turn, enclosed with a pure white wood frame, similar to the one with which the painting is exhibited today.
Video: James Rondeau standing in front of the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: Unlike many of his fellow Impressionists, drawing was also a foundational part of his process.
Video: A Georges Seurat drawing for A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: During the years 1884 and 1885, Seurat was hard at work on La Grande Jatte.
Video: James Rondeau standing in front of the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: The genesis of this large canvas, seven feet by ten feet, involved approximately twenty-eight drawings, twenty-four oil panels and three larger canvases. Within the Art Institute's collection, we have drawings related to two of the foreground figures.
Video: Georges Seurat drawings for A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: In drawing, for example, Seurat developed the expressive contours of the seated female figure holding a parasol that would ultimately occupy the center of the finished painting. He also worked through the proportions and the stance of the Woman Walking with a Parasol.
Video: A Georges Seurat painting study for A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: A small oil on a thin, wood panel in our collection is one of the twenty-four painted studies the artist made.
Video: James Rondeau standing in front of the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: These panels show the enormous changes to the composition as he worked out the placement of the figures.
Video: The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: For example, the now-iconic man in a top hat and a woman oddly walking a monkey….
Video: James Rondeau standing in front of the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: ….were not included in the early sketch. Instead, the artist depicted two….
Video: A Georges Seurat painting study for A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: ….seated, elderly figures assuming the central right placement, with a bustled female figure approaching them.
Video: James Rondeau standing in front of the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: A 2004 exhibition at the Art Institute devoted to the making of La Grande Jatte shared numerous discoveries by painting conservators, showing how Seurat transferred and altered figures from studies to the final canvas and elucidated the exact nature of his pigments and….
Video: The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: ….brushwork. Color scientists also examined how some of the pigments have changed over time on the surface, such as the yellow of the sunlit grass, which has darkened over time.
Video: James Rondeau standing in front of the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: This painting has inspired many, not only in painting, but in music and theater, notably the epic and iconic Broadway musical….
Video: Two actors performing in the play Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim
Audio: ….Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim.
Video: Characters from the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off looking at the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: The painting's become a cultural touchstone, appearing in movies such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off….
Video: A parody image of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884 featuring characters from The Office
Audio: ….and referenced in television programs….
Video: Parody images of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: ….and, of course, now even in memes.
Video: Museum visitors looking at the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: The experience of seeing this painting, live and in person, has captured the imagination of millions of visitors, resulting in the countless references to it during the almost 100 years since it came to Chicago.
Video: James Rondeau standing in front of the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: I want to thank you for taking the time to watch today and to learn more about Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat. I encourage you to join the conversation and discuss the piece with friends and family. And, please, visit the Bank of America Masterpiece Moment website to sign up for alerts and ensure that you never miss a single moment.
Video: The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
Audio: Music playing
On-screen text:
Title treatment art:
Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859–1937)
The Arch, 1919 (detail)
Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Alfred W. Jenkins, 32.10 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.10_SL1.jpg)
Georges-Pierre Seurat (French, 1859–1891)
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte–1884
1884–1886
Oil on canvas
81 3/4” x 121 1/4” (207.5 x 308.1 cm)
The Art Institute of Chicago
Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)
Garden at Arles, July 1888
Oil on canvas
Framed: 32 5/8” x 40 1/8” (82.8 x 102 cm)
Peter Horree / Alamy Stock Photo
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839–1906)
Mont Sainte-Victoire and Château Noir, c. 1904–1906
Oil on canvas
26” x 32 1/4” (66.2 x 82.1 cm)
PAINTING / Alamy Stock Photo
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973)
The Flower Seller, 1901
Oil on millboard
13 1/4” x 20 1/2” (33.7 x 52.1 cm)
Peter Barritt / Alamy Stock Photo
© 2021 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Actors perform during the dress rehearsal for Sunday in the Park with George, by Stephen Sondheim, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, April 12, 2013. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes / Alamy Stock Photo
The movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, written and directed by John Hughes. Shown, Alan Ruck as Cameron Frye gazing at Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte in the Art Institute of Chicago. Initial theatrical release June 11, 1986. Screen capture. Paramount Pictures. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
The movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, written and directed by John Hughes. Shown from left: Alan Ruck as Cameron Frye, Mia Sara as Sloane Peterson and Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller in the Art Institute of Chicago. Initial theatrical release June 11, 1986. Screen capture. Paramount Pictures. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
The Office (US) © Universal Television LLC. All Rights Reserved.
“Take the “A” Train”
Written by Billy Strayhorn
Performed by Oscar Peterson
Courtesy of Verve Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises
© 2021 Bank of America Corporation.
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© 2021 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved.
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte – 1884 by Georges Seurat
Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte – 1884 is arguably the world’s best example of Pointillism. Seurat’s unusual technique and the painting’s monumental scale opened the door for a more expansive European modernism.
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Video: Exterior and interior shots of the Carnegie Museum of Art
On-screen text: Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Video: The Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
On-screen text: Joan Mitchell (American, 1925-1922), Low Water, 1969, oil on canvas
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
On-screen text: Eric Crosby, Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art
Audio— Eric Crosby: Hello. My name is Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Welcome to Bank of America’s Masterpiece Moment. Today I’d like to share one of my very favorite works from our collection, Low Water, by American artist Joan Mitchell. Let’s take a look at this masterpiece together.
Video: The Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: Low Water is a major oil painting that Mitchell created in 1969. This work, among other large-scale paintings by Mitchell, was first exhibited….
Video: Cover of the Pittsburgh International, 1970, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute booklet
Audio: ….in the 1970 Carnegie International, our museum’s signature survey of contemporary art.
Video: Record card showing a listing of Joan Mitchell paintings that includes Low Water, 1969
Audio: Leon Arkus, then the Director of the museum, had the foresight to acquire this piece….
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: …. and since then, it has been featured in several important exhibitions, including the artist’s major retrospective organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2002.
Video: An archival photograph of Joan Mitchell in her studio
Audio: Born in Chicago in 1925, Joan Mitchell is best known for these large, abstract works, although she also made smaller paintings, and works on paper, and prints.
Video: An archival photograph of Joan Mitchell
Audio: She studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in the late 1940s began traveling to France, as part of a fellowship, returning often in the following decades.
Video: An archival photograph of Joan Mitchell sitting at a café with a group of people
Audio: Despite a reputation for being somewhat isolated, and even a bit temperamental, Mitchell claimed to love trees and dogs more than people.
Video: A hand-written letter by Joan Mitchell
Audio: She was, in fact, very sociable and generous, especially to other artists, who she often hosted at her home in France.
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: Her career took off soon after graduating, when she exhibited work in the 1951 landmark….
Video: 9th Street exhibition poster
Audio: ….Ninth Street Show in New York, alongside such artists as Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler and Jackson Pollock.
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: While she was technically a Second Generation Abstract Expressionist, known for dynamic canvases like this one, she flinched at the terminology, suggesting, “Abstract Expressionism was Old Hat” by the time she was on the scene.
Video: The Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: Low Water is a particularly important painting, as it marks a shift in Mitchell’s style.
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: Her larger works, made in France, offer up a much more expansive sense of space, and a resplendent spectrum of color.
Video: The Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: Here we see Mitchell starting to use rectangular blocks of color, in varying sizes, a motif that persisted throughout the 1970s. Mitchell would activate these swaths….
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: …. by allowing them to bump up against each other, and supplementing them with dynamic brushwork and dripping fields of paint.
Video: The Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: Her palette also became much more sophisticated at this time, including lavenders, oranges, greens, blues, purples and yellows that literally jump off the canvas.
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: The immediacy of Mitchell’s brushwork lends a sense of intimacy to the painting. It naturally draws you in, at first physically and then emotionally as you explore its variations of color and form. There’s something actually quite musical about the way Mitchell guides your eye across the surface of her painting.
Video: An archival photograph of La Tour, Joan Mitchell’s property in Vétheuil, 1967
Audio: It just so happens that Mitchell worked and resided in the same location as the French painter….
Video: The Claude Monet painting The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil, 1881
Audio: …. Claude Monet, who lived there from 1878 to 1881.
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: Though many are quick to draw connections between the two artists because of this fact, Mitchell rejected the comparison.
Video: An archival photograph of Joan Mitchell
Audio: “I bought this house because I liked the view, not out of any love for Monet,” she told The New York Times, in 1991.
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: Despite her rejection of Monet, Mitchell’s style was very much influenced by her surroundings, and, in its embrace of color and beauty, echoes the work of her French countrymen…
Video: The Henri Matisse painting Landscape at Collioure, 1905
Audio: …. Henri Matisse….
Video: The Pierre Bonnard painting Sunlight, 1923
Audio: ….and Pierre Bonnard.
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: Mitchell herself once proclaimed, “Painting is French,” because of her immersion in this sensibility.
Video: The Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: Although her paintings of the time were inspired by the natural environment, Mitchell did not paint outside but rather inside a studio on her property.
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: The imaginary landscapes that she painted were very much an extension of her memory.
Video: An archival photograph of Joan Mitchell in her studio
Audio: She would often cover the windows to keep out the natural light, allowing her to focus on the immediacy of the work at hand.
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: While her brushwork is dynamic and gestural, she did not really consider herself to be an action painter. In fact, she painted slowly….
Video: The Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: …. taking time to stop and look, and to allow the painting to direct her next move.
Video: An archival photograph of Joan Mitchell in her studio
Audio: Mitchell had a habit of not naming her paintings until they were finished.
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: Even in May of 1970 as Leon Arkus prepared for the International, he expressed some frustration with the difficulty in discussing Mitchell’s works ‘cause they still had no titles.
Video: The Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: He said, “It is rather hard to carry colors in one’s mind.”
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: Low Water, as it was eventually named, evokes this wondrous feeling, I think, of….
Video: A photograph of a tide pool
Audio: …. staring down into a tide pool teeming with life.
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: In a rare moment of revealing her influence….
Video: The Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: …. Mitchell claims simply, “The painting is like a river.”
Video: Eric Crosby, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, standing in front of the Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: I want to thank you for taking the time to watch today and to learn more about Low Water by Joan Mitchell. I encourage you to join the conversation and discuss the work with those you know. And please visit the Bank of America Masterpiece Moment website to sign up for alerts and make sure that you never miss a moment. Thank you.
Video: The Joan Mitchell painting Low Water, 1969
Audio: Music playing
Graphic: Bank of America logo
On-screen text:
Title treatment art:
Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859–1937)
The Arch, 1919 (detail)
Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Alfred W. Jenkins, 32.10 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.10_SL1.jpg)
Sol LeWitt (American, 1928–2007)
Wall Drawing #450, A wall is divided vertically into four equal parts. All one-, two-, three-, and four-part combinations of four colors, 1985
Lascaux acrylic wash
354” × 864” (899.2 × 2194.6 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Gift of Richard M. Scaife to honor Margaret R. Battle
© 2021 The LeWitt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Kenneth Snelson (American, 1927–2016)
Forest Devil, 1977
Stainless steel tubes and aircraft cable
216” × 384” × 426” (548.6 × 975.4 × 1082 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Gift of the Women's Committee
© Kenneth Snelson
René Magritte (Belgian, 1898–1967)
L’esprit de famille, 1963
Oil on canvas
21 5/16” × 25 5/8” (54.1 × 65.1 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Scaife
© 2021 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Thomas Schütte (German, b. 1954)
Zombie VIII, 2008
Bronze
29 1/2” × 33 1/2” × 41 5/16” (74.9 × 85.1 × 104.9 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: The Henry L. Hillman Fund
© 2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Asger Jorn (Danish, 1914–1973)
Incredible Energy, 1957
Oil on canvas
57 9/16” × 45 3/16” (146.2 × 114.8 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Patrons Art Fund
© 2021 Donation Jorn, Silkeborg / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VISDA
Richard Long (British, b. 1945)
Elterwater Stone Ring, 1985
113 stones
Overall: 110 1/4” (280 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Purchased with funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Edward N. Haskell
© 2021 Richard Long. All Rights Reserved, DACS, London / ARS, NY
Martin Puryear (American, b. 1941)
Untitled, 1970
Ponderosa pine
32 7/8” × 13” × 12” (83.5 × 33 × 30.5 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Gift of John Hudson
© 2021 Martin Puryear, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery
Cy Gavin (American, b. 1985)
Untitled (Gibbet Island), 2019
Acrylic, pink Bermuda sand, aquarelle pencil, chalk, and oil on canvas
92” × 92” × 1 3/4” (233.7 × 233.7 × 4.5 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Purchase, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Scaife, by exchange
© 2021 Cy Gavin
Ruth Root (American, b. 1967)
Untitled, 2003
Enamel on aluminum
46 1/2” × 60” × 1/16” (118.1 × 152.4 × 0.2 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: A. W. Mellon Acquisition Endowment Fund
© 2021 Ruth Root
Rachel Harrison (American, b. 1966)
Utopia, 2002
Wood, polystyrene, cement, acrylic, wheels, porcelain figurine, and pyrite
80” × 40” × 38 1/2” (203.2 × 101.6 × 97.8 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Oxford Development Fund
© 2021 Rachel Harrison Courtesy the artist and Greene Naftali, New York
Zao Wou‑Ki (French, 1921–2013)
Black Crowd, 1954
Oil on canvas
Frame: 46 5/8” × 36 1/8” × 1 1/4” (118.4 × 91.8 × 3.2 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Gift of G. David Thompson
© 2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ProLitteris, Zurich
Alberto Giacometti (Swiss, 1901–1966)
Walking Man I, 1960
Bronze
71 3/4” × 38” × 10 1/2” (182.3 × 96.5 × 3.8 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Patrons Art Fund
© 2021 Alberto Giacometti Estate / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / ADAGP, Paris
Mark Rothko (American, 1903–1970)
Yellow and Blue (Yellow, Blue on Orange), 1955
Oil on canvas
102 1/4” × 66 11/16” × 1 3/8” (259.7 × 169.4 × 3.5 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Fellows Fund, Women’s Committee Acquisition Fund, and Patrons Art Fund
© 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Joan Mitchell (American, 1925–1992)
Low Water, 1969
Oil on canvas
112” × 79” (284.5 × 200.7 cm)
© 2021 Estate of Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell painting in her studio at 60 St. Marks Place, New York City, 1957
Photograph by Rudy Burckhardt, Joan Mitchell Foundation Archives. © 2021 Estate of Rudy Burckhardt / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Joan Mitchell in her 10 rue Frémicourt apartment, Paris, c. 1960
Photographer unknown, Joan Mitchell Foundation Archives.
Joan Mitchell, Patricia Matisse, May Zao, Jean-Paul Riopelle, and Zao Wou-Ki at
Chez Margot, Golfe-Juan, 1962
Photographer unknown, Joan Mitchell Foundation Archives.
Franz Kline (American, 1910–1962)
9th Street Exhibition poster, 1951
JMFA004: Joan Mitchell Exhibition Records, Joan Mitchell Foundation Archives.
© 2021 The Franz Kline Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
La Tour, Joan Mitchell’s property in Vétheuil, 1967
Photographer unknown, Joan Mitchell Foundation Archives.
Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)
The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil, 1881
Oil on canvas
59 5/8” x 47 5/8” (151.5 x 121 cm)
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
Image courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Joan Mitchell in Vétheuil, 1972
Photograph by Nancy Crampton, Joan Mitchell Foundation Archives. © 2021 Nancy Crampton
Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954)
Landscape at Collioure, 1905
Oil on canvas
15 1/4” x 18 3/8” (38.8 x 46.6 cm)
Gift and Bequest of Mrs. Bertram Smith
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
© 2021 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY
Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867–1947)
Sunlight, 1923
Oil on canvas
24 7/8” x 24 1/2” (63.2 x 62.2 cm)
Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza
Collection on loan at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
Photo: Ian Dagnall Computing / Alamy Stock Photo
© 2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Portrait of American-born painter Joan Mitchell (1925–1992) in her studio, Paris, France, September 1956. (Photo by Loomis Dean/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)
Joan Mitchell in her Vétheuil studio, 1972
Photograph by Nancy Crampton, Joan Mitchell Foundation Archives. © 2021 Nancy Crampton
Giant green anemones in a tide pool on Cobble Beach below Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Oregon
Julie Huser / Alamy Stock Photo
“Take the “A” Train”
Written by Billy Strayhorn
Performed by Oscar Peterson
Courtesy of Verve Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises
© 2021 Bank of America Corporation.
Opinions or ideas expressed are not necessarily those of Bank of America or its affiliates.
© 2021 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved.
Low Water (1969) by Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell’s Low Water is an abstract oil painting featuring vibrant colors, dynamic brushwork, and dripping fields of paint. Influenced by the color and beauty of her surroundings, Mitchell often painted complex landscapes that were extensions of her own memories.
January 18th–March 1st, 2021
Graphic: Bank of America logo
Audio: Jazz music playing
Graphic: Bank of America presents Masterpiece Moment
Video: Exterior and interior shots of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
On-screen text: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Video: The Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
On-screen text: Yayoi Kusama (Japanese, b. 1929), Pumpkin, 2016, Fiberglass-reinforced plastic with urethane paint, 96 7/16” x 102 3/8”
Video: Melissa Chiu, Director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden standing next to the Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
On-screen text: Melissa Chiu, Director, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Audio— Melissa Chiu: Welcome to Bank of America's Masterpiece Moment. We're at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, a part of the Smithsonian Institution and our national museum of modern art. I am Melissa Chiu, Director of the Hirshhorn, and I'm delighted to share one of my favorite masterpieces in our collection.
Video: The Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: You are among the first to see Yayoi Kusama's Pumpkin in its indoor setting.
Video: Melissa Chiu standing next to the Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: This pumpkin is eight feet tall and wide.
Video: The Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: As you can see, Kusama has covered her artwork in her signature polka dots, and the resulting effect is exactly as she intended: a dazzling kaleidoscope environment.
Video: Melissa Chiu standing next to the Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: Today, Yayoi Kusama is the most famous living woman artist in the world. This was not always the case.
Video: An archival photograph of Yayoi Kusama
Audio: She was born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan. As a child, she wanted to become an artist.
Video: A photograph of Yayoi Kusama in her studio
Audio: Kusama still works in her Tokyo studio every day.
Video: Yayoi Kusama sitting next to a Pumpkin sculpture
Audio: In her autobiography, Infinity Net, she explains why pumpkins are a lifelong object of fascination.
Video: Melissa Chiu standing next to the Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: Kusama writes, she is "enchanted by their charming form, generous unpretentiousness and solid spiritual balance."
Video: Three different Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin sculptures installed outdoors
Audio She recollects how, as a child, she accompanied her grandfather to a nursery, where she saw a pumpkin the size of a man's head. When she reached down to pick it, she recalls that it spoke to her. As a teen, she won a prize for painting pumpkins at a local art exhibition.
Video: Melissa Chiu standing next to the Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: Later, as a young artist, Yayoi Kusama spent two years in Kyoto making paintings, many depicting pumpkins.
Video: Two archival photographs of Yayoi Kusama
Audio: In 1957, Yayoi Kusama left Japan. She traveled to the United States at the encouragement of artist Georgia O'Keeffe. She moved to New York City in 1958, where she experimented, often on a monumental scale.
Video: Melissa Chiu standing next to the Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: In America, she created "net paintings," "accumulation sculptures," "mirror rooms" and "happenings."
Video: An archival photograph of Yayoi Kusama
Audio: But formal success eluded her, and her health declined.
Video: Melissa Chiu standing next to the Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: When Yayoi Kusama returned to Japan in 1973, she returned to her pumpkin motif.
Video: An archival photograph of Yayoi Kusama
Audio: Yayoi Kusama represented Japan at the 1993 Venice Biennale, where she exhibited an "infinity mirror room."
Video: A Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin sculpture installed outdoors
Audio: In 1994, the artist installed a large pumpkin sculpture at the end of a pier in Naoshima, Japan, her very first permanent outdoor installation.
Video: Melissa Chiu standing next to the Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: Our pumpkin is similar, but its size, shape and pattern are unique.
Video: The Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: Pumpkin embodies Kusama's lifelong investigation into themes of nature and fantasy; corporeal and infinite; life and death.
Video: Melissa Chiu standing next to the Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: Yayoi Kusama is one of the most important artists working today, driven by a vision that is at once intensely personal and undeniably universal. I consider Pumpkin to be a masterpiece, and I'm not alone.
Video: The Yayoi Kusama installation Infinity Mirror Room—All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, 2016
Audio: In 2017, the Hirshhorn introduced a new generation to the artist. Our exhibition, Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors, broke attendance records here and at five additional North American art museums.
Video: Melissa Chiu standing next to the Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: Perhaps you were one of the 800,000 visitors to experience it. Or made one of the 330 million impressions on social media.
Video: Wall text for the exhibition One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection followed by Melissa Chiu standing next to the Yayoi Kusama sculpture “Pumpkin”, 2016
Audio: Our new exhibition, One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection, establishes our museum as a permanent, free resource….
Video: The Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: ….for art lovers to experience Kusama's transformative practice.
Video: Melissa Chiu standing next to the Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: Thank you for taking the time to learn more about Yayoi Kusama's Pumpkin.
Video: The Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: I encourage you to join the conversation and discuss the work with friends and family.
Video: Melissa Chiu standing next to the Yayoi Kusama sculpture Pumpkin, 2016
Audio: Please visit the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C., and visit the Bank of America Masterpiece Moment website to sign up for alerts and ensure that you never miss a moment.
Audio: Music playing
Graphic: Bank of America logo
On-screen text:
Henry Moore (British, 1898–1986)
Three-Way Piece No. 3: Vertebrae (Working Model), 1968/cast early 1969
Bronze
40 3/4” x 93” x 48” (103.6 x 236.1 x 122 cm) including base
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest, 1981
© 2021 The Henry Moore Foundation. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2021 / www.henry-moore.org
Installation view of Lee Ufan: Open Dimension, 2019, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
© 2021 Lee Ufan
Tony Cragg (British, b. 1949)
Subcommittee, 1991
Steel
100 1/2” x 74 1/4” x 64 1/2”, approx. 6,000 lbs. (255.3 x 188.6 x 163.8 cm, 2721.6 kg)
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation and Museum Purchase, 1992
© 2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Dan Graham (American, b. 1942)
For Gordon Bunshaft, 2006/fabricated 2007–2008
Two-way mirror, stainless steel, wood and stone
92 1/8” x 196 1/4” x 196 1/8” (234 x 498.4 x 498.1 cm)
Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest and Purchase Funds, 2008
© 2021 Dan Graham
Mark di Suvero (American, b. China, 1933)
Are Years What? (For Marianne Moore), 1967
Steel, paint and wire
480” × 480” × 360”, 18,725 lb. (1219.2 × 1219.2 × 914.4 cm, 8493.6 kg)
Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund and Gift of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, by exchange, 1999
Courtesy of the Artist, Spacetime C.C. and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Jeff Koons (American, b. 1955)
Kiepenkerl, 1987
Stainless steel
72 3/4” × 31/2” × 32 1/4”, 550 lbs. (184.8 × 80 × 81.9 cm, 249.5 kg)
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund and Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, 1998
© 2021 Jeff Koons
Yayoi Kusama (Japanese, b. 1929)
Pumpkin, 2016
Fiberglass-reinforced plastic with urethane paint
96 7/16” x 102 3/8” (247.5 x 260 cm)
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
© 2021 YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts.
Yayoi Kusama working in her studio, New York, c. 1958–59
© 2021 YAYOI KUSAMA
Photo by Ken Van Sickle
Yayoi Kusama in her studio, 2017
© 2021 YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, David Zwirner.
Yayoi Kusama with Pumpkin at Aichi Triennale, 2010
© 2021 YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, David Zwirner.
Pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama, Benesse Art Site, Naoshima, Japan
© 2021 YAYOI KUSAMA
Jayne Lloyd / Alamy Stock Photo
Pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama at the Frieze Art Fair 2014, Regents Park, London, United Kingdom
© 2021 YAYOI KUSAMA
Simon Balson / Alamy Stock Photo
Pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama displayed at the entrance of the Forever Museum of Contemporary Art (FMOCA) in Gion, Kyoto, Japan
© 2021 YAYOI KUSAMA
Wiskerke / Alamy Stock Photo
Yayoi Kusama working in her studio, New York, 1961
© 2021 YAYOI KUSAMA
Yayoi Kusama working in her studio, New York, c. 1960–61
© 2021 YAYOI KUSAMA
Portrait of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama as she poses in a plaid outfit of her own design at a “nude fashion” event, New York, New York, July 30, 1969
Photo by Fred W. McDarrah/Getty Images
Portrait of artist and writer Yayoi Kusama, Venice, Italy, 1992
Photo by Chris Felver/Getty Images
Pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama, Benesse Art Site, Naoshima, Japan.
© 2021 YAYOI KUSAMA
Chris Willson / Alamy Stock Photo
Yayoi Kusama (Japanese, b. 1929)
Infinity Mirror Room—All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, 2016
Wood, mirrors, plastic, acrylic and LEDs. Collection of the artist.
© 2021 YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro.
“Take the “A” Train”
Written by Billy Strayhorn
Performed by Oscar Peterson
Courtesy of Verve Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises
© 2021 Bank of America Corporation.
Opinions or ideas expressed are not necessarily those of Bank of America or its affiliates.
Graphic: Bank of America logo
Audio: Jazz music playing
Graphic: Bank of America presents Masterpiece Moment
Video: Exterior and interior shots of the Detroit Institute of Arts
On-screen text: Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Video: Entrance to the hall where the Detroit Industry Murals are located, showing a partial view of the murals
On-screen text: Diego Rivera (Mexican 1886 – 1957), Detroit Industry Murals, 1932-33, fresco
Video: Inside the hall where the Detroit Industry Murals are painted on the walls. The Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, Salvador Salort-Pons stands in the foreground.
On-screen text: Salvador Salort-Pons, Director, Detroit Institute of Arts
Audio— Salvador Salort-Pons: Hello, I’m Salvador Salort-Pons, I am the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Welcome to Bank of America’s Masterpiece Moment. Today, I would like to talk about one of my favorite works from our collection—
Video: A close-up view of a mural section
Audio: —the Detroit Industry Murals created by Diego Rivera and tell you why I think it is truly a masterpiece.
Video: Salvador Salort-Pons standing in front of Detroit Industry Murals followed by archival footage of Diego Rivera painting
Audio: In 1931, DIA director William Valentiner, and Edsel Ford, president of Ford Motor Company, invited the celebrated Mexican artist Diego Rivera to “beautify the Museum and give fame to its hall.” Rivera’s recent retrospective at the newly opened Museum of Modern Art in New York created a sensation. The exhibition—and practically the artist’s every move—were followed by the press.
Video: Archival footage of a courtyard with scaffolding and a fountain, followed by footage of William Valentiner and Diego Rivera
Audio: The hall that Valentiner described was this grand space — at the time, an open-air courtyard with a fountain at the center. The director hoped for murals to line the space, which were bare when he requested Rivera’s talents.
Video: Archival footage of Diego Rivera creating the murals
Audio: One of the most famous artists in the world by 1932, Rivera believed that public art — including murals like these — could shape society, politics and national identity. Born in Mexico in 1886, Rivera first studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and then went to Europe, where he absorbed the lessons of Cubism while retaining his deep devotion to his Mexican identity and the Indigenous culture of his homeland. Rivera, along with his compatriots José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros — known together as Los Tres Grandes — pioneered Mexican Muralist Renaissance, which celebrated the cultural history of Mexico along with the communist ideals of its recent Revolution.
Video: Salvador Salort-Pons standing in front of the Detroit Industry Murals
Audio: Rivera often presented workers as the heroes of his murals, who engage in physically demanding labor with integrity and nobility.
Video: Archival footage of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera on scaffolding and Rivera is painting part of a mural
Audio: Rivera arrived in Detroit in April 1932 with his wife Frida Kahlo, who was at the beginning of her career.
Video: Salvador Salort-Pons standing in front of the Detroit Industry Murals
Audio: The initial contract was for $10,000 — equivalent at about $190,000 today. The commission was later doubled.
Video: Archival footage of various industries and workers
Audio: The DIA requested that Rivera depict industries that had made Detroit famous.
Video: Salvador Salort-Pons standing in front of the Detroit Industry Murals interspersed with archival footage of Diego Rivera creating the murals and current footage of the completed murals
Audio: Rivera spent eleven months in Detroit. He toured automotive, chemical and pharmaceutical factories; sketching businesses and workers and devising the masterpiece now known as the Detroit Industry Murals. Rivera was a great admirer of innovation in the United States, so the artist used all four walls of this space to both celebrate and question the place of industry in society — its promise and products, its danger and damages. He was fascinated by the factories he toured, but Rivera’s strong political beliefs — specifically, his affiliation with communism — also made him a critic of what he saw as the ills of capitalism. He declared himself “a spy in disguise” who could subvert from the inside with his art.
Video: Footage of the murals
Audio: Across these two monumental walls — specifically, these lower sections, each 45 feet long — Rivera presented the process of car production at Ford’s vast River Rouge plant in Dearborn. Workers smelting the steel in blast furnaces, building the powerful engines, constructing the gleaming car bodies — all powered by Henry Ford’s transformative assembly line and the diverse, multiracial workforce at River Rouge.
Rivera depicts the motorized line, the machinery and the synchronized workers throughout the murals, giving a sense of how enormous and complex the process was. A spectacular sight, the plant has even drawn a crowd in the background of the south wall. Engineers from Dearborn were amazed that Rivera “fused together, in a few feet, sequences of operations which are actually performed in a distance of at least two miles, and every inch of the work—
Video: Archival footage of machinery
Audio: —is technically correct.”
Video: Footage of the murals
Audio: Other scenes here contrast the wonders and dangers of science — from the life-saving development of vaccines to the threat of chemical weapons; the construction of ships and planes that could also serve the military; the managers who surveil their employees, looking for any misstep; the harvesting of rubber that provided the material for tires, but left the landscape empty.
Video: Salvador Salort-Pons standing in front of the Detroit Industry Murals interspersed with footage of the murals
Audio: In the top sections of the long walls of the mural, Rivera complemented the scenes of industry with black, white, red and yellow female figures also associated with nature and fertility, consistent with Aztec beliefs that divided the world into four quadrants and four elements.
Here the four natural resources that they clutch represent the key materials for producing steel: coal, iron, lime and sand. Other hands rise from the earth bringing forth these resources — a tribute to the bounty of the land that Rivera saw in North and South America. As you exit the court, you see the master engineer overlooking plans and his counterpart, the worker.
Throughout the mural, Rivera included many personalities he had encountered during his time in Detroit. Edsel Ford and William Valentiner, the museum’s director, are pictured in the lower right corner of the south wall. Rivera’s own team of painters are portrayed as the workers who work on the assembly line on the north wall.
Video: Archival footage of Diego Rivera creating the murals
Audio: The Detroit Industry Murals proved influential in their own time—
Video: Salvador Salort-Pons standing in front of the Detroit Industry Murals interspersed with footage of the murals
Audio: —and today, we consider them the Sistine Chapel of America.
I want to thank you for taking the time to watch today and to learn more about the Detroit Industry Murals by Diego Rivera. I encourage you to join the conversation and discuss the work with family and friends. And please visit the Bank of America Masterpiece Moment website to sign up for alerts and ensure that you never miss a moment!
Audio: Music playing
On-screen text:
Title treatment art:
Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859 – 1937)
The Arch, 1919 (detail)
Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Alfred W. Jenkins, 32.10 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.10_SL1.jpg)
Diego Rivera (Mexican, 1886–1957)
Detroit Industry murals, 1932–1933
Frescos
© 2020 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
“Take the “A” Train”
Written by Billy Strayhorn
Performed by Oscar Peterson
Courtesy of Verve Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises
© 2021 Bank of America Corporation.
Graphic: Bank of America logo
Graphic: Bank of America logo
Audio: Jazz music playing
Graphic: Bank of America presents Masterpiece Moment
Video: The exterior of The Studio Museum in Harlem’s former building followed by an architectural rendering of the Museum’s future building
On-screen text: The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Video: The William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969
On-screen text: William T. Williams (American, b. 1942), Trane, 1969, Acrylic on canvas, 108 x 84 inches
Video: Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969
On-screen text: Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator, The Studio Museum in Harlem
Audio— Thelma Golden: Hello, I’m Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem. The Studio Museum is located on 125th Street in the heart of Harlem, New York.
Video: Architectural rendering of The Studio Museum in Harlem’s future building
Audio: The Museum is currently in construction on a new building that will rise on the footprint of our former home.
Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969
Audio: Welcome to Bank of America’s Masterpiece Moment. Today I would like to talk to you about one of my favorite works from our collection, Trane by William T. Williams, and tell you why I think it is truly a masterpiece.
Audio: Music plays off and on throughout
Video: The William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969 followed by an archival photograph of The Studio Museum in Harlem’s former building exterior with a small group of people in front
Audio: This monumental, acrylic-on-canvas painting stands at approximately 9 x 6 1/2 feet, and was created in 1969, just one year after The Studio Museum opened to the public.
Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969
Audio: It was gifted to the Museum in 1981 by Charles Cowles, a noted collector, art dealer, and publisher. Mr. Cowles’ gift also included an additional four works on paper by Williams, as well as works by Sam Gilliam and Benny Andrews.
Video: The Sam Gilliam artwork Mars I, 1974
On-screen text: Sam Gilliam (American, b. 1933), Mars I, 1974 , Acrylic on rice paper, The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of Charles Cowles, New York 1981.2.1
Video: The Benny Andrews artwork The Police, 1972
On-screen text: Benny Andrews (American, 1930–2006), The Police, 1972, Pen and ink on paper, two-sided drawing, The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of Charles Cowles, New York 1981.2.7
Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969
Audio: Williams, Gilliam, and Andrews were integral to the founding of the Museum and continue to be a part of its legacy and programming today.
Video: Archival photograph of William T. Williams in his studio followed by close-ups of his painting Trane, 1969
Audio: William T. Williams was born in 1942 in Cross Creek, North Carolina. As a teenager, he moved with his family to New York City where his artistic talent was recognized and encouraged by the head of a local community center who offered him a small studio space. Williams attended what is now called the High School of Art and Design and went on to receive a BFA from the Pratt Institute in 1966. He went on to complete an MFA at the Yale School of Art and Architecture in 1968.
Video: Archival photographs of William T. Williams
Audio: After completing his studies, Williams returned to New York City. He began his formal career in New York at a time when new American art movements were flourishing, including color field painting, Pop art, and minimalism. Williams quickly gained attention and success.
Video: The William T. Williams painting Elbert Jackson L.A.M.F. Part II, 1969.
On-screen text: William T. Williams, Elbert Jackson L.A.M.F. Part II, 1969, Acrylic and metallic paint on canvas
Audio: The Museum of Modern Art, New York purchased his painting Elbert Jackson L.A.M.F. Part II in 1969.
Video: Archival photograph of William T. Williams
Audio: Williams is well versed in the history of art and abstraction, and his work both acknowledges and challenges that of his predecessors.
Video: The William T. Williams painting Harlem Angels, 1968
On-screen text: William T. Williams, Harlem Angels, 1968, Acrylic on canvas
Audio: It is characterized by bold compositions and use of color, and the shapes and geometries Williams associates with childhood memories.
Video: The William T. Williams painting Mercer’s Stop, 1971
On-screen text: William T. Williams, Mercer’s Stop, 1971, Acrylic on canvas
Video: The William T. Williams painting Palm Cafe, 1970
On-screen text: William T. Williams, Palm Cafe, 1970, Acrylic on paper
Audio: His practice draws on the rich history of abstraction in all forms of African-American culture, in particular, from the unique forms of abstraction in music, especially in jazz, as well as the geometric patterns of the quilts he saw in the South.
Video: Archival photographs of William T. Williams in his studio
Audio: Williams takes a rigorous, formal approach to painting, creating his paintings in series and producing meticulous prints, drawings and watercolors alongside them to explore color and brushwork.
Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969
Audio: Throughout his career, Williams has been at the forefront of his medium, pushing and pulling the material and conceptual capacity of paint to evoke the world around him.
Video: The photograph John & Alice Coltrane, 1966 by Chuck Stewart shown next to the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969
Audio: The title of this painting, Trane, references John Coltrane, one of the greatest jazz saxophonists and composers and an icon of American culture.
Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969
Video: An archival photograph of an installation of the series Diamond in a Box by William T. Williams.
Audio: Painted early in Williams’ career, Trane belongs to his first mature series, known as the Diamond in a Box paintings.
Video: The William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969
Audio: This work features a central diamond within a rectangular canvas—a compositional motif the artist has referred to as a “stabilizing force”—referencing the challenging social and political context in which this work was made. Vibrant bands of discordant colors radiate from and intersect with the center. The forms repeat and multiply, and when viewed in series, the lines and shapes create a visual rhythm akin to a jazz composition.
Video: The William T. Williams painting Trane Meets Jug, 1970–71
On-screen text: William T. Williams, Trane Meets Jug, 1970–71, Acrylic on canvas
Video: The William T. Williams painting Truckin, 1969
On-screen text: William T. Williams, Truckin, 1969, Acrylic on canvas
Audio: The influence of jazz is apparent in Williams’ work, not only for its compositional structure, but also as a medium emblematic of the experimental and expressive innovations of African-American culture.
Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969
Audio: Williams has an expansive understanding of, and a commitment to, art and community. He was active in the tumultuous 1960s, a decade that defined civil rights activism in the United States.
Video: An archival photograph of storefronts next to the former exterior of The Studio Museum in Harlem
Audio: Williams was deeply connected to both the Studio Museum and Harlem during this period.
Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969
Audio: He developed two proposals as a graduate student at Yale that were intended to bridge the divide between artists and the communities they lived and worked in. The first formed the basis for the Studio Museum’s Artist-in-Residence program, for which Williams was instrumental in the early years of, and remains a core part of the Museum’s mission to this day.
Video: A photograph of four men, including William T. Williams, standing in front of a mural
Audio: The second proposal became the muralist collective Smokehouse Associates, which brought public art to Harlem between 1968 and 1970.
Video: Thelma Golden standing in front of the William T. Williams painting Trane, 1969 interspersed with close-ups of the painting
Audio: In a career spanning over fifty years, Williams has shown his work in over 100 museums and galleries worldwide. He has remained true to a core set of guiding principles that have allowed him to experiment and evolve his practice, consistently challenging the limits of abstraction and its capacity to speak to the world around us.
Trane exemplifies Williams’ groundbreaking approach to color, form, and subject, capturing the social upheaval of a nation not through explicit figuration but through complex, rigorous abstraction. A masterpiece that bridges the personal and the political, Trane exemplifies the artist’s storied career and his continued practice of radically reshaping the field of abstraction.
I want to thank you for taking the time to watch today and to learn more about Trane by William T. Williams. I encourage you to join the conversation and discuss the work with family and friends. And please visit the Bank of America Masterpiece Moment website to sign up for alerts and ensure that you will never miss a moment!
Graphic: Bank of America logo
Audio: Jazz music playing
On-screen text:
Title treatment art:
Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859 – 1937)
The Arch, 1919 (detail)
Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Alfred W. Jenkins, 32.10 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.10_SL1.jpg)
William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)
Trane, 1969
Acrylic on canvas
108” x 84” (274.3 x 213.4 cm)
The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of Charles Cowles, New York 1981.2.2
© William T. Williams
William T. Williams in his 654 Broadway studio, c. 1968–69
© Irene Stern; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
William T. Williams in his 654 Broadway studio, c.1968-69
© Irene Stern; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
William T. Williams in his 654 Broadway studio, 1987
© Peter Bellamy; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Sam Gilliam (American, b. 1933)
Mars I, 1974
Acrylic on rice paper
21” × 25 1/2” × 5/8” (53.34 x 64.77 x 1.58 cm)
The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of Charles Cowles, New York 1981.2.1
© 2021 Sam Gilliam / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Benny Andrews (American, 1930–2006)
The Police, 1972
Pen and ink on paper, two-sided drawing
18” × 12” (45.72 x 30.48 cm)
The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of Charles Cowles, New York 1981.2.7
© 2021 Estate of Benny Andrews / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, Courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY
William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)
Elbert Jackson L.A.M.F. Part II, 1969
Acrylic and metallic paint on canvas
93 1/4” x 109 7/8” (292.7 x 279.1 cm)
Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Gift of Carter Burden, Mr. and Mrs. John R. Jakobson and purchase (1009.1969)
© William T. Williams; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
William T. Williams with a painting from his Shimmer Series, 1983
© Fern Logan; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)
Harlem Angels, 1968
Acrylic on canvas
121” x 40 1/2” (307.3 x 102.9 cm)
Signed
© William T. Williams; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)
Mercer’s Stop, 1971
Acrylic on canvas
108” x 84” (274.3 x 213.4 cm)
Signed
© William T. Williams; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)
Palm Cafe, 1970
Acrylic on paper
55 1/2” x 44 1/2” (141 x 113 cm)
49” x 38 1/2” (124.5 x 97.8 cm) sight size
Signed
Inscribed lower center in margin: Studio Museum (Trane) Work Drawing One of Two
© William T. Williams; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
William T. Williams in his Connecticut studio, July 18, 2020
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
William T. Williams in his Connecticut studio, 2018
Photographer Grant Delin; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Chuck Stewart (American, 1927–2017)
John & Alice Coltrane, 1966
Gelatin silver print
Bank of America Collection
© 2021 Copyrighted and registered photographs by Chuck Stewart Photography, LLC / All rights reserved.
Installation view of William T. Williams’ groundbreaking first solo exhibition at Reese Palley Gallery in New York City, on view March 6–30, 1971. The exhibition consisted of large geometric abstractions from the artist’s first mature series, Diamond in a Box.
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)
Trane Meets Jug, 1970–71
Acrylic on canvas
108” x 84” (274.3 x 213.4 cm)
Signed
© William T. Williams; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
William T. Williams (American, b. 1942)
Truckin, 1969
Acrylic on canvas
84 1/2” x 60 1/2” (214.6 × 153.7 cm)
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (2014.130.2)
© William T. Williams; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Smokehouse Associates founders Melvin Edwards, Billy Rose, Guy Ciarcia and William T. Williams
Photographer Robert Colton, New York, NY; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
“Take the “A” Train”
Written by Billy Strayhorn
Performed by Oscar Peterson
Courtesy of Verve Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises
© 2021 Bank of America Corporation.
Graphic: Bank of America logo
Audio: Jazz music playing
Graphic: Bank of America presents Masterpiece Moment
Video: Exterior and interior shots of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
On-screen text: Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Video: The Mark Bradford artwork 150 Portrait Tone, 2017
On-screen text: Mark Bradford (American, b.1961), 150 Portrait Tone, 2017, mixed media on canvas
Video: Michael Govan standing in front of the artwork Mark Bradford, 150 Portrait Tone, 2017
Audio: Music plays off and on throughout
On-screen text: Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, LACMA
Audio—Michael Govan:
Hi. I'm Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Welcome to Bank of America's Masterpiece Moment.
Today, I'd like to talk about a contemporary masterpiece from our collection—with a timely message—an artwork titled 150 Portrait Tone by Mark Bradford.
This monumental, mixed media on canvas work was specially created for LACMA in 2017 and it stands 20 by 25½ feet in our Resnick Pavilion.
The idea for this commission came after I visited Mark's studio and viewed his large-scale studies for a series of paintings he was making for the U.S. Embassy in London. As we discussed exhibiting the Embassy studies at LACMA, we also talked about the possibility of a new artwork.
Later, Mark threw out the idea that resulted in this mural size painting. At first, he proposed to make the painting directly on the wall but working inside the museum, at our entrance, proved too logistically challenging.
Mark's technique involves paper, glue, paint, cutting, sanding and jet blasting with water. Instead, the painting was made in three large sections in Mark's studio and then stretched and installed here by LACMA's skilled team of art preparators.
Mark Bradford is a quintessential born and raised Los Angeles artist. Throughout his early life, his mother ran a hair salon. And upon graduating from high school, Mark received his hairstylist license and worked on and off at his mother's salon. It wasn't until he was in his 30s that he attended and graduated California Institute of the Arts, also known as CalArts, with an undergraduate and then a master's degree in 1997.
His work spans painting, sculpture, film, and multimedia installations. The many subjects of Mark's art include communities, migrant populations, history, race, gender, and popular culture.
In addition to being an artist, he also operates his own public art exhibition space and an adjacent program to support foster youth in his native South Los Angeles neighborhood, which he’s helping to preserve.
Mark believes deeply in the power of art to inspire and shape lives. And he's received too many honors to count, including the MacArthur Genius Award and the U.S. State Medal of the Arts, as well as representing our nation at the International 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. His art has been shown around the world.
150 Portrait Tone is based on the July 2016 murder of Philando Castile by a police officer in St. Paul, Minnesota. Castile was driving, and when pulled over for a broken taillight, he was fatally shot.
Part of the incident was live streamed by his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, who was sitting next to him, horrified, with her four-year-old daughter in the back seat.
The title of the painting, 150 Portrait Tone, refers to the name of the pink acrylic "skin tone" color that's used throughout the painting, but also makes a commentary on the vestiges of racism and racist labels that persist all around and are deeply etched into our culture. The tone of a human portrait isn't only pink. Years ago, Crayola removed the name "flesh" from their peach-hued crayon, recognizing our diversity.
Like many of Mark's works, this mural-size composition contains both abstraction and graphic symbolism. This new painting feels old in some ways, with layers of manipulated paper and paint rendering this text almost illegible in places.
For me, the dark form in the background evokes the horrific shooting, perhaps Castile's twisted arm and the dark-red bloodstain spread across his white shirt, both prominent in the live stream feed.
Much of Reynolds's voiceover dialogue is inscribed over the entire surface of the painting. The artist was moved by the power of her words and the different audiences Reynolds addressed simultaneously.
"Stay with me," she says to her boyfriend, but I think the artist is also using that phrase at the top left of the painting to talk to us, and to ask us to pay attention.
Reynolds addresses the officer: "Please, officer, don't tell me that you just did this." She addresses the Lord: "Lord, please, Jesus, don't tell me that he's gone."
And she addresses us, the unknown audience, on the other side of her live stream: "Please don't tell me he just went like that."
This far-reaching artistic statement reminds me of another of my favorite works of art.
Video: The painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso
Audio: Pablo Picasso's Guernica, painted in 1937 to protest the bombing of Guernica and the loss of so many innocent lives.
Video: The painting The Third of May by Francisco Goya
Audio: Or Francisco Goya's 19th-century masterpiece, The Third of May, documenting the massacre of Spanish freedom fighters.
Video: Michael Govan standing in front of Mark Bradford’s 150 Portrait Tone, 2017
Audio: Mark Bradford is similarly crying out about the widespread injustice of so much police brutality against Black Americans. This work fits into an extraordinary tradition of art calling for justice.
I want to thank you for taking the time to watch today and to learn more about 150 Portrait Tone by Mark Bradford. I encourage you to join the conversation and discuss the work with family and friends. And please visit the Bank of America Masterpiece Moment website to sign up for alerts and ensure that you never miss a moment.
Graphic: Bank of America logo
On-screen text:
Title treatment art:
Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859 – 1937)
The Arch, 1919 (detail)
Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Alfred W. Jenkins, 32.10 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.10_SL1.jpg)
Chris Burden (American, 1946 – 2015)
Urban Light, 2008
Sculpture
Two-hundred and two restored cast iron antique street lamps
© 2020 Chris Burden / licensed by The Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Robert Irwin (American, b. 1928)
Miracle Mile, 2013
Installation Art
Lightwork
© 2020 Robert Irwin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Vera Lutter (German, b. 1960)
Installation images from Vera Lutter: Museum in the Camera
LACMA
Images: © 2020 Vera Lutter / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Mark Bradford (American, b. 1961)
150 Portrait Tone, 2017 (detail)
Mixed media on canvas
240” x 310” (609.6 x 787.4 cm)
© 2020 Mark Bradford
Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photo: Joshua White
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (Spanish, 1881 – 1973)
Guernica, 1937
Oil on canvas
© 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Additional Camera: Isiah Donté Lee
Additional footage courtesy the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
“Take the “A” Train”
Written by Billy Strayhorn
Performed by Oscar Peterson
Courtesy of Verve Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises
© 2021 Bank of America Corporation.
© 2021 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved.
The power of the arts
At Bank of America, we believe in the power of the arts to help economies thrive, educate and enrich societies, and create greater cultural understanding. That’s why we are a leader in helping the arts flourish across the globe, supporting nearly 2,000 nonprofit cultural institutions each year.
Learn more about our commitment to the arts by visiting the Bank of America Arts & Culture website.
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2021 featured museums
We’re proud to partner with some of the finest museums in the United States to explore the
masterpieces on display within their walls.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo)
Art Institute of Chicago
Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh)
Dallas Museum of Art
Denver Art Museum
Detroit Institute of Arts
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum (Santa Fe)
Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture (Charlotte)
Heard Museum (Phoenix)
High Museum of Art (Atlanta)
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.)
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, D.C.)
Pérez Art Museum Miami
Philadelphia Museum of Art
RISD Museum (Providence)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Seattle Art Museum, Asian Art Museum
The Cleveland Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City)
The San Diego Museum of Art
The Studio Museum in Harlem (New York City)
Masthead Image: The Art Institute of Chicago. Michigan Avenue Entrance. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
The power of the arts image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Raymond Deleon / Alamy Stock Photo