Terra Collection Initiative: America: Painting a Nation

About the Exhibition

Adapted from Art Across America, a survey of American historical art that toured South Korea in 2013, and tailored to a specifically Australian audience, America: Painting a Nation was the first major survey of American art presented in an Australian museum. Narrating the breadth of American art and cultural history through landscape, portrait, genre, and still-life paintings, the exhibition showcased the cultural and topographical diversity of the United States. Major works by John Singleton Copley, Thomas Cole, Winslow Homer, Thomas Moran, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Thomas Hart Benton, Edward Hopper, and Jackson Pollock among others illuminated dynamic connections between American art and national identity during a historical period in the nation’s development with which Australians are largely unfamiliar. The exhibition was accompanied by a full-color catalogue of thematic essays and an extensive range of educational programs for various audiences.

Dates and Venue

November 8, 2013–February 2, 2014
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Select Works in the Exhibition from the Terra Foundation Collection

A group of children play in a kitchen.

John Lewis Krimmel, Blind Man's Buff, 1814. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1999.82

A portrait of a seated woman wearing a hat.

William Glackens, Julia's Sister, c. 1915. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1999.58

A painting of a young boy surrounded by animals in a forest setting. In the distance is a group of people.

Edward Hicks, A Peaceable Kingdom with Quakers Bearing Banners, c. 1829–1830. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1993.7

Painting of a red brick building with the word "BAR-B-QUE" on a sign above the doorway. Black individuals are seated at a counter seen inside the open door and look into an open window where a figure with a tall, white chefs hat is seen in front of meat roasting on four rotisseries.

Jacob Lawrence, Bar-b-que, 1942. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2013.1. Art © 2013 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

A woman dressed in black sits on a blue couch. Behind her is a view of a harbor scene.

Erastus Salisbury Field, Portrait of a Woman said to be Clarissa Gallond Cook, in Front of a Cityscape, c. 1838. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2000.4

A man in a blacksmith studio prepares to hammer a tool onto an anvil.

Jefferson David Chalfant, The Blacksmith, between 1900 and 1907. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 1999.3

A woman sits in a chair by a window reading a book.

Milton Avery, Adolescence, 1947. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1992.3 © 2018 The Milton Avery Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Text

Publication

McAuliffe, Chris, and Angela L. Miller. America: Painting a Nation. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2013.