Recent Acquisitions from Land Ho!

In 1990, thieves stole thirteen paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardner collection. People were heartbroken. The complete collection from any museum exhibition is void and empty if it is missing a work that belongs in a certain gallery space. The acquiring of new art in a museum gallery, namely the three new works purchased in Land Ho!, is a joyous occasion; It brings new life to a community, life that would be greatly missed if it were missing or damaged, so we owe it love, attention and celebration while they are here.

Land Ho! is the first in a series of shows that pairs museum-owned paintings and drawings with visiting work. Sally Curcio’s Candyland, a showstopper in its own right, has a sugar-coated color scheme with a Lite-Brite texture that could be paired with any number of works in future exhibitions. This style fits surprisingly well into an exhibit featuring more traditional tones on flat canvases, but this bubble sculpture could pair perfectly with a game installation or maybe a canvas that parodies pop-y board game colors.

Sandy Litchfield’s Butter Fed Grass, the second purchased piece, looks like a board for a game that teaches players about the environment. It is a canvas that displays a myriad of views of plains and valleys. The warm neutrals breathe new life into the muddier tones of complementary canvases. Both the bubble sculpture and the canvas look like aerial views from an airplane. That notion of an airplane in and of itself drags the viewer into the twenty-first century of museums.

The third purchase from Land Ho! is Michele Lauriat’s untitled canvas from her series Pink Iowa. Her fragmented perspective creates a world that bridges the divide between old and new by giving dimension to traditional tones seen in the permanent works. When FAM buys new paintings, installations, sculptures, and drawings they are developing new works into purchased classics for everyone to learn about and explore the art around them through the halls and salons of the museum.

It is impossible to imagine the Louvre without the Mona Lisa and in time it will be difficult to conceive of FAM without Lauriat, Curcio and Litchfield.