Philadelphia Antiques Show 2018

1 Paul Schweizer, “Fruits of Perseverance: The Art of Rubens Peale, 1855–1865,” in The Peale Family: Creation of a Legacy 1770-1870 , ed. Lillian B. Miller (New York: Abbeville Press, 1996), 181. 2 Soltis, 245; Alexandra Kirtley, “The Compendium, in Leslie Anne Miller, Start with a House, Finish with a Collection (New York: Scala Arts Publishers, 2014), 244. 3 Carol Eaton Soltis, The Art of the Peales: Adaptations and Innovations (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2017), 245. 4 Soltis, 247. 5 Soltis, 5–6. Collecting Philadelphia T he year 2018 marks a transition point in the history of the Philadelphia Antiques & Art Show. A figurative passing of the baton will occur over the course of the next three years as the sponsorship and organization of this show passes from Penn Medicine to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This year’s loan exhibition, “Philadelphia Collects Philadelphia,” celebrates the Museum’s commitment to the success of this venerable show by featuring eleven recently acquired pieces made by artists working in the Philadelphia region over the last three hundred years. Each year, the Museum’s collection grows through gifts and bequests from generous donors as well as through purchases from dealers and auction houses. While they are recent additions, each work builds on existing continuities in the Museum’s holdings by representing, for example, a new phase of an artist’s production, an enduring familial commitment to the Museum, or a new form added to a set already in the collection. Bringing together the eclectic group of objects represented in this show draws new connections between different media and techniques and undermines the boundary between fine and decorative arts. This particular grouping also makes clear the reciprocal relationship between artists past and present, especially for those living and working in the history-rich streets of modern Philadelphia. Exhibition curator: Alexandra Kirtley, The Montgomery-Garvan Curator of American Decorative Arts, PMA Essay writer: Rosalie Hooper, Project Curatorial Assistant in American Art, PMA W 119 W