The Frame In America: 1860-1960

December 15, 1999 - March 5, 2000
Contact: Jill Osaka, Public Relations Manager, 650-725-4657

STANFORD, CA SEPTEMBER 1999 - An exhibition featuring more than 100 American frames opens on December 15 at the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. The Frame in America: 1860-1960, an exhibition organized by the International Institute for Frame Study, Washington, D.C. and toured by ExhibitsUSA, Kansas City, Missouri, chronicles one of the most prolific and creative periods of American frame design. The exhibition will also focus on the tools, materials, and methods used in gilding and frame manufacture.

By removing the frame from its original context, this exhibition allows the viewer to appreciate the incredible diversity and technique of the American frame. While many examples owe much to their European precedents, others represent a departure in aesthetic conception and function, offering a distinctly American style.

Included in the exhibition are working drawings, photographs, cross-sections of frames, and many other associated items. James McNeill Whistler's reeded frames, Renaissance-inspired frames designed by Stanford White, and painted frames created by American modernists John Marin and Lee Gatch are some of the artists' frames featured. The contributions of leading late-19th century establishments, such as the Newcomb-Macklin Company of Chicago and the Carrig-Rohane Shop in Boston, are also highlighted.

The Frame in America: 1860-1960 is curated by William B. Adair, Director of the International Institute for Frame Study, Washington, D.C. ExhibitsUSA is a not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to create access to an array of arts and humanities exhibitions, nurture the development and understanding of diverse art forms and cultures, and encourage the expanding depth and breadth of cultural life in local communities.

ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliances, is grateful for the generous support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The H&R Block Foundation, the Cooper Foundation, the Richard Florsheim Art Fund, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Illinois Arts Council, provide additional support. The Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts have made possible many of the ExhibitsUSA programs currently available. Mid-America Arts Alliance, founded in 1972, is a private, non-profit arts organization assisted by its six partner state arts agencies, the National Endowment for the Arts, and private contributions.

The exhibition is on view in the Ruth Levison Halperin Gallery of the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University through March 5, 2000.