James A Michener Art Museum (4/1/2021)

Thursday, April 1, 2021

On our way to visit Kyle, Katrina, and Adaline in RI, we stopped in Doylestown, PA.

Moravian Pottery & Tile Works (1912, by Henry Mercer)
is one of three cast-in-place concrete structures built by Mercer;
he used rebar-reinforced concrete after his aunt's collection of
medieval armor was destroyed in the Great Boston Fire of 1872

Fonthill (1908-1912, by Henry Mercer in mixed architectural
styles of poured concrete) was the home of archaeologist,
artifact collector, and tile-maker Henry Chapman Mercer

Platanus occidentalis/American Sycamore allée at Fonthill

Magnolia bud

Mercer Museum (1904, by Henry Mercer) is the third
cast-in-place concrete structure by Mercer, who wanted to
preserve artifacts from pre-industrial times, in order to
remember the tools and objects of crafts that were disappearing

We visited the James A Michener Art Museum on advance reserved timed-tickets, courtesy of our Tyler Arboretum membership.

The museum is located in the former Bucks County Prison (1884, by Addison Hutton, closed in 1985);
after passing through the sally port, you enter a courtyard with the entrance pavilion
(1988, by O’Donnell & Naccarato, Inc) on the L and the former warden's office on the R

James A Michener, the renowned American author, was adopted and raised as a Quaker in Doylestown, PA. He and his third wife, Mari Sabusawa, who was an art collector, established an endowment for the art museum and donated much of their own collection.

James Michener's office from his Bucks County home
(of his last 35 years) is re-created in the museum,
featuring his own furniture and objects

James Michener's typewriter and his
Doylestown High School (graduated in 1925) T-shirt

Study for New London Facets (1940, by Lloyd Raymond Ney,
who was from New Hope, PA); the original mural still hangs
in the New London, OH post office, depicting the town's history

Rejects from the Bat Factory - Exotics (2006,
by Mark Sfirri, using a multi-axis
wood-turning technique)

The former prison yard is now the
Patricia D Pfundt Sculpture Garden
with seating for the Terrace Café

Nakashima Reading Room (1993, designed by
Mira Nakashima, daughter of George Nakashima)
with furniture from the studio of woodworker
George Nakashima, plus the "Mother Post,"
a tree trunk as a symbol of support of the household

The Burning of Center Bridge (1923, by Edward Redfield) as
witnessed by the American Impressionist painter who was
a member of the art colony at New Hope, PA

The Burning of Center Bridge detail

A Wooded Watershed (1926, by Daniel Garber) is a mural
commissioned for the Sesquicentennial Exhibition, a World's
Fair in Philadelphia, PA to celebrate the 150th anniversary
of the signing of the Declaration of Independence

Flower Border I and Flower Border II
(undated, by M Elizabeth Price, using metal leaf);
Price also lived in New Hope, PA

Door and Surround (c 1967, by
Philip Lloyd Powell, who was inspired
by George Nakashima); also draws
from Islamic mihrabs seen in the
artist's travels in Spain and Morocco

Autumn Afternoon (c 1911, by
Charles F Ramsey), the painter joined
the art colony at New Hope, PA in 1903

Modern Woman (1934, by Charles F Ramsey),
by this time the painter had become a
leading force of New Hope modernism!

Untitled (undated, by Fern I Coppedge), this
painter was dedicated to painting en plein air 
(outdoors at the actual scene) and is known
for creating her works in the snow

Untitled, from the Garden (1988-1993, by Catherine Jansen)
where the artist collected plants and flowers and arranged them
on a scanner bed, then transferred the scanned image to silk
and embellished with stitches of thread

Exhibit: Through the Lens: Modern Photography in the Delaware Valley: (Apologies for lights reflected on the works of art.)

Towel Drying, Dwelling House (1972, by
Stephen Guion Williams) conveys the
photographer's "idea of Shakerism:
simplicity, beauty and grace"

Death Valley National Park (1985, by Claus Mroczynski)

I Want to Matter (2020, by Ada Trillo)
is truly contemporary! - the youngster is
standing next to statues of Ben Franklin
and George Washington in Philadelphia

Untitled bronze (1976, by Robert Engman, a
metalworker) is supposed to represent a dream

Another perspective of the untitled bronze

Yet another perspective of the untitled bronze

Circle of Life (2012, by Holly Berry Huynh), the painter
was an aspiring Bucks County artist whose life ended at age 9
in a car crash caused by a guy racing in a souped-up Mustang

Outdoor sculptures of Romeo and Juliet (2002, by Steve Tobin,
famous for his bronze sculptures resembling tree roots)

Homage to Giacometti (1975, by Ernest Carl Shaw);
hmmm, which Giacometti?

Framework of a prison cell in the former Bucks County Prison (KSS)