Coming Full Circle: Greenwich Art Society Celebrates 100 Years at the Bruce Museum

Neapolitan Fisherboy by Jean Baptiste Carpeaux. On the occasion of its Centennial this year, the Bruce Museum is mounting an exhibition of recent and promised gifts to the permanent collection. Featuring paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints and photographs, the show spans the ages – offering a variety of examples including the Old Masters, American paintings and Contemporary art – and reflects the diversity of taste among local collectors and supporters of the Museum. According to Executive Director Peter Sutton, the exhibition highlights the remarkable donations received in recent years. "The Museum has benefitted from collectors who are as generous as they are discerning." The splendidly tranquil luminist landscape, Sunlight on Newbury Marshes, by the American 19th-century painter Martin Johnson Heade underscores the truth of this observation; as do the 19th-century European works Faun and Bacchante by William-Adolphe Bouguereau and a fine bronze sculpture of a Neapolitan Fisherboy by Jean Baptiste Carpeaux. Gifts of Modern and Contemporary sculpture have been especially welcome and include the intimately scaled maquette by Henry Moore as well as large-scale works like Robert Rauschenberg's  Greyhound Nightmare sculpture and the promised gift of the exuberantly monumental Keith Haring sculpture Untitled (Three Dancing Figures) Version A. The fastest growing collections at the Bruce are of works on paper, which include recent donations of pieces by Signac and Cuevas, and one of O. Winston Link's most famous photos, Hotshot Eastbound. Sutton notes that the permanent art collection of the Bruce Museum includes more than 15,000 objects representing a wide variety of world cultures, with special strengths in American and European art. "These are essential to the many object-based educational programs offered at the Museum and serve to inspire the shows that we organize." Installed in the Arcade Gallery, the exhibition will be presented in two successive shows of approximately 50 objects each. The first show will be on view through July 8. The second show opens July 21.

Explore Art and Science at the Bruce Museum. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 1 pm to 5 pm; closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for students up to 22 years, $6 for seniors and free for members and children under 5 years. Individual admission is free on Tuesday. Free on-site parking is available and the Museum is accessible to individuals with disabilities. The Bruce Museum is located at One Museum Drive in Greenwich, Connecticut. For additional information, call (203 869-0376) or visit the website (www.brucemuseum.org).