Napa Valley Museum Yountville Announces The Opening Of Three Exhibitions

On November 9, 2019, Napa Valley Museum Yountville will open three new exhibitions:

In the Main Gallery, From November 9, 2019 through January 19, 2020, Napa Valley Museum Yountville presents Modern Women | Modern Vision: Works from the Bank of America Collection.

Modern Women | Modern Vision presents more than one hundred photographic images in celebration of the bold and dynamic ways women have contributed to the development and evolution of photography. This world-premiere exhibition features works by some of the leading artists of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries including Imogen Cunningham, Diane Arbus, Berenice Abbott, Margaret Bourke-White, Eva Besnyö and Barbara Morgan, all influential Modernist photographers. It includes an original audio tour written and narrated by Mary Street Alinder, the renowned Ansel Adams biographer and authority on 20th century photography. This exhibition has been loaned through the Bank of America Art in our Communities program.

"The Museum is thrilled by the opportunity to present the world premiere of this exhibition, curated from Bank of America's exceptional collection of artwork, and featuring such diverse and evocative images by history's legendary female photographers. It is a perfect follow-up to our recent exhibitions of legendary artists from Picasso to Frida Kahlo, our landmark Juanita Guccione exhibition, and our Making HERstory conference on rewriting women back into the history of art. This exhibition once again showcases artists at the very top of their fields, and places them in their appropriate context at the forefront of the history of photography," says Laura Rafaty, Executive Director of the Napa Valley Museum Yountville. She added, "Bank of America has a demonstrated commitment to making arts accessible, and has been extraordinarily supportive of our Museum, selecting us for its Museums on Us program for the third consecutive year. The program provides free admission to select BofA and Merrill Lynch cardholders on the first weekend of the month. We are particularly pleased and grateful for the opportunity to work on this exhibition with our friends on the Bank of America team."

"We recognize that the arts matter as both a cultural and economic driver to our local community," said Jason Foster, North Bay market president, Bank of America. "We were excited at the opportunity to loan this incredible exhibit to the Napa Valley Museum Yountville as part of our Arts in our Communities program that loans exhibitions at no cost to nonprofit community museums. Yountville and the greater Napa Valley has a tremendous arts and culture landscape that we encourage everyone to visit and experience."

At the turn of the twentieth century, photography had just begun to alter forever the way we perceive, engage and understand the world. Histories of photography long ignored or underrepresented women's contributions to the medium's development as both fine and applied art. In truth, women embraced photography from its introduction in 1839. A new invention, photography had fewer barriers for participation than painting or sculpture, for which women had long been denied professional training equal to that of their male peers. From 1900 onward, women negotiated waves of social, political and economic change, increasingly leveraging the camera as a means of creativity, financial independence and personal freedom. Disrupting longstanding constraints placed on women's behavior and roles, these early trailblazers helped establish photography as a vital form of artistic expression. They also laid the groundwork and served as role models for subsequent generations.

In the Spotlight and History Galleries, Explore the female form with Mexican-born, Napa Valley painter and sculptor Oscar Aguilar Olea. Aguilar Olea is an expressionist figurative painter, sculptor, and print maker from Guanajuato, Mexico. His signature techniques include using different types of egg tempera paints, painting on oversized burlap canvas, and using paints and charcoals made by the artist from organic materials grown here in the Napa Valley. Learn more about Oscar at www.oscareggtempera.com.

In a companion exhibition: The Artist's Studio, visit a recreated artist studio to learn the techniques and materials used in the artistic process. Art instruction including life drawing and painting classes will be available. More information about the exhibitions and related programs is available at www.napavalleymuseum.org.

The Opening Celebration for both exhibitions will take place on Saturday, November 9 from 5 to 7 pm and is Free for Museum Members; $20 for Non-Members, and includes Museum & Exhibition Admission (audio tour $5), wines by Gen7 Wines https://www.gen7wines.com, and light bites. Proceeds benefit the Napa Valley Museum Yountville's 501c3 nonprofit arts and education programs. Tickets are available on the Museum website: www.napavalleymuseum.org.

The Napa Valley Museum Yountville is located at 55 Presidents Circle in Yountville and is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 11 to 4 pm. On Opening Day, November 9, the Museum will close at 3 pm.

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