The American Spirit: Selections from the Manoogian Collection

Since the 1970s, Richard and Jane Manoogian have collected some of the most celebrated examples of historical American Art, including Hudson River School, American impressionist, and trompe l’oeil paintings featured in past exhibitions at the Vero Beach Museum of Art. Museum visitors will have a rare opportunity to glimpse the full breadth of the Manoogian collection in an exhibition that will include such stellar exemplars of American art as Asher B. Durand, one of the fathers of the Hudson River School; Frederick Frieseke, a leading member of the American art colony at Giverny, France (the village that was home to Claude Monet); Frank Benson, whose iconic figure paintings incorporate impressionist brushwork while conveying a strong sense of his subjects’ personalities; and Andrew Wyeth, represented in the exhibition by two sensitively rendered watercolors. Past exhibitions from the Manoogian Collection have proven to be among the most popular presented at VBMA; and this fall’s exhibition promises to be as rewarding to viewers as A Wilder Image Bright in 2004 and Masters of Light in 2006. When the latter exhibition was organized in celebration of the Museum’s twentieth anniversary, Director/CEO Lucinda Gedeon wrote that the Manoogians “exemplify the generosity of spirit and dedication to collecting and exhibiting that enable others to share in the art in which they believe so passionately.” 

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website