Three new exhibits are now open to the public at the Peoria Riverfront Museum (PRM), which celebrated its 20th anniversary last Friday. Each of the three shows focuses on an influential figure in central Illinois.
Key among these is the trio piece “Theme and Variations” by visual artist Nicholas Africano. Nicholas Africano lives in Normal, but rarely exhibits his work in central Illinois.
Building the Africano Collection
Despite working at Illinois State University for 10 years, PRM Chief Curator Bill Conger only met the artist in 2019. They have had many conversations since then. Conger observed Africano in the studio and “Theme and Variations” began to take shape.
The show consists of just three newly created pieces for “Theme and Variation”: two busts and a painting. All of these are now part of the museum’s permanent collection, bringing the total number to his four, and are in the early stages of plans to eventually house a reference collection spanning the entirety of Africano’s 60-year career. there is.
“This is the beginning of my dream for an inclusive representation of Nicholas Africano,” Conger said.
For decades, Africano has focused almost exclusively on female figures inspired by his wife and muse, Rebecca. But when it comes to mediums, he’s a chameleon. At various points in his career, he became interested in paper and canvas. His two busts of “Theme and Variations” are sculpted in glass.
“No matter who we’re talking about, the trajectory of a 60-year career is pretty circuitous,” Conger said.
Africano’s early fame came in 1978 with the exhibition New Image Paintings at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. In 1987, New York Times critic Roberta Smith noted in “The New Image Painting” two notable developments in the visual arts: new ways of using images, and “long dead or dying” It is said to be a revival of paintings that were once thought to be
“The groups exhibited there became a kind of repurposing of the human figure in painting,” Conger said. This was in stark contrast to the 1960s downtown art scene’s obsession with Abstract Expressionism and the emergence of Neo-Expressionism, which swallowed certain aesthetics. Africano was drawn to that.
Conger said Africano’s later career took these figures “from the canvas into the real world” with three-dimensional sculptures. But a comment on its figure and form remains.
“I think he’s really found his moment,” he said. “That’s where he should be.”
Perhaps it is a sign of its universality that Africano appeals to curators and museums around the world. While many Illinois artists create work that is from and of Illinois, creating a clear sense of place, Africano works can be created anywhere, Conger said.
“He may be in Los Angeles or New York or Normal, Illinois, but the world in which he operates remains largely unchanged,” Conger said. “He sees himself as existing in a moment of time, rather than a moment in actual physical space. He pays more attention to his relationship with the art in front of him. I think – he’s thought about it a lot.”
But Africano’s success from his home in Normal is unusual.
“It’s almost impossible to have a career like Nicholas Africano’s unless you’re at the center of the art world,” Conger said. “Almost, almost impossible, because Nicholas Africano did it.”
Duryea Motor Trap’s new spot
The museum, also now open, is a former storage room converted into a new gallery that houses a restored Duryea motor wagon, a precursor to the modern automobile invented by two brothers from central Illinois. Charles and Frank Duryea first built a bicycle, experimented with several devices, and in 1893 developed America’s first gasoline-powered car. The brothers moved east and founded America’s first automobile company in Springfield, Massachusetts. After all, they were better inventors than businessmen. the company went bankrupt in 1917;
“Our daily lives are filled with sparks of invention of all kinds,” said Renae Kerrigan, PRM Science Curator and Planetarium Director. She hopes visitors will be inspired by the Duryea brothers’ drive for innovation.
“You never know if what you read or learn will create something new,” she said.
Duryea historian Mike Rucker found and purchased the museum’s pristinely restored motor wagon, and went to great lengths to prove that it was made in Peoria. The technology developed by the Duryea brothers was important to more famous car developers.
“In fact, Henry Ford, who came much later, said the Duryea was a masterpiece and did more to inspire the auto industry than any other car,” Rucker said. .
Driving a car was a novelty for the ultra-wealthy in the late 19th century. Therefore, it is unlikely that the general public will encounter Duryea.
“People weren’t driving cars back then,” Kerrigan said. “They thought they were a wild contraption. Some were very resistant and felt it was dangerous and dirty. But as with any innovation, those early adopters There were also.”
Charles Duryea predicted the rapid rise of the automobile as the primary mode of transportation.
“Charles came back to Peoria to build bicycles and cars,” Kerrigan said. “He gave a lecture at Bradley University — then the Bradley Institute of Technology — and was reported to have said, “Whether you believe it or not, one day the streets of Peoria will be filled with cars.” ing.”
An early 20th-century streetscape projected on one of the gallery walls illustrates this transition. It’s a chaotic place where horses, trolleys, cars, and pedestrians all share the city streets, with no signs, lights, or road rules to guide you.
Celebrating Annie Malone
Three new exhibits complete an extensive exhibit about central Illinois native Annie Malone, America’s first black woman to achieve millionaire status. Malone is also the subject of a new book to be published in May. She was recently recognized by the City of Peoria, which designated a portion of State Street near Adams Street as an Honorary Annie Malone Place.
A new exhibit about Nicholas Africano, the Duryea Motor Wagon and Annie Malone is now on view at the Peoria Riverfront Museum, 222 South Washington Street in Peoria. Tickets are $15 general admission. The museum is closed on Mondays.Click here for details peoriariverfrontmuseum.org.
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