THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, ST. PETERSBURG (MFA) ANNOUNCES
IN DIALOGUE: UNEXPECTED VISUAL CONVERSATIONS, FEATURING A SELECTION OF AMERICAN ART
FROM JOSLYN ART MUSEUM IN OMAHA, NEBRASKA
The MFA Will Participate in the Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership, an Innovative Art Lending
Model, to Showcase Outstanding Works of American Art from Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska
ST. PETERSBURG, FL, August 5, 2022 | The Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg (MFA) announced today
its participation in the Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership, an innovative art lending model among
museums dedicated to American Art, to showcase eleven nineteenth century, modern, and
contemporary works from Joslyn Art Museum. Titled In Dialogue: Unexpected Visual Conversations, the
installation will be within the MFA’s collection galleries and on view from August 6, 2022 through June
25, 2023. The intention behind In Dialogue is to use unexpected combinations to inspire visual
conversations, foster close looking, and encourage deeper thoughts about the meaning and importance
of art.
Featuring major works from the Joslyn Art Museum, In Dialogue will juxtapose these mainly modern or
contemporary artworks with works on view from the MFA Collection of world art to inspire
contemplation and conversation about art’s layered and nuanced meanings. Accompanied by anadditional loan from the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art, St. Petersburg, FL, these
combinations bring together widely differing stylistic modes, historical periods, and approaches, and are
intended to rouse and possibly even provoke visitors, especially those who are accustomed to seeing
galleries hung traditionally, chronologically, and according to the art historical canon.
“I’m incredibly excited to participate in the Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership this year,” said
Stanton Thomas, Senior Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the MFA. “The synergies of this
collection from the Joslyn Art Museum, combined with MFA’s artwork, creates something that is truly
spectacular. In Dialogue is really thought-provoking and serves as an excellent opportunity to see the
MFA Collection through fresh eyes. Whether you are looking through the lens of ever-evolving
avant-garde art, new critical approaches, or simply exploring these bold, unexpected pairings, this
installation is sure to impress.”
These pairings will be accompanied by broad but penetrating questions that explore diverse themes
ranging from gender issues to how we memorialize important political figures. For instance, in the MFA’s
Welcome Gallery, Chuck Forsman’s Lizard (1987) will be juxtaposed with Thomas Moran’s Florida
Landscape (1877). This pairing will allow visitors to ponder how our landscape continually changes due
to human intervention and how this impacts our lives, as well as the environment.
Similarly, Al Held’s monumental and boldly abstract Untitled (1964) will be installed adjacent to Carroll
Cloar’s nuanced, small-town Pool Room (1960). This combination will explore how Americans tend to
think of the second half of the twentieth century as being in the realm of abstraction, though many
artists continued to work in a realist mode. Even more daring is the plan to place Mickalene Thomas’s
Din, une très belle négresse (2012) in the MFA’s European & American Art, 19th-21st Centuries Galleries,
adjacent to Jacques-Émile Blanche’s Contemplation (1883). This will offer viewers a chance to
contemplate the resistance and barriers that women historically have experienced, and continue to face,
in society.
Finally, the MFA’s Ancient Art Galleries will be the setting for Kon Trubkovich’s I walked to find you gray, a
painting of President Ronald Reagan (2019). Here it will hang opposite the Imperial Roman Head of
Augustus (c. 25 BC). This pairing will explore the idea of how time and memory alter our impression of
political icons, and will allow visitors to ponder the enduring fascination with major public figures across
cultures.
The Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership is a new initiative dedicated to bringing American art out of
storage and on view into communities across the U.S. The program aims to increase works of art by
BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and women artists, as well as to fill in gaps in museum collections. Additionally, the
program will expand access and increase transparency in the process for borrowing artworks among
museums of all sizes.
To learn more about the Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership, follow the hashtag #ArtBridges on
social media and visit www.artbridgesfoundation.org.
ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
The MFA at 255 Beach Drive NE is the largest encyclopedic art museum in Florida. The collection includes
works of art from ancient times to the present day and from around the world, including ancient Greek
and Roman, Egyptian, Asian, African, pre-Columbian, Native American, European, American, and
contemporary art. The photography collection is one of the largest and finest in the Southeast. For more
information, please visit mfastpete.org and follow @mfastpete on social media.
MEDIA CONTACT
DEPARTMENT PR
Roberta Zertuche
roberta@department-pr.com
ABOUT ART BRIDGES
Art Bridges is the vision of philanthropist and arts patron Alice Walton. The mission of Art Bridges is to
expand access to American art in all regions across the United States. Since 2017, Art Bridges has been
creating and supporting programs that bring outstanding works of American art out of storage and into
communities. Art Bridges partners with a growing network of over 190 museums of all sizes and
locations to provide financial and strategic support for exhibition development, loans from the Art
Bridges collection, and programs designed to educate, inspire, and deepen engagement with local
audiences. The Art Bridges Collection represents an expanding vision of American art from the 19th
century to present day and encompasses multiple media and voices.
MEDIA CONTACT
Art Bridges Foundation
Gabriel Ford
Director, Marketing & Communications
479-315-4613
Gabriel.Ford@artbridgesfoundation.org