Art News

Crystal Bridges Acquires Contemporary Works

BENTONVILLE, ARK.- Works of art by two contemporary artists using mixed media to weave ambiguous suburban stories are the latest acquisitions announced by “Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art: Kerry James Marshall’s Our Town” (1995) and Mary McCleary’s “The Falcon Cannot Hear the Falconer” (2008). “Both Marshall and McCleary are creating compelling works that speak to contemporary life in late 20th/early 21st century America,” said Chris Crosman, chief curator. “The idea of home is a recurring motif in American art that is explored in these and other works in our collection.” In Our Town, Kerry James Marshall presents a tidy vision of suburbia not unlike Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play of the same title – apron-clad mother, cookie-cutter homes, two kids and their dog – and then undercuts it with the tense expressions and postures of the children in the foreground. Yellow ribbons are wrapped around most of the trees, sugges