The exhibition Marsden Hartley: The German Paintings 1913–1915, which opened in April at the Neue Nationalegalerie in Berlin, is now on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art!  The show marks the California debut of “Portrait Arrangement No. 2,” 1912–13, and “Berlin Series No. 1,” 1913, from the Vilcek Collection.

After the exhibition closed in Berlin, the paintings were uninstalled and their condition reported on by conservators from the Neue Nationalgalerie and LACMA. They were then wrapped, packed into travel boxes, and loaded into their crates for transport. Once the works arrived in Los Angeles, they were given time to acclimate to their new environment before being uncrated and unwrapped by LACMA art handlers. Each piece was thoroughly examined by a LACMA conservator and the Vilcek Foundation’s associate curator to ensure no changes had taken place during transport.  The works were then placed on blocks on the floor in preparation for installation. After a few rearrangements to the exhibition plan by the LACMA curator and a lot of measuring, a team of art handlers hung each painting.

Featuring twenty-eight Hartley paintings created in Berlin from 1913–15, the LACMA exhibition is complimented by Marsden Hartley’s Modern Influences, a show presenting selections from LACMA’s permanent collection. This curated selection illuminates the artistic and cultural contexts surrounding Hartley at the time, highlighting the influence of the Stieglitz Circle in New York and Der Blaue Reiter in Munich.

Installation view, Marsden Hartley: The German Paintings 1913-1915, August 3 – November 30, 2014, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), photo © 2014 Museum Associates/LACMA.

 

The exhibition opened at LACMA on August 3rd and remains on view until November 30th.