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Opening of Hallmark Art Collection Gallery
Hallmark Visitors Center has just opened a newly designed gallery space dedicated to rotating exhibits from the Hallmark Art Collection. The inaugural exhibition Indelible: African American prints from the Hallmark Art Collection is now on display through the end of August. Exhibitions of approximately 6 months in duration will be on public view free of charge at the Visitors Center located in the Crown Center complex. A video showing the behind the scenes operations of the Hallmark Art Collection and its staff will be on continuous view in the gallery. With this space, the collection can further the reach of our art, fulfilling Hallmark founder J.C. Hall’s initial goals for the collection to “broaden the public appreciation of fine art.”
Indelible will be followed by Op Art in America, an exhibit featuring important paintings from the 1950s and 1960s by renowned perceptual artists of the era. Most of the artists represented, such as Richard Anuszkiewicz, Bill Komodore, and Tadasky were included in the Museum of Modern Art’s seminal 1965 exhibition The Responsive Eye. This historic show gave shape to a burgeoning international movement that critics at the time dubbed Op Art, short for “optical art” and a snappy twist on the reigning movement of Pop Art. Op quickly eclipsed Pop in public consciousness in the mid 1960s. The movement’s popularity in America was compounded by the easy adaption of Op motifs to advertising, design, and fashion.
Among the commercial application were the myriad Op puzzle designs created by Springbok, a company acquired by Hallmark. Original art and puzzles from the Springbok collection will offer a glimpse into the popularity of Op in the 1960s. In addition to paintings by the foremost American artists, original prints by Josef Albers, often called the Father of Op, will also be included. Op Art in America opens in September, 2015, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Op Art movement.
Hallmark Visitors Center is open Monday through Saturday from 10:00am to 5:00pm. See their website for more details visit http://www.hallmarkvisitorscenter.com
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