The Spirit of America: Art from the Collection of Robert Flynn Johnson
October 19th – December 30th, 2018
Opening Reception – Friday, October 19th, 6 – 8pm
Manresa Gallery
(inside St. Ignatius Church)
650 Parker Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94118
Walk-Through the exhibition with Robert Flynn Johnson – Sunday, October 21st, 12:30pm – 1:30pm at Manresa Gallery
Manresa Gallery proudly announces a new show, The American Spirit: Works from the Collection of Robert Flynn Johnson. This exhibition, curated by Johnson, features rare photographs, prints, quilts, watercolors, magazines and dolls. Together they form a partial but composite portrait of the history of the United States experience over the last 150 years. Powerful moments, both iconic and incidental, are captured in this eclectic display. Under the banners of Country, Creativity, Adversity, and Diversity the items tell an intriguingly complex story of a nation always in change. While viewers may be familiar with most subjects, a wide variety of topics and range of media is guaranteed to elicit a spectrum of viewer reactions. Elements of the tragic, the beautiful, and the amusing evoke a Nation as a still striving soul. The American Spirit: Work from the Collection of Robert Flynn Johnson simultaneously discerns the at times fleeting, occasionally elusive but consistently rewarding manifestations of the American spirit.
About Robert Flynn Johnson
For 32 years, Robert Flynn Johnson was the Curator in Charge of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, the prints, drawings, and photography department of The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. He transformed those holdings, now approximately 90,000 works, into one of the premier graphic arts collections in the country. Johnson himself avidly has collected an astounding variety of objects: including anonymous photographs, Americana in multiple media, and the drawings, prints, photographs, and sculpture of the 19th century French artist, Edgar Degas. He has curated a host of exhibitions, many with published catalogues. A partial list of his numerous publications include: Lucian Freud: Works on Paper; Plant Kingdoms: The Photographs of Charles Jones; Leonard Baskin: Monumental Woodcuts, 1952-1963; and The Face in the Lens – Anonymous Photographs; and most recently Contemplating Character: Portrait Drawings and Oil Sketches from Jacques-Louis David to Lucian Freud.
