The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is the art museum of Vassar College. Located just inside the main gate to the Vassar campus in Poughkeepsie, New York, the Loeb Art Center is home to a diverse collection that ranges from ancient times to the contemporary.
Vassar has always had an art museum. Indeed, the Vassar College Art Gallery, the precursor to today's museum, was an integral part of the college when it opened in the 1860s, making it the first college or university to open with an art museum as a part of its academic program. Over the years, the museum has grown, often as a result of donations by benefactors and alumni. As a result, the collection now holds some 22,000 works. It includes a wide range of priceless masterpieces not usually found in a university art museum. By the same token, however, while it is very strong in certain areas, the collection only touches on other areas. The collection is quite strong in European prints with several examples of works by Albrecht Durer and by Rembrandt. It also has several works by artists of the Hudson River School, which is only appropriate given the college's home in the Hudson Valley. Modern art is well-represented with works by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Alexander Calder, Henri Matisse, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Francis Bacon, Ben Nicolson and Georgia O'Keefe. One period that is less represented is late 19th century European painting. There is a drawing by Paul Gauguin and a painting by Edouard Vuillard but little else of the Impressionist – Post Impressionist era. However, an unusual treasure is an early work by Edvard Munch, done during a sojourn to Paris, that reflects the influence of the Impressionists and of James McNeill Whistler. The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center opened in 1993 and encompasses 30,000 square feet. Designed by Cesar Pelli, it includes a number of well-lit, modern galleries as well as two small open-air sculpture areas. There are also facilities designed to facilitate the use of the museum by the college's classes. For more information on visiting, see the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center website. |
Above and below: Among other topics, the galleries cover both traditional Western art and Modern art.
Above: Edvard Munch "The Seine at St. Cloud".
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Places to see art - - Poughkeepsie, N.Y. - - Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (Vassar College)