With "Ancient History of the Distant Future," PAFA transforms itself into a meta museum, opening the grand doors to influences unknown at the institution’s 1805 founding. Not long from now, their work will join the ongoing archive, to be considered by artists not yet born. And the conversation will…
Artsy's Alina Cohen writes, "In 1875, Thomas Eakins decided to paint a picture that would glorify his hometown of Philadelphia. [...] The work has become perhaps the most important painting in the history of American art."
PAFA’s new landscapes exhibit is the jumping-off point for this weekend’s celebration of the people missing from those paintings: Local Native Americans.
At first look, an over-sized Wawa Hoagiefest donut might appear out-of-place in PAFA’s Historic Landmark Building. In the Rotunda "Street View (Hoagiefest)" by Alex Da Corte, a phototex of the artist’s hand clutching a Wawa donut is layered on the wall behind a painting by Thomas Birch. PAFA’s…
The waterways depicted in "From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic" are most well-known by their current Euro-American names, but are situated in the homelands of the Lenape people.
“Some visitors to PAFA may have heard of the contemporary 'museums are not…
"David Lynch, the artist and master director behind such macabre, Surrealist films as Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man, and Blue Velvet—not to mention the cult favorite television series Twin Peaks—has made a career out of leaning into the world’s discomfort, or at least of exposing it."
Curator Dr. Anna O. Marley, has been named a Center for Curatorial Leadership Fellow for 2020. This prestigious fellowship provides curators with classes taught by Columbia Business School Professors, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches to self-knowledge, leadership, and the social…
After receiving the Raymond D. & Estelle Rubens Travel Scholarship, Madison Greiner (PAFA-Penn BFA '19) is able to spend an extra year studying at PAFA.
“Now that I have this almost surprise year I want to take advantage of things that I was more hesitant to get involved in before,” she said.
Sculpture student Taylor Freeman is looking to his PAFA professors for guidance as he embarks on a career as an artist. “I really like Steve Nocella, he is my favorite teacher. He’s taught me a lot about welding and plaster sculpture and bronze pours. I want to learn all of that stuff and soak it up…
When the federal government recently announced that a painting stolen by the Nazis in 1933 from the family of a Berlin publishing tycoon had been recovered from the Arkell Museum in upstate New York, Anna Marley, curator at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, did a double-take. The painting…
Second-year MFA student Andrew Snow is turning memories tossed aside by others into art. Discarded Philadelphia Parking Authority tickets become self-portraits for Snow: “It’s playing off of memory and kind of the ghost of a memory.”
Perspectives
About PAFA
Founded in 1805, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is America's first school and museum of fine arts. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, PAFA offers undergraduate and graduate programs in the fine arts, innovative exhibitions of historic and contemporary American art, and a world-class collection of American art. PAFA’s esteemed alumni include Mary Cassatt, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, William Glackens, Barkley L. Hendricks, Violet Oakley, Louis Kahn, David Lynch, and Henry Ossawa Tanner.
