May 10, 1929: The Exhibition of Norwegian Graphic Art, which the Brooklyn Museum expected to exhibit this spring, has been postponed until November because of its delay in arriving in this country.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1916 - 1930. 04-06/1929, 054.
November 6, 1929: There will be a comprehensive exhibition of 300 Norwegian Prints, including etchings, lithographs and woodcuts, assembled by the Norwegian Society of Graphic Arts, hung in the Print Gallery of the Brooklyn Museum to open Friday, November 15th, with a first view to Museum members and invited guests. A special feature of the exhibition will be the Norwegian setting of the tea table on the opening day and the serving of tea by Norwegian ladies in peasant costumes. The exhibition will open to the public no November 16th and will continue on view until December 31st.
After the showing at the Museum, the exhibition will tour to the Coast.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1916 - 1930. 10-12/1929, 076.
November 8, 1929: To the Art Editor:
The Exhibition of Norwegian Prints is being hung in the Print Gallery in the Brooklyn Museum and will be available for review by Tuesday noon, November 12th. The private opening will occur on Friday the 15th and it will open to the public on Saturday the 16th. We shall be glad to have you come to see this exhibition any time at your convenience after Tuesday noon.
This is an exhibition which was gotten together for us by the Norwegian Graphic Arts Society and we believe it will prove a very interesting show.
Very truly yours,
ARTHUR H. TORREY
for THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM
AHT:FS
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1916 - 1930. 10-12/1929, 079.
November 13, 1929: The first exclusively Norwegian Exhibition of Prints to be shown in this country opens today with a private view in the Print Gallery of the Brooklyn Museum to which members of the Museum and their guests have been invited. The opening will be marked by a reception and tea at which four Norwegian ladies will serve in traditional costumes. The refreshments will also be Norwegian. Vice-Consul Hvistendahl will open the show.
This exhibition was assembled at the request of the Brooklyn Museum by the Norwegian Graphic Arts Society of Oslo, Norway, which is the national society of print artists in Norway. It has been organized so as to show modern work done in prints in that country from about 1900 to the present. It is composed of 300 etchings, lithograph and woodcuts.
After the showing at the Museum, it will go on tour and will be seen at the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, the Toledo Art Institute, the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art and the Henry Gallery in Seattle. This takes the tour up to the summer season, plans for which have not yet been announced.
The 300 prints are the work of 29 artists in groups large enough to give a comprehensive idea of their work. In many instances the exhibits of an artist number as many as 15. The artists whose work makes up the exhibition are Astri Aasen, Mons Breidvik, Sigurd Baerheim, Alfhild Borsume-Johnsen, Arent Christensen, Christian Christensen, Ragnild Ender, Kristofer Eriksen, Olav Flatabo, Pola Gaugin, Lilla Hellesen, Hans Holm, O.M. Holwech, Otto Johansen, Sverre Johnsen, Arne Kavli, Johannes Schojolberg, H.K. Stabell, Gudmund Stenersen, Einar Stensby, Ralph Aulie Styker, A.C. Svarstad, Inger Sverdrup, Erik Werenskiold, Olaf Willums.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1916 - 1930. 10-12/1929, 082.
December 5, 1929: According to the report of Dr. Fox, Director of the Museum, a great deal of the energy of the staff of the Museum was put into preparing for the exhibitions which opened on December 2nd. These exhibitions were the remarkable installation of nineteen early American rooms, one of the most important additions that has been made to the Museum's exhibits, and the exhibition of paintings by the late Walter Shirlaw and a group of his pupila, as well as an exhibition of Paintings by John R. Koopman and members of his Brooklyn Institute class of painting and drawing. This took up the energies of both the Departments of Fine Arts and Decorative Arts for the last few weeks.
It was somehow found possible by the Decorative Arts Department to take time to prepare an exhibition of Italian textiles which was shown at the Carroll Park Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library and at which there was an attendance of 3500 persons.
Another event of major importance was the opening of the exhibition of modern Norwegian Prints in the Print Gallery with a first view and tea. This was the first showing of an Exhibition that is to go on tour throughout the museums of the country.
The Department of Ethnology announces two new exhibitions in the course of preparation, that of the rugs of the Near East from the collection of Mr. Ernest G. Metcalfe, which opens on December 16th, and an exhibition of drawings by American Indians, mostly from the collection of Miss A. E. White. This latter exhibition is to be opened about January 15th.
The attendance of 34,705 at the Central Museum for the month covered by the report is accounted for in great part by the 35 separate events such as lectures and special gallery talks which were given by the Department of Natural Science and the Department of Education.
Plans announced by the latter department are those for a Christmas Play to be given for the entertainment of the crippled children on the afternoons of December 18th and December 21st in the place of the story hour. The actors will consist of the children who regularly attend the Saturday story hour and the play will be entitled "Why the Chimes Rang" and will be accompanied by music on the new organ.
An interesting part of the report was the discussion of the meetings of the Brooklyn Entomological Society which was founded in 1876 and is the oldest society of its kind in America. It has held its monthly meetings at the Brooklyn Museum since 1912 and has received considerable prestige from this affiliation. It has prospered under this association and its publications have quadrupled in scope and value during that time. Some time ago the society dispensed with its own library in order to strengthen that of the Museum which now has one of the best all-around working libraries in entomology in the country.
Under the heading of accessions some of the most important were an oil painting, "Pont du Carrousel, Paris" by Frank M. Armington, the gift of Mr. Alfred W. Jenkins and an oil painting "Study" by Charles Conder, the gift of Mrs. John W. Alexander.
The report includes a long list of loans made by people interested in early Americana for the purpose of furnishing the new American rooms.
The print Department announces a gift of two etchings by Caroline Armington, presented by Mr. Alfred W. Jenkins and the loan by Mr. William A. Putnam of forty-one prints important for the inclusion of works by such famous names as Cameron, Dürer, Haden, Legros, Claude Lorraine, Meryon, J.F. Millet, Rembrandt, Whistler and Zorn.
An unusual accession in the Department of Ethnology was a Turkish costume from the vicinity of Constantinople dated about 1800, which was purchased.
The Department of Natural Science received from Mr. Manuel Gufstein a short-eared owl in the flesh.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1916 - 1930. 10-12/1929, 095a-c.
