Ralston Crawford: Air & Space & War to debut at the Brandywine
On view June 20–September 19, 2021 at the Brandywine River Museum of Art
Chadds Ford, PA, March 15, 2021— Coming this June, the Brandywine River Museum of Art will present Ralston Crawford: Air & Space & War, a remarkable exploration into U.S. aviation and military history through the art and personal experiences of American Modernist Ralston Crawford. Organized by the Vilcek Foundation, this landmark exhibition will feature an extensive collection of nearly 80 works by the artist, including drawings, photographs, paintings and lithographs from the 1940s that narrate his involvement with World War II.
Highlighting Crawford’s encounters with aviation and war from many angles, the collected works illustrate the influence of the artist’s own military service in the U.S. Army Air Force, as well as the commissions he undertook at the Curtiss-Wright Aircraft Plant in Buffalo, and his assignment to document nuclear weapons tests conducted by the U.S. Joint Army/Navy Task Force at Bikini Atoll for Fortune Magazine in 1946.
“Ralston Crawford: Air & Space & War traces the dramatic evolution of Ralston Crawford’s art in the 1940s, which was influenced by aviation—from his personal experiences in flight, to his exposure to the construction of airplanes and his knowledge of the destruction they wrought in war,” said Emily Schuchardt Navratil, curator for the Vilcek Foundation. “Crawford’s insight into warcraft as a result of the Curtiss-Wright commission and his experience—from knowledge of aircraft, of military exercise and of propaganda—forged the themes that he would explore for the rest of his artistic career,” added Vilcek Foundation President Rick Kinsel. “His mature works vibrate with tension, rendering elements of war, culture, and ritual, with horror and awe—and beauty.”
In the late 1920s, Crawford studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and the Barnes Foundation in Merion, and then later lived and painted in Exton and Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania in the late 1930s. He was also a visiting art instructor at the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 1940. In World War II, he served in the Weather Division of the Army Air Force, heading the Visual Presentation unit—where he created pictorial representations of weather patterns for airplane pilots—and continued working as an artist throughout the war. During that time, he was exposed to “endless plane tragedies,” which he recorded in works like Bomber, 1944, and Air War, 1944. As the exhibition will illuminate, these experiences had a profound impact on Crawford and marked a major turning point in his life and art.
Ralston Crawford: Air & Space & War was organized by the Vilcek Foundation in collaboration with the Brandywine River Museum of Art and the Dayton Art Institute. The exhibition will be on view at the Brandywine River Museum of Art from June 20 through September 19, 2021. Following its debut at the Brandywine, the exhibition will travel to the Dayton Art Institute in Dayton, Ohio, in October 2021. A selection of works from the exhibition’s initial presentations will also be on view at the Vilcek Foundation headquarters in New York in 2023. This is the second major exhibition presented by the Vilcek Foundation. In addition to works from the Vilcek collection, as well as several works on loan from John Crawford, one of the artist’s sons, the exhibition will include important loans from the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Harvard University and other esteemed institutions.
A fully illustrated catalogue of the exhibition is available from Merrell Publishers, featuring essays “Ralston Crawford’s War Years” by Rick Kinsel; “Ralston Crawford: From the Air” by Emily Schuchardt Navratil; “Weather + War + Fortune: Ralston Crawford’s Visual Storytelling” by Amanda C. Burdan, curator at the Brandywine River Museum of Art; “Ralston Crawford in Context” by Jerry N. Smith; and “Collage: Ralston Crawford, Photography, Lithography + World War II” by John Crawford. The catalogue includes 270 photographic reproductions of works from the exhibition, from the Vilcek collection, and from John Crawford’s personal archive.
About the Brandywine River Museum of Art:
The Brandywine River Museum of Art features an outstanding collection of American art housed in a 19th-century mill building with a dramatic steel and glass addition overlooking the banks of the Brandywine. The Museum is located on Route 1 in Chadds Ford, PA. Admission is $18 for adults, $15 for seniors ages 65 and over, $6 for students and children ages 6 and up; free for children 5 and younger and Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art members. Currently undergoing renovations, the Museum will reopen to the public in June 2021 for its new special exhibition Ralston Crawford: Air & Space & War. More information can be found at www.brandywine.org/reopening. The Museum is one of the two programs of the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art.
About the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art:
The Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art preserves and promotes the natural and cultural connections between the area’s beautiful landscape, historic sites, and important artists. The Conservancy protects the lands and waters throughout the Brandywine Valley and other priority conservation areas, developing sustainable approaches to emerging needs and assuring preservation of majestic open spaces and protection of natural resources for generations to come. The Museum of Art presents and collects historic and contemporary works of American art, engaging and exciting visitors of all ages through an array of exhibitions and programs. The Brandywine unites the inspiring experiences of art and nature, enhancing the quality of life in its community and among its diverse audiences.
About the Vilcek Foundation:
The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation of the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation—to honor immigrant contributions to the United States, and more broadly to foster appreciation of the arts and sciences—was inspired by the couple’s respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over $5.8 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and supported organizations with over $5.2 million in grants.
The Vilcek Foundation is a private operating foundation, a federally tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit vilcek.org.
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