The Art of Golf: Gilded Age to Newport Days
Newport, RI: The Newport Art Museum explores golf as a popular phenomenon this summer with a new exhibition opening on Saturday, June 10, The Art of Golf: Gilded Age to Newport Days. This special exhibition coincides with the U.S. Women’s Open Championship in Newport during the last week in June. The Museum hosted an opening reception for the show on Thursday, June 22, at 5:30 pm. The Art of Golf runs through October 1, 2006.
The Art of Golf reflects Newport’s role in the history of the sport and includes a George Holston portrait of Theodore A. Havemeyer, co-founder of the Newport Golf Club (now the Newport Country Club) along with other Newport notables, John Jacob Astor and three members of the Vanderbilt family: Cornelius, Frederick, and William. The Newport Golf Club was one of five founding members of the United States Golf Association, established in 1884, and played host to both the men’s U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur Championships the following year.
A replica of the original U.S. Amateur Championship trophy, named for Havemayer but destroyed by fire in 1925, is included in the exhibition. Also featured in The Art of Golf is the U.S. Women’s Open Championship Cup, the original U.S. Open Championship trophy and the U.S. Women’s Amateur trophy. It is the first time all four trophies have been displayed together outside of the USGA Museum.
Amongst the other works drawn from private collections and from the United States Golf Association Museum in Far Hills, New Jersey and featured in The Art of Golf are illustrations by James Montgomery Flagg and Norman Rockwell, cartoons by Charles Schultz, portraits and photographs of some of those who made golf history in Newport, as well as portraits by Boston painter Charles Hopkinson of his sisters-in-law, golf champions Harriot and Margaret Curtis, who were instrumental in the establishment of The Curtis Cup Matches. Watercolors of early golf resorts Pau and Biarritz, France by artist and golfer Edward Darley Boit will also be on view. Boit’s daughter Florence introduced golf to Boston in 1892.
Also on exhibit from June 10 through October 1st at the Newport Art Museum is The Landscape of Golf, newly commissioned works on the occasion of the restoration of Whitney Warren’s Clubhouse, the Newport Country Club, and home of the first men’s U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open Championships. Eight artists have painted both plein air and studio pieces focusing on the newly renovated country club and surrounding golf course, site for this year’s U.S. Women’s Open Championship. National and regionally known contributing artists include David Dewey, Lois Dodd, Richard Grosvenor, Gary Hoffmann, Robert Manice, Paul Rickert, Susan Stephenson and Susan Shattner. Works of art sold during the exhibit will in part benefit the Newport Art Museum.
The Newport Art Museum is located at 76 Bellevue Avenue across from Touro Park. Admission: $6 adults, $5 seniors, $4 students. Museum members and children under 5: no charge; by donation Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. Hours: daily 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday noon to 4 p.m. Beginning Memorial Day weekend, hours will be daily until 5 pm. Group tours: call (401) 848-2787. For more information call (401) 848-8200 or visit www.newportartmuseum.com.
Contact: Susan Closter-Godoy
Tel: 401-848-8200
Email: scloster-godoy@newportartmuseum.com
Photographs courtesy of the USGA Museum & Archives