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A fire in 1967 destroyed several priceless pieces of art and The permanent collection also includes key New York
forced the museum into a new space two blocks west that School artists, including Frank Stella, Joan Mitchell, and Lee
was immediately too small. It would take nearly two decades Krasner. There’s a significant collection of arts of America,
for the museum to broker a new home at 1 E. Las Olas Blvd. African and Oceanic Tribal Arts, and Latin American and
Cuban art. Those include examples by Diego Rivera, José
The museum in 1986 christened a 75,000-square-foot
Clemente Orozco, and Joaquin Torres-Garcia.
building designed by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes. It
features a modernist design of dramatic angles. The Fort Lauderdale residents David Horvitz and Francie Bishop
inaugural exhibit honored “An American Renaissance,” Good recently gave the museum a gift of 100 works from
with painting and sculptures from the past 40 years. their art collection. They have yet to be displayed at the
museum, and include works by Cecily Brown, Barbara
In the early 2000s, the museum saw record attendance,
Kruger, and Kara Walker.
first in 2003, with 150,000 patrons coming to see “St.
Peter and the Vatican.” The following year the museum The show came about after Clearwater and her staff began
scored again by displaying Princess Diana’s gowns, going through the extensive collection. She said she found
including her wedding dress. In 2005, another 750,000 themes and connections between pieces that might
visitors came to see an exhibit of Egyptian antiquities. otherwise seem disconnected. “It was a significant
collection, and now that we’re doing research on it, we’re
The museum in 2008 began an alliance with Nova
Southeastern University. For the museum, it meant access to making some amazing discoveries,” she says. “The

Nova’s ability to raise funds. For Nova, it gave the
university a home for its arts degree programs. To honor collection was built to be an inter-locking narrative. They all
the new partnership, the museum was renamed NSU Art seem to take certain themes and subjects, and that’s what
Museum Fort Lauderdale. we’re displaying with this show.”
Bonnie Clearwater, the director and chief curator, says the
goal is to stay true to the museum’s roots, even as it SIXTY YEARS OF FRANK STELLA
becomes known internationally. “We remain humble, It seemed appropriate for the museum’s 60th anniversary
maybe not in size but in spirit,” she says. that it would display the 60 years of work from American
painter, printmaker, and sculptor Frank Stella. From New
PERMANENT COLLECT ON DISPLAY York, Stella’s work has helped define minimalism and post-
painterly abstraction.
Later this year, the museum will display works from its
permanent collection, and many will not have been “Frank Stella: Experiment and Change” includes 300
paintings, drawings, and sculpture. It serves as a timeline,
previously seen publicly.
tracking alongside Stella’s own trajectory from minimalism
The collection, valued at $75 million, is one of the largest in to maximalism. Among the headliners of the exhibit is
Florida, with more than 7,000 works. That includes the Deauville, a 45-foot canvas shaped like a racetrack. Stella
largest collection anywhere of work by American painter has said he pictures himself running across a canvas, and
William J. Glackens and among the most significant the work is meant to show how he finds his inspiration.
holdings in America of avant-garde European Cobra artists.

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