PHILADELPHIA, PA.-The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts presents In Private Hands: 200 Years of American Painting, a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition of almost 100 paintings from 55 lenders – representing some of the very finest works of American art held in private collections across the country.

Private collectors have loaned works in the exhibition, and the majority rarely have been seen in public. In Private Hands is the first and only time all these paintings will be showcased together. The exhibition will explore the history of American art and the artists who have provided a visual record of America’s cultural and social identity.

The Pennsylvania Academy’s extraordinary legacy as the nation’s oldest museum and school of fine arts makes it the obvious venue for an exhibition which reflects on the broad scope of American art during the past two centuries. Supporting sponsors of In Private Hands are Bank of America and BUCKS Magazine.

"This is a truly magical exhibition representing America’s huge achievement in the visual arts. In Private Hands offers a really unique opportunity to see almost 100 extraordinary works of art that remain in private hands," said Derek A. Gillman Academy President and the Edna S. Tuttleman Director.

"We are awed by the generosity of the collectors," Gillman continued. "When we conceived of this show as the final exhibition in our 200th Anniversary Celebration, we hadn't fully anticipated the great enthusiasm that this 200th Anniversary exhibition would generate from major collectors across the country, and just how many important works would be so generously lent.

"In Private Hands celebrates the legacy of American art and is a perfect complement to the Academy's 200th Anniversary Celebration," Gillman said.

In Private Hands will be on view Oct. 1, 2005 – Jan. 8, 2006 in the Frank Furness-designed historic landmark building (118 North Broad St.) and across Cherry Street in the soaring first-floor Fisher Brooks Gallery of the Academy’s new Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building (128 North Broad St.).

Guest curator Nicolai Cikovsky, emeritus senior curator of American and British Paintings at the National Gallery of Art, and the Academy’s Senior Curator Lynn Marsden-Atlass have been researching private holdings and meeting with collectors for nearly two years in preparation for the exhibition. Professor Robert Rosenblum of New York University, Cikovsky and Marsden-Atlass have produced a scholarly catalog on this unique exhibition.