MEMPHIS, TENN.-“Three centuries of art in one great collection.” That defines the traveling exhibition, Strokes of Genius: Master Works from the New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA), which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2003. In celebration of this centennial, the NBMAA is expanding its facility and during its renovation circulating its finest paintings – a survey of American art from the colonial era to the present. Approximately 70 works of art will be represented from the collection at The Dixon Gallery and Gardens from January 16 through March 20, 2005.

Occupying a turn-of-the-century house since 1937, the New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) traces its beginnings to 1903 when wealthy industrialists began an art collection for the enjoyment and education of the public. Today, the New Britain Museum of American Art permanent collection consists of 5000 oils, watercolors, drawings, graphics, and sculptures.

The selected works include an entire survey of our nation’s art history including 18th Century portraits by John Singleton Copley, Ralph Earl, and John Smibert; Federalera images by Raphaelle Peale, Sarah Miriam Peale, and Benjamin West; Hudson River School-era landscapes by Albert Bierstadt, Fredric Church, Thomas Cole, and George Inness; antebellum and post-Civil War genre and realist paintings by Winslow Homer and Eastman Johnson: Impressionist landscapes by Childe Hassam, Theodore Robinson, and John Henry Twachtman; early modern paintings by George Bellows, Arthur B. Davies, Robert Henri, and John Sloan; regionalist works by Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, and Reginald Marsh; and post-World War II art by Milton Avery, Charles Burchfield, Grandma Moses, Norman Rockwell, and Andrew Wyeth.