BENTONVILLE, ARK.- This Saturday, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opens two new temporary exhibitions featuring American genre painting.

Genre painting—scenes of everyday life—flourished in the United States during the mid-19th century. These narrative scenes depicting the everyday activities of “stock” or “typed” characters captivated American audiences. Genre paintings helped to express a distinctly “American” character, often through the exploration of racial, regional, or class differences.

Two new temporary exhibitions focusing on American genre painting open at Crystal Bridges on Saturday, May 11. The first of these: American Encounters: Genre Painting and Everyday Life, is the second exhibition in a four-year partnership between Crystal Bridges; the musée du Louvre in Paris; the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA; and the Terra Foundation for American Art. The second exhibition: American Experience: Genre Scenes on Paper from Crystal Bridges’ Permanent Collection, features never-before-exhibited watercolors and drawings from the museum’s collection. Both exhibitions will be on view from May 11 through Aug. 12. There is no fee and no tickets are required to view these exhibitions.

American Encounters: Genre Painting and Everyday Life
This exhibition of five paintings includes works by George Caleb Bingham, Eastman Johnson, and Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait — American painters whose works illustrate three very different cultural experiences within the greater context of the United States. These are exhibited alongside two paintings from the Louvre that present the Dutch and English schools which helped to inspire American genre artists. This exhibition debuted at the Louvre from Jan. 23– Apr. 22, 2013. Following its appearance at Crystal Bridges, the exhibition will travel to the High Museum of Art where it will be on view Sept. 14, 2013 through Jan.12, 2014.