Description

The Heckscher Museum will open the first-ever exhibition dedicated to the transatlantic career of Emma Stebbins (1815-1882), an LGBTQIA artist recognized in her time but whose legacy has been forgotten for too long. Best known for her monumental Angel of the Waters/Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, Stebbins worked in Rome from 1857 to 1870 where she created neoclassical sculptures and earned three major public art commissions. This exhibition will bring together nearly all of her fifteen extant marble sculptures, many of which will be on view for the first time in decades, if not a century. Sculptures by Stebbins in the Heckscher’s permanent collection will anchor the show, with loans from the Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, and other institutions. Technology will represent lost sculptures and monuments that remain in situ. Scheduled to open in fall 2025, this exhibition will challenge accepted histories and promote critical conversations in American art by amplifying Stebbins’ story. Luce funds will support exhibition design, shipping fees, and design fees for the accompanying 200-page publication, with an introduction by Tony Kushner, and featuring contributions by scholars employing the methodologies of ecocriticism, feminist art history and queer studies, material cultural studies, critical race theory, and technical art history.