To celebrate the holiday season, The UBS Art Gallery will present an exhibition of classic American carousel animals created between 1890 and 1920. Ranging from realistic to richly decorated animals, the show will include more than 40 examples of carousel art from nine leading American companies. In addition to traditional standing, prancing and jumping horses, exhibition highlights will include horses almost fully covered in medieval armor, a graceful zebra, a snarling tiger, a sleekly carved and bejeweled greyhound and a towering giraffe.
The Charlotte Dinger Collection is one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of carousel art in the country. Author of The Art of the Carousel, Charlotte Dinger (1930-1996) traveled extensively to research, photograph and encourage the preservation of carved wooden carousel horses and menagerie animals. A New Jersey housewife, Charlotte Dinger began her unlikely career as carousel collector and historian with a chance visit to a Philadelphia antiques shop in 1972 and soon became an expert in design trends and the subtle distinctions among the works of master carvers.
This exhibition was organized by the Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey. The collection was displayed at The UBS Art Gallery to great acclaim in 1986 and returns in an expanded and enhanced installation for this holiday presentation. |