Now open at the Rockwell Museum in Corning, New York, is Gateways: African American Art from the Key Collection, a touring exhibition that celebrates artists from a 150-year span of American art.
The collector at the center of the collection is Eric Key, who has loaned around 90 works from his 450-piece private collection to the exhibition, which is now on its third stop of a five-leg museum tour.
Palmer Hayden (1890-1973), White House at Great Bend, 1940s. Oil on canvas, 23 x 31 in. Courtesy of the Eric Key Collection. Courtesy of the Hayden Family Revocable Art Trust, © Lisa L. Crane, Trustee, Hayden Family Revocable Art Trust.
“My role is minimal when it comes to the exhibition,” Key says with a laugh. “I just had to let them in to look at my walls.”
The Maryland collector first started acquiring artwork after a good friend planted the seed when he was in graduate school in 1988. By 1990, Key had bought his first serious piece of art. “I got my undergraduate degree in political science. I wanted to become a lawyer, but then I stepped on the campus of Hampton University and experienced African American art,” he says of the Virginia college, one of several prominent historically Black colleges and universities in the region. “I had no exposure to art at that point, but then I started absorbing it and it was like a light was going on. I then minored in art history and got a master’s in museum studies. That’s when I really started learning about some of the big artists, like Palmer Hayden, Elizabeth Catlett, Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Horace Pippin and others. That work resonated with me in a big way.”
Dox Thrash (1893-1965), Untitled (Woman Reading). Watercolor on paper, 22½ x 18 in. Courtesy of the Eric Key Collection, © Dox Thrash.
Key notes that he loaned the artwork in the exhibition, but let each venue contextualize the work however it wished. The first venue, for instance, included labels about why Key was drawn to the work. Later venues shifted to themes within each artists’ work. For the Rockwell’s version, Key was happy to see new themes emerge. “They did a great job installing it. It looks as if it could have come directly from my house,” he says. “In some areas, there is a collage-like effect, including in one area where they talk about portraiture. I love what they have done.”
Gordon Parks (1912-2006), Grandchildren of Ella Watson, A Government Chairwoman, 1942. Photograph, 22 x 25 in. Courtesy of the Eric Key Collection, © Gordon Parks.
John Wesley Hardwick (1891-1968), Panoramic Vista. Oil on board, 12 x 13½ in. Courtesy of the Eric Key Collection, © John Wesley Hardwick.
Erin Coe, the executive director at the Rockwell Museum, jumped at the offer to bring the exhibition to the museum and its patrons. “Gateways offers an unparalleled opportunity to reflect on the many voices, histories and perspectives that shape the American experience, and that feels especially meaningful as the Rockwell Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary and participates in the national commemoration of America 250. Bringing a nationally touring exhibition of this stature to audiences in Corning and the Southern Finger Lakes represents a significant milestone for the museum and reflects our commitment to engaging with broader national conversations surrounding American art, representation and cultural stewardship,” Coe says. “The Key Collection highlights the extraordinary contributions and influence of African American artists across generations while encouraging audiences to think more expansively about the American story itself. At its core, the exhibition aligns deeply with our mission to present works of art that reflect the American experience—in all of its complexity and richness—and to create space for dialogue, reflection and discovery.”
The exhibition is organized and toured by International Arts & Artists. —
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