KANSAS CITY, MO.- The Riverbank Foundation, a private organization focused on supporting American art scholarship, has been approved by the federal Internal Revenue Service as a Public Charity and 501(c)(3) organization. The taxexempt status will enable the Foundation to advance work on its leading project, a revised catalog of the work of artist George Caleb Bingham (American 1811-1879).
The Riverbank Foundation encourages the study, appreciation and preservation of American art with an emphasis on the historical and cultural aspects that define national heritage. In particular, the Foundation supports selected programs of scholarship, research, education and exhibitions centered on artists of the 19th and 20th centuries who helped shape regional identities throughout the United States.
The first undertaking of the Riverbank Foundation will be to create an on-line public access Catalogue Raisonné of George Caleb Bingham’s paintings. Bingham was a 19th century Missouri frontier artist and politician who was known during his lifetime as the “Missouri Artist.” Today, he is considered an American Old Master. During his career Bingham produced portraits, landscapes and scenes of political and social life on the American frontier before and after the Civil War.
The primary existing resources for the new catalogue raisonné are E. Maurice Bloch’s respected catalogues, The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham: A Catalogue Raisonné (University of Missouri Press, 1986) and The Drawings of George Caleb Bingham With a Catalogue Raisonné (University of Missouri Press, 1975), and currently in-progress, The George Caleb Bingham Catalogue Raisonné Supplement (2005-2017) compiled and edited by independent art historian Fred R. Kline.
For the past 12 years, Kline (a director of the Riverbank Foundation) has led this effort to research and document a supplement to Bloch’s catalogue raisonné. The addition of 28 previously unlocated paintings—up to March 2017—since Bloch’s publication in 1986, is unprecedented for a major American 19th-century artist, according to Kline. With the assistance of Riverbank Foundation, the search for Bingham’s complete artistic legacy continues, estimated to be some 50 lost and generally unsigned paintings, more than half of which are now accounted for.
The revised catalogue raisonné will also update the provenance records and exhibition history for each painting. Additional funds may be directed toward conservation of Bingham paintings, new photography and exhibitions.
“The main goal is to strengthen public and scholarly access to Bingham’s life’s work and ensure the lasting heritage of Missouri’s pioneering and best known artist,” said Rachael Cozad, Riverbank Foundation president.
Rachael Cozad Fine Art is currently exhibiting five Bingham paintings in celebration of the official launch of the Riverbank Foundation, which can be seen by appointment in Kansas City. The Bingham paintings on exhibition include: “Horse Thief”—an 1852 political allegory dealing with vigilante justice, Constitutional law, and Biblical morality; “Sarah Helen Rollins”—an 1837 life-size portrait-genre of a young girl of the American West, his largest painting and a masterpiece which marks Bingham’s transition from portraiture to genre; and three portraits of Missouri pioneers of the 1830s-1840s: one of the first doctors in the state and two early Boonville lawyers who were brothers.
Based in Bingham’s hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, the Riverbank Foundation works solely with other non-profit institutions, scholars and educators. The organization intends to raise funds necessary for research, administration and staffing to complete the revised catalog of Bingham’s paintings. A public access, online version of the revised catalogue raisonné is the main objective, and a hardbound publication may be considered in addition.
