Orlando — Anyone who has endured sweltering summer heat knows that having a pool at your home, or easy access to a community pool, can be sheer bliss during those sticky out of school months.
As the Mennello Museum of American Art has been quick to point out this summer, the great American swimming pool can also be positively artistic, not to mention inspirational.
“The pool symbolizes luxury and leisure in America,” the Mennello staff notes, and for a long time, the pool has shown enduring appeal to more than just heat-weary families, luxury resorts eager to book guests and homeowners happy to have disposable income that transforms their backyard into a pool.
Artists love pools as well, and not just for relief from the heat.
“It has been captivating artists since the 1950s with bright sunlight, vibrant colors, and modernist architecture,” Mennello notes.
The museum at Loch Haven Park should know. This summer, the museum devoted it exhibition space to Pool Party: The Pool In American Art, an exhibit that displays how pools have been portrayed over the years as a key source for relaxation, recreation, and summer fun.
There is still time to check out Pool Party, which opened on June 6 and runs until Sunday, Sept. 28.
What Is the Pool Party Exhibition?
With pools being a fixture at private homes, hotels and resorts, and city run community centers, these fresh water oasis holes have been known for offering aquatic fun and a way to conquer the worst heat that summer throws at us. As the pool provider Pinch A Penny Pools notes on its website, the swimming pool has a very long history dating back centuries.
“The first known swimming pool dates back to ancient history,” Pinch A Pool notes. “The Great Baths of Mohenjo-Daro, constructed around 2600 B.C.E., was one of the earliest known pools. Built out of brick and gypsum, the pool featured stairs and benches with a large surrounding deck. Experts believe that is was likely used for religious ceremonies.”
Historic entities with mass appeal tend to attract artists, the Mennello notes, and artistic depictions of pools have nearly as lengthy a history.
“The exhibition features artists who emerged in the mid-20th century, yet their themes of pool culture, class, and leisure remain strikingly contemporary,” the museum notes. “This is further emphasized by the younger generation of artists reclaiming the narrative of the pool in relationship to family, like Amy Bennett and Isca Greenfield-Sanders, and within more social, environmental, and civic contexts, such as Derrick Adams, Anastasia Samoylova, and Jay Lynn Gomez.
“These themes, so relevant to our lives today, will engage and connect with our visitors.”
It should also be noted that the well air-conditioned Mennello Museum offers another surefire way to beat the heat, especially in Central Florida where the first “cold spell” typically doesn’t come through until mid-October. So enjoy the artistic depictions of pools someplace where you don’t need to dry off afterwards.
Where I Can See The Pool Party Exhibition?
Pool Party: The Pool in American Art was organized by the Mennello Museum of American Art, 900 E. Princeton St. in Orlando, and curated by Shannon Fitzgerald, the museum’s executive director, with assistance from Katherine Page, its Curator of Art and Education.
To learn more about Pool Party and other Mennello Museum exhibits, call 407-246-4278.
Michael Freeman is an Orlando journalist, playwright and author of the terrifying book “Bloody Rabbit”. Contact him at Freelineorlando@gmail.com.
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