The Newport Art Museum (NAM)
With loans from the International Tennis Hall of Fame
September 24, 2025 – April 26, 2026
by Fredrika Adam
An exciting addition to this year’s World Championship week was the opening of a new exhibition inspired by court tennis featuring seven contemporary artists alongside nine objects on loan from the collection of the International Tennis Hall of Fame including two significant paintings from the collection of Gianni Clerici (Hall of Fame member (2006) and dedicatee for the Real Tennis Society’s Fifth International Conference on the History of Tennis).
Curated by Frederika Adam, the artists included: book artist Elizabeth Curren, photographers Philip Howard, Charles Johnstone and Frederika Adam, painter Robert Manice, professor of design and animation Joshua Mosley, and artist-in-residence at the Westside Tennis Club (aka Forest Hills) Bill Sullivan.
Adam worked closely with the NAM artistic director Danielle Ogden and collections manager Jeff Foye to create an exhibition that celebrates the aesthetic prowess of the court while introducing the rich visual history of “tennis” to an art museum audience. The exhibition starts in the grand staircase of the Griswold House where the space has been turned into a court tennis court with all essential features including chase lines, service area and designated: Hazard End, Service End, the Galleries, Dedans, Winning Gallery, Tambour and actual “NAM” Grille all located in their appropriate place. On the staircase landing, two large Northern Italian 17th century oil paintings of figures with racquets on loan from the ITHF sit like jewels on either side of Wayward Racquet Club’s Ivan Ronaldson special edition “red lobster” racquet used by Camden Riviere in the 2025 World Championship. Other works compliment the theme of the racquet leading up to the Hazard End where four early prints from the ITHF inspire photographs by Frederika Adam notably of two 16th century French courts: Chateau Lourdon and Suze-La-Rousse. The first of three main rooms of the exhibition contain: Joshua Mosley’s immersive stop animation piece Jeu de Paume (2014) shown for the first time in 4k depicting a fictional match played on the Fontainebleau court in 1907. The second room contains rich, detailed large-format photographs of the two NYR&T courts by Philip Howard “in conversation” with Robert Manice’s iconic watercolor and studies viewed from the dedans – a commission for the 2007 World Championship Doubles in Boston. The final room features three artists: a playful 3D book portrait of the new International Tennis Court at the Westwood Country Club by Elizabeth Curren (her 2016 portrait of Prince’s Court sits in the foyer of the Museum); eleven intimate color photographs of trinquet courts from Charles Johnstone’s series on French Basque Courts (2023); and four oil paintings on linen of delicately muted ruled court tennis courts inspired by historic locations along with two whimsical Mouse paintings by Bill Sullivan. The room also includes books by Johnstone and Sullivan notably a loose copy for browsing of COURT 1520-2020 (two-book set) with text by James Zug.
The buzz of over 200 people on opening night brought together the Museum’s patrons and members with the World Championship court tennis community who enjoyed seeing their favorite sport celebrated within the art context. One final detail linking the NAM gallery court with the court of the National Tennis Club is the pineapple logos crowning the service and last gallery chase lines in the exhibition!
The exhibition breaks new ground for collaboration between new Executive Director Harry Philbrick’s NAM and CEO Dan Faber’s ITHF; Huge thank yous to the entire NAM team and ITHF curator Nicole Markham and collections manager JT Buzanga. The exhibition is kindly supported by members of the court tennis community including: Bill McLaughlin and the Board of the USCTPF, John Damon, Xana and Marc Lewinstein, and Bettie and Jonathan Pardee. The exhibition continues until April 26th, 2026 with time to visit if you are in Newport over the next 6 months.
