Overview
Drawing inspiration from Robert Frost’s poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay, this exhibition celebrates the fleeting beauty of early spring and the golden moments that accompany the return of warm weather. As nature wakes from winter, sunlight lingers a little longer, gardens stir with new life, and everyday scenes take on a brief, shimmering glow.
Featuring prints, drawings, and photographs that explore the garden as a space of renewal, the exhibition invites visitors to pause and notice the quiet transformations unfolding around them. Highlights include selections from the 1986 Alabama Print Portfolio, whose artists captured the state’s landscapes, and Alabama artist Nall, whose explosive floral prints echo the exhibition’s central theme of impermanence. These works, taken together, reveal the delicate interplay of light, color, and growth that marks the start of spring—a reminder to savor the warmth while it lasts. Though each artwork preserves a moment in time, the exhibition encourages viewers to experience the “gold” firsthand in the Caddell Sculpture Garden.
Above (left to right):Lyle Peterzell (American, 1957–2012), Pitcher Plants, 2005, digital inkjet print on paper, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Lanier Peterzell in memory of her husband, Lyle Paul Peterzell, 2012.16.3; Nall (American, 1948–2024), La Rose, 1987, color etching on paper, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Association Purchase, 2004.7.2
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
– Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost
Gallery
Organizer
Organized by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama.
Exhibition Sponsors
Annual support for exhibitions is made possible by the following sponsors and grantors:
Lead Sponsors and Grantors: Alabama State Council on the Arts, Art Bridges Foundation, Carr, Riggs & Ingram, LLC, Mr. and Mrs. Barrie H. Harmon, Ill, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, LLC, Lamar Advertising of Montgomery, Mr. and Mrs. James K. Lowder, Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and Mrs. Helen Till
Sponsors: Mr. Owen Aronov, Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Runkle, Sabel Steel, The S. Adam Schloss Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Weil, III, Laurie J. Weil, D.V.M. and Dr. Tommy Wool, and Ms. Helen Crump Wells
Co-sponsors: Mr. and Mrs. Sam Adams, Alabama Trucking Association, AmeriFirst Bank, Mr. and Mrs. Marvin H. Campbell II, CAPTRUST, Dr. Robert Combs, Crum Family Charitable Foundation, Mrs. Camille Elebash-Hill, Harmon Dennis Bradshaw, Inc., Mrs. Ann Hubbert, Mr. and Mrs. John E. Ives, Mr. and Mrs. L. Daniel Morris, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Mussafer, Dr. Alfred J. Newman, Jr., River Bank & Trust, Russell Construction of Alabama, Inc., Ms. Micki Beth Stiller, Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Taylor, and Warren Averett, LLC.
Special thanks to the Alabama State Council on the Arts.
