Featuring over 100 oil paintings, watercolors, prints, and photographs, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art recently mounted an exhibition chronicling how pictorial representations of the American landscape helped forge visions of the whole hemisphere.
Some of the biggest names in American landscape painting — including Albert Bierstadt, Frederic E. Church, Thomas Cole, Martin Johnson Heade, and Georgia O’Keeffe — highlight a lovely exhibition in Arkansas at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. An added bonus is the inclusion of outstanding works from South American painters as well, such as Jose Maria Velasco and Juan Manuel Blanes, among others.
Alejandro Ciccarelli, “View of Santiago from Peñalolén,” 1853, oil on canvas, 85 x 125 cm.
(c) Pinacoteca Banco Santander 2015
William G.R. Hind, “Drawing Map on Birch-Bark,” 1861, oil on board, 30 x 42.3 cm. (c) Toronto Public Library 2015
“Picturing the Americas: Landscape Painting from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic” is “the first exhibition to examine landscape painting from the early 19th century to the early 20th century in an inclusive, pan-American context,” states the museum. “Thematically organized, the exhibition places special emphasis on the areas where landscape painting expressions were most vital.” The themes include “Land Icon Nation,” “Field to Studio,” “Land Encounter Territory,” “Land as a Resource,” “Land Transformed,” and “Icon Nation Self.”
William Morris Hunt, “Horseshoe Falls Niagara Falls,” 1878, oil on canvas, (c) Williams College Museum of Art 2015
Charles Sheeler, “Classic Landscape,” 1931, oil on canvas, (c) National Gallery of Art, Washington 2015
“Picturing the Americas” opened on November 7 and will be on view through January 18.
To learn more, visit the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
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