Featuring masterworks by Monet, Van Gogh, Winslow Homer, and many more, Norfolk, Virginia’s Chrysler Museum of Art recently opened a major exhibition dedicated to some of the biggest champions of plein air and agrarian idealism.

Including many of the biggest names in the history of art, “The Agrarian Ideal” at Norfolk, Virigina’s Chrysler Museum of Art is a gorgeous celebration of the 19th century’s fascination with rural labor and countryside landscapes. Featuring works by Monet, Van Gogh, Winslow Homer, Gauguin, Camille Pissarro, and many others, the exhibition is sure to delight even the most casual of art lovers.

Via the museum, “The works include paintings on agricultural themes, sculptures, detailed drawings, early photographs and Impressionist masterworks known for their evocation of light. On loan from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond is a breathtaking painting by Vincent Van Gogh from 1889. Titled ‘Wheat Field behind St. Paul’s Hospital, St. Remy,’ the painting is a thrilling addition to an already blockbuster exhibition.”

Continuing, the museum writes, “While the Impressionists are famous for scenes of Paris, in the 1890s many of them departed the city for the country. As Paris had become dangerous, crowded, industrial, and expensive, many of the city’s best artists left to seek simpler subjects and an integrated life untouched by the ills of modernity.”

“The Agrarian Ideal: Monet, van Gogh, Homer, and More” opened on October 7 and remains on view through January 8, 2017. To learn more, visit the Chrysler Museum of Art.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

Coinciding with his new monograph, works by experienced artist Adam Straus head to the walls of two prestigious New York City Galleries later this month. Details here!

On view at New York’s Nohra Haime Gallery and Adelson Galleries from November 22 through December 24 are a wide range of works by accomplished artist Adam Straus. With a career spanning nearly four decades, Straus has worked in a variety of media, with representations of each on view during the shows. Among the works to be on view are Straus’ sculptures, paintings, works on paper, and photography.

Via the exhibition press, “Straus is known for his majestic and luminous depictions of the sublime, which are often saturated with a deep concern about social and environmental issues. His penetrating dark humor can transport the viewer to post-apocalyptic worlds and often offers a wry observation on how humans have altered the natural landscape.”

The two exhibitions also coincide with the release of Straus’ new monograph, published by Gli Ori, Italy, this month. Including text written by the artist and award-winning critic and filmmaker Amei Wallach, Adam Straus explores a range of topics, including the artist’s childhood experiences, fascinating moments in his life and career, and much more.

To learn more, visit Adam Straus.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

In this occasional series, Fine Art Today delves into the world of portraiture, highlighting historical and contemporary examples of superb quality and skill. This week: Erin Anderson, “Felix Looking Backward, Looking Forward.”

Although Erin Anderson’s magnificent portrait “Felix Looking Backward, Looking Forward” graces the cover of Fine Art Connoisseur’s November/December 2016 issue, we simply couldn’t pass the opportunity to highlight the work once more as this week’s feature portrait.

Executed on a copper sheet, a three-quarter figure pensively stands at center and — presumably — in the nude. His hands are pressed together and raised to his chin, and a flash of brilliant purple emanates from his soft lips. “My compositions remain anchored in representational figure painting juxtaposed by abstraction,” writes Anderson. “The metal substrate and paint work in concert to communicate layers or levels of reality: one that is easily perceived and directly in front of us and one that can be felt and is dynamic or changing. To explore the connective nature of our experience, I make visual comparisons between the figure and systems in nature. I find that studying the ways in which nature is connected informs the ways I create atmosphere within and around my subjects. The ensuing work is an exploration of our relationships to one another and our fundamental connection with the environment.”

To learn more, visit Erin Anderson.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

Texas-born icon Everett Gee Jackson is the subject of a wonderful exhibition at Hirschl & Adler Galleries in New York City. Jackson was the first major conduit for the introduction of Mexican Modernism into the United States, so this show has both collecting and historical value.

Featuring some 18 works by master painter Everett Gee Jackson (1900-1905), “Modernism Without Apologies” is a stunning exhibition on view for just a few more days at New York City’s Hirschl & Adler Galleries. Jackson is well-known in art history as one of the first major artists to introduce modernism from Mexico to the United States during the World War eras. Intimately inspired by Mexico’s monumental artists, including Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco, and David Siqueiros, “Jackson’s paintings quickly broke free from the constraints of decorative impressionism and morphed into sculptural dimensionality” the gallery writes. “Jackson’s figures suddenly had tangible form, the same rounded solidity seen in Rivera and Siqueiros. His best figure paintings, such as the brilliant ‘Tehuantepec Women,’ painted in Texas from studies made in Oaxaca state while recuperating from a bout with malaria, clearly show Jackson’s indebtedness to the Syndicate muralists. The rounded figures of three indigenous women are contrasted by flat, fluted patterns flowing against a golden background of tropical foliage. Mural-like in its effect, ‘Tehuantepec Women’ is a capstone to Jackson’s career-altering years in Mexico.”

“Modernism Without Apologies” opened on October 13 and will remain on view through November 19. To learn more, visit Hirschl & Adler Galleries.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

Activist and wildlife artist Patricia Traub is overjoyed to present her first solo exhibition in New York at Gallery Henoch this month. Majestic and statuesque, her subjects are sure to invite discussion on multiple fronts.

On view through November 26, “Animal Empathy” is politically provocative and artistically profound. Featuring 14 paintings by acclaimed painter Patricia Traub, the exhibition delves into the controversial realm of animal cruelty, conservation, and so much more.

Via the gallery release, “Traub’s empathy and activism coalesce in closely studied wildlife vignettes. She depicts mostly mammals and birds, standing before the viewer in resolute posture against the deep soot of the universe. Traub effortlessly ‘humanizes’ her subjects, conveying the individual, its fur, feathers, gesture and weight, that carry the signs of a distinctive being. In doing so she draws out the consciousness of each Colobus Monkey or Buffalo Weaver, in compositions resembling a modern day Albrecht Dürer. To unpack the significance of each subject, Traub notes every animal has a specific petition, for example, the Rambouillet Ram is bred for its merino wool and is a cornerstone of the meat trade. By isolating the animals on sterile precipices of rectangular earth Traub places the animal on display. This reinforces our shared human jurisdiction over their stewardship while avoiding maudlin bromides.”

To learn more, visit Gallery Henoch.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.