Current Exhibition Old
WINDOW ON THE WEST: VIEWS FROM THE AMERICAN FRONTIER
February 13 – May 25, 2014
This exhibition is a trove of 60-some fascinating images rather than a collection of only well-known names. Sharing the spotlight with Bierstadt and Bodmer are works by anonymous or lesser-known artists who had in common one critical feature: they were among the first white men to cast an eye over the place depicted. These works speak to the verity of first impressions and the artists’ attempts to capture both accurate form and a sense of place in the same work.
The exhibition celebrates the country’s natural wonders (in works by John Henry Hill, John Kensett and Thomas Hill); the steady, unremarkable encroachment of settlements into once open territory (Walter Paris, Edmund Coleman and Jules Tavernier); and the individuals who populated the frontier as it moved westward (Alfred Jacob Miller, Frederick Remington and A.C. Redwood). These are the themes that form the nucleus of this unusual exhibition, which has already received popular and critical acclaim.