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WCMA Exhibits Explore Niagra's Artistic, Cultural Context08:57AM / Wednesday, September 30, 2009
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art presents "A Strong Impression: William Morris Hunt's Niagara," which examines both the artistic and cultural context in which Hunt's painting, "Niagara Falls" (1878), was produced through oil sketches, drawings, photographs, films, rare books, and souvenirs.
This exhibition, and three others, including "Alec Soth: NIAGARA," "William Morris Hunt and the French Tradition" and "Media Field: Niagara," contrast historical and contemporary views of Niagara Falls and put the Falls into a broader context.
A season premiere party on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 5 will celebrate the opening of these exhibitions and will feature a conversation between exhibition curator Kathryn Price and Williams professors Marc Gotlieb and Michael Lewis about Niagara Falls. This is a free event and all are invited to attend.
"A Strong Impression" features Hunt's monumental painting, which was one of the largest easel paintings that he ever produced. The painting has been in WCMA's collection since 1961. Although Hunt was best known for his portrait painting in Boston, he saw this commission to paint the falls for the New York State Capitol Assembly Chamber as a way to establish himself in the practice of landscape, and particularly, in the tradition of Frederic Edwin Church. Church was a well-known American landscape painter and Hunt was so taken with Church's famous 1857 depiction of Niagara Falls, that he chose the same vantage point for his own painting.
This is the first time in 50 years that "Niagara Falls" will be reunited with its outer frame. Originally, this painting traveled with two frames — a large outer frame and a liner frame — as was customary in the 19th-century. Both frames have recently been treated at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center and are now displayed at WCMA together, allowing the painting to be viewed in its entirety.
Also on View
Placing "A Strong Impression" into a broader context are three concurrent exhibitions. "Alec Soth: NIAGARA" (Oct. 10 –Jan. 10) presents 22 photographs by contemporary photographer Alec Soth. "William Morris Hunt and the French Tradition" (Oct. 24–Jan. 31) connects Hunt's painting to the traditions of the Barbizon School and explores his role in bringing French artistic ideas to the United States. "Media Field: Niagara" (Oct. 17- Jan. 31) brings together films by Thomas Edison and the Lumiere brothers, as well as clips featuring Marilyn Monroe and The Three Stooges, to provide examples of Niagara Falls as a pop and cultural icon. |
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