Olivia
The sesquicentennial anniversary of the Civil War has led to an outpouring of reminiscent activities, productions, and exhibitions. Memories of the gruesome times of war, the fervently patriotic atmosphere, and the vacillating approaches to peace point to a time of tumult. Eleanor Jones Harvey commemorates the War Between the States with her curatorial endeavor at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Civil War and American Art. The show follows the war, from the mounting tensions in American politics, prior to the war, to the weighty meditations on the process of recovery, following the violence. The seventy-five works that compose the exhibit, including fifty-seven paintings and eighteen photographs, communicate the range of sentiments and beliefs that fueled the era’s people.
Most striking upon initial review of the exhibit was the presence of icons of Civil War imagery, pieces unmistakable to a layperson’s eye. The galleries boasted a wealth of Homer paintings, including some of his earliest endeavors on canvas like Prisoners from the Front. Frederick Edwin Church’s blatantly nationalistic Our Banner in the Sky was present as well as an array of Matthew Brady’s piercing documentation of the horror of war. To achieve such a fabulous collection of renowned works, Harvey executed the negotiation of impressive loans. Included in the exhibit were works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the New York Historical Society as well as pieces of distinction drawn from private collections. The amalgamation of the time’s greatest artistic masterpieces in a single exhibition is an achievement deserved of great admiration.
Despite the success of gathering artwork for the walls, the first and most formidable task, the gallery lacked coherent organization. The show opened with numerous images of violence, Albert Bierstadt’s Guerrilla Warfare and Winslow Homer’s Sharpshooter to name a few. But the show quickly transitioned into more metaphorical pieces, predicting the onset of the war. Among these was luminist Martin Johnson Heade’s Approaching Thunderstorm, a dark, brooding painting that reflects the time’s tempestuous political environment prior to the first blows. The show was not arranged chronologically, but instead by theme: artwork produced by soldiers on the warfront, the new medium of photography’s involvement in chronicling the war, artists’ counsel on the proper road toward recovery, sweeping natural vistas as a metaphor for violence. In other sections intended theme was less evident, the fragmented order of the works confusing the viewer. Although many interpretations, especially those of artwork pertaining to recovery, were pointed and enlightening, prompting a new perspective on the specific subject matter, the overall experience was that of a disjointed medley of art.
Although the vast majority of the pieces were accompanied by a label, providing analysis of the work, much of the commentary was predictable. Mirroring common study of art, available in rudimentary art history textbooks, the show provided a solid basis for understanding Civil War art for the common person. Yet the show broke from common definition of Civil War works by incorporating mighty landscape paintings of foreign environs, produced by American painters as the war raged on far away in their homeland. Although commendable for challenging the norm, the risk failed to succeed as interpretations of the pieces drew mighty conclusions from weak connections. A prime example is the inclusion of Frederick Church’s Cotopaxi, a representation of a menacing South American volcano. Harvey noted that the date of the work, 1862, coincided with Frederick Douglass’s condemnation of slavery as “a moral volcano.” The conclusion that Cotopaxi serves as Church’s endorsement of Douglass’s views on slavery, while interesting, is not entirely convincing. Church likely devised and planed for the work prior to 1862, while he was still in rural South America. Given the bucolic region’s isolation from the United States’ politics, it is far more likely that Church, a worshiper of Mother Earth, was inspired by the marvel of an active volcano. Perhaps the most interesting fact is not about the piece’s distant relationship to a war in a far off land but the fact that the artist fled the country during a time of violence. In alignment with other painters of the Hudson River School, Frederick Church sought to depict the beauty and mighty force of nature, and America was devoid of inspiration for the artist as its inhabitants’ brutal war tactics destroyed the landscape. The show featured two diverging styles, the advancing techniques of precise photography and meticulous realist paintings used to depict the war and the bygone era of romanticized landscape painting as it desperately clung for life. Harvey’s explication of the works failed to persuade, for interpretations were either too familiar or too radical.
Despite the noticeable gaps in the exhibit, both organizationally and analytically, it is certainly worthy of recommendation. The broad spectrum of pieces, in media and subject, make the galleries a patchwork quilt of perspectives on the Civil War. Within the large exhibit, there is a piece everyone can resonate with. This show serves as an opportunity to embrace the messages artists had for people of their time, those who had struggled through the war, and those of later generations, those attempting to understand the gravity of the violence. One hundred and fifty years after the war drew to a close, Civil War artists continue to communicate with their audiences.
Images Cited
“Approaching Thunderstorm.” 2000. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 5 April 2013.
<http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/20011406>.
“The Civil War and American Art.” 2000. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 5 April 2013.
<http://www.metmuseum.org/en/exhibitions/listings/2013/civil-war>.
“Guerrilla Warfare. Picket Duty in Virginia.” WikiPaintings. 5 April 2013.
<http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/albert-bierstadt/guerrilla-warfare-picket-duty-in-virginia-1862>.
“Oil Study of Cotopaxi Frederic Edwin Church.” 1 April 2011. Wikimedia Commons. 5 April 2013.
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oil_Study_of_Cotopaxi_Frederic_Edwin_Church.jpg>.
“Winslow Homer.” 6 January 2013. Wikimedia Commons. 5 April 2013.
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Winslow_Homer_-_Sharpshooter.jpg>.
"Winslow Homer: Prisoners from the Front (22.207)." 21 March 2013. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 5 April 2013.
<http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/22.207>.
Wong, Michael. “Presentation Week 5: From Roger Fenton's combat photographs to Robert Capa's war photography.” 13 February 2011. Michael Wong. 5 April 2013.
<http://sen5e5.blogspot.com/2011/02/presentation-week-5-from-roger-fentons.html>.
The sesquicentennial anniversary of the Civil War has led to an outpouring of reminiscent activities, productions, and exhibitions. Memories of the gruesome times of war, the fervently patriotic atmosphere, and the vacillating approaches to peace point to a time of tumult. Eleanor Jones Harvey commemorates the War Between the States with her curatorial endeavor at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Civil War and American Art. The show follows the war, from the mounting tensions in American politics, prior to the war, to the weighty meditations on the process of recovery, following the violence. The seventy-five works that compose the exhibit, including fifty-seven paintings and eighteen photographs, communicate the range of sentiments and beliefs that fueled the era’s people.
Most striking upon initial review of the exhibit was the presence of icons of Civil War imagery, pieces unmistakable to a layperson’s eye. The galleries boasted a wealth of Homer paintings, including some of his earliest endeavors on canvas like Prisoners from the Front. Frederick Edwin Church’s blatantly nationalistic Our Banner in the Sky was present as well as an array of Matthew Brady’s piercing documentation of the horror of war. To achieve such a fabulous collection of renowned works, Harvey executed the negotiation of impressive loans. Included in the exhibit were works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the New York Historical Society as well as pieces of distinction drawn from private collections. The amalgamation of the time’s greatest artistic masterpieces in a single exhibition is an achievement deserved of great admiration.
Despite the success of gathering artwork for the walls, the first and most formidable task, the gallery lacked coherent organization. The show opened with numerous images of violence, Albert Bierstadt’s Guerrilla Warfare and Winslow Homer’s Sharpshooter to name a few. But the show quickly transitioned into more metaphorical pieces, predicting the onset of the war. Among these was luminist Martin Johnson Heade’s Approaching Thunderstorm, a dark, brooding painting that reflects the time’s tempestuous political environment prior to the first blows. The show was not arranged chronologically, but instead by theme: artwork produced by soldiers on the warfront, the new medium of photography’s involvement in chronicling the war, artists’ counsel on the proper road toward recovery, sweeping natural vistas as a metaphor for violence. In other sections intended theme was less evident, the fragmented order of the works confusing the viewer. Although many interpretations, especially those of artwork pertaining to recovery, were pointed and enlightening, prompting a new perspective on the specific subject matter, the overall experience was that of a disjointed medley of art.
Although the vast majority of the pieces were accompanied by a label, providing analysis of the work, much of the commentary was predictable. Mirroring common study of art, available in rudimentary art history textbooks, the show provided a solid basis for understanding Civil War art for the common person. Yet the show broke from common definition of Civil War works by incorporating mighty landscape paintings of foreign environs, produced by American painters as the war raged on far away in their homeland. Although commendable for challenging the norm, the risk failed to succeed as interpretations of the pieces drew mighty conclusions from weak connections. A prime example is the inclusion of Frederick Church’s Cotopaxi, a representation of a menacing South American volcano. Harvey noted that the date of the work, 1862, coincided with Frederick Douglass’s condemnation of slavery as “a moral volcano.” The conclusion that Cotopaxi serves as Church’s endorsement of Douglass’s views on slavery, while interesting, is not entirely convincing. Church likely devised and planed for the work prior to 1862, while he was still in rural South America. Given the bucolic region’s isolation from the United States’ politics, it is far more likely that Church, a worshiper of Mother Earth, was inspired by the marvel of an active volcano. Perhaps the most interesting fact is not about the piece’s distant relationship to a war in a far off land but the fact that the artist fled the country during a time of violence. In alignment with other painters of the Hudson River School, Frederick Church sought to depict the beauty and mighty force of nature, and America was devoid of inspiration for the artist as its inhabitants’ brutal war tactics destroyed the landscape. The show featured two diverging styles, the advancing techniques of precise photography and meticulous realist paintings used to depict the war and the bygone era of romanticized landscape painting as it desperately clung for life. Harvey’s explication of the works failed to persuade, for interpretations were either too familiar or too radical.
Despite the noticeable gaps in the exhibit, both organizationally and analytically, it is certainly worthy of recommendation. The broad spectrum of pieces, in media and subject, make the galleries a patchwork quilt of perspectives on the Civil War. Within the large exhibit, there is a piece everyone can resonate with. This show serves as an opportunity to embrace the messages artists had for people of their time, those who had struggled through the war, and those of later generations, those attempting to understand the gravity of the violence. One hundred and fifty years after the war drew to a close, Civil War artists continue to communicate with their audiences.
Images Cited
“Approaching Thunderstorm.” 2000. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 5 April 2013.
<http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/20011406>.
“The Civil War and American Art.” 2000. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 5 April 2013.
<http://www.metmuseum.org/en/exhibitions/listings/2013/civil-war>.
“Guerrilla Warfare. Picket Duty in Virginia.” WikiPaintings. 5 April 2013.
<http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/albert-bierstadt/guerrilla-warfare-picket-duty-in-virginia-1862>.
“Oil Study of Cotopaxi Frederic Edwin Church.” 1 April 2011. Wikimedia Commons. 5 April 2013.
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oil_Study_of_Cotopaxi_Frederic_Edwin_Church.jpg>.
“Winslow Homer.” 6 January 2013. Wikimedia Commons. 5 April 2013.
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Winslow_Homer_-_Sharpshooter.jpg>.
"Winslow Homer: Prisoners from the Front (22.207)." 21 March 2013. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 5 April 2013.
<http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/22.207>.
Wong, Michael. “Presentation Week 5: From Roger Fenton's combat photographs to Robert Capa's war photography.” 13 February 2011. Michael Wong. 5 April 2013.
<http://sen5e5.blogspot.com/2011/02/presentation-week-5-from-roger-fentons.html>.