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The year 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage up the Hudson River. This major exhibition and its accompanying publication will explore New York’s Dutch roots and the differing ways Dutch-influenced culture has been interpreted throughout New York’s long history. From legends and celebration to scholarly critique and analysis, New Yorkers’ understanding of their unique heritage has changed over the years and contributed to the distinctive culture that is New York today.
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Lambert Doomer, Couple with a Globe, 1658 Oil on panel, 28 ½ x 21 ½ in Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, Gift of Prentis Cobb Hale Jr. 1957.21.1
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The exhibition will explore five key moments of Dutch influence: 1609, when the Half Moon entered New York harbor; 1709, during a period when Dutch culture continued to thrive under English rule; 1809, when Washington Irving’s popular stories began to romanticize Dutch heritage; 1909, when the Hudson-Fulton Celebration attempted to create a common Dutch past for a rapidly growing nation; and 2009, at a moment when the very concept of historical “celebration” is increasingly debated. These stories will be illustrated through a rich array of paintings, prints, photographs, furniture, decorative arts, maps and ephemera from the Museum and other collections. Major lenders include the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the New-York Historical Society, and Yale University Art Gallery.
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Edward Moran, Henry Hudson Entering New York, 1892
Oil on canvas, 36 x 53 inches
Collection of Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts |
The exhibition is being co-curated by Roger Panetta, Adjunct Curator of History, Hudson River Museum and Visiting Professor of History at Fordham University; Bartholomew F. Bland, Curator of Exhibitions, Hudson River Museum, and Laura L. Vookles, Chief Curator of Collections, Hudson River Museum. Eminent outside scholars will provide expertise and contribute to the accompanying publication, which will have national distribution through Fordham University Press. |
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Red Grooms: The Bookstore
Red Grooms’ dazzling installation, was created as a working gift shop for the Hudson River Museum in 1979. After extensive conservation, this beloved Westchester landmark has been reinstalled in its own gallery. The Bookstore incorporates many of the themes that run through Grooms’ best work: the marriage of art and commerce, the clash of high and low, colorful New York characters, and an inviting three-dimensional space that envelops and transports the viewer. The Bookstore deftly joins two favorite haunts of New York City booklover – the lively, oldest secondhand bookshop in NYC, the Isaac Mendoza Book Company, and the patrician Morgan Library – into a work of art.
In terms of materials, The Bookstore was one of a limited number of pieces in which Grooms incorporated vinyl figures. The figures are painted from the inside, a technique inspired by medieval glass-painting techniques, and then are stuffed and sewn.  Tens of thousands of visitors passed through The Bookstore, and, embraced by its environment, it inevitably began to suffer ravages caused by its popularity. Plans were developed to restore the work and Grooms enthusiastically approved the conservation efforts and changes, which include altering the position of the two  entrances to fit new gallery space, the creation of a central island that incorporated the original vinyl patrons, and the design of a painted floor. Grooms remains cautious of making too many changes to a piece that reflects a vision of New York in the 1970s, already passing into history. “An artist can overwork a thing – you can ruin the delicacy of a past moment very easily …I think it’s better to keep it like it was – primitive in that way.” |
John Hill, after William Guy Wall
View Near Fishkill,
#18 of The Hudson River Portfolio
Published by Henry Megary, NY, c. 1821-25
Engraving/aquatint with hand painted watercolor; 14 1/4 x 21 1/4"
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Greener Pastures:
Greener Pastures shows the arcadian ideal of an unchanging countryside inhabited by shepherds and farmers uncorrupted by civilization, a vision of the ancient Greeks that is still a powerful connection in Western art and literature. The pastoral landscape was also celebrated in Hudson River School paintings and in magazines, prints, and literature at the turn of the century. This exhibition is drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition includes more than 30 nineteenth-century works in oil, watercolor, photography, bronze, ceramics, wood, and textiles.
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