Dear Friends of HRM,

Talk about an entrance. The Hudson Valley is simply awash in golds, reds, and oranges. Fall has announced its bold arrival and here at Hudson River Museum, we’ve been preparing for the moment.

We are proud to usher in the season with two compelling new exhibitions organized by the HRM that consider the lasting power of landscapes and the intersection of American art and popular culture. The Bierstadt Brothers: Painting and Photography, which opens to the public today, features work by Albert, Charles, and Edward Bierstadt—three artistic brothers who had a significant impact on our collective perceptions of American art, landscapes, and the commercial image revolution. Their work takes us from the historic homes and views right here in Westchester to the wide landscapes of the West, igniting important conversations about westward expansion and native lands.

Here’s an interesting local fact: the Museum is indebted to Edward Bierstadt for his interior photographs of Glenview, which proved essential to restoration efforts from the 1970s and onward. If you have not recently taken a tour through our riverfront home on the National Register of Historic Places, I highly recommend doing so. Also, tomorrow, Saturday, October 22, 2:30pm, Laura Vookles, Chair, HRM Curatorial Department, will be giving a special Curator’s Tour of The Bierstadt Brothers. It’s an excellent opportunity to learn about the brothers’ intersecting artistic careers.

Also opening today is Matrix: Prints by Women Artists, 1960–1990, which explores this period of experimentation in printmaking among women artists, who used the art form as a potent means of creative expression and a way to pierce the male-dominated art market. Artists who pushed the envelope—or pulled the proofs, as it were—include Emma Amos, Chryssa, Helen Frankenthaler, the Guerrilla Girls, Yvonne Jacquette, Louise Nevelson, Faith Ringgold, Miriam Schapiro, Julia Santos Solomon, and Nitza Tufiño. Today it may be difficult to imagine the artworld without these names, but it is a right they earned and a credit to their creative vision, technical prowess, persistence, and commitment to creating that space. So many now stand on their shoulders.

I will be giving a special Members Tour of Matrix on Saturday, November 19, 11am, before the Museum opens to the public. I hope to see you there; if you are not an HRM Member, you can join here. It’s one of the best ways to support and sustain the HRM.

Together these exhibitions embody the spirit of discovery, diversity, and connection at Hudson River Museum and the different ways images are a powerful form of expression. We embrace this opportunity to understand the local to the national legacy of the Bierstadt brothers in painting and photography through exceptional loans and new gifts, while shedding new light on three decades of influential and trailblazing women printmakers in Matrix.

And, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our perennial favorite Halloweekend and Day of the Dead festival on Saturday and Sunday, October 29 and 30. The weekend will be jam-packed with hands-on art and science activities, spooky planetarium shows, Gothic Glenview Tours, Día de Muertos/Day of the Dead altar (you are invited to add a copy of a photo of a departed loved one), and even a live reptile show!

We’ve been hard at work on the finishing touches our future home for exhibitions. Stay tuned for a major announcement about the official opening of our new West Wing and don’t forget to check this page for some outstanding new photos of this transformative project for our City, County and region.

With appreciation for the vibrancy you bring to the HRM, I looking forward to seeing you at the Museum soon,

Masha Turchinsky
Director and CEO

PS. Don’t forget to tell a friend about our Museums for All program!

Images: Albert Bierstadt (American, born Germany, 1830–1902). Mount St. Helens, Columbia River, Oregon, ca. 1889. Oil on canvas. Collection of J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox. Image: Courtesy of Questroyal Fine Art. Guerrilla Girls (American, established New York, 1985). Do Women Have to Be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum?, 1989 (printed 2022). Photo-reproduction of original lithograph poster. © Guerrilla Girls, courtesy guerrillagirls.com.