Pennsylvania Impressionism at Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin

Earth, River, and Light: Masterworks of Pennsylvania Impressionism
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI
February 7 - April 10, 2004

Two exhibitions of American Impressionist paintings – one featuring historic works of Pennsylvania Impressionism, the other focusing on contemporary works from the Mid-Atlantic region – open February 7 at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum.

Earth, River, and Light: Masterworks of Pennsylvania Impressionism includes 47 works by a diverse collection of artists who became known collectively as the Pennsylvania Impressionists. The exhibition presents a comprehensive survey of this important 20th century American art movement that was fueled by a passion to capture on canvas the dynamic effects of light and atmosphere on the environment.

American Impressionism was firmly rooted in the American soil. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, artists increasingly spurned cities, preferring instead to live and work in the numerous art colonies that sprang up throughout the country. One of the best known of these colonies began in 1898 on the banks of the Delaware River north of Philadelphia, in the picturesque Bucks County village of New Hope. Here, artists found an ample supply of "painting-ready" bucolic settings featuring streams, pastures, quarries, farmhouse, and colonial villages.

The Pennsylvania Impressionists played a dominant role in the American art world of the teens and twenties. Their work was celebrated for its freedom from European influence and was praised as being the first truly national artistic expression. Many of the artists both studied and taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and their stylistic roots hearkened back to the "Academy Realism" practiced by Thomas Eakins.

Edward Redfield (1969-1965), generally acknowledged as the stylistic leader of the New Hope painters, passionately believed that the vitality of a place could only be captured by an artist whose senses were actively engaged. Painters had to see, hear, smell, feel, and even taste what they put on their canvases. To accomplish this, he often endured great physical hardships while making his famous snow scenes, sometimes standing for hours in knee-deep snow with his canvas strapped to a tree.

Edward Redfield’s vigorously realistic, unsentimental brand of Impressionism influenced several generations of artists. However, what most characterized Pennsylvania Impressionism was not a single, unified style, but rather the emergence of many mature distinctive voices: Daniel Garber’s luminous, poetic renditions of the Delaware River; Fern Coppedge’s colorful village scenes; Robert Spencer’s Ashcan School-influenced views of mills and tenements; John Fulton Folinsbee’s moody snowscapes; and William L. Lathrop’s deeply felt, evocative Bucks County vistas.

Earth, River, and Light: Masterworks of Pennsylvania Impressionism is organized by the James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and is curated by Brian H. Peterson. The exhibition is accompanied by a major publication on Pennsylvania Impressionism, principally authored by Peterson.

As a complement to Earth, River, and Light, Woodson Art Museum curator Andrew McGivern has organized an exhibition of contemporary works by artists who are carrying on the traditions of the Pennsylvania Impressionists. "Sunlight and Shadow" presents 24 works by 11 members of the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association. Like their predecessors, they, too, find endless inspiration in subjects bathed in natural light and enjoy the challenge of painting quickly outdoors in the face of changing atmospheric conditions. The group’s mission is to promote an appreciation of and participation in the art of outdoor painting.

LEIGH YAWKEY WOODSON ART MUSEUM
700 North 12th Street [Franklin and 12th Streets], Wausau, Wisconsin 54403-5007
www.lywam.org