In his enlightened quest for the spiritual nature, Thomas Cole finds redemption in brushstrokes.
Founder of America's first Hudson River School art movement, Cole's romantic aesthetic vision depicts the Hudson River Valley and beyond, including the Catskills, Adirondacks, and White Mountains.
"Thomas Cole Studies: Memory and Inspiration" opens at the Albuquerque Museum. It will last until February 12, 2023. The exhibition includes a reconstruction of the artist's studio, including an easel, color wheel, paint box, plaster, brush and palette, as well as 26 oil paintings borrowed from national historic sites. COLLAR. National Gallery of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian Art Museum, Albany Institute of Art and History, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and more. It contains paintings and other items that were in Cole's new studio when he died suddenly at the age of 47. The exhibition was curated by Franklin Kelly, Senior Curator, and Christian Ellis Valone, Curator of American Paintings at the National Gallery of Art.
“The way (Cole) uses light to create these glowing paintings is just beautiful,” said Josie Lopez, curator of the Albuquerque Museum. "He eventually became one of the artists who founded one of the most important art movements in the United States."
Cole (1801–1848) was a polymath whose creative contributions included not only painting, but also poetry, philosophy, essays, interior design, and architecture. The landscape paintings produced during his short career explored a wide variety of themes, including American landscapes; European landscape; work with historical, religious and mythological themes; and paintings with imaginary and allegorical themes. Cole was at the height of his powers when he died, enjoying immense public and critical acclaim, and widely regarded as America's greatest artist.
After Cole's death, his family maintained the New Studio as a shrine to his memory; over the years, he remains exactly the same as he was when he left it. Filled with completed and unfinished paintings, sketches, drawings, painting tools and materials, the new studio offers the largest and most complete collection of Cole's work available anywhere in the world. The workshop became a place of pilgrimage for those who wanted to learn from his example.
The original new studio no longer exists, and much of the art and other items inside have long since been scattered. However, later inventory, visitor reports, and photographs give an idea of what was there. This exhibition presents the New Studio as it was around 1850, with works known to have been left on the site after Cole's death and various materials that are reminiscent of the work environment in which he made art.
Cole's light brushwork creates a private haven dominated by ancient monuments, including The Dream of Arcadia (1838) with its Greek temples, tall forests and lofty mountains. From an early age, he sketched wherever he traveled, capturing the distinctive features of the American landscape. He visited Greece twice, combining landscape and history. The numbers will take second place.
“You really listen to romantic images of Arcadia in Greece,” Lopez says. “Children have fun in the water. This is heavenly quality. I listen to simpler time."
In Tower by Moonlight, plants climb the ruins of a stone tower.
He also worked on the series.
After a long period of maturation, Cole's concept of La Croix et du Monde crystallized around the idea of The Two Pilgrims. The goal is to follow people on a journey of contrasts, one seeking spiritual truth and salvation ("Pilgrim of the Cross") and the other seeking the pleasures of the material world ("Pilgrim of the World").
For the "Pilgrim of the Cross", the first stage of the quest passes through a rugged mountainous landscape, symbolizing the "test of faith". In the next canvas, the pilgrim finds his gift, a brightly lit scene of "infinite and eternal", in which the cross is revealed to him in its entirety.
Tornado in the American Forest (1831) reveals the worst features in its gloomy and menacing composition.
Conversely, Niagara Falls, c. The year 1830 turned the churning waters into emerald-turquoise waterfalls.
“This place has become a tourist destination,” Lopez said. “He painted it as if he looked at it when it was uninhabited.
"As he gets older, he sees the influence of people, although I wouldn't call him an environmentalist," he continues. “There is a recognition and understanding that the human impact on the planet is something they are worried about.”
After his untimely death at the age of 47, Cole influenced artists such as Frederick Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt, who brought what he learned from his mentor to the Rocky Mountains and Yosemite.
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