Monday, January 13, 2020

Natural Forces: Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington


Winslow Homer, Undertow, 1886. Oil on canvas; 29-13/16 × 47-5/8 in. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark, 1924, 1955.4. Image courtesy clarkart.edu
Natural Forces: Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington, featuring 60 artworks, will reveal connections between artistic themes and techniques used by the two acclaimed American artists. The exhibition opens at the Denver Art Museum on March 15, 2020, and runs through June 7, 2020.

Born a generation apart, both artists succeeded in capturing the quintessential American spirit through works of art at the turn of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, an era of growing industrialization and notions of the closing of the American western frontier. Winslow Homer (1836-1910), who was considered the most original painter of his time, prospered by creating masterful depictions of the Eastern Seaboard, while Frederic Remington (1861-1909) became famous for his iconic representations of the American West. The work of these two self-taught artists continues to be celebrated as independent, innovative, and homegrown.
Frederic Remington, Fight for the Waterhole, 1903. Oil on canvas; 38-1/2 × 51-1/2 × 2-1/8 in. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: The Hogg Brothers Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg/Bridgeman Images.
Natural Forces is co-organized and co-curated by a team of four curators, including the DAM’s Thomas Brent Smith, Curator of Western American Art and Director of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art, and Jennifer Henneman, Associate Curator of Western American Art; Diana Greenwold, Associate Curator of American Art at the Portland Museum of Art; and Maggie Adler, Curator at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. It will debut at the DAM before traveling to the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas.
Winslow Homer, West Point, Prout’s Neck, 1900. Oil on canvas; 30-1/16 × 48-1/8 in. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark, 1941, 1955.7. Image courtesy clarkart.edu
A 225-page exhibition catalog, published in collaboration with Yale Publishing, will be available in The Shop at the Denver Art Museum and online. National leading scholars contributing to the publication include Smith and Henneman, along with Adam Gopnik, staff writer for The New Yorker, Maggie Adler, Diana Greenwold, and Claire Barry, Director of Conservation at the Kimbell Art Museum.