Winslow Homer- Watching the Breakers
When you say homer in Cooperstown, you would normally think of the Baseball Hall of Fame located there. But until August 24th, the Fenimore Art Museum has an exhibit of paintings from American master Winslow Homer from the Arkell Museum collection.
We took a quick jaunt out to Cooperstown yesterday to see this exhibit and were pleased with the scope of the show which showed fine examples from all the phases of his career. It had some of his illustration paintings from the Civil War, seascapes in oil and watercolor and his light filled tropical watercolors. It really gave you an idea of how talented he was across mediums and how well he controlled the light in his work.
My personal favorite was On the Beach, featured below. It was panned critically in its time, generally for all the things that make it feel vibrant in a contemporary sense– primarily its almost abstract composition of bands of color.
Japanese Prints at the Fenimore
However, for as much as we liked the Homer show, it was group of Japanese woodblock prints that really caught our eyes. It hung in the same space that held my 2012 show and it transformed the space completely. Inspired by the local but widely renowned Glimmerglass Opera‘s production of Madame Butterfly, this group of prints, some from Hiroshige and Hokusai, shows Japan as it made the transition into modernity at in the latter half of the 19th century. It’s enlightening and elegant at once.
There is also a fine group of historically based paintings of New York state from painter L.F, Tantillo. They are extraordinarily detailed and luminous in the way they are painted. A really unexpected delight as you head down to see the Thaw Collection, the museum’s famous collection of American Indian art masterpieces.
So, if you are in central NY any time soon, I really urge you to take a side trip to Cooperstown. There’s baseball and great art in one lovely lakeside village. What more could you ask?
Winslow Homer- On the bEach
L.F. Tantillo- Manhattan Sunset
Redtree Times 