A Winter of Wonder at The Hyde: Three New Exhibitions Announced

2024 Season Unveiled

Glens Falls, NY – The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, NY, is thrilled to start the new year with three exhibitions opening in January 2024. On Saturday, January 20, visitors can explore the first exhibition of the 2024 season, Venetian Vistas (January 20 – April 21, 2024); Paul Anthony Smith: Passage (January 27 – June 2, 2024) and Decorating in Style: Furniture from the Permanent Collection (January 27 – April 21, 2024) both open the following Saturday, January 27. The exhibitions are open to the public Thursday through Sunday from 10 am–5 pm.

"We are delighted to kick off an exhilarating new year at The Hyde Collection, unveiling a rich array of masterpieces and artworks sourced both from our own vaults and esteemed public collections," shared John Lefner, CEO of The Hyde Collection. "By leveraging our museum galleries, auditorium, classrooms, and community outreach initiatives, The Hyde actively harnesses the transformative power of art. We aim to kindle curiosity, impart education, provide entertainment, and inspire the Glens Falls region and audiences far and wide."

Curator of the Permanent Collection Bryn Schockmel has organized two exhibitions opening in January, one drawn entirely from The Hyde’s permanent collection, and the other featuring a number of loans from regional museums. "When visitors explore historic Hyde House, they are often curious about the many unique pieces of furniture," says Schockmel. "Decorating in Style showcases furniture from the House and from the vault, allowing viewers to see these pieces in a new light. The exhibition is organized chronologically, and demonstrates how Charlotte and Louis Hyde not only had diverse tastes in fine art, but also in furniture, as well." Schockmel’s other exhibition, Venetian Vistas, explores the city of Venice as a subject, one that has been depicted by countless artists over the centuries. Says Schockmel, "Starting in the eighteenth century, artists from Europe and America began painting cityscapes of Venice, focusing on its reflective surfaces and distinct architecture. Early works by Canaletto and Guardi were often purchased as souvenirs by tourists; today, modern artists continue to reinterpret Venice in new and unique ways. This exhibition features works from The Hyde’s collection, along with over a dozen loans from regional institutions."

Derin Tanyol, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, has organized Paul Anthony Smith: Passage. "Two of the exhibitions opening in January have as their point of departure how artists present views of picturesque places," Tanyol notes. "Venetian Vistas features mostly historic artworks that illustrate some of the key tools of landscape, such as strategically placed trees or buildings that frame and accentuate a deep view into space. Contemporary artist Paul Anthony Smith subverts those traditional pictorial devices: he photographs idyllic Caribbean views, then subjects the print to a process of omission by superimposing beautifully lace-like frames or architectural details over the photo. His work, in part, critiques art historical conventions but also examines the process of seeing itself—especially of locales that have been the subject of colonialism and surveillance. Smith’s work has been reviewed in many major art publications and will help bring further attention to The Hyde Collection’s role as a contemporary art space, not just a great collection of Old Masters."

Venetian Vistas (January 20 – April 21, 2024)

The city of Venice, with its grand canals, distinctive architecture, and romantic charm, has held a continuous allure for artists over the centuries. Traveling to the city from all over the world, artists attempted to convey Venice’s luminosity in paint or record the details of its architecture in line. More recently, artists have turned to contemporary mediums such as photography to capture the unique city. Venetian Vistas focuses on the works of art produced by those artists who ventured to Venice during the period from the eighteenth through the twenty-first century. The exhibition explores the various approaches taken by artists, identifying key monuments in the city of Venice that were frequently depicted and the interest of many artists in capturing the effects of light, water, and reflections. Organized by and exclusively on view at The Hyde Collection, Venetian Vistas features works from The Hyde’s permanent collection, along with a number of loans from museums around the northeast.

Paul Anthony Smith: Passage (January 27 – June 2, 2024) (temporarily closed April 22 – May 3) Paul Anthony Smith (b. Jamaica, 1988; lives and works in New York, NY) makes large-scale photo-based works thematizing colonialism, displacement, migration, and memory. Passage features landscapes photographed in the Caribbean, Smith’s birthplace, that challenge the so-called documentary role of photography through strategies that hide information and slow down the process of seeing.

Smith’s trademark "picotage" is a time-intensive technique where the artist pierces thousands of holes in a photograph, creating intricate, atmospheric veils often based on architectural sources. What Smith refers to as "patterns of disguise" both enhance and erode the subjects, at once framing viewpoints, masking elements of the composition, and evoking the barriers and surveillance imposed on marginalized groups. Smith’s Caribbean landscapes conjure beaches and waterways staged as tropical paradises by the western tourist trade—idyllic Kodak moments dismantled through picotage.

Passage invites comparisons to the idealized and invented views of the Hudson River School painters, raising questions about how we contemplate landscape—as dreamers, exploiters, and explorers. Smith is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City.

Decorating in Style: Furniture from the Permanent Collection (January 27 – April 21, 2024) Charlotte and Louis Hyde not only collected paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, they also had a keen eye for furniture. As you walk through historic Hyde House, the furniture may seem secondary to the Old Master paintings, ancient and modern sculpture, and Renaissance tapestries. However, the chairs, tables, chests, and beds are works of art themselves. Decorating in Style: Furniture from the Permanent Collection invites visitors to examine furnishings from the House in a new context, alongside unique pieces of furniture from the vault—some of which have never before been exhibited. The furniture on view in this exhibition spans five centuries, from the Italian Renaissance, Spanish Baroque, French Rococo, English Georgian Era, and American Mid-Century Modern.

2024 Exhibition Schedule

Venetian Vistas

January 20 – April 21, 2024

Paul Anthony Smith: Passage

January 27 – June 2, 2024 (temporarily closed April 22 – May 3)