NEWSLETTER
The Exhibition Showcases the Series of Works for the First Time and Garnered Rave Reviews
On view through Sunday, February 23, 2020
Press images can be downloaded here
Yonkers, NY (February 10, 2020) —Don't miss your chance to come to the Hudson River Museum to see the masterworks in Thomas Cole's Refrain: The Paintings of Catskill Creek, an exhibition which has garnered rave reviews from The New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, and more for its prescience and beauty.
As Barrymore Laurence Scherer writes in the Wall Street Journal: "An exhibition of the English-born painter’s lesser-known Hudson Valley scenes evinces his love for natural beauty and sorrow over its devastation."
Peter Schjeldahl notes in the The New Yorker that: "You know that temporary relief has arrived when your heart stabilizes and your mind clears. With Cole, the catalyst is marvelling,"
And exhibition curator H. Daniel Peck told the Journal News that: "We needed a great American painter, and he was it.”
The series explores for the first time Cole's extraordinary Catskill Creek landscapes, which he created again and again from 1827 to 1845—virtually the whole course of his mature career. The exhibition has brought strong local and national attendance, with visitors hailing from 42 states. We will commemorate the finale of this extraordinary exhibition with a Farewell Tour of Thomas Cole's Refrain on Sunday, February 23, at 1:30pm.
Cole's fascination with Catskill Creek, which enters the Hudson River at Catskill, New York, speaks volumes about his artistry and his commitment to the environment. These iconic images—as timeless and timely as ever—are essential to understanding this pioneering artist and proto-environmentalist who captured nature’s beauty and underscored the essential need to protect the environment. The exhibition was organized by the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in association with the Hudson River Museum. Learn more about why Catskill Creek captivated Cole.
The exhibition is based on new scholarship developed by H. Daniel Peck, Exhibition Curator and John Guy Vassar, Jr., Professor Emeritus of English at Vassar College, in his book of the same title, published by Three Hills, an imprint of Cornell University Press. “The paintings contain mysteries—enigmatic figures, evocative human structures, and symbolic landforms—that tell stories of their own,” notes Peck.
The exhibition also includes paintings of the Catskill Creek scene by leading nineteenth century artists who were inspired by Cole: Asher B. Durand, Frederic Edwin Church, and Charles Herbert Moore and features Thomas Cole paintings from private collections that have rarely been seen in public.
#ThomasColesRefrain #CatskillCreek
The exhibition is made possible by the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, Wyeth Foundation for American Art, Marshall Field V, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, Empire State Development’s I LOVE NEW YORK program under the Market NY initiative, The Bay & Paul Foundations, the Enoch Foundation, The Educational Foundation of America, Joan K. Davidson through the J. M. Kaplan Fund, and the Kindred Spirits Society of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site.
At the Hudson River Museum, major sponsorship is made possible by The Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts. Additional support is provided by Generation Yonkers and the Ann and Arthur Grey Foundation.
Press Contact:
Jen McCaffery, jmccaffery@hrm.org
914.963.4550 x240
Image: Thomas Cole. Crossing the Stream, 1827. Oil on wood panel. Jamee and Marshall Field Collection.
The Hudson River Museum
511 Warburton Avenue
Yonkers, NY 10701
(914) 963-4550