{"id":1428380,"date":"2022-04-11T08:16:28","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T12:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1428380"},"modified":"2022-04-11T08:17:33","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T12:17:33","slug":"see-this-winslow-homer-exhibit-at-the-met-but-skip-the-catalog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/see-this-winslow-homer-exhibit-at-the-met-but-skip-the-catalog\/","title":{"rendered":"See This Winslow Homer Exhibit At The Met, But Skip The Catalog"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsee-this-winslow-homer-exhibit-at-the-met-but-skip-the-catalog%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1428380&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>\u201cWinslow Homer: Crosscurrents\u201d opens at The Metropolitan Museum of Art this month. The exhibit is one of those instances in which the critic must opine on a superb collection of art that is presented in a subpar fashion.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately for you, gentle reader, the art is so very, very good that it remains the focus of both the exhibition and this critique of it, even if we may sail into some choppy waters before putting in to shore.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The work of Winslow Homer (1836-1910) appeals to many different kinds of people, for reasons as diverse as the kinds of art he produced during his long career. Some admire the painterly abstractions of his seascapes along the coast of Maine. Others are drawn to his images of the people who populated rural America.<\/p>\n<p>Outdoor types in particular love his dynamic depictions of animals such as birds, fish, deer, and the pursuit thereof. This highly varied output is all the more remarkable given that Homer was largely, albeit not entirely, a self-taught artist.<\/p>\n<h2>A Broad View of Winslow Homer\u2019s Work<\/h2>\n<p>There hasn\u2019t been a large show of Homer\u2019s work at a major American museum since the National Gallery of Art\u2019s massive retrospective back in 1995. While The Met\u2019s new exhibition isn\u2019t quite as large, it does contain 88 paintings from The Met\u2019s extensive collection, along with significant loans from close to 50 other institutions and private collections.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, it has the feel of a retrospective. As one might expect, many popular favorites are here, such as \u201cBreezing Up (A Fair Wind)\u201d (1873-76), \u201cSnap the Whip\u201d (1872), and others. In addition, there are also a number of works that will be unfamiliar to many visitors.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"637\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/breezing-up-a-fair-wind-1876.jpgHalfHD-1024x637-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-270352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/breezing-up-a-fair-wind-1876.jpgHalfHD-1024x637-1-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/breezing-up-a-fair-wind-1876.jpgHalfHD-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/breezing-up-a-fair-wind-1876.jpgHalfHD-768x478-1-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/breezing-up-a-fair-wind-1876.jpgHalfHD-1.jpg 1286w\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"row justify-content-center g-0 mt-10\"><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\">\u201cBreezing Up (A Fair Wind).\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wikiart.org\/en\/winslow-homer\/breezing-up-a-fair-wind-1876\">Wikiart<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Themes of conflict, compassion, nature, survival, and death run through much of Homer\u2019s work, and it is in these areas that the exhibition takes a particular interest. Fortunately, there are plenty of moments of respite, where one can enjoy simple pleasures such as a wonderfully observed branch of orange fruits and blossoms.<\/p>\n<p>As laid out during the exhibition preview by The Met\u2019s Director Max Hollein, Homer\u2019s \u201cdeeply humanist\u201d art often shows \u201cthe tension between sentiment and struggle,\u201d and the museum clearly has a keen interest in introducing Homer to a new generation. As with all great art, I would argue that Homer remains as relevant to today\u2019s audiences as he was to his own time without the need for a contemporary gloss, but there you are.<\/p>\n<h2>The Focal Point of the Show<\/h2>\n<p>Entering the exhibition, one is confronted by an eye-catching architectural cutout. It draws the gaze through the opposite wall into another gallery behind it, focusing attention on The Met\u2019s painting \u201cThe Gulf Stream\u201d (1899), which serves as the focal point of the show. Indeed, this was the first Homer painting The Met purchased for its permanent collection, back in 1906.<\/p>\n<p>This piece neatly encapsulates a number of the thematic elements Homer revisited again and again. We witness a man in a decrepit fishing boat struggling against both a violent, churning sea and the threat of attack by a shiver of hungry sharks. Appropriately enough, like the eye of a hurricane or the center of a whirlpool, the installation swirls counterclockwise around this piece, so that by the end of the visit one has made a 360-degree circuit back to the start.<\/p>\n<p>Progressing from gallery to gallery, the subjects and styles change as Homer\u2019s art itself changed. We begin with his scenes of the Civil War and Reconstruction, including the quiet power of \u201cPrisoners from the Front\u201d (1866), and the monumental yet softly, gorgeously lit image of \u201cThe Cotton Pickers\u201d (1876), showing influences from contemporary French painters such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875) and Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet (1814-1875), along with Homer\u2019s popular, nostalgic images of rural American life.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"652\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dt83.jpgHalfHD-1024x652-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-270356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dt83.jpgHalfHD-1024x652-1-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dt83.jpgHalfHD-300x191.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dt83.jpgHalfHD-768x489-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dt83.jpgHalfHD.jpg 1256w\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"row justify-content-center g-0 mt-10\"><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\">\u201cPrisoners from the Front.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wikiart.org\/en\/winslow-homer\/prisoners-from-the-front-1866\">Wikiart<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>We then move through his exploration of the human struggle to the frigid, tumbling waters of the North Atlantic, particularly as related to the two years Homer spent living in a small coastal village in northern England before returning home to settle in Maine. We get a bit of a respite with a number of Caribbean scenes, although even here as with \u201cThe Gulf Stream\u201d and \u201cAfter the Hurricane\u201d (1899), the threat posed by nature is never entirely absent.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"735\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/nach-dem-tornado.jpgHalfHD-1024x735-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-270357\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/nach-dem-tornado.jpgHalfHD-1024x735-1-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/nach-dem-tornado.jpgHalfHD-300x215-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/nach-dem-tornado.jpgHalfHD-768x551.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/nach-dem-tornado.jpgHalfHD.jpg 1115w\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"row justify-content-center g-0 mt-10\"><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\">\u201cAfter the Hurricane.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wikiart.org\/en\/winslow-homer\/nach-dem-tornado\">Wikiart<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Toward the end of Homer\u2019s life, we move into darker territory once again, but now human beings are often absent. Crashing seas and dark skies are interrupted only by the presence of animal life, which is shown trying to survive in harsh circumstances.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>An American Masterpiece<\/h2>\n<p>To that point, before taking a look at everything else in the exhibition I zoomed through the circuitous installation to see whether one of Homer\u2019s later paintings, and my personal favorite of his work, was in the show. And so it is. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Fox Hunt\u201d (1893), on loan from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, is appropriately displayed in almost majestic isolation at the conclusion of the exhibition. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is surely one of the greatest masterpieces of 19th-century American art.<\/p>\n<p>Notice the placement of the red fox on a diagonal path across the white foreground, and the incoming threat of black crows on an intersecting diagonal from the upper right, all set against the inhospitable landscape of coastal Maine in deep winter. There\u2019s a tremendous amount of drama in this picture, and Homer intentionally leaves the viewer hanging, wondering what happened next.<\/p>\n<p>I always like to think that the fox\u2019s apparent glance toward the sea suggests he managed to get away from his attackers, but one could certainly have an interesting discussion on this point. The painting is a testament not only to Homer\u2019s skills in composition, handling, and technique but also to his ability to tell an engaging story using only a single image.<\/p>\n<h2>The Setting a Contrast to the Work<\/h2>\n<p>Pictures such as this are what make the quieter, slower pace of life as observed by Homer at other points in his career seem like they were created in another universe or by a different individual. Yet whether we are looking at children on a hillside or a moonlit seascape, there\u2019s a consistent liveliness in how Homer translates what he observes into two-dimensional form. It seems particularly odd, then, that the exhibition where these works are displayed should prove to be such a sterile, lifeless affair.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps one might make the charitable observation that the pale gray walls of the installation enhance the highlighted elements of a handful of the pictures, such as \u201cRight and Left\u201d (1909). Yet when combined with the aforementioned architectural cut-outs, the unusually wide spacing between many of the objects, and the vast gallery spaces that stretch high up to acoustic tile drop ceilings dotted with track lights, the overall effect is rather clinical. One gets the feeling of slogging through miles of hospital corridors lined with pictures available for purchase through the gift shop in the lobby, along with helium balloons and potted plants.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Far more disturbingly, while the placards in the show are generally helpful and informative, the exhibition catalog is, in places, an eye-rolling concoction of artspeak peppered with the kind of purple prose one expects to read in a course outline at Oberlin. If this is meant to attract a new generation of viewers to one of America\u2019s best artists, it does so by consciously alienating a host of potential visitors who do not attend art exhibitions to be preached at. The Walters Art Museum understood and handled this in a far superior fashion in its <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/22\/baltimore-exhibit-explores-the-beautiful-and-deadly-world-of-majolica-pottery\/\">current \u201cMajolica Mania\u201d exhibition<\/a>. I prefer to entertain the condescension of the cognoscenti, when I prefer it at all, in 280 characters or fewer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s much to admire, learn about, and simply enjoy in this new offering at The Met. If you happen to find yourself in New York this spring or summer, you should definitely make the time to see this show. With the high costs involved in exhibitions of this size due to the art lending process, it\u2019s difficult to imagine when such a comprehensive collection of Homer\u2019s work might be gathered again all in one place.<\/p>\n<p>If you do go, please go to look at the art, and simply enjoy it for what it is. As is often the case in our cultural institutions of late, those who are desperate to try to prove their continued relevance by shoehorning something from another age into parameters defined by current academic and popular theories will, in time, prove to be just as dated an approach to understanding the art as the earlier views it seeks to supplant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWinslow Homer: Crosscurrents\u201d is at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from April 11 to July 31, 2022, before traveling to the National Gallery in London in a slightly different incarnation in the autumn. For tickets and more information, please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/exhibitions\/listings\/2022\/winslow-homer\">visit here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  William Newton is an Art Critic at The Federalist. Newton is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, The University of Notre Dame Law School, and Sotheby\u2019s Institute of Art in London. He lives in Washington DC. Learn more at <a href=\"http:\/\/wbdnewton.com\/\">wbdnewton.com<\/a> and follow on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wbdnewton\">@wbdnewton<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWinslow Homer: Crosscurrents\u201d opens at The Metropolitan Museum of Art this month. The exhibit is one of those instances in which the critic must opine on a superb collection of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":506,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1428380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/506"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1428380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1428380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1428380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1428380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}