Asher B. Durand landscapes at the San Diego Museum of Art

Tuesday, 27 November 2007 01:53

SAN DIEGO, CA - SDMA is the only West Coast venue for a major exhibition of works by the great 19th-century American landscape painter Asher B. Durand. Running from February 2 through April 27, 2008, Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and the American Landscape surveys over 50 paintings, drawings, and engravings by Durand.

One of the foremost artists of his era and a founder of the Hudson River School, Durand created the most memorable American landscape paintings of the mid-19th century. In conjunction, the Museum has organized a beautiful display of California plein-air paintings, together with the newly opened Lux Art Institute. Plein Air Past and Present: A Collaboration Between SDMA and the Lux Art Institute will include nearly 40 paintings and will run concurrently with Kindred Spirits.

Organized by the Brooklyn Museum, Kindred Spirits is the first monographic exhibition devoted to Asher B. Durand’s career in more than 35 years. It includes paintings of various areas in New York, including Kaaterskill Clove, as well as portraits of President Andrew Jackson and Durand’s landmark painting in American art, Kindred Spirits, which depicts his close friend and fellow Hudson River School artist Thomas Cole with poet William Cullen Bryant. Kindred Spirits has recently been in the spotlight as a result of its 2005 record-breaking purchase from the New-York Historical Society by Alice Walton, heiress to the WalMart fortune. As the final venue for the exhibition, SDMA provides a unique opportunity to view this iconic painting before it joins the Walton Family Foundation. Also featured is SDMA’s own work by Durand, Landscape—Composition: In the Catskills, which was re-framed especially for this exhibition.

“Durand is a key figure in the development of our nation’s art history,” says Derrick R. Cartwright, SDMA’s executive director. “He belonged to a generation of artists who felt a special kinship to landscape. This comes across in the work that gives the exhibition its title—Kindred Spirits—and the entire body of work expresses quintessential ideals about environment, national character, and the wonders of untamed nature.”

Asher B. Durand (1796–1886) was a leader in the New York art world of his time, and was especially credited for his role as a proponent of the so-called Hudson River School, a mid-19th-century American art movement that produced idyllic depictions of both bits of nature and grand landscape views. After working as an engraver for nearly a decade, Durand turned to painting portraits in the early 1830s. In 1837, he embarked on a trip to the Adirondacks with his close friend and mentor Thomas Cole. Following this journey, Durand began to focus on landscape painting exclusively and brought a descriptively precise, yet poetic vision to his views of the American countryside.

Kindred Spirits highlights the various stages of Durand’s fruitful career, with extra emphasis given to the large-scale landscape paintings for which he is best remembered today. His multifaceted career spanned over sixty years, from the inception of a national cultural identity using scenery, through the rise of the Hudson River School.

Plein Air Past and Present: A Collaboration Between SDMA and the Lux Art Institute features dozens of works from the Southern California region, most of which were painted in the open air (plein air) during the late 19th and early 20th century. The display will feature the most important works from SDMA’s own collection, as well as selected loans from top local collectors. In addition, one work from plein-air painter Astrid Preston, the Lux Art Institute’s second artist-in-residency, will also be on view.

Before arriving at the San Diego Museum of Art, Kindred Spirits was on view at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, March 30–July 29, 2007, and is currently on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., September 14, 2007–January 6, 2008.

Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and the American Landscape is organized by the Brooklyn Museum and is made possible by the Henry Luce Foundation. Local presentation is supported by the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Paul F. Mosher, Mr. and Mrs. John I. Bloomberg, Sharon and Joel Labovitz, and two anonymous donors. Additional support is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program, and members of the San Diego Museum of Art.

Museum Information
San Diego Museum of Art - 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park - San Diego, CA 921122107 - General Information: (619) 232-7931 - Web site: www.sdmart.org

The historic San Diego Museum of Art provides a rich and diverse cultural experience for more than 400,000 annual visitors. Located in the heart of beautiful Balboa Park, the Museum's nationally renowned collections include Spanish and Italian old masters, South Asian paintings, and 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and sculptures. In addition, the Museum regularly features major exhibitions of art from around the world, as well as an extensive year-round schedule of supporting cultural and educational programs.