Roslyn Harbor, NY - In The American Spirit: Paintings by Mort Künstler, at Nassau County Museum of Art (NCMA) from August 27 through November 5, the theme of American history is arranged chronologically, spanning the early days of the nation from the Revolution to the Space Age.  This reflects the major project that has engaged artist Mort Künstler throughout his career.  Regarded widely as the leading history painter of today, Künstler, who works in a heightened realist vein, is renowned for his paintings' fidelity to their subjects and their capacity to vividly convey the narrative that has animated our nation's growth.  The American Spirit is an original exhibition organized for NCMA by the museum's chief curator, Franklin Hill Perrell.

Künstler's work is esteemed for its drama and artistry and for the extraordinary level of authenticity that results from the artist's intense research.  He is regarded as the world's foremost Civil War artist: Dr. James I Robertson, Jr., the dean of Civil War historians and author of Stonewall Jackson, said "To study his paintings is to simply see history alive....none captures the human element, the aura of leadership, the sense of being there and sharing in the drama quite like Mort Künstler."  Attesting to the artist's popularity with the public, NCMA's 1998 exhibition, The Civil War: The Paintings of Mort Künstler, broke all of the museum's previous attendance records and still stands as one of the museum's top-drawing shows ever. 

The artist is widely acknowledged for his links to the Golden Age of Illustration, to artists such as Rockwell and Leyendecker, but as this exhibition will demonstrate, Künstler's work is also positioned within the larger context of American art.  His techniques and style stands upon the foundation of a long-honored American tradition of realism, the premise of descriptive literalism..  Stylistic comparisons may be made with artists of the 19th century such as George Caleb Bingham, Frederick Church, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, Winslow Homer and Frederick Remington and early 20th-century artists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood.

Künstler studied art at Brooklyn College, UCLA and the Pratt Institute. He became a highly successful illustrator, receiving coveted assignments from books and magazine covers such as Newsweek, Saturday Evening Post, Mad Magazine and Boy's Life.  It was his work for National Geographic, where he was creating highly accurate representations of historical subjects that pointed the way to his convincing depictions of scenes in American history.  An assignment from CBS-TV to do the paintings for the miniseries, The Blue and The Gray, began Künstler's close association with the Civil War.  The High Water Mark, his painting for that series, is considered the most accurate and exciting rendering ever of the battle at Gettysburg.  It was unveiled at Gettysburg National Military Park Museum in 1988 in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the battle.

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