Dutch Masters at Speed Museum

Thursday, 19 January 2006 17:41

Louisville, Kentucky- The Speed Art Museum will present works by some of history’s greatest artists with the special exhibition Time and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art. Works by Dutch masters Rembrandt, Ruisdael, Wtewael and Cuyp and others will be on view, January 10 through March 26, 2006. The passage of time, wars, fires, floods, storms and other natural disasters each leave their mark on landscapes and structures. The Dutch fascination with subjects that represent the transformative effects of time or circumstances are explored through 85 seventeenth-century paintings, drawings and prints pulled from collections throughout the United States. This timely exhibition shows the Dutch Old Masters wrestling with issues of chance and fate. During the seventeenth century, the Netherlands experienced wars with Spain and England, national independence and emergence as a global seafaring power and the explosive development of the economy and culture. These societal changes led artists of the age to develop more secular themes and through ruins, explore their interest in the distant past and the effects of time and circumstance on their surroundings. Exhibition curator Susan Donahue Kuretsky wrote, “the almost universal human attraction to scenes of disasters and their aftermath is that they make life more vivid by reminding the observer of its fragility.” Works included in the exhibition portray landscapes with medieval structures in ruins, rustic cottages and farmhouses in various states of disrepair, Dutch Italianate landscapes with Roman ruins, and accidental ruins caused by natural disasters. A selection of non-architectural images, such as still-life paintings and images of people, depictions of snarled, weathered trees, will be included to broaden the theme of time and transformation and to further explore the transitory nature of living things. This exhibition was organized by the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York with support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Founded in 1927, The Speed Art Museum has over 13,000 pieces in its collection spanning 6,000 years, ranging from ancient Egyptian to contemporary art. The Museum has distinguished collections of 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting; 18th century French art; Renaissance and Baroque tapestries; and significant holdings of contemporary painting and sculpture. African and Native American works are also represented in the Museum’s collection. Visit the web: http://www.speedmuseum.org

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