Zanesville Museum of Art Opens Exhibition of Watercolor Paintings
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT: Susan Talbot-Stanaway, Director, January 13, 2010 phone 740-452-0741 or susan@zanesvillemuseumofart.org.
ZANESVILLE MUSEUM OF ART OPENS EXHIBITION OF WATERCOLOR PAINTINGS
“Watercolors from the Permanent Collection” features 58 paintings dating from the late 1800s through the present. Although paintings by famed American painters John Marin, William Stanley Haseltine, Arthur B. Davies, and Herbert Tschudy are included, the Ohio tradition in watercolor is strongly represented in works by Walter Chapman, Fred Leach, Don Getz, Christopher Leeper, Karl Kappes, Stanley B. Thompson, and Richard Phipps. Many of the paintings are landscapes, with a special group of regional winter scenes.
The history of the watercolor medium in America is defined by examples of style through the past 140 years. Castel Fusano, Ostia, near Rome, c. 1870, by American expatriate William Stanley Haseltine, is a softly monochromatic rendering of a well-known Italian landmark. Two early paintings by British/American illustrator Louis Rhead are splendid examples of Victorian “body color.” For this technique, the pigments are thickly applied and often opaque. Both paintings were created for reproduction as book illustrations.
Several Southwestern landscapes by Herbert Tschudy were selected for the exhibition. Tschudy was born in Plattsburg, OH, in 1874. Tschudy painted the deserts of the Southwest and the lifeways of the Navaho. As Curator of Modern Art for The Brooklyn Museum, Tschudy formed one of the earliest major museum collections of modern watercolors.
Paintings by three important early 20th century American Modernists are included. They are John Marin, Arthur B. Davies, and Abraham Walkowitz. Marin was trained to be an architect but was unsuccessful. His aunts sent him to art school in Paris, and he began to create prints and watercolors. In 1909 photographer Edward Steichen showed some of his watercolors to Alfred Stieglitz. From that time on Stieglitz promoted Marin’s watercolors. Marin is best known for his seascapes, and ZMA’s Before the Wind, 1938, is a very fine example. Walkowitz was an urban painter, and his painting describes pedestrians striding down an avenue. Davies’s retained a more romantic, realistic style, but gained recognition in the history of American art as one of the prime organizers of the 1913 New York Armory Show.
Contemporary Zanesville area artists whose watercolors are included are Juanita Williams, Michael Seiler, Marie Dolmas Lekorenos, and Pat Hodgson.
The exhibition continues through February 27.
The Zanesville Museum of Art is located at 620 Military Road, Zanesville, OH 43701. Phone: (740) 452-0741; FAX (740) 452-0797. On the web, www.zanesvillemuseumofart.org. Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 10 – 5; Thursday, 10 – 8:30; Saturday 9 - 5. Closed Sundays and Mondays.
Zanesville Art Center programs and events are funded in part by a grant from The Ohio Arts Council. The Ohio Arts Council is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically.