The Syracuse University (SU) Art Galleries in Syracuse and the Louise and Bernard Palitz Gallery at SU’s Joseph I. Lubin House in New York City will jointly present the exhibition “Winslow Homer’s Empire State: Houghton Farm and Beyond” this fall. The exhibition, which runs August 18 to October 11 in Syracuse and from November 9 to December 6 in New York City, is the first to examine in depth this crucial turning point in the artist’s career, a period when he began to achieve stylistic maturity in his work.
David Tatham, SU professor emeritus of fine arts and a noted Homer scholar, serves as guest curator. Tatham is author of several landmark books on Homer, including Winslow Homer in the Adirondacks (Syracuse University Press, 1996) and Winslow Homer and the Pictorial Press (Syracuse University Press, 2003).
The exhibition focuses on the period in the American artist’s life when he spent two summers at Houghton Farm in Mountainville, N.Y., a rustic summer residence in the lower Hudson Valley region of New York State owned by his principal patron and friend since childhood, Lawson Valentine.
The show brings together a number of Homer’s watercolors, drawings, wood engravings, oil paintings and ceramic tiles of the period from galleries, private collections and museums across the country. The works depict various geographic locations from across New York State, including Houghton Farm, the Adirondacks and Easthampton.
The show at Syracuse’s SUArt Galleries will include 30 works. The show at the Palitz Gallery in New York City will include 15 works. Notable institutional lenders to the exhibition include the National Gallery of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Arkell Museum (formerly the Canajoharie Library).
Homer’s stays at Houghton Farm had great historical and aesthetic significance for the development of his mature style. Nevertheless, the period remains the only major episode of his career yet to be examined in an in-depth exhibition. “In short, anyone seeking to understand this crucially important phase of Homer’s early maturity faces incomplete, fragmentary and scattered information,” said Tatham. The exhibition and accompanying catalog will contribute new information to the study of Homer and the field of American art.
A symposium, “Winslow Homer in the 1870s: A Time of Crisis In American Culture,” will take place September 25 and 26 on the SU campus. The event, in association with Syracuse Symposium and sponsored by SU’s Humanities Center with funding from a Mellon Grant, will bring together Homer scholars from across the nation.
The two-day event will explore the decade in American history that witnessed the end of Reconstruction, endured a major depression and saw dramatic changes in art and culture. The first day will be devoted to secondary school students and will feature lectures and activities oriented toward high school curricula. The second day will be directed toward university students, art historians and the general public.
The SUArt Galleries is accessible though the Shaffer Art Building.
The Louise and Bernard Palitz Gallery at SU’s Joseph I. Lubin House is at 11 East 61st Street in New York City. For information, http:// homer.syr.edu or 315-443-3784.
