New Exhibit Highlights American Impressionist Art Movement | Arts & Entertainment

Various American artists who highlighted the Impressionist movement, such as John Sloan, Charles Hawthorne, Robert Henry and John Twachtman, are featured in the exhibition.

According to Kayla Tackett, director of exhibitions and collections at MAC​​​, the show was originally planned for 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, those plans were put on hold, so the exhibition was rescheduled to open this year.

This collection comes from the Huntington Museum of Art in West Virginia, where the origins of art can be traced back to art patrons Arthur Dayton and Ruth Woods Dayton.

“Together they collected more than 200 works of art, and then they accumulated more,” Tackett said. “When Arthur died, Ruth decided to create a museum from their collection. So she housed the collection in a building near their home and called it the Daywood Gallery.”

The collection was eventually donated to the Huntington Museum of Art in the 1960s. Visitors to the exhibition can expect to see many of the key identifying features of Impressionist art and the influence of European art on American artists.

“You’ll see a lot of wider brushstrokes in the paintings, and the game of light and color that the European Impressionists were doing,” Tackett said. “Americans often go to Europe to learn these techniques, and then they bring them back to the United States and apply the same techniques to American landscapes and American subjects.”

Paul Manoguerra, director and curator of the Joont Art Museum at Gonzaga University, also highlighted the influence of European artists. Notably, the French Impressionist aesthetic of artists such as Claude Monet had a major influence on American Impressionism.

“Especially for the French Impressionists, it was an impasto from the beginning to the end of outdoor painting, with loose brushstrokes, relatively rich and foamy, so the layers of paint on the surface of the canvas, the sense of influence on the time of day, light, season, etc. The interest you’re drawing, but also beyond the landscape, the interest in everyday life,” Manogra said.

One painting in the collection stands out for Manoguerra, a winter scene from John Twachtman’s farm in Connecticut.

“In my opinion, that is a particularly strong painting and a good example of the aesthetic influence of French Impressionism.
An American, and then applied it specifically to the American landscape,” Manogra said. “In Twachtman’s case, it was Monet and Monet’s profound influence, especially when he himself worked at Giverny. “

Manoguerra said Monet painted subjects and landscapes on his property in Giverny, France, including his famous series of water lilies. Twachtman also uses his Connecticut property to find artistic inspiration.

“Monet was a very good winter painter, and Twachtman was a great winter painter,” Manoguera said.

While American landscapes of various aesthetics make up a large part of the exhibition, Tackett believes there are also various portraits that are both beautiful and fascinating.

“There’s always something special about looking at your portrait in its own way,” Tackett said.

GU students planning to visit the exhibit can pay $10 with a valid student ID. They can also see other ongoing exhibitions at the museum, including a new retrospective by local artist Lila Shaw Girvin.

For Tackett, the exhibition provided an excellent opportunity for art lovers and those wishing to learn about Impressionist techniques.

“It’s a great show for those who really love art or who might be familiar with names like Monet and Renoir,” Tackett said. “You’re going to see elements that look familiar, like I said, light, colour and technology, and you’re going to see a lot here too.”

For more information on tickets, exhibitions and events, see MAC’s website.