2024
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Thomas Cole’s Landscape Painting Through an Indigenous Lens
Scott Manning Stevens, June 13, 2024
Unlike European Christian notions regarding human dominion over all of creation, the Haudenosaunee belief is that our relationship with the earth is one of responsibilities…. Read the full article here.
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Indigenous Artists Make Themselves Seen at the Thomas Cole Site
Steven Weinberg, May 26, 2024
An exhibition curated by Scott Manning Stevens moves Native peoples to the forefront of historical depictions of the Hudson Valley and elsewhere…. Read the full article here.
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Six Trees that Inspire at Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios
Haley Somolinos, April 12, 2024
When thinking of painters and trees, Bob Ross may be the first to come to mind. However, painters were charmed by “happy little trees” for centuries before Ross…. Cole wrote that “Trees are like men, differing wildly in character… they exhibit striking peculiarities, and sometimes grand originality.”… The 200-year-old honey locust that towers over his home is no exception, with its distinctive three-branched thorns. Planted at the entrance to the Main House, the honey locust appears in an 1868 painting of the site… Read the full article here.
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Landscape View: A New Documentary Digs Into the Past at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site
Malea Martin, Winter 2024
Early 19th century artist Thomas Cole is widely considered America’s first great landscape painter, known for his intricate oil depictions of sweeping natural views in the Catskills, where he lived and worked. But Cole wasn’t a “one-man band,” says Betsy Jacks, executive director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. “Thomas Cole didn’t do everything—he didn’t grind his pigments and make the tea and take care of the children and plant the garden. It took a whole household to make that happen.”…Read the full article here.
2023
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Ten shows to see at New England museums this fall
Murray Whyte, October 20, 2023
WOMEN REFRAME THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE On view through the end of the month at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, N.Y., this exhibition moves to the New Britain Museum of American Art for the winter… Read the full article here.
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Newly Reviewed – Upstate – ‘Women Reframe American Landscape’
Travis Diehl, August 30, 2023
An exhibition at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site shows the extent to which the idea of landscape has been rethought….. Read the full article here.
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Illuminating Sarah Cole
2023 Cole Fellow Kristen Marchetti, August 12, 2023
Sarah Cole (1805–1857) was an accomplished American artist known for her paintings, etchings, and drawings. Like her brother Thomas Cole, an influential figure in the Hudson River School, she worked in the earliest years of the Hudson River School movement. She exhibited and sold her work nationally while living periodically at Cedar Grove, the property we know today as the Thomas Cole National Historic Site…. Read the full article here.
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Women Reframe American Landscape Susie Barstow & Her Circle / Contemporary Practices
Jessica Skwire Routhier, August 11, 2023
The visual appeal of the works draws you in and creates a space where you can begin to question why you have never seen some of them before, or why you respond as you do to seeing them in this place…. Read the full article here.
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A Guide to Art Exhibitions in New York and Massachusetts
Zachary Small, July 27, 2023
The exhibition at the Thomas Cole site pulls double-duty, restoring Barstow’s reputation as a pre-eminent American landscape painter while putting her in conversation with contemporary artists who also incorporate nature into their work. The roster of artists shown alongside the 19th-century painter is formidable…. Read the full article here.
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Susie Barstow lived a grand adventure but her art was erased
Philip Kennicott, July 24, 2023
CATSKILL, N.Y. — Susie Barstow is said to have walked 10 to 12 miles a day and sometimes more than twice that. She climbed all the major peaks of the Adirondack, White and Catskill Mountains, traveled the country from end to end, spent time in Europe staying current with developing art trends, and ventured as far as India, China and Japan. She was a successful artist, with an established studio in Brooklyn and elite clients and students. At a time when art was a men’s club, Barstow built not only a commercially successful career, but a formidable reputation as a landscape artist. … Read the full article here.
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Exhibition Review: Women, Land and Art at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site
Erika Gaffney, July 6, 2023
Last weekend marked my first-ever visit to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site (TCNHS) in Catskill, New York. The English-American painter after whom this museum is named founded the Hudson River School, a movement traditionally associated with male artists. But in recent years, art historians, curators, dealers and other stakeholders have begun to shine a light on the women artists of the Hudson River School…. Read the full article.
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Susie Barstow, a 19th-Century Artist Who Hiked Mountains in Bloomers to Paint Stunning Landscapes, Finally Gets a Museum Retrospective
Sarah Cascone, July 4, 2023
The result is a two-part exhibition pairing work by Barstow—who already had one piece in the Cole house collection—and other women of the Hudson River School, with that of contemporary women artists responding to the landscape. It’s a collaboration between Siegel, who handled the historic material (and also wrote a new monograph about Barstow), and Thomas Cole National Historic Site chief curator Kate Menconeri and assistant curator Amanda Malmstrom, who enlisted the show’s living artists. … Read the full article.
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Women rule the landscape–then and now–in Cole exhibits
William Jaeger, June 28, 2023
The problem begins if you think women don’t usually paint landscapes. OK, you admit, they do now — women do everything now — but what about in the 1800s? “Women Reframe American Landscape” at the Thomas Cole House gives proof that women did everything then, too. And women are growing our understanding of the landscape into the 21st century. … Read the full article.
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5 Unmissable Art Road Trips for Every Kind of Traveler
Cultured Magazine, June 27, 2023
Go back in time with a visit to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, which houses the home and studio of Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole. On view is a two-part exhibition examining female artists’ treatment of the landscape: first, a survey of the work of lesser-known Hudson River School painter Susie M. Barstow, and second, a show of contemporary interpretations of the landscape motif by artists including Kay Walkingstick, Jean Shin, and Teresita Fernández. … Read the full article.
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Women Reframe American Landscape Painting At Thomas Cole National Historic Site
Chadd Scott, June 26, 2023
Barstow (1836-1923) receives the first retrospective of her career one century following her death… Read the full article here.
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REVIEW: ‘Women Reframe American Landscape’ celebrates women artists of the Hudson River School with historical and contemporary works
Lauren Levato Coyne, May 12, 2023
“Women Reframe American Landscape: Susie Barstow & Her Circle / Contemporary Practices” is a two-part exhibition that exemplifies what the Cole Site does best—placing contemporary artists in dialogue with painters from the Hudson River School. … Read the full article here.
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The Roundtable: “Susie Barstow & Her Circle” at Thomas Cole National Historic Site as part of the “Women Reframe American Landscape” exhibition
Joe Donahue, May 5, 2023
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York presents a two-part exhibition titled “Women Reframe American Landscape” May 6 to October 29, 2023. … Listen here.
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8 must-see summer museum exhibitions to visit in the Berkshires
Jennifer Huberdeau, May 5, 2023
With so many artistic offerings on the horizon, we’ve put together a list of eight museum exhibitions that we feel are “must-see” shows this summer — exhibitions that reinsert women artists into Hudson River School movement; explore form, function and design; celebrate collections and careers and highlight individual artists in new ways. … Read the full article here.
2022
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Thomas Cole Historic site breaks ground on $1.8M renovation project
Mellisa Manno, Nov 20, 2022
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site, home to the Hudson River School and birthplace of the American art movement, has broken ground on a $1.8 million renovation project that will launch a new comprehensive visitor center…. Read the full article here.
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Marc Swanson Draws Comfort From Rural Cemeteries and ’80s Club Music
Scott Heller, November 8, 2022
For his eerie installation, “A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco,” the artist looked to Maggie Nelson, Hollywood glamour and upstate New York. Read the full article here.
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At Mass MoCA, dead deer and disco lights elegize a dying world
Murray Whyte, November 3, 2022
NORTH ADAMS, Mass., AND CATSKILL, N.Y. — Marc Swanson works on a rural property nestled in the Hudson River Valley that 200 years ago inspired a school of painters who found in its pristine waters and leafy glades the presence of the divine. Lately, for Swanson, it’s been as much a ringside seat to a climate apocalypse as a bucolic refuge. “A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco,” his sprawling exhibition that spans a pair of large galleries at Mass MoCA in North Adams and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, N.Y., is his response to it. … Read the full article here.
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REVIEW: Marc Swanson, Thomas Cole National Historic Site and MASS MoCA
Lauren Levato Coyne, Nov/Dec Issue
Marc Swanson’s “A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco” offers a queer elegy for our collective climate futures. The two-venue exhibition tackles… Read the full article here.
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11 Historic Artists’ Homes & Studios to Enjoy the Changing Seasons
Haley Somolinos, October 21, 2022
Artists have always drawn inspiration from the changing of the seasons, and fall is often the perfect time to visit historic artists’ homes and studios to see how the shifting landscapes provided creative influence for their works. … Read the full article here.
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The Best of Our Knowledge: Exploring a Virtual Painting
Lucas Willard, October 21, 2022
A conversation with Thomas Cole National Historic Site Executive Director Betsy Jacks and The Best of Our Knowledge host Lucas Willard about the new digital education prototype that transforms Thomas Cole’s 1843 painting River in the Catskills into a digital world that students can enter and navigate. Listen here.
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Day Trip: Olana & Thomas Cole Historic Sites
Jamie Larson, August 28, 2022
The Olana State Historic Site, located just outside Hudson, New York, and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, across the Hudson River in Catskill, live in perpetual conversation with each other. The best way to engage in the dialogue between Olana, the home of Hudson River School of painting master Frederic Church, and that of Church’s teacher and mentor Thomas Cole, is to visit them both. That’s easy enough to do, given the sites are conveniently—and intentionally—connected by the scenic Hudson River Skywalk that spans the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. … Read the full story here.
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“A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco” at Thomas Cole National Historic Site
Natasha Chuk, August 13, 2022
At the famous painter’s home in Catskill, Swanson’s exhibition is in dialogue with Cole’s landscapes and fondness for the natural environment, offering an update to Cole’s 19th century concerns and idealized mountain views, which were created to critique the exploitation of land for the benefit of industry. … Read the full article here.
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The Roundtable: “Marc Swanson: A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco” at Thomas Cole National Historic Site and MASS MoCA
Joe Donahue, August 11, 2022
A new exhibition of art installations by Catskill-based artist Marc Swanson is now at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. The exhibition — titled “Marc Swanson: A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco” — is the second part of a two-part exhibition of his work that is also on display at MASS MoCA. The exhibition is inspired by the work of Thomas Cole and his warnings about environmental damage. … Listen here.
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‘Thomas Cole’s Studio: Memory and Inspiration’ Review: What Might Have Been
Barrymore Laurence Scherer, July 19, 2022
This intimate show tantalizes in unexpected ways. By juxtaposing finished works spanning his career with others in progress, it enables us to peer insightfully into Cole’s visual imagination and working methods…Ultimately, this moving show emphasizes the tragedy of a flourishing artistic existence cut short. … Read the full article here.
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Thomas Cole’s studio rises from the ground to enrich connection to artist
William Jaeger, June 23, 2022
We might wish that Thomas Cole’s New Studio in Catskill had somehow survived from the 1840s until now, with all its vintage wood and rippled glass. We could then feel, maybe, what Cole experienced that one final year he worked there, 1847.
But we are left with a richer narrative, a story about loss, about cultural amnesia and then about an awakening and a kind of redemption…. Read the full article here.
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The Roundtable: “Thomas Cole’s Studio: Memory and Inspiration”
Joe Donohue, May 10, 2022
We’ll learn about the new exhibition “Thomas Cole’s Studio: Memory and Inspiration,” which explores the creative directions of the painter’s last years, the rich and diverse group of works left in his studio at his death, and how his example so powerfully affected the evolution of art in America…Listen here.
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New Exhibit of Thomas Cole Works reimagines Hudson River School painter’s last days
Karen Croke, April 16, 2022
Thomas Cole was already the most famous landscape painter in America when he died unexpectedly at the age of 47 in 1848. One of the Hudson River School painters, Cole lived and worked in Catskill. His death shook the American art world, according to Franklin Kelly, senior curator of American paintings at the National Gallery of Art… Read the full article here.
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Painter Thomas Cole’s personal journal published
Tracy Ziemer, April 16, 2022
Having lived in the U.S. between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War — a period of great political and societal change — Cole writes about then-emerging industries and technologies, such as the railroad and the daguerreotype, and offers incredible details about hikes in the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains. … Read the full article here.
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What does it mean to live in the ruins of the future? At Mass MoCA, Marc Swanson’s answer is catastrophic beauty.
Jennifer Huberdeau, April 8, 2022
The influences and inspirations of the past and present—the nightclubs of his youth, the woods of today, the works of Thomas Cole, the impact of climate change, the similarities of the initial non-responses of the White House to AIDS and COVID-19—are ever present, as they mix and mingle throughout A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco…. Read the full article here.
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Connecting Point
April 7, 2022
Marc Swanson discusses his new exhibit and how his work examines the relationship between humans and the natural world. Watch the video here.
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Re-Imagining Thomas Cole’s Last Studio
Sarah Rose Sharp, March 3, 2022
It is hard to say where Cole’s multitudinous interests would have taken him, if not for his early demise at the age of 47 in February of 1848. But a new exhibition opening on April 30 at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York, promises to give viewers an idea of the creative directions of the painter’s last years with a selection of works left in his studio at his death. … Read the full article here.
2021
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The Catskills Are Still the Perfect Fall Escape—Here’s How to Plan Yours
Peter Terzian, November 9, 2021
The village of Catskill doesn’t seem particularly Catskilly. That’s partly because it’s located on the Hudson River, several miles to the east of the mountains that give the region its name. Still, you can see those mountains, a bumpy band of grayish lilac, from the house of Thomas Cole, where my husband, Caleb, and I found ourselves one recent afternoon. Read the full article here.
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Building Bridges: An inside look at the new exhibition Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment
James D. Balestrieri, November/December 2021
A potent contribution to the relatively new notion that artists like Cole, Church and Heade were proto-environmentalists whose art brought them close to the natural world they loved and, as a consequence, made them frontline witnesses to its devastation. Read the full article here.
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Summer’s Last Hummingbirds
Ralph Gardner Jr., October 9, 2021
With the exception of a few stragglers, hummingbirds have departed the Hudson Valley for their winter homes in southern Mexico and Central America. Most of those that remain can be spotted at an exhibition called “Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment.” Read and listen to the full article here.
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Cross Pollination and Creativity Along the Hudson River
Kate Menconeri and William L. Coleman, October 7, 2021
Cross Pollination … is an exploration of systems of pollination in both nature and ecology, as well as a metaphor for the interplay of art and science, and relationships among artists across generations. Read the full article here.
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In the Hudson River Valley, Artists Navigate Ecology
Sarah Rose Sharp, October 5, 2021
There is a definite poignance to this exhibition, which pits the nascent awareness of human impact on wild spaces evident even in the 19th century to our present-day urgency around climate change and the need for meaningful revision of our relationship with consumption of natural resources. Read the full article here.
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Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment
Jason Rosenfeld, September 2021
Cross Pollination addresses an element of the work of the Hudson River School (or First New York School) and its present inheritors upstate (or Third New York School) … that is, the ecological emergency that humanity has brought on itself and now must face in our fraught Anthropocene, as intuited in the works of our 19th-century forebearers. … Read the full article here.
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Many Artists Began Painting Outside During the Pandemic—And They Might Never Go Back
Dodie Kazanjian, September 15, 2021
Shara Hughes and Austin Eddy also escaped the city, renting a house in the Catskills this spring. It was directly across the street from the historic home of Thomas Cole and a short walk across the bridge to Frederic Church’s estate Olana, on the opposite bank of the Hudson River. Eddy went specifically to investigate plein air painting—he brought a bike and a portable easel. … Read the full article here.
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Hummingbirds on the Hudson
August 16, 2021
Cross Pollination is an enterprising endeavor that makes for a thrilling visit to the region, filled with insights running back and forth between past and present…. Read the full article here.
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Must-See Sculpture Park Shows
August 5, 2021
A round-up of this year’s best outdoor sculpture exhibitions…. Read the full article here.
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Pollination, indeed: Past, present intertwine at Cole, Olana exhibit
William Jaeger, July 30, 2021
Have a hankering to see a show that is muscular, multi-faceted, and tightly integrated into our regional lore and landscape? Head to Catskill and Hudson for the double-edged “Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church & Our Contemporary Moment.” … Read the full article here.
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Olana, Cole House continue successful partnership
Shrishti Mathew, July 28, 2021
The section of the Hudson River that flows between the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill and The Olana Partnership in Hudson is wide, and some would say so are the barriers that divide some arts institutions. The tourism history of both historic homes that also serve as art exhibit spaces – as befits the spirits of the original occupants – has traveled widely diverse paths to arrive at the present.
But now here they are, finding shared goals and making their now-three collaborations with each other a fluid success…. Read the full article here.
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Discover what drew artists, writers and presidents to New York’s Hudson Valley
Debra Bruno, July 30, 2021
The region is rich in timeless scenery and American history, and as more downstate New Yorkers have moved to the area, all kinds of places to go and things to do have opened up or expanded: new restaurants, well-marked hiking trails, river cruises, art galleries and museums that celebrate the Hudson River School painters. … Read the full article here
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The Art Angle Podcast: How Two Painters Helped Spark the Modern Conservation Movement
An exhibition traces the impact of Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, and Martin Johnson Heade on contemporary environmentalism.
The Art Angle Podcast with Andrew Goldstein, July 30, 2021
Right now there is a powerful, highly ambitious, and deeply relevant art show in New York that weaves together the histories of conservation and American art in a way most people haven’t seen before… on either side of the river are the historic homes of the famed Hudson River School painters Thomas Cole and Frederic Church in New York’s Hudson River Skywalk Region. … Listen to the podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts
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National Exhibition “Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, And Our Contemporary Moment”
Joe Donahue, July 8, 2021
Olana and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site are collaborating on a major exhibition, titled “Cross Pollination: Heade Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment.” It addresses the continuing influence of the Hudson Valley on American art and the cross pollination that is taking place across centuries. … Listen to the full interview here
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Q & A with Elizabeth B. Jacks
W.A. Demers, June 4, 2021
When the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced that the Thomas Cole National Historic Site was among 30 finalists for the 2021 National Medal for Museum and Library Service — one of just 15 museums nominated across the United States to be selected as a finalist for the award — the site’s executive director Elizabeth “Betsy” B. Jacks, was understandably elated. …. Read the full article here
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37 Art Centers Every Hudson Valleyite Should Visit
May 5, 2021
The home and studio of Thomas Cole, founder of the renowned 19th-century Hudson River School of American painting, has been painstakingly preserved and refurbished. Also known as Cedar Grove, it’s now a National Historic Landmark with trails, gardens, and gorgeous views of the landscapes that Cole cherished and depicted in numerous paintings. …. Read the full article here
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Off the Beaten Path: Spring Lights at Thomas Cole National Historic Site
Cassie Hudson, April 20, 2021
For 20 years the Thomas Cole National Historic Site has been sharing the beauty of the painter’s home and studio with the community. This spring, people are welcome to enjoy a new community event called Spring Lights… Watch the full video here
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Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill celebrates 20 years as finalist for national honor
Ariel Zangla, April 18, 2021
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site has more than one reason to celebrate this year… Watch the full video here
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As Thomas Cole house mission adapts, message stays the same
Tresca Weinstein, April 12, 2021
Created with 450 glowing orbs, the immersive installation conjures up a magical space filled with life and warmth. The sound score by composer Greg Hanson integrates Cole’s writings (as voiced by the actor Jamie Bell) and sets an emotional narrative that is reflected in the lighting design by Chris Bocchiaro and Megan Kinneen…a film by artist Brian Kenny, projected on the wall of the Old Studio… Read the full article here
2020
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Traveling through time with Thomas Cole
Robert and Johanna Titus, October 16, 2020
We like to think that we are good citizens of the Catskills and the Hudson Valley. Of course, we do a lot of writing hereabouts, but also, we belong to a number of our region’s historical, artistic, and conservation groups…. Read the full article here
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Standing Where it Happened
By Barrymore Laurence Scherer, October 7, 2020
Museums may represent the final destination of an artwork, but the artist’s studio is its birthplace. Therefore, historic studios can offer an unparalleled experience of closeness to the creative act—even when visited digitally.
Among the most venerable in the U.S. is Cedar Grove in Catskill, N.Y., now revered as the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, home of the painter and founder of the Hudson River School of landscape painting. …. Read the full article here
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The Critics Notebook
By The Editors, September 4, 2020
The Pollinator Pavilion, at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site: Though the Thomas Cole National Historic Site’s interior remains closed to visitors, those passing through the Hudson Valley this autumn might want to stop by anyway to enjoy the open grounds…. Read the full article here
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Thomas Cole Site Unveils Charging Station
By Sara Trafton, Columbia Greene Media, August 24, 2020
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site announced the installation of an electronic vehicle charging station, the first in Catskill. The charging station, which was made possible by a donation from local residents and environmentalists Sara and Tom de Swardt, features two charging ports and allows two vehicles to charge at the same time… Read the full article here
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The Pollinator Pavilion Opens at the Thomas Cole Site
August 7, 2020
This Friday, August 7, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York, unveils The Pollinator Pavilion, a new public artwork by internationally renowned artists Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood… Read the full article here
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Editors’ Picks: 17 Events for Your Art Calendar This Week, From a Peek Into MoMA’s Film Vault to the Parrish Reopening
By Artnet News, August 4, 2020
Husband and wife artists Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood have teamed up once again, this time on a new public artwork designed to attract hummingbirds—yes, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird can be found in New York—and other pollinators… Read the full article here
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An Upstate art Installation let’s visitors commune with hummingbirds
By Howard Halle, July 31, 2020
We recommend making a weekend getaway to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, NY. There, you’ll find Pollinator Pavilion, an interactive outdoor art installation by artists Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, which is described as a “fantastical architectural setting that offers miraculous moments in which individuals can encounter hummingbirds”… Read the full article here
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The Hudson Valley and Northeast’s Museums Start Reopening
By Nicki Donohue, July 29, 2020
In Catskill, the Thomas Cole House’s interior remains closed to the public but guests can explore the estate grounds by reserving an “Outdoor Explore Kit,” which includes souvenirs, walking directions to Catskill Creek, and a guidebook… Read the full article here
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En Plein Air: Artists’ Haunts Beckon As the World Reopens
By Laura Beach, June 23, 2020
Largely overshadowed by the visible frustration and fatigue of the past few months, creativity is on the rise. With everything from the museum blockbuster to the summer vacation season effectively upended, we are reassessing our engagement with the material world… Read the full article here
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Redefining the “Sublime”: In the Footsteps of Thomas Cole
By Robert Titus, PhD, and Johanna Titus, May/June 2020
We are scientists: Robert is a geologist and Johanna is a biologist. Ours are the two leading sciences of the landscape. We are also resident’s of New York State’s Catskill Mountains… Read the full article here
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New Book Explores Creative Homes and Spaces Where Art Was Made
By Charles Desmarais, April 27, 2020
What books have you chosen for quarantine reading? I would not have thought first of a travel guidebook. But a new one that arrived in the mail last week carried me across the U.S. on a tour so absorbing, I hardly noticed that the trip was made entirely by armchair…. Read the full article here
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Earth Day 2070: A World Lost
Story and Photography by Pete Muller, April 2020
As New York’s Hudson Valley was cleared to make way for agriculture and feed a thriving tannery industry, the 19th-century painter Thomas Cole lamented the destruction of his beloved forests…Read the full article here | See an excerpt here.
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In 1845 Hudson River School Founder Thomas Cole Argued That ‘Art Rekindles the Soul.’ Read an Excerpt From His Stirring Lecture.
April 16, 2020
In 1845, three years before his death, the American painter Thomas Cole, who is widely regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, wrote a lecture on the value of art as a public and moral good. Art, he wrote…Read the full article here.
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The Critic’s Notebook: Thomas Cole, Leonard Bernstein, the Yale Series of Younger Poets & more.
April 7, 2020
Lecture on Art, by Thomas Cole (Thomas Cole National Historic Site): The Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole’s visionary nature was on display…Read here.
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Take Virtual Trip to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Get Immersed in American Landscape Painting
March 16, 2020
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York, offers an array of online programs covering the painter Thomas Cole, his period in America and…Read here.
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Major Collaborative Exhibition to Open in May at Olana State Historic Site and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site
February 28, 2020
Exhibit explores the theme of “cross pollination” in art and the environment from the 19th century to the contemporary moment…Read here.
2019
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Staring into the Soul of the Catskills Through a Pinhole
With his camera obscura, Shi Guorui reinterprets the landscapes of the Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole.
By Meredith Mendelsohn, October 24, 2019
Sometime last summer, a rectangular tent appeared in the woods off a trail in the Catskills…Read here.
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The View That Launched American Art
Podcast hosted by Davis Dunavin, September 20, 2019
Two 19th century artists defined American landscape painting. Their art took them all over the world. But they always returned to the mountains and valleys around New York’s Hudson River….Listen here
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Re-envisioning Cole’s Catskills
By Eleanor Gustafson, September 17, 2019
In 2014 destiny brought Guorui to Catskill, New York, where he was inspired by the Hudson valley light and landscapes that so inspired Cole.
This fall you can see his results in SHI GUORUI: Ab/Sense-Pre/Sense, opening at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site on September 22. We spoke to Kate Menconeri, director of exhibitions and collections and curator at the site and curator of the exhibition….Read here
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‘Thomas Cole’s Refrain: The Paintings of Catskill Creek’ Review: Elegies
By Barrymore Laurence Scherer, August 10, 2019
An exhibition of the English-born painter’s lesser-known Hudson Valley scenes evinces his love for natural beauty and sorrow over its devastation.
Although the English-born painter Thomas Cole (1801-1848) is widely regarded…Read here
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No. 402: Cole’s Catskill Creek
Podcast hosted by Tyler Green, July 28, 2019
For the first time, the exhibition considers Cole’s paintings of Catskill Creek…Listen here
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Timelessness in Works by Thomas Cole and Brice Marden
By Peter Schjeldahl, May 27, 2019
Two small shows in the Hudson Valley hint at long spiritual rhythms that are not lost, though they may be occluded, in the staccato frenzies of of our day.
Two sublime small shows that will last the summer in towns along the Hudson River remind me of something that art is good for. Read here
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Thomas Cole up the Creek
By Bruce Weber, May/June 2019
Only a short walk from Thomas Cole’s house and studio in upstate New York winds a stretch of Catskill Creek that the painter would return to depict again and again…Read Here
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Emily Cole’s Artwork takes Center Stage at Cole Historic Site
By Dave Lucas, March 8, 2019
An artist with deep roots in upstate New York is celebrated this month with the first exhibition of her work in over a century…Read Here
2018
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Surveying the scenery at the Albany Airport Gallery
Artists and writers take cues from Thomas Cole’s defense of natural beauty in “Landmark” exhibition
By Amy Griffin, The Albany Times Union
Landscape art and environmentalism have long been linked. Artists who are inspired by nature tend to want to preserve it. Though the focus of the environmental movement has evolved since the 19th century–from preserving natural treasures to averting global catastrophe–appreciation of all that nature has to offer has been a common thread. Read Here.
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On Exhibit: ‘Landmark’ Looks at Environment and Us
At airport, Thomas Cole Works Brought into Modern Context
By Indiana Nash, The Daily Gazette
“Landmark” is a fitting exhibition, not only because it’s informed and inspired by Thomas Cole but also because it’s at the Albany International Airport, the lift-off point into sweeping aerial views of the Capital Region. Read Here.
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Hudson Talbott’s New Book On Thomas Cole and The Birth of American Art
By Joe Donahue, WAMC
Artist and author, Hudson Talbott, join us now to tell us about his new book, “picturing America: Thomas Cole and the Birth of American Art.”
It is a fascinating look at artist Thomas Cole’s life and takes young readers from his humble beginnings to his development of a new painting style that became America’s first formal art movement: the Hudson River school of painting. Read Here.
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Kids’ Almanac (10/18-10/25)
By Erica Chase-Salerno, Hudson Valley One
“All nature here is new to art. The mists were resting in the valley of the Hudson — the tops of mountains were visible on the other side — you might imagine them in another world. The fields in shadow were a most beautiful fresh green, the mountain side was brilliant though dark.”
–Thomas Cole
Discover the Thomas Cole National Historic Site
How did Englishman Thomas Cole catapult to the top of the 1800s US art game? The father of this new style of landscape painting, now known as the Hudson River School, had talent, skill and popularity. Read Here.
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Where Canvases Leap to Life: Eight stop trail in the Catskills takes you to scenes that inspired artists
By Ben Yagoda, The Washington Post
My wife and I were standing on a bridge by the side of Route 23A, outside of Catskill, NY, a bit more than a hundred miles up the Hudson River from New York City. Read Here.
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Hudson Talbott Illustrates Life of Thomas Cole
From Staff Reports, Poughkeepsie Journal
“Picturing America: Thomas Cole and the Birth of American Art” is the latest book for children by Hudson Talbott.
The 32-page picture book takes readers on a journey through the life of Thomas Cole, father of the Hudson River School of landscape painting, America’s first major art movement. Read Here…
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Albany International Airport and Thomas Cole Site Present New Exhibition
by Dave Lucas, WAMC
Albany International Airport’s Art & Culture Program and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill have partnered to present a new exhibition. Read Here…
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Autumn At The Thomas Cole National Historic Site
by Joe Donahue, WAMC
The 2nd annual Hudson River Skywalk Arts Festival is on Sunday, September 30 at the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, and Olana. Read Here…
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How Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School Artists Helped Define a Nation
by Debra Bruno, The Washington Post
The Painters of the Hudson River School were grandiose, romantic, dramatic and brilliantly colorful. They also helped define the nation, championing wild America to a population that often saw nature as a thing to be feared and tamed, not celebrated. Read Here…
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Thomas Cole’s Historic Home Inspires Contemporary Artists
by Antiques and the Arts Weekly
Catskill, N.Y.–A new contemporary art exhibition, “Spectrum,” has opened at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, revealing a visual dialogue about color between 11 contemporary artists and Thomas Cole (1801-1848), founder of America’s first major art movement, the Hudson River School of landscape painting. Read Here…
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The Thomas Cole House, Olana, and Lyndhurst
by Jason Rosenfeld, The Brooklyn Rail
The Picturesque and Sublime: Thomas Cole’s Trans-Atlantic Inheritance CEDAR GROVE: THE THOMAS COLE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE-MAY1-NOVEMBER 4, 2018
Costume & Custom: Middle Eastern Threads at Olana
OLANA STATE HISTORIC SITE,HUDSON, NY-JUNE 17-NOVEMBER 25, 2018 Read Here…
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A Guide to Columbia and Greene Counties: Hudson and Catskill
by Brian K. Mahoney, Chronogram
The county seats of Hudson and Catskill are dissimilar in many respects, but their residents are passionate about the possibilities for their towns. We speak to the movers and shakers in the two communities about what makes them tick. Read Here…
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6 Books to Read in September
by Brian K. Mahoney, Chronogram
Historic estates, exotic birds, troubled immigrants, deranged loners, and parishes dealing with the tainted legacy of the Catholic Church make up our September list. Read Here…
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The Artist Who Gave America Its First Signature Art Form
by Meredith Mendelson, Artsy
Early 19th-century America was a place of growing affluence. As wealth from agriculture and industry accumulated, New York’s moneyed classes hungered for cultural clout to add a luster of civility to the rugged face of the young republic. And as the urbanization of New York City intensified, city dwellers yearned for the picturesque. Read Here…
Brooklyn Double Wide
The Thomas Cole House: A Kid-Friendly Historic Site in Catskill, NY
Catskill for Kids, Destinations
Blog by Kara Zauro
At the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, art, history, and nature converge. And it’s the kind of place that really lights up when inquisitive children arrive, so if your kids are interested in any of these subjects, definitely bring them along for a self-guided afternoon tour. Read Here…
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Thomas Cole to Open Contemporary Art Exhibition with 11 Artists Responding to the Hudson River School Artist’s Work
by ArtFix Daily
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site has announced a new contemporary art exhibition SPECTURUM, opening August 14, that brings together the work of 11 contemporary artists that will be installed throughout the 19th-century historic home, studios, and grounds of the artist Thomas Cole (1801-1848) in Catskill, New York. Read Here…
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Ralph Gardner Jr: The Novel In Performance
by Ralph Gardner JR, WAMC North-East Public Radio
I was unaware that when Hunter Thompson was a young writer he typed out “The Great Gatsby” and the “Sun Also Rises” to deconstruct how F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway achieved their effects and created their masterpieces. Read Here…
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How Thomas Cole Learned the ABCs of Landscape Art
by Sammy Dalati, The Magazine Antiques
Even in such early work as The Clove, Catskills (1827) and View of Monte video, the Seat of Daniel Wadsworth, Esq. (1828), the facture and compositional strategies employed by Thomas Cole–a working-class boy from norther England, self-taught as an artist –demonstrated surprising conversance with European landscape paining of the time. Read Here…
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A Guide to the Small Towns of Hudson Valley and the Catskills
by Amy Plitt, Curbed
You don’t have to get too far outside of New York City–30, maybe 40 miles–before the landscape changes. Dense urban areas and suburban strip malls grow fewer and farther between, and a more bucolic New York emerges. Read Here…
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Thomas Cole: Eden to Empire, National Gallery, Review: We long to see more of this great American landscape painting in full flight
by Michael Glover, The Independent
Too much familiar Constable and Turner, and not quite enough Cole and his American successors.
Now here’s a surprise. This exhibition of work by the landscape painter Thomas Cole, though described as a collaboration between two institutions, feels like a tariff-free American import. Read Here...
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Exhibition review: Thomas Cole: Eden to Empire at the National Gallery, WC2
Thomas Cole was the first to capture the vastness of the States
by Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times
“Can there be a country in the world better calculated than ours to exercise and to exalt the imagination…” asked De Witt Clinton in 1816. Read Here…
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Make America Decay Again-Thomas Cole and Ed Ruscha Review
by Jonathan Jones, The Guardian
American art was invented by a young man from Lancashire who emigrated from Liverpool in 1818, and by 1825-still in his early 20s-was being hailed in New York as an “American genius.” There had, of course, been painters in America before Thomas Cole. Read Here…
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Hudson River Bridge Adds Interpretive Signs for Pedestrians
by Associated Press, Times Union
CATSKILL, N.Y. (AP) –
Pedestrians viewing the Hudson River from the Rip Van Winkle Bridge can now refer to a series of signs that include historical information.
The six signs were installed as part of the Hudson River Skywalk Project, which will connect the Thomas National Historic Site in Catskill with the Olana State Historic Site across the river. Read Here…
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Public Meeting Tonight On Skywalk Connecting Olana, Thomas Cole Sites
by Dave Lucas, Midday Magazine
The in-progress Skywalk project connecting two New York sites is the subject of public meeting tonight in Greene County.
Earlier this year, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the creation of the Hudson River Skywalk Region. A $14.6 million Skywalk will connect two landmark historic sites–Olana State Historic Site in Hudson and Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill. Read Here…
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Catskill Culture
by Geddy Sveikauskas, Hudson Valley One
This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the
hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the
twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms. Read Here…
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Thomas Cole: A Conservative Conservationist
by Jennifer Kabat, The New York Review of Books
Every era gets its own Thomas Cole, the British-born, nineteenth century artist who ushered in a new age of American landscape painting. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was a precursor to artists like Grant Wood. Come the 1960s and 1970s, MoMA linked his brushwork to abstract expressionism. Read Here…
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Understanding American art by Environmentalist art by looking across the pond
by Benjamin Cassidy, The Berkshire Eagle
Even as Thomas Cole painted American landscapes, his mind often inhabited terrain across the Atlantic Ocean. The England-born father of the Hudson River School artistic movement drew inspiration from artists across the pond, including J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. Read Here…
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Environmentalist art before there was an “environment”
by Y.F.
TWO centuries ago Thomas Cole Arrived on American shores, bringing with him from England a new landscape painting tradition perfect for the wild expanses of the new world. Cole also brought a zeal for warning about the perils that unchecked industry posed to the natural world, establishing one of painting’s first environmental critiques. “Atlantic Crossings”, an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that will travel to the National Gallery in London in June.Read Here…
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New Exhibition Opens at Thomas Cole National Historic Site
By Sparrow
“Thomas Cole invented the American sublime,” remarks Tim Barringer, an art history professor at Yale, speaking of the founder of the Hudson River School of art. Barringer is also co-curator of “picturesque and Sublime: Thomas Cole’s Trans-Atlantic Inheritance,” which opens on May 1 at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill. Read Here…
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Thomas Cole’s Majestic Wilderness and Dark Satanic Mills: A Feast at The Met Looks at the Founder of the Hudson River School and the Visionaries who Inspired Him
By R.C. Baker The Village Voice , April 2018
Thomas Cole, like us, lived in interesting times. Born in 1801, he grew up in an England disrupted by the industrial revolution and unsettled by the fervid passions of romanticism, where the poet and painter William Blake wrote of a “green and pleasant land” being overrun by “dark satanic mills.” Read Here…
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Thomas Cole’s Sublime Art Opens At His National Historic Site May 1
By Antiques and the Arts Weekly , April 2018
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site will open the exhibition “Picturesque and Sublime: Thomas Cole’s Trans-Atlantic Inheritance” on May 1, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Thomas Cole’s arrival in America. Read Here…
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Hudson Talbott Introduces Children To Thomas Cole
By Antiques and the Arts Weekly , April 2018
In an online version and softcover book (due to be published in September by Penguin Random House), author and illustrator Hudson Talbott introduces children to artist Thomas Cole, whose 200th anniversary of coming to America is being celebrated in 2018 with an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Read Here…
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Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings
By Joe Bucciero, The Brooklyn Rail, April 2018
“All nature here is new to art, no Tivolis, Ternis, Mont Blancs, Plinlimmons, hackneyed and worn by the daily pencils of hundreds; but primeval forests, virgin lakes and waterfalls.” So rhapsodized British-born painter Thomas Cole (1801-1848) on the appeal of the American landscape. Read Here…
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An Online Story and Forthcoming Picture Book by Hudson Talbott Introduces 19th-Century Artist Thomas Cole to a New Generation
By Artfix Daily, March 2018.
Beloved children’s book author and illustrator Hudson Talbott has teamed up with the Thomas Cole National Historic Site to present Thomas Cole’s story online for free to children of all ages.Read Here…
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Scenic Viewpoints Added to NY Bridge’s Rebuilt Sidewalk
By Associated Press, The New York Times, March 2018.
HUDSON, N.Y.–Scenic viewpoints have been added to the rebuilt sidewalk on one of the New York state-operated bridges spanning the Hudson River between Albany and New York City.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday three viewpoints, each 50 feet long by 10 feet wide, have been added along the mile-long sidewalk on the Rip Van Winkle Bridge linking Greene and Columbia counties…Read Here
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Thomas Cole, American Moralist
Why this 19th-century master of the Hudson River landscape, who used his art to argue against industry’s assaults, is politically right for right now.
By Holland Cotter, The New York Times, March 2018
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new show, “Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings” is gorgeous, politically right for right now, and a lesson in the mutability of art history…Read here.
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A New Way of Seeing Artist Thomas Cole
By Alexandra Wolfe, The Wall Street Journal, January 2018
The curators of a new Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition might have titled it, “Everything you Knew About Thomas Cole.”
Cole is known as the father of the Hudson River School, a group of American artists who painted dramatic outdoor panoramas. But “Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings” posits an artist with an international background and interests…Read Here.
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“Thomas Cole’s Jouney: Atlantic Crossings’ Review: Hudson River School Headmaster
By Barrymore Laurence Scherer,The Wall Street Journal, January 2018
When, in 1848, the painter Thomas Cole suddenly died at age 47, his funeral oration was delivered by his celebrated friend William Cullen Bryant, the poet and journalist, who recalled the enthusiasm awakened by…pictures which carried the eye over scenes of wild grandeur peculiar to our country…and into the depths of skies…such as few but Cole could ever paint…Read Here
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Thomas Cole: ravishing — and still resonant
By Ariella Budick, The Financial Times, Februrary 2018
Don’t be fooled by the ancient rivers and cloud-swathed peaks: Thomas Cole’s American landscapes are no more timeless than an “I’m With Her” button. He painted his visionary protests during the Andrew Jackson administration in the 1830s, and if they resonate with renewed vigour today, that’s partly because Jackson’s 21st-century admirer-in-chief inhabits the White House…Read Here
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Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings
By Jason Rosenfeld, The Brooklyn Rail, March 2018
In 2015 the painter Stephen Hannock and I curated “River Crossings” at Cedar Grove in Catskill, the home of Thomas Cole, and The Olana Partnership in Hudson, the home of Frederic Edwin Church, filling those loci of the evolution of American landscape painting with works by contemporary Hudson River Valley artists:…Read Here.
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‘Picturesque and Sublime: Thomas Cole’s Trans-Atlantic Inheritance’ to Open in the Artist’s Studio
By Artfix Daily, February 8, 2018
(ArtfixDaily.com) To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Cole’s arrival from England in 1818, the Thomas Cole Site is partnering with the Yale Center for British Art to present the special exhibition Picturesque and Sublime: Thomas Cole’s Trans-Atlantic Inheritance in Thomas Cole’s New Studio, in Catskill, NY…Read Here.
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Voice for the Wilderness
By James D. Balestrieri, American Fine Art Magazine, January 2018
I spent my last birthday at Thomas Cole’s house and studio in Catskill, New York. The house, doubling as it did as his showroom – galleries as we know them did not exist in the United States much before the Civil War, and artists’ associations such as the National Academy of Design (which Cole had helped to found) only held annual exhibitions – was an architectural marvel in its humble way. …Read Here.
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Sting and Thomas Cole: Artists on the Cutting Edge in their Own Times Meet in Spirit
By Dave Lucas, WAMC, Northeast Public Radio, January 8, 2018
This year marks the 200th anniversary of influential artist Thomas Cole’s first visit to the United States. The Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill and The Metropolitan Museum of Art are paying tribute …Read Here.
2017
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Cedar Grove, Restored
By Michael J. Lewis, The New Criterion, December 2017
It is a perfectly natural impulse for us to wish the house of a cherished writer to illuminate his works. We are strangley pleased to visit the houses where Edgar Allen Poe boarded and find them cramped and forlorn. Or to discover that Sunnyside, Washington Irving’s house on the Hudson River, is a fantasy of a romantic Dutch cottage that might have loomed in one of his stories, mysterious in the moonlight…Our interest in a writer is what happens in his mind and not outside his window. Not so with the painter, for whom the house, and its site, can mean everything…Read Here.
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‘Scenes of Solitude’ From the Hudson River School Artists
By John Hanc, The New York Times, October 23, 2017
…The show, which opened in July and will remain until 2019, has attracted visitors from as far away as Germany. Still, it can be seen as a sort of opening act for a much-anticipated exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings,” opening in January 2018. (A third major exhibit, at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, N.Y., will be staged in May, featuring works of the school from Yale University’s collection…Read Here.
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KIKI SMITH: From the Creek
By Steven Pestana, Brooklyn Rail, October 6, 2017
From August 12 – November 19, visitors enter the domestic bliss of Thomas Cole’s Federal style home and are immediately greeted with the sensibility of his 21st century Catskill neighbor, the multidisciplinary artist Kiki Smith….Read Here.
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Famous Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole takes global presence; Thomas Cole House celebrates with an extended season
By Anthony Fiducia, Columbia-Greene Media, September 26, 2017
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site leaders will extend the 2017 season to celebrate recent attendance growth and plan to have the fames artist as the subject of two major exhibitions. Organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the National Gallery in London….Read Here.
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Review Sanford Gifford in the Catskills at the Thomas Cole House
By Bruce Weber, The Magazine Antiques, September 6, 2017
Among members of the Hudson River School of painting, Sanford Gifford (1823-1880) has long been considered one of the most brilliant painters of light and air. His art is the subject of the intimate, beautifully curated exhibition Sanford R. Gifford in the Catskills on view through October 29th….Read Here.
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Home Invasion
By Sparrow, Chronogram, September 1, 2017
“She’s very playful,” says Kate Menconeri, curator of Thomas Cole House. Menconeri is speaking of Kiki Smith, whose exhibition “From the Creek” will remain at the National Historic Site in Catskill until October 29. This is the second installment of “Open House,” a series in which contemporary artists react to the Cole homestead. Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School of art, lived in the home until his death in 1848…..Read Here.
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Contemporary Art Steams up the Hudson
By Nancy Princenthal, The New York Times, August 25, 2017
This summer, a bounty of classic and modern artwork has made its way to venues dotted along the river valley….Read Here.
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Kiki Smith solo exhibit opens at Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill
Hudson Valley One, August 10, 2017
The life’s work of German-born artist Kiki Smith has been celebrated by critics and audiences and shown in prestigious exhibition venues around the world since the 1980s….Read Here.
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My View: Local perseverance creates an economic engine
By Linda Gentalen, The Register-Star and Daily Mail, , July 29, 2017
The season opening of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site last month was stunning, unveiling two landmark exhibitions: “The Parlors” and “Sanford R. Gifford in the Catskills.” As a Board Member since 2005 of this historic site in Catskill, I couldn’t help but marvel….Read Here.
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The Thomas Cole Site Project Marries Historic Restoration, New Technology
Antiques and The Arts Weekly, July 28, 2017
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site which opened for the season in early May, recently introduced its newly restored parlors in the 1815 home of Thomas Cole….Read Here.
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The best summer getaways from New York City
By Lynn Freehill-Maye, Time Out New York, June 27, 2017
The ruggedly beautiful Catskill Mountains have a multicentury history of creative inspiration and adventure. Washington Irving set “Rip Van Winkle” among their peaks, and Thomas Cole’s paintings of the area wound up radically changing how artists depict landscapes….Read Here.
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24 Hours in the Catskills: For art lovers, upstate New York offers plenty of options beyond the beaten path
By Alexis Soloski, Village Voice, May 30, 2017
Take the short, steep, mildly treacherous hike up to Kaaterskill Falls, and you’s find a rushing cataract that plunges 260 feet in two lacy drops. You’ll also see one of the most painted views of the nineteenth century, a favored subject of the Hudson River School, an art movement that ruled American visual culture for several decades…Read Here.
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Layer by layer, Conservator Thomas Cole
By Margaret Saliske, Poughkeepsie Journal, May 30, 2017
Even for those of us well-versed in the Hudson River School of painting, the first major art movement in America, the discovery was stunning. Hidden under a century of paint in the parlors of the 1815 home of Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School, are elaborately painted borders…Read Here.
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Backtracks in Time: Betsy Jacks
Hosted by Jack Sencabaugh, WGXC Radio, May 23, 2017
Betsy Jacks, executive director of the Thomas Cole House at Cedar Grove in the Village of Catskill, talks about how Cole came to Catskill, the history of the house and efforts to preserve it, and ongoing renovation projects…Listen Here.
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The 7 Best Weekend Getaways for NYC-Based Art Lovers
By Elizabeth Fazarre, Architectural Digest, May 22, 2017
From Storm King to the birthplace of the Hudson River School, these cultural destinations are well worth the short journey from the city… Read Here.
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Thomas Cole comes to life thanks to multimedia renovations at Cedar Grove in Catskill
By Lynn Woods, Hudson Valley One, May 18, 2017
Sanford R. Gifford in the Catskills at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, NY, features paintings by the 19th-century landscape painter Sanford Gifford, whose work was inspired by Thomas Cole. …Read entire article
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Sanford Gifford in the Catskills includes Walking-and-Driving Tour of Art Scenes
ARTFIXdaily, May 17, 2017
Sanford R. Gifford in the Catskills at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, NY, features paintings by the 19th-century landscape painter Sanford Gifford, whose work was inspired by Thomas Cole. …Read entire article
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Guide to Hudson New York and Nearby Points of Interest
By Nicole Anderson, The Magazine Antiques, May 16, 2017
The English-born artist Thomas Cole (1801-1848) tolerated no ill comparisons to his adopted home in upstate New York. As he wrote to a friend in 1842: “Must I tell you that neither the Alps nor the Apennines, no, nor even Aetna itself, have dimmed, in my eyes, the beauty of our own Catskills?”. …Read entire article
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Cole Historic Site Opens for the Season with New Exhibits
Hosted by Joe Donahue, The Round Table, WAMC, Northeast Public Radio, Tuesday, May 9, 2017
“The Parlors” is an immersive installation that combines technology and meticulous historic restoration of the two parlors of Cole’s 1815 Home, the rooms where America’s first major art movement was born. It features a stunning discovery revealed during the restoration: the earliest-known, interior decorative painting by an American artist…Listen Here.
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Cole Historic Site Opens for the Season with New Exhibits
The New York Times, Wednesday, May 3, 2017
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site is open for the season in the Hudson Valley with new exhibits. The Catskill attraction used to be the home of the painter who inspired the Hudson River School art movement in the 19th century…Read entire article
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OUR VIEW: Cole exhibit for the ages
Register-Star, Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Despite the threat to local arts posed by federal budget cuts sought for the National Endowment for the Arts, officials at the Thomas Cole Historic Site in Catskill forged ahead with their most ambitious exhibit to date…Read entire article
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Thomas Cole National Historic Site opening on Tuesday in Catskill to feature restored parlors of 1815 home
By Freeman Staff, Daily Freeman, Sunday, April 30, 2017
Despite the threat to local arts posed by federal budget cuts sought for the National Endowment for the Arts, officials at the Thomas Cole Historic Site in Catskill forged ahead with their most ambitious exhibit to date…Read entire article
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Historic Restoration at Thomas Cole Site; “Sanford R. Gifford in the Catskills” Opens Season
By Dave Lucas, Midday Magazine, WAMC, Northeast Public Radio, Friday, April 28, 2017
The Thomas Cole Historic Site in Catskill is showing off its renovations this week. WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief Dave Lucas got a tour of the main home Thursday, experiencing both an “immersive installation” and the “Sanford R. Gifford in the Catskills” exhibit…Read entire article
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‘Darkness Visible’: Cole House previews historic exhibit
By Daniel Zuckerman, Catskill Daily Mail, Friday, April 28, 2017
Members of the media were given a preview of the reopening of the main home at the Thomas Cole Historic Site in Catskill with an immersive installation and the exhibit “Sanford R. Gifford in the Catskills,” curated by Kevin Avery…Read entire article
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Thomas Cole & His Cedar Grove
Text by Jennifer Holz, Photos by George Holz, Upstate Diary, Thursday, April 27, 2017
The air is buzzing at Cedar Grove, 19th-century landscape painter Thomas Cole’s country home in Catskill, NY, where historians recently uncovered century-old decorative artworks hidden beneath layers of paint …Read entire article
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Painting in the Footsteps of Thomas Cole
By Steven Weinberg, Hyperallergic, Thursday, April 27, 2017
Cole wanted you to stare off into the impending destruction of a landscape and ponder the sublime beauty of it all — which, man, I did…Read entire article
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Cedar Grove to reopen in May
By Jane Anderson, Hudson Valley Magazine, Wednesday, April 26, 2017
A new multimedia installation at Thomas Cole’s homestead makes you feel like the artist himself is giving the tour…Read entire article
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Actor Jamie Bell Brings Cole to Life
By Daniel Zuckerman, Catskill Daily Mail, Saturday, April 22, 2017
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site’s new interactive exhibit is receiving a bit of star power with “Billy Elliot” star Jamie Bell supplying the voice of Cole for the exhibit, the site’s executive director said Thursday…Read entire article
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Connecting with the Land
By James D. Balestrieri, American Fine Art Magazine, Issue 33, May/June 2017
One of the many cool aspects of Sanford R. Gifford in the Catskills, a new exhibition at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York, is the “walking-and-driving-experience” that allows visitors to see the very views that inspired…Read entire article
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Thomas Cole murals uncovered on walls of Catskills home in New York State
The Independent, March 9, 2017
Not only did Thomas Cole paint the lush mountain landscapes that inspired the Hudson River School art movement of the 19th century, he also painted on the walls of his home. Lost beneath layers of paint for more than a century, the patterned borders below the celings were rediscovered…Read entire article
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Lost art of Thomas Cole uncovered in his NY home
Associated Press, March 8, 2017
Watch the video here.
Our view: Tourism gains momentum
The Register-Star, February 23, 2017
Nine years ago, the Olana National Historic Site in Greenport potted about $8 million for the local economy. Jump ahead to 2016, and the THomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill pulled in almost $2 million…Read entire article
Cole House, Olana have pumped million into local economy
By Daniel Zuckerman, The Daily Mail, February 22, 2017
The Thomas Cole Historic Site announced Tuesday that results of an economic impact study show that the site has a nearly $1.9 million impact on the county, up 44 percent from a previous 2010 study…Read entire article
Follow the Footsteps of the first American artists
Group Tour Magazine, February 20, 2017
It might be hard to imagine, but in the early 19th century the concept of being an American and creating Amercican art was not well recognized. Many American artists were searching for a style of art they could call their own. Then along came Thomas Cole (1801-1848)…Read entire article
A sneak preview of the Thomas Cole House restoration
By Geddy Sveikauskas, Hudson Valley One, February 19, 2017
Thomas Cole’s home on Spring Street in Catskill has left behind its near-death experience of the 1970s and as an independent non-profit organization affiliated with the National Park Service has been engaged in a recovery that would have seemed miraculous a generation ago…Read entire article
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site to Host Exhibition of 19-th Century Landscape Painter Sanford Gifford
ArtfixDaily, February 1, 2017
The exhibition will focus on his paintings of the Catskills – with works loaned by Harvard, Yale, and other leading institutions; it is curated by Dr. Kevin Avery, Senior Research Scholar at The Metropolitan Museum of Art…Read entire article
Thomas Cole Site details changes coming with May reopening
By Tim Blydenburgh, Albany Times Union, January 25, 2017
Through hidden audio and moving-graphics presentations, visitors will be able to hear the thoughts of Thomas Cole (1801-48) and the historic conversations that took place in the parlors of his 1815 home, where America’s first major art movement, the Hudson River School of painting, was founded…Read entire article
My View: Transforming the Thomas Cole National Historic Site
By Betsy Jacks, The Daily Mail, January 13, 2017
The home of the landscape artist Thomas Cole (1801-1848) in Catskill has been of major cultural significance since he lived there, and it became a National Historic Site in 1998. The opportunity now is to transform it into a destination renowned worldwide as the birthplace of American art…Read entire article
2016
The Bibliophilist, Thomas Cole: Artist as Architect
By Valerie A. Balint, Nineteenth Century (published by the Victorian Society in America),V. 36 No.2 – November 2016
To stand in the brand-new building where Thomas Cole: Artist as Architect is on view at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York is to take in the splendor of a soaring ceiling and rich red walls, replete with a visual feast of drawings, paintings, architectural renderings and books, all of which explore Cole’s lifelong interest in architecture… Read entire article
Schumer pushing for two new historic restoration projects
By Andrew Banas, News 10 ABC – November 23, 2016
At the foot of the Catskills lays a house that is over 200-years-old, but the people who work there say they are still finding new surprises every day…“We were interested in restoring these rooms to the way it looked when Thomas Cole lived here,” Jacks said. So, they hired a painter to help. “But what he found was really extraordinary,” Jacks said… Read entire article and watch video
Cole House Finds Art in Audio
By Greg Hudson, Columbia-Greene Media – October 8, 2016
Curators at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill have unveiled a new audio program which will enable visitors to experience a guided tour of the site at their own pace… Read entire article
Nature Builds/We Cover at Thomas Cole House
By William Jaeger, The Albany Times Union – August 24, 2016
“Nature Builds/We Cover” at Thomas Cole House. Brightening up the old place. Exhibit features work of artist who blends sculpture, painting. … “Nature Builds/We Cover” makes the younger man’s work surprising and fresh again… Read entire article
The Painter Thomas Cole, and His Architectural Ambitions
By Joyce Beckenstein, The New York Times – May 27, 2016
This year, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site celebrates the construction of Cole’s New Studio, a replica built upon the footprint of the original building, and according to the artist’s architectural plan. The space’s inaugural exhibition, “Thomas Cole: The Artist as Architect,” through Oct. 30, is a pleasant surprise… Read entire article
Thomas Cole as Architect Exhibit to Open at Artist’s NY Home
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, CATSKILL, NY – Jan 22, 2016
The inaugural exhibit has been announced for a reconstructed building located at the upstate New York home of the founder of the Hudson River School of art.
Officials at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill say the exhibit will focus on the landscape artist’s little-known contributions to American architecture. Cole, who died in 1848, was one of the designers of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus…. Read entire article
2015
Over $600K Awarded to Thomas Cole Site for Interior Restoration
By Artfix Daily – September 14, 2015
Periwinkle blue walls in the foyer, lavender walls in the West Parlor, a red and gold carpet with pyramids and birds-of-paradise, and hand-painted borders by Thomas Cole himself on the walls … . These are some of the elements of the original décor of the first-floor rooms of Cole’s 1815 home that will be restored as a result of two major federal grants that were recently awarded to the Thomas Cole Historic Site: $460,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities and $150,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services…. Read entire article
Thomas Cole’s Art Studio to Be Recreated
by Eve M. Kahn, The New York Times – July 23, 2015
The 19th-century painter Thomas Cole built an art studio with gingerbread woodwork and Hudson River views in Catskill, N.Y., but he enjoyed it for only a year or so before his death in 1848. Some brick and wooden fragments survive from the building, which was torn down in the early 1970s, while his nearby house, known as Cedar Grove, has been preserved as the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. This summer, contractors are finishing a reproduction of Cole’s design on the studio’s original foundation, basing it on vintage photos, sketches and paintings… Read entire article
Funds secured to restore wall paintings by Thomas Cole
By WNYT Staff, WNYT – July 18, 2015
19th century Landscape artist Thomas Cole made his home in Catskill. His homestead surrounded by the beauty of the mountain range that was the subject of much of his art. But nobody knew that inside the home, Cole surrounded himself with art as well. At least, until they were trying to figure out the original color of the parlor… Watch video
Restorer unearths historic paintings hidden in home of American master
by Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post – July 2, 2015
It was supposed to be just a quick paint job, a few days at most. But when refurbisher Matthew Mosca began chipping away at decades of old paint coating the walls in the historic home of artist Thomas Cole, he was startled to discover a tangle of delicate designs buried beneath. “You’re not going to believe this, but there’s actually hand-painted drapery and thorns on the wall here,”… Read entire article
Unknown Thomas Cole Paintings Found at His Home
By Nate Schweber, The New York Times – July 1, 2015
CATSKILL, N.Y. — Late last year, Matthew J. Mosca, a specialist in historic paint finishes, gazed up at what looked like a scrap of wallpaper. It was jutting up from an old coat of red paint covering the walls of a pantry inside the yellow-brick farmhouse where the 19th-century artist Thomas Cole displayed paintings that revolutionized American ideas about art and wilderness. But when Mr. Mosca climbed a ladder, he found it was not wallpaper, but a bold black decorative pattern… Read entire article
Landscape Painting Discovered on Wall in Former Thomas Cole Home
By WNYT Staff, WNYT
CATSKILL, N.Y. – There’s a new historic discovery in Greene County. Imagine chipping away at paint prepping to throw a new coat on, and discovering a priceless work of art. That’s what happened at the old residence of Thomas Cole. Now, Senator Chuck Schumer is asking for about $600,000 from The National Endowment for the Humanities to get the rest of that painting uncovered and restored…. Watch video
Also read: Thomas Cole and the Decorative Arts
VQR / Jean Dunbar
‘River Crossings’ a Contemporary Art Exhibition at 2 Historic Sites of the Hudson River School
By Daniel Van Benthuysen, The New York Times – May 28, 2015
WHEN warm weather arrives, artists by the hundreds, including me, venture outside with paint boxes and portable easels…. Read entire article
Olana, Thomas Cole site team up for an artsy house party
By Amy Biancolli, The Albany Times Union – May 1, 2015
When Thomas Cole and Frederic Church open their homes to a contemporary art exhibit on Sunday, the hosts will be nowhere to be seen. They did, after all, die in 1848 and 1900. But they’ll still be chatting up a storm… Read entire article
Additional Exhibition Coverage for “River Crossings”:
The Wall Street Journal
The Rogovoy Report
ABC News: New and Now: Lilac Fests, Hudson River Art, Night Exhibit
Stephen Hannock sets the stage for “River Crossings: Contemporary Art Comes Home”
Artist Pension Trust
Word Pond Blog
The Barlow Hotel Blog
PACE Gallery-Thomas Nozkowski
River Crossings Exhibit Brings Contemporary Art to the Mid-Hudson
I Love Hudson
Jerry Gretzinger highlights his work for River Crossings
Contemporary Exhibit Set For Thomas Cole, Olana Sites
Catskill unveils proposal for cross-Hudson shuttle
New York Times- Cedar Grove, Peabody Essex and Other Niche Museums Foray Into Contemporary Art
Spectre Arts- “Contemporary Artists Head North to Pay Homage to the Hudson Valley’s Artistic Past”
Greene County Council on the Arts
Auction Central News- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit”
On the Scene- “Olana and Thomas Cole to Host Joint Exhibition, River Crossings“
New York Times- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit”
Metro Pictures Gallery- Cindy Sherman
Catskill Daily Mail- “OUR VIEW: Mr. Cole and Mr. Church, together again”
Register Star- “Cole, Church to Meet in the Abstract”
Hyperallergic “Art Movements”
New York Observer- “Contemporary Artists Head North to Pay Homage to the Hudson Valley’s Artistic Past” (AP)
New Jersey Herald- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
Troy Record- “New York State News In Brief: Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Art Exhibit”
Saratogian- “New York State News In Brief: Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Art Exhibit”
IMBY.com- “Landmark Contemporary Art Exhibition Opening May 2015?
Yahoo! News- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
ABC News- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
The Washington Post- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
Newsday- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
Minneapolis Star Tribune- “2 New York historic sites linked to Hudson River School hosting contemporary art exhibit” (AP)
Tampa Tribune- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
San Antonio Express News- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
The Washington Times- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
Explore-Hudson-Valley.com AP Story from Yahoo! News
Explore-Hudson-Valley.com AP Story from New York Observer
Daily Freeman- “Thomas Cole, Olana historic sites to host contemporary art exhibit” (AP)
Glens Falls Post-Star “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
The Daily Star (Oneonta)- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
Winnipeg Free Press- “2 New York historic sites linked to Hudson River School hosting contemporary art exhibit” (AP)
Times Herald-Record (Middletown)- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
Beaumont (TX) Enterprise- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
Lewiston Morning Tribune (ID)- “Art going on exhibit at Hudson Valley sites” (AP)
WRAL-TV (Raleigh-Durham)- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
CBS6-TV (Albany, NY)- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
WHAM-TV (Rochester, NY)- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
WNYT-TV (Albany, NY)- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
WTEN-TV News 10 (Albany, NY)- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
WISH-TV (Indianapolis, IN)- “Hudson River Historic Sites Hosting Contemporary Art Exhibit” (AP)
Albany Times Union- “Cole, Church sites open doors: Contemporary artists join 19th century works for project”
Albany Times Union – Online “Chuck Close, Maya Lin, others in upcoming exhibit crossing the Hudson”
2014
Exhibition coverage for Master, Mentor, Master: Thomas Cole & Frederic Church
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/nyregion/an-exhibition-on-frederic-edwin-church-and-thomas-cole-in-catskill-ny.html?_r=0
Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/articles/art-review-master-mentor-master-thomas-cole-frederic-church-1402347440#printMode
Artfix: http://www.artfixdaily.com/calendar/print/7129-thomas-cole-and-frederic-church-master-mentor-master
The Daily Mail: http://www.thedailymail.net/news/article_ec71a1a4-e239-11e3-9aa2-001a4bcf887a.html
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/nyregion/events-in-westchester-for-june-8-14-2014.html?_r=0
iloveny: http://www.iloveny.com/thebeat/post/2014/2/Master-Mentor-Master-Thomas-Cole-Frederic-Church-Exhibition-Now-on-View/7748/#.U-OAo_ldVqU
Hudson Valley Magazine: http://www.hvmag.com/Hudson-Valley-Magazine/Calendar/index.php/name/Thomas-Cole-Historic-Site-presents-Thomas-Cole-Frederic-Church-Master-Mentor-Master/event/12154/
WAMC: http://wamc.org/post/master-mentor-master-thomas-cole-frederic-church-thomas-cole-historic-site
About Town: http://www.abouttown.us/index.php/events-calendar/details/5134-Master-Mentor-MasterThomas-Cole–Frederic-Church
Hudson Valley Mercantile: http://www.hvmercantile.com/tag/master-mentor-master/
Almanac: http://www.hudsonvalleyalmanacweekly.com/2014/05/16/colechurch-exhibit-opens-this-sunday-with-lecture-in-hudson-reception-in-catskill/
Chronogram: https://twitter.com/Chronogram/status/456443471490863105
Chronogram: http://www.chronogram.com/hudsonvalley/thomas-cole-and-frederic-church-master-mentor-master/Content?oid=2238891
http://www.zvents.com/catskill_ny/events/show/369643183-thomas-cole-frederic-church-master-mentor-master
Great Northern Catskills: http://www.greatnortherncatskills.com/arts-culture/thomas-cole-national-historic-site
Art Museum Touring: http://www.artmuseumtouring.com/Thomas-Cole.html
Questroyal Fine Art: http://hrs-art.com/2014/02/thomas-cole-frederic-church-exhibition/
New York History Blog: http://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2014/05/12/master-mentor-master-thomas-cole-and-frederic-church/
Coco Todo: http://www.cocotodo.com/event/12686
Questroyal Fine Art: http://www.veooz.com/photos/wH8mMJB.html
Daily Voice: http://rye.dailyvoice.com/events/classes-lectures/783908/thomas-cole-frederic-church-master-mentor-master
AFA News: http://www.afanews.com/home/item/2602-%E2%80%98master-mentor-master%E2%80%99-examines-teacher-student-relationship-between-thomas-cole-and-frederic-church
June 2013
Albert Bierstadt’s Paintings Now at Thomas Cole Site
By Annette Blaugrund, Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine
Albert Bierstadt! The name immediately conjures up monumental vistas of America’s Far West. Even in his 1902 obituary, the only hint that this artist ever worked in the East was the title of one painting, On the Saco, New Hampshire. Today, as in 1902, Bierstadt is best remembered for his dramatic and atmospheric paintings of the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, Yosemite, California, Wyoming, and Colorado. The focus of this article, however, is on Bierstadt’s lesser-known landscape paintings of New York and New England… Read entire article
April 2013
Hudson River Schooling
By Ralph Gardner Jr., The Wall Street Journal – April 29, 2013
My summer plans are set: I’m going to follow the Hudson River School Art Trail. Actually, it’s not quite as ambitious an undertaking as it might sound, such as traversing the full length of the Appalachian Trail which runs between Georgia and Maine. I suspect I can do it in an afternoon or two… Read entire article
April 2010
Grand Romance
By Jenna Lundin, VOGUE Magazine – April 27, 2010
Writings about New York’s celebrated Hudson River School—the nineteenth-century pioneers of American landscape painting that reached its heyday in the mid 1800’s—rarely mention the female contingent that painted alongside such famous male practitioners as Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, and Frederic Church. Now, for the first time, an exhibition opening Sunday at the Thomas Cole historic site in Catskill, New York, will focus exclusively on the women of the movement… Read entire article
Women Artists of the Hudson River School
By Jennifer Krieger, Antiques & Fine Art Magazine
The achievements of these women—who broke the bounds of imposed gender restrictions to carve out lives of accomplishment, adventure and independence—appear all the more extraordinary when one considers the historical and social context within which they took place… Read entire article
2009
Taking in the Views That Led to Great Art
By Benjamin Genocchio, The New York Times – October 9, 2009
A hiker can follow the Hudson River School Art Trail and wind up at the sites that inspired some of America’s important early works… Read entire article
River Views of the Hudson River School
By Elizabeth B. Jacks, American Art Review
Only ten years ago, Thomas Cole’s home stood in ruins. The graceful Federal style 1815 Main House was shedding roof shingles with each gust of wind, and a pool of water filled the basement after pipes had frozen and burst. … Read entire article
2006
A Natural Canvas
By Patricia Harris and David Lyon, The Boston Globe
CATSKILL, N.Y. In the typical Hudson River School painting, masses of cumulus clouds rise above an outsize vista of river and mountains. We always figured that those scenes were embellished by artistic license until we visited the painters’ haunts where the northern Catskill Mountains meet the Hudson River Valley.
As we crossed the Hudson on the high bridge at Castleton, the scenery was in our faces. We looked downriver past Rattlesnake and Coxsackie islands, and saw heaps of…Read entire article… (1303 words)
2005
The Hudson River School
By Susan Catto, The New York Times
We want to see some of the sights that the Hudson River School painted, if any of those places still exist. Can you suggest an itinerary, book or pamphlet that would guide us? Read entire article…
Found underground
By Bonnie Langston, Daily Freeman – January 21, 2005
The next Sunday salon at the Catskill home of Thomas Cole, founder of the famed 19th-century Hudson River School of painting, will be led by a man who learned of the artist a relatively short time ago and in a rather unusual venue – a New York City subway stop. Read entire article…
2004
Restored studio paints a life
By Timothy Cahill, Times Union – September 19, 2004
“Do you know that I have got a new painting-room?” wrote Thomas Cole to fellow painter Asher B. Durand near the end of 1839. “It answers pretty well … and being removed from the noise and bustle of the house, is really charming.” Read entire article…
Inside the artist’s studio: Cole’s work space being restored
By Jonathan Ment, Daily Freeman – September 12, 2004
An old barn behind the Thomas Cole house on Spring Street in Catskill has been an antiques shop, an apartment house and, yes, a residence for animals. Read entire article…
An American Virtuoso of Urgent visions
Timothy Cahill, Times Union – August 15, 2004
“To walk with nature as a poet,” wrote Thomas Cole, “is the necessary condition of a perfect artist.” Read entire article…
Cole’s 19th-century art studio getting a facelift
Fred Johnsen, Daily Freeman – March 6, 2004
Thomas Edison had Menlo Park, Theodore Roosevelt had Sagamore Hill, and within these places were “inner sanctums.” For Edison his laboratory, for Roosevelt his trophy room. Read entire article…