Women Reframe American Landscape
Susie Barstow & Her Circle
Contemporary Practices
MAY 6-OCTOBER 29, 2023
In the New Studio, Main House, Old Studio, and outside
Exhibition Overview
Women Reframe American Landscape: Susie Barstow & Her Circle/ Contemporary Practices is a two-part exhibition and accompanying publication illuminating the artistic contributions and perspectives of women. The project will reinsert the accomplished 19th-century American artist Susie Barstow (1836-1923) into the history of the Hudson River School of landscape painting and present work by contemporary artists who expand and challenge how we think about “land” and “landscape” today.
It is the first retrospective of Barstow’s magnificent paintings, despite successfully exhibiting and selling her work during her lifetime. The presentation includes additional artworks by artists in her circle: Julie Hart Beers, Fidelia Bridges, Charlotte Buell Coman, Eliza Greatorex, Mary Josephine Walters, and Laura Woodward. The internationally acclaimed contemporary artists include: Teresita Fernández, Guerrilla Girls, Marie Lorenz, Tanya Marcuse, Mary Mattingly, Ebony G. Patterson, Anna Plesset, Jean Shin, Wendy Red Star, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Cecilia Vicuña, Kay WalkingStick, and Saya Woolfalk.
The exhibition is curated by Dr. Nancy Siegel, Professor of Art History at Towson University; Kate Menconeri, Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, Contemporary Art, and Fellowship at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, and Amanda Malmstrom, Associate Curator at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. It will travel to the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, CT, from November 16, 2023 to March 31, 2024.
“Exemplifies what the Cole Site does best—placing contemporary artists in dialogue with painters from the Hudson River School.” —The Berkshire Eagle
“Reframing history” —Native American Art Magazine
The project is accompanied by a full-color publication printed by Hirmer Publishers, Munich. The book features original essays by the exhibition curators, texts and plates by the exhibiting artists, a discussion with Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation), and Jolene Rickard (Tuscarora Nation (Turtle Clan), Hodinöhsö:ni Confederacy) entitled, “Upturning the Map: Native Women and Representations of Land and Landscape,” and a newly researched timeline of historical events on the topics of land, art, and gender, leading up to this moment. The timeline is researched and edited by Sofia Thieu D’Amico and Heather Bruegl (Oneida/ Stockbridge-Munsee), with Amanda Malmstrom.
Two additional international books on artists in the exhibition, Susie Barstow and Fidelia Bridges, have been published by Lund Humphries in London and are available in our gift shop now.
The project is presented at the Thomas Cole Site as the cornerstone of the year-long Women, Land + Art initiative across exhibitions, programs, collections and interpretation.
RELATED PROGRAMMING
Curators’ Talk & Artist Panel | Sun, Jul 30 at 1 pm
This event is presented in partnership at Foreland, Catskill, NY
DIGITAL CONTENT
Audio Guide from Curator Nancy Siegel
Catalogue Essays from Curators Kate Menconeri and Amanda Malmstrom
Women Reframe American Landscape: Susie Barstow & Her Circle / Contemporary Practices is made possible by the Warner Foundation.
The exhibition is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. This project is supported by a grant awarded to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site by Empire State Development and I LOVE NY/New York State’s Division of Tourism through the Regional Economic Development Council initiative.
Additional support is provided by Wyeth Foundation for American Art and Tavolozza Foundation.
The exhibition and publication are also supported by Jennifer Krieger and Eric Siegel, Maurice D. Hinchey Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, Rick and Candace Beinecke, The Coby Foundation, Ltd., Marshall Field V., Allan E. Bulley, Jr., Greene County Legislature through the Greene County Cultural Fund, National Trust Insurance Services, LLC, Suncommon, The Bank of Greene County Charitable Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the Kindred Spirits Society of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site.
® I LOVE NEW YORK is a registered trademark and service mark of the New York State Department of Economic Development; used with permission.
Cover Image Left: Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Unhinged (Map) (detail), 2018, mixed media on canvas, Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, NY.
Cover Image Right: Susie M. Barstow, Fall, White Mountains (detail), ca. 1870s, oil on canvas, Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, NY.
Installation views of “Susie Barstow & Her Circle” in Thomas Cole’s New Studio © Peter Aaron/OTTO
Installation view of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s “Unhinged (Map)” above Thomas Cole’s desk in the Main House © Peter Aaron/OTTO
Installation view of “Guerrilla Girls Reality Check: The Hudson River School” in the Main House Entrance Hall © Peter Aaron/OTTO
Exhibition catalogue cover
Susie M. Barstow, Mountain Lake in Autumn, 1873. Oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in. Private Collection.
Susie M. Barstow, Landscape, 1865. Oil on canvas, 30 x 22 in. Betsy and Al Scott Collection.
Susie Barstow Skelding, Susie M. Barstow in her Brooklyn Studio, 1891, 5 x 7 in., Private Collection, Photograph: Dennis DeHart
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Unhinged (Map), 2018. Mixed media on canvas, 60 x 40 in. Courtesy the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, NY.
Ebony G. Patterson, …the wailing…ushers us home…and there is a bellying on the land…, 2021. Mixed media on jacquard woven photo tapestry and custom vinyl wallpaper, approximately 96 x 104 in. Courtesy the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, IL.