THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 29, 1995 TAG: 9507280066
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
A WALK THROUGH ``America Around 1900: Impressionism, Realism & Modern Life,'' an exhibit at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, is like a picnic by a lake during a never-ending holiday.
Strolling though the galleries, breathe out the nasty, urban tension - the heat, the traffic.
Then breathe in the refreshing atmosphere of so many of the 66 paintings on view at the Richmond museum.
William Merritt Chase's ``Idle Hours'' (1894) shows the artist's wife and daughters in pleasant revery by the Long Island seashore, unperturbed by a few darkening clouds.
Mary Cassatt's ``Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly'' (1880) shows the artist's older sister awash in sunlight at a summer retreat in the country near Paris. A well-dressed lady of leisure, Lydia works the needles wearing gloves and a massive lace bonnet.
The Realist art on view is just as revitalizing, though the images may not be as serene.
George Bellows' 1913 ``Cliff Dwellers'' shows the low-rent but engaging hustle and bustle of the lower east side of Manhattan. Instead of poverty, Bellows emphasizes energy and community.
William Glackens' ``Hammerstein's Roof Garden'' (circa 1901) shows where New Yorkers went in the summer for entertainment. Glackens makes a statement about growing urban rudeness in having a patron seated with his straw hat on the table before a lady.
Beautiful, sensual painting and pleasing subjects are the lure of ``America Around 1900,'' along with nostalgia for an optimistic pre-World War I nation.
But the show's point is something else again.
The exhibition makes a controversial comparison of the American Impressionists and Realists.
Up to now, the two schools were thought to be as dissimilar as bread and chocolate. This exhibit, like the popular 1994 Metropolitan Museum of Art show on which it was based, strives to show that painters from each group actually had a lot in common, said David Park Curry, curator of American arts at the Virginia Museum.
Curry was a curator for the Met show and the Virginia version, which shares its theme and some of the art.
The American Impressionists, represented by such prominent figures as Childe Hassam, Chase and Cassatt, began in the late 1880s to reflect the French Impressionist art that inspired them.
The American Realists, also called the Ashcan School, rose in the early 1900s. They were led by Robert Henri and artists of his circle, including Glackens and John Sloan.
Many of the American Impressionists, including Cassatt and John Singer Sargent, had worked in Paris alongside French Impressionist masters. Realists had studied in Europe, too, and also were influenced by the Impressionist inclination to work outdoors and to capture contemporary, everyday scenes.
Most of the Impressionists were patrician, as were their subjects.
Their canvases were light-filled confections enlivened by rough-textured, rapidly rendered brushstrokes.
The Realists were urban and working class. Their paintings were bolder, more energetic and darker, both in subject and coloration.
The differences were obvious enough, yet Curry was betting on the side of surprising similarities.
``In issues of style, the best test in the world is to put the works together physically. And they will tell you in a New York second whether you were barking up the wrong tree.
``And we weren't.''
There is an element of nationalism in works from each camp, reflecting a general Yankee pride during that era.
Painters from each movement focused on everyday slices of modern life. Each group tempered the degree of realism; often, more disturbing aspects of life were left out.
``They shared a desire to paint their own time, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't edit their own time,'' Curry said.
``These paintings were made in a time of great social upheaval, but they are not reports on American society. They are visual artifacts.''
In such tight times, to stage a blockbuster show that draws paying customers is a boon, he said. In the show's first month, 8,256 patrons paid the $5 special fee.
The fiscal concerns have something in common with the show's theme.
Until the last decade, Impressionist and Realist works were analyzed more for style than social context. The trend caused some critics to squawk about the emphasis on social commentary in the Met show.
Yet, financial realities - like real life contexts - are fairly inescapable.
Robert Henri knew this a century ago. ``Life and art,'' he said, ``cannot be disassociated.'' ILLUSTRATION: "America Around 1900: Impressionism, Realism & Modern Life"
What: ``America Around 1900: Impressionism, Realism & Modern
Life,'' an exhibit of 66 American Impressionist and Realist
paintings
Where: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2800 Grove Ave., Richmond
When: through Sept. 17
Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; Thursdays until
8 p.m.
How much: $5; ages 12 and younger, free. Admission to the rest of
the museum is by donation.
Call: (804) 367-0844
Seminar: ``Picturing America,'' a symposium on how a changing
America affected art at the turn of the century, takes place 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Richmond museum. David Park Curry will be
among the expert speakers. Tickets are $20; call (804) 367-8148.
RIGHT: Mary Cassatt's "Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly" from
1880.
FAR RIGHT: William Merritt Chase's "Idle Hours" (1894) shows the
artist's wife and daughters by the Long Island sea.
by CNB