“Question,” by Martin Puryear in Olana’s Court Hall. (Peter Aaron | OTTO)
Back in May, the Hudson River School of painting went 21st-century and bicoastal with a landmark collaborative exhibition titled “River Crossings: Contemporary Art Comes Home,” jointly hosted by the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill and Olana State Historic Site on the outskirts of Hudson. The exhibition, showcasing top artists of today whose work takes inspiration from the Valley’s seminal 19th-century nature-based art movement, got rave notices and was just featured last weekend on CBS Sunday Morning.
But time is running out to catch this terrific exhibit, if you haven’t yet: “River Crossings” closes on November 1. To accommodate the crowds expected during the popular show’s last couple of weeks, the two venues’ usual six-day schedule has been expanded to include Mondays. So by the time you read this, you’ll have one extra day – Monday, October 26 – to cross this off your culture-vulture hit list. The Cole site’s executive director, Betsy Jacks, notes that “the next two weeks are our busiest time of the year,” and Sean Sawyer, president of the Olana Partnership, calls the show “a unique opportunity to see this grouping of internationally renowned contemporary artists in the context of two of America’s most significant historic artists’ homes.”
Curated by Stephen Hannock and Jason Rosenfeld, PhD, “River Crossings” includes works by Romare Bearden, Elijah Burgher, Chuck Close, Will Cotton, Gregory Crewdson, Lynn Davis, Jerry Gretzinger, Don Gummer, Duncan Hannah, Stephen Hannock, Valerie Hegarty, Angie Keefer with Kara Hamilton and Kianja Strobert, Charles LeDray, Maya Lin, Frank Moore, Elizabeth Murray, Rashaad Newsome, Thomas Nozkowski, Stephen Petegorsky, Martin Puryear, Cindy Sherman, Sienna Shields, Kiki Smith, Joel Sternfeld, Letha Wilson and Elyn Zimmerman, in addition to selected complementary work by Thomas Cole and Frederic Church from the permanent collections.
For more information or to schedule your tour, visit www.rivercrossings.org. To read more about this landmark exhibition, read this Almanac Weekly interview with curator Stephen Hannock: https://bit.ly/1AbyLT9.