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NEWS RELEASE Media contact:

Colleen Schafroth, Executive Director

(509) 773-3733

colleen@maryhillmuseum.org

 

 

 

Maryhill Museum of Art to Open 2009 Season on March 15

with Exhibit of Hudson River School Artists

 

(GOLDENDALE, Wash., February 19, 2009) -- Maryhill Museum of Art will re-open for its 69th season on Sunday, March 15, 2009. The opening exhibition, Hudson River School Sojourn, features 34 paintings by Hudson River School artists Jasper Francis Cropsey, Asher Brown Durand, William Hart, David Johnson and Jervis McEntee, among others. All of the works are drawn from the collection of Dr. Michel Hersen and Mrs. Victoria Hersen and will be on view through July 8, 2009.

 

Opening day festivities will include talks by Dr. Michel Hersen and Maryhill curator of exhibits Lee Musgrave, a hands-on family program, and a celebratory afternoon reception. All activities are free with paid admission to the museum.

 

ABOUT THE EXHIBIT

The Hudson River School, comprising two generations of artists inspired and influenced by the awesome beauty of America’s unspoiled wild areas, came to prominence during the 19th and early 20th century.


Working between 1825 and 1915, primarily in the Hudson River Valley, as well as in the Catskill, Berkshire and White Mountains, and the newly opened West, the Hudson River School firmly established the first American landscape painting tradition.

 

Hudson River School artists are known for their beautifully composed pastoral paintings, filled with dramatically lit mountains, waterfalls and old growth forests. They worked to evoke an idealized and romantic landscape where humans and nature co-existed peacefully. These artists also reflected a new concept of wilderness that had spread to America from Europe – one in which man was considered an intrusion in a landscape more beautiful than terrifying.

This shift in thinking had a profound influence on the American people, who began traveling to wilderness areas for recreation and relaxation. Ironically, as more people visited the areas that Hudson River School painters depicted in their work, there was increased development. This led Hudson River School artists to venture further and further away from encroaching civilization, as they searched for wild areas to inspire their paintings. Thus, many second-generation Hudson River School artists traveled to the American west in search of new expanses of wilderness.

 

“Artists of the Hudson River School shared with writers such as Thoreau and Emerson, a reverence for America’s natural beauty. Now, nearly 200 years later, that idealistic point of view is once again at the forefront of national discussions concerning the environment,” says Lee Musgrave, Maryhill’s curator of exhibits.

 

All of the 34 works featured in Hudson River School Sojourn are drawn from the collection of Dr. Michel Hersen and Mrs. Victoria Hersen, who both share an affinity for the vision and environmental philosophies of the Hudson River School artists.

“[These artists] portrayed what they saw in their travels with a reverence for the environment, a fidelity to geology and botany, and an appreciation of heavenly light. We are delighted to be able to loan these paintings to Maryhill Museum of Art. We hope that these examples of the Hudson River School will provide as much pleasure to the viewing public as they have to us over the years,” says Dr. Michel Hersen.

 

 

RELATED PROGRAMS

 

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Meet the Collector, 2 p.m.

Dr. Michel Hersen speaks about the Hudson River School, his passion for the work and his private collection.

 

Curatorial Walk, 3 p.m.

Join curator Lee Musgrave for an informative walk through the exhibit Hudson River School Sojourn.

 

Family Fun: Make Your Own Landscape, 1 to 4 p.m.

Kids of all ages can create their own bucolic paradise using watercolor. Three separate sessions begin on the hour at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. Family Fun activities and admission to the museum are free for children under 17 with one adult admission.

 

Reception, 4 to 5 p.m.

Enjoy hot mulled cider and spice cake á la the Hudson River Valley.

 

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Family Fun:  Stories of the Hudson River School, 1 to 4 p.m.

Join a local storyteller Teddy Cole and award-winning arts educator Mary Cooper for an afternoon of art and fun. Storytelling at 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Art activity is continuous. Family Fun activities and admission to the museum are free for children under 17 with one adult admission.

 

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ABOUT MARYHILL MUSEUM OF ART:

Housed in a glorious Beaux Arts mansion on 5,300 acres high above the banks of the Columbia River, Maryhill Museum of Art is one of the Pacific Northwest’s most enchanting cultural destinations.  It is home to a world-class permanent collection and rotating exhibitions of the highest caliber. Founded by Northwest entrepreneur and visionary Sam Hill, Maryhill opened to the public in 1940. Maryhill’s collections include more than 80 works by Auguste Rodin, including a pedestal-sized plaster version of The Thinker, as well as European and American paintings, magnificent objects d'art from the palaces of the Queen of Romania, Orthodox icons, a collection of unique chess sets, and the renowned Théâtre de la Mode, which features small-scale mannequins attired in designer fashions of post-World War II France. Baskets of the indigenous people of North America were a collecting interest of Sam Hill; today the museum’s Native American collection has grown to represent nearly every tradition and style in North America, with works of art from prehistoric through contemporary.

 

The museum’s Outdoor Sculpture Garden features work by artists such as Tom Herrera, Mel Katz, Heath Krieger, Alisa Looney, Jill Torberson, Julian Voss-Andreae, Jeff Weitzel and Leon White. The Maryhill Overlook, a site-specific sculpture by noted Portland architect Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture, provides a unique interpretation of the Columbia River Gorge through a series of cutouts and windows that isolate smaller views within the larger landscape. Also on site are Lewis and Clark interpretive panels. Four miles east of Maryhill is a life-sized replica of Stonehenge, which Sam Hill built to memorialize local men who perished in World War I.

 

The museum was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 2001 the museum was listed as an official site of the National Historic Lewis and Clark Trail and in 2002 was accredited by the American Association of Museums.

 

VISITOR INFORMATION:

Maryhill Museum of Art is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., March 15 to November 15. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and $2 for children age 6-16.

 

Refreshments are available at Café Maryhill, which offers a great selection of sandwiches, salads, espresso drinks, cold beverages, and freshly baked desserts and pastries. Picnic lunches are also available. The Museum Store features art and history books, jewelry, Native American crafts and other mementos.

 

Four miles east of the museum is Sam Hill’s replica of England’s Stonehenge, which he built as a tribute to the soldiers of Klickitat County who lost their lives in World War I. Admission to the Stonehenge Memorial is free; it is open from 7:00 a.m. to dusk daily. Nearby The Klickitat County War Memorial was erected in 1995 to honor those who have died in the service of their country since World War I.

 

Maryhill is located off Highway 97, 12 miles south of Goldendale, Washington. Drive times to the museum are 2 hours from Portland/Vancouver, 3.5 hours from Bend, 4 hours from Seattle, and 1.5 hours from Yakima. 

 

For further information about Maryhill, visit www.maryhillmuseum.org.

 

 

Images above, from left to right: Samuel Colman (1832–1920), Sunset, Lake George, c. 1860, oil on canvas, 14” x 20”. Asher Brown Durand (1796–1886), View in the Catskill Mountains, 1864, oil on canvas, 13” x 19”. William Coventry Wall (1810–1886), On the Susquehanna Near Harrisburg, 1868, oil on canvas, 22” x 42”. Charles Henry Gifford (1839–1904), Hauling Nets, 1867, oil on canvas, 9” x 14”. All photos by Paul Foster.

 

A selection of 300 dpi images is available for use by press - click here.

Maryhill Museum of Art | 35 Maryhill Museum Drive | Goldendale, WA 98620 | 509-773-3733
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