I finally got to preview the Museum's new exhibition Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America and the Railway, 1830-1960. It is fantastic! The whole exhibition is wonderful but of course I have my favorites including four Monets, a Magritte, two Hoppers, two Bentons and an amazing Manet. I think I have more to blog about than I can possibly handle during the exhibition but I will do my best to keep it up.
I thought I would start today with a general overview. The exhibition is organized into six sections that help you maneuver through the massive collection of paintings, prints, photographs and other assorted goodies.
The first section is The Formative Years which focuses on the development of the railroad, especially in Britain and France. It includes prints and drawings that depict feats of engineering such as tunnels, bridges and embankments. These pictures were used to make the new concept of train travel more familiar and acceptable to the public.
The next section is called Human Drama. It adds the element of narrative based on novels, stories and perhaps even myths about what really happened on the railroad. Scenes depict the division of classes including drawings by Honore Daumier that comment on the varying degrees of comfort and differences in passenger behavior. Three large paintings by Abraham Solomon were considered to be the soap operas of the day broaching the subject of vulnerable middle-class women traveling unsupervised and the development of relationships while traveling.
The next section crosses the Atlantic to focus on the development of the railroad in America. Crossing Continents portrays the railroad as sometimes in harmony with landscape and sometimes at odds with the pristine frontier. The dominating image in this gallery is Albert Bierstadt's large painting of the Donner Pass. As usual, the larger than life canvas depicts an idyllic landscape with mountains, forest and water. It takes a minute to find the train but once you do, it completely shifts the focus to the heroic conquest of harsh terrain in the name of progress.
The next gallery is dedicated to the Impressionists and Post Impressionists and contains some of the most famous railroad scenes from the 19th century inclulding Gare Saint Lazare by Monet and The Railway by Manet. These paintings show different views of the railroad with some artists commenting on the intrusion of rural life and the changes in society while others focused on the hope of progress.
States of Mind covers the late 19th and early 20th centuries by artists who used the railroad to evoke feelings and ideas associated with journeys, both physically and mentally. Of course the masterpiece in this gallery is Rene Magritte's Time Transfixed. In his typical style, Magritte juxtaposes two incongruent ideas: a train and a fireplace. There is plenty to analyze in this gallery and I recommend taking some extra time here.
The final section is The Machine Age and contains paintings, photographs and prints. The period between the First and Second World Wars depicted trains as a symbol of prosperity and productivity. The exhibition closes with some interesting comments on the future (post 1960) and the use of the railroad as propaganda.