Art Exhibit Review

The title of the exhibit I chose for this weeks art exhibit review is “Timeshare: An Historic Art Collaboration” now being shown at the Burchfield Penny Art Center. The theme of this exhibit is art that the regional history of western New York. The works look at the time period between the late 19^th and early 20^th century.

The exhibit consists of almost exclusively oil paintings from the period and they are displayed every three or four feet along the walls in a room that has been divided into two areas. One section has paintings from the 1800’s and the second room has paintings from the early 1900’s. The room itself is painted a warm grey tone and the lighting is not too bright and not too dim. The paintings, for the most part, are framed in gold and are grouped in no particular order other than time period and a few are grouped by artist. The works mostly consist of landscape and portrait paintings of the artists involved and famous historical figures that influenced the history of Buffalo and the surrounding area. The works are labeled and identified by name of the work, artist and the year the work was created.

Since photography is not allowed at the Museum, I have chosen to review three of the works found in the exhibits literature guide.

On the cover is a painting by Hamilton Hamilton titled, “Fletchers Furnace”; 1876, oil on canvas. The painting appears to be a night view of an industrial center. Smoke stacks can be seen in the distance lighting up the night sky. Just off center in the lower right, a bright door way is shown illuminating the water front. In this work the artist uses color to emphasis the doorway. The painting is very dark and this darkness is broken by the bright color emanating from the door way. When viewing this piece your eyes are automatically drawn to the door. To balance this effect, the upper left corner is very dark with very little light showing.

The second work I’ve chosen is “Flags Flying, Avenue of the Allies, Main Street Buffalo” by Claire Shuttleworth; 1919, oil on canvas. In this painting a street scene is shown. It is a corner of a city street and from the buildings in the scene, dozens of  flags can be seen on display. The majority of these are American, but in the foreground a large French and British flag can be seen. It’s a daytime view of a busy city street with many people moving about. Color is used vividly in this painting as the colorful flags brighten up what would be a fairly drab earth tone painting. The size of the large British and French flags emphasizes them to the viewer. The bright sky in the top of the painting is balanced by the dark shadow, thrown by the building on the left, on the lower section of the painting. The painting uses linear perspective to give the feeling of depth as the street recedes into the distance.

The third painting I’ve chosen is “Captain of the Lincoln Rail-Splitters” by Joseph Josephs; 1880, oil on canvas. This painting is a full body portrait of a lumber jack from the time. It is an outside scene with hills and a body of water in the background. The man is standing in uniform with an axe on his back, a giant hammer in one hand and what appears to be a lamp in the other. A sign is hanging from a nearby tree that has the title of the work and the artists name on it. Like the other works, the use of color is a big factor in this work. The main figure is dressed in a striking red shirt that emphasizes him as the central figure. The bright white sign is also emphasized due to its brightness. It appears to balance out the bright sky in the other half of the painting.

I enjoyed this exhibit. There are several beautiful landscapes included in the collection, as well as a giant portrait of President McKinley at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. Being a native western New Yorker, I really enjoyed the artistic and historic take on my home town.