"Volupte," Marsden Hartley,
1919. Oil on canvas from a private collection.
NEW YORK CITY - "Marsden Hartley New Mexico 1918-1920: ," on view
through April 19 at Alexandre Gallery, is an exhibition presented
in association with Mark Borghi Fine Art, Inc. and is accompanied
by a fully illustrated catalog with text by Gail R. Scott, whose
work on Hartley includes a monograph published by Abbeville
Press, among other books.
This is the first exhibition to explore the paintings and pastels
created by Marsden Hartley in New Mexico during a 17-month period
beginning in June 1918 - Hartley's only trip to the American
West.
Painted in direct response to a vast and austere mountainous
landscape, these works are characterized by bold muscular marks,
brilliant raw color and a deep emotional and spiritual connection
with both his new surroundings and the idea of an "American"
landscape. Often overlooked in Hartley scholarship (including the
current Wadsworth Atheneum retrospective) and overshadowed by the
later New Mexico Recollections (painted in Europe), these New
Mexico pictures mark Hartley's first extended involvement with
the American landscape after his assimilation of European
modernism and abstraction. Hartley's engagement in the landscape
and exploration of naturalistic styles during this period
establish the foundation of his later Dogtown and Maine
masterpieces.
The exhibition will include major loans from public and private
collections including the Ogunquit Museum of American Art
(Maine), Whitney Museum of American Art, Weisman Museum of Art
(Hudson Walker Collection) and Curtis Galleries (Minneapolis).
The accompanying catalog includes a facsimile of the 1921
Anderson Galleries auction brochure organized by Alfred Stieglitz
(from which the New Mexico works were sold) and original texts
written by Hartley while in New Mexico. In the 1918 article
America as Landscape, Hartley writes "I am an American. I
like the position and I like the results."
Alexandre Gallery is at 41 East 57th Street at 212-755-2828 or
www.alexandregallery.com.
