: Claude Hirst, born Claudine, worked in the realistic style of
still life painting known as trompe l'oeil ("fool the eye"),
which flourished in America at the turn of the Twentieth Century.
Hirst's intimately scaled oils and watercolors display her
dazzling skill for rendering the surfaces and textures of
objects. Hirst created paintings to appeal to both men and women,
in contrast to her male colleagues, who painted primarily for a
male audience.
Approximately 30 of the artist's paintings are featured in the
exhibition "Claude Raguet Hirst: Transforming the American Still
Life." It will be on view at the Columbus Museum of Art, 480 East
Broad Street, January 15-April 10.
Hirst started her career painting still lifes of flowers and
fruit. Later she adopted the typical subject matter of her male
compatriots, such as pipes, dead game and newspapers. However, in
many of her mature paintings Hirst included decorative objects
and literary texts that spoke to the tastes and experiences of
turn-of-the-century female viewers. By incorporating examples of
the art pottery movement of the late Nineteenth Century into
several of her works, Hirst celebrated the participation of women
in the applied arts. Additionally, though she often painted in
oil, she ingeniously employed watercolor (known as a "lady's
medium") to mimic the detailed surfaces of trompe l'oeil oil
paintings.
The exhibition highlights more than 30 paintings in oil and
watercolor by Hirst, which have been loaned from museums and
private collections throughout the United States. It also
includes a selection of rare books that the artist painstakingly
reproduced in her works.
Mark Cole, curator of American art at the Columbus Museum of Art
stated, "Not only is the exhibition full of wonderful and
astonishingly detailed paintings, it also adds significantly to
our understanding of American art. The rediscovery of this
previously neglected, yet fascinating artist is cause for
celebration."
"Claude Raguet Hirst: Transforming the American Still Life" is
organized by the Columbus Museum of Art. Accompanying the
exhibition is a full-length illustrated catalog authored by guest
curator Martha M. Evans, who received her PhD from Columbia
University, where she wrote her doctoral dissertation on Hirst.
The Henry Luce Foundation is the major sponsor for the exhibition
and catalog.
On Sunday, January 30, at 2 pm, Evans will discuss the exhibition
in the museum galleries. The recipient of a Smithsonian
Institution Predoctoral Fellowship in American Art, Evans has
extensively researched Hirst's career and art and the catalog
includes essays that examine Hirst's biography and career as well
as an interpretive essay that discusses Hirst's influence on
trompe l'oeil painting. To register, call 614-629-0359 or
register online at www.columbusmuseum.org.
Admission is $10; $5 for members.
On Thursday, April 7, at 7 pm, Melissa Wolfe will lecture in
conjunction with the exhibition "Claude Raguet Hirst:
Transforming the American Still Life." Admission is free.
For information, 614-221-4848 or columbusmuseum.org.
