Visionary Dr W.A.R. Goodwin and supporter John D. Rockefeller, Jr, in front of the George Wythe House, circa 1920s.
NEW YORK CITY – The Spanierman Gallery, LLC, is presenting “Ann Lofquist: ” through May 3.
Lofquist, in her quiet, pastoral landscapes of rural New England, continues the tradition of such Nineteenth Century American tonalist artists as George Inness, John Francis Murphy, Charles Warren Eaton and Henry Ward Ranger.
Like these predecessors, Lofquist conjures a sense of place not only through her meticulously rendered, painterly images, but also through her close attention to subtleties of tone, atmosphere, and light. Lofquist further emulates these artists as she is more compelled by scenes perceived at twilight, dawn and dusk than at times of bright sunlight, and she is drawn to seasonal transitions. Capturing the nuances of spring’s thawing snows in late afternoon light and fall’s arrival in still-warm countrysides at sunrise, her work expresses the evocative qualities of such experiences.
Lofquist depicts cultivated landscapes. Small solitary figures, cars, buildings, and domesticated animals are inconspicuous forms, often camouflaged into their settings. Neither recreation seekers nor workers, the figures in her paintings are comfortable in their surroundings and appreciate them as a matter of course.
Despite the evidence of contemporary life in her works, Lofquist suggests the perpetuation of a type of American landscape as represented by artists from the Hudson River School onwards, in which an appreciation of nature is a phenomenon of everyday American life.
Born in Washington, DC, in 1964, Lofquist received her BFA from Washington University School of Fine Arts, St Louis, Mo., and her MFA from Indiana University in 1990. After graduating, she moved to Brunswick, Maine, where she was professor of art at Bowdoin College from 1990 to 2001. She has received many fellowships and awards, and was included in The Artist and the American Landscape (1998) by John Driscoll, an important review of contemporary American landscape painting.
The Spanierman Gallery is at 45 East 58th Street. For information, 212-832-0208 or www.spanierman.com.
