Landscape Re-framed: Sculptures by Celene Hawkins
August 2–October 20, 2013
Sinton Gallery
Cascade II, 2010, steel, wax, and enamel, 102 x 192 x 96 inches. Collection of the artist.
This year, Cincinnati-based artist Celene Hawkins’s new series of sculptures resonates with the Taft Museum of Art’s European landscape paintings. Hawkins’s exhibition draws upon the botanical motifs found on gilded decorative frames, as well as the landscapes ensconced within. In her work, frames move beyond merely presenting a work of art to becoming the art themselves. Within these structures, Hawkins incorporates her vision of the modern landscape, which both echoes and challenges the ideal presented in 19th-century painting. Working in a range of materials that includes metals, wax, ceramic, and mixed media, Hawkins examines the landscape and natural environment through sculptures, installations, and photomontages.
Sponsor
The Suzanne M. and Robert L. LaBoiteaux Family Foundation
Exhibition Support Generously Provided By
Ellen and George Rieveschl Endowment
Season Sponsor
ArtsWave Partner
GE Aviation
Operating Support Provided By
Telling Tales: Stories and Legends in 19th-Century American Art
September 20, 2013–January 12, 2014
William Sidney Mount (1807–1868), Farmers Bargaining (later known as Bargaining for a Horse), 1835. Oil on canvas. New-York Historical Society, Gift of the New-York Gallery of theFine Arts, 1858.59
As an institution that has often been the site of the convergence of history, art, and politics, the Taft is an ideal place to see an exhibition that traces the development of the emerging American spirit and its separation from European traditions. Before television and movies, art offered up riveting narratives from history, literature, daily life, and current events. Spanning from the colonial period through the Civil War, 46 paintings and 7 sculptures highlight the American fascination with narrative art. From the collection of the New-York Historical Society, the exhibition includes paintings by such giants of early 19th-century American art as Benjamin West, William Sidney Mount, and Eastman Johnson as well as others being shown for the first time in decades.
