The busy calendar of fairs and auctions in May makes New York City an attractive hub of activity for the art crowd. But if a breather is needed or desired, a day trip may be in order. Here are a few art destinations worth considering.
Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, N.Y.
Two centuries ago, the artist Thomas Cole took a momentous boat ride up the Hudson River to Catskill, where the scenery inspired him to found the Hudson River School of landscape painting. He also fell in love with Maria Bartow and moved in 1836 to her family home in Catskill, painting the view from their porch of the Catskill Mountains more than any other.
At the artist’s home and free-standing studio, under two hours by train from New York City, the exhibition “Emily Cole: Ceramics, Flora & Contemporary Responses” opens Saturday, juxtaposing botanical watercolors and painting on porcelain by Cole’s daughter Emily, an accomplished artist in her own right. It also includes works by eight female artists working today.
“We engaged them in a call and response,” said the chief curator of the historic site, Kate Menconeri, who curated the show with Amanda Malmstrom, the associate curator. “There’s a huge resurgence of artists working with ceramic arts and flowers, so it’s this timely moment to recognize how vital these practices are.”
Ann Agee, Valerie Hegarty and Francesca DiMattio were inspired to make new works, while Jacqueline Bishop, Courtney M. Leonard, Jiha Moon, Michelle Sound and Stephanie Syjuco made site-responsive installations. These are all in lively conversation throughout the house and studio with Emily Cole’s china wares (originally produced and exhibited in the same studio where her father once worked).
A new visitor center, which opened last year and serves light food, unites the historic site’s grounds and gardens. “We want visitors to go out into the landscape that inspired this work,” Menconeri said, “and see these peonies and lilies and irises that Emily painted in the 19th century still growing here today.”