Eliza Pratt Greatorex & Frederic Church: Art, Travel, Faith, Home by Katherine Manthorne
March 23, 2021
Eliza Pratt Greatorex (1819-1897) and Frederic Church (1826-1900) were two near-contemporary visual artists of fierce ambition and enormous talent. They inhabited the same New York art world, traveled extensively in the service of their art, and earned critical acclaim across the United States and Europe. Putting their careers in dialogue, this presentation examines their artistic practices, globe-trotting itineraries and strategies for engaging with the public. Given that Church was a Connecticut Yankee with deep American roots while Greatorex (née Pratt) left her native Ireland for NY during the Great Famine in 1848, Professor Katherine Manthorne will probe the roles that family background, faith and gender played in their individual searches for success and home.
Into the Maelstrom: The Life and Career of Mary Edmonia Lewis by Kirsten Pai Buick
February 24, 2021
In the U.S., one of the earliest and most passionate discussions around the fine arts and their role in defining American identity and national aspirations took place over neoclassical sculpture. Issues of belonging and citizenship, gender, race, region, and class were negotiated through the medium of marble. In the 19th century, Mary Edmonia Lewis (1845-1907), the first woman of Ojibwe and African American descent to gain international acclaim as a sculptor, entered these conversations. In this presentation, Professor Kirsten Buick will explore the impact of Lewis’s career on the most compelling debates of her day–the fight to abolish slavery, True Womanhood, spirituality, and how the U.S. would resolve its relationship to its Indigenous populations.
Sacred Geographies: Frederic Church, the Holy Land, and the Hudson Valley by Jennifer Raab
January 6, 2021
During this Olana Perspectives Webinar, Jennifer Raab, Associate Professor in the History of Art at Yale, will investigate how Frederic Church’s travels through the Middle East and his paintings of Jerusalem and Petra shaped his Hudson Valley home and masterpiece, Olana. Raab is the author of Frederic Church: The Art and Science of Detail (2015), which considers a selection of Church’s major landscape paintings in light of scientific discoveries of the nineteenth century.
Making it Last: The Art & Science of Preserving Olana’s Paper & Photographic Collections
November 18, 2020
Michele Phillips is the Paper Conservator at the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (NYSOPRHP), working at the centralized conservation labs at the Bureau of Historic Sites & Parks, Peebles Island Resources Center. Her treatment specialty ranges from prints, drawings & letters, to wallpaper & large maps. Michele is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation, a regular presenter at international museum conferences, and a grant reviewer for the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the New York State Council of the Arts. She lives in Troy, NY, where she is a trustee of the Hart Cluett Museum.
Have you ever wondered what kind of work goes into caring for the delicate and diverse permanent collection of Olana and readying works of art for exhibition? In this talk, we’ll hear from one of the nationally prominent conservators who care for the collections of the New York state historic sites network. Michele Phillips will offer a lively glimpse into the particular challenges of dealing with old works of art on paper, including drawings, documents, engravings, and photographs.
She’ll provide a number of case studies from the collection that illustrate the creative problem solving that goes into her work, combining art and science to ensure this great collection can be enjoyed by the public for many years to come. This will be a rare chance to see behind the scenes of the vibrant public-private partnership that makes Olana tick.
Mexican Rebozo Shawls at Olana & Beyond: From Uncertain Origins to Compromised Future
October 28, 2020
This talk by one of the world’s leading scholars and advocates of Mexico’s rich tradition of textile art will focus on a little known story in Olana’s diverse collections. Marta Turok takes as her focus Olana’s important holdings of uncannily well preserved “rebozos,” traditional shawls primarily used by indigenous women that were purchased by the Church family during their travels in Mexico. She will give a brief overview of the history of the Mexican rebozo and share the challenges facing the future of this emblematic garment, including activities being undertaken for its revitalization.
Looking at Frederic Church, 1975-2020
October 14, 2020
One of our country’s most prominent curator-scholars shares the unique perspective of his decades-long engagement with Frederic Church and Olana. This personal reflection looks back on how he came to know Church, to study him and his work seriously in graduate school, to work as a curator of his work in groundbreaking exhibitions and publications, and brings the story down to the present day with his bird’s-eye view of the recent fate of Church’s work, including rediscoveries, new research, and the art market.
