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Cincinnati Art Museum acquires important Hudson River School painting and major figurative glass sculpture CAM expands its American painting and contemporary craft collections

CINCINNATI –The Cincinnati Art Museum recently acquired a magnificent Sanford Robinson Gifford landscape and a timeless glass sculpture by artist Karen LaMonte for its permanent collection.

Gifford’s landscape, The Wilderness, 1861, joins the Art Museum’s permanent collection thanks to a generous donation from a Cincinnati supporter. The painting’s acquisition fills a significant gap in the representation of the Hudson River School, the group of painters of the 19th century who celebrated the majesty of America’s unspoiled scenery. Although influenced aesthetically by European Romanticism and Baroque landscape painting, they formed what was in essence the first distinctively American art movement.

The painting represents a moment of absolute tranquility in which the monumental silhouette of a mountain is reflected in the still waters of a lake. With its warm rosy glow that suffuses the landscape, the work showcases Gifford’s mastery in depicting transcendent light and palpable atmosphere. The painting is a smaller variant of Gifford’s large exhibition picture of the previous year, also called The Wilderness, at the Toledo Museum of Art. The painting will be on view on the second floor (G217) American galleries starting on January 19.

The life-size glass sculpture by Karen LaMonte, Seated Dress with Impression of Drapery, created in 2005, has been added to the Art Museum thanks to funding and an endowment from Nancy and David Wolf. The sculpture presents a dress, worn by a seated female figure. The figure’s body is present only in the negative space within the dress and in the impressions left by the sitter’s torso, knees, legs and feet underneath the graceful, semi-translucent drape of the glass dress. In this way, the piece evokes timeless themes of presence, absence, personal image, space and transience.

The LaMonte acquisition marks the seventh installation of what Cameron Kitchin, the Art Museum’s Louis and Louise Dieterle Nippert Director, refers to as the sculptural orientation points of the Art Museum. They include Dale Chihuly’s Rio Delle Torreselle Chandelier in the Front Lobby; Hiram Powers’ 19th- century statue of Eve Disconsolate overlooking Eden Park; Lion Funerary Monument from the 4th century B.C. anchoring the new Antiquities Galleries (G101-102); the 1st-century A.D. Roman marble of a Greek God or Hero at the entrance to the Schmidlapp Gallery; Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ 1994 conceptual portrait of the Cincinnati Art Museum in the Front Lobby; and Jim Dine’s 12-foot bronze Pinocchio (Emotional) at the museum entrance drive.

“The Cincinnati Art Museum’s collection of nearly 66,000 artworks gives us the opportunity to tell the story of the power of art across 6,000 years of world cultures and history. The Gifford artwork is immediately of tremendous importance to our American collections and will become a favorite of all,” said Kitchin. “The LaMonte sculpture is a rare early example from a leading contemporary artist working in glass. We are fortunate that Seated Dress will call Cincinnati home.”

Nancy and David Wolf have been collecting contemporary art for nearly 40 years. In 2006, they were named among “America’s Top 100 Collectors” by Art and Antiques Magazine. They have been long-time and generous supporters of the Cincinnati Art Museum. Prior to 2009, the Wolfs donated 16 pieces of contemporary glass to the Art Museum’s collection. Since that time, the Wolfs have donated over 250 works of art to the Art Museum, in addition to their research library and a large endowment for the care of the collection. A selection of gifts and loans from the Nancy and David Wolf Collection are currently on view in the Nancy and David Wolf Gallery (G222).

About the Artists

Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823 –1880) was one of the leading members of the Hudson River School. His landscapes are widely admired for their evanescent effects of light and atmosphere, which he associated with the presence of the divine in nature. Some scholars regard Gifford as the most technically accomplished painter among his colleagues.

Of all the Hudson River School artists, Gifford was one of the few native to the Hudson River Valley. He attended Brown University for two years before moving to New York City to become an artist. A central figure in the art world of his day, Gifford exhibited paintings at the National Academy of Design and other venues based on sketches from his extensive travels in the United States and abroad. His work is represented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and other major collections of American paintings.

Karen LaMonte, born in New York in 1967, is a contemporary American artist known for her life-size sculptures in cast glass, clay and bronze. LaMonte graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1990 and moved to the Czech Republic in 1998 when she received a Fulbright Scholarship to study large-scale glass casting. She continues to work in Prague.

LaMonte’s work focuses on the symbolic relationship between the human body and the clothes we wear. Her life-size glass castings of garments simultaneously present the complexity and beauty of the garment as well as the female body that was once in the garment. Her work has been exhibited internationally and acquired by institutions including Corning Museum of Glass (NY); The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery (DC); and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris).

About the Cincinnati Art Museum The Cincinnati Art Museum is supported by the generosity of individuals and businesses that give annually to ArtsWave. The Ohio Arts Council helps fund the Cincinnati Art Museum with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. The Cincinnati Art Museum gratefully acknowledges operating support from the City of Cincinnati, as well as our members.

General admission to the Cincinnati Art Museum is always free. The museum is open Tuesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. and is closed Monday.

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