Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Addison Gallery/An American in London: Whistler and the Thames

James McNeill Whistler, Thames Warehouses, 1859


Link to Exhibition Website:
 http://www.andover.edu/Museums/Addison/Exhibitions/WhistlerThames/Pages/default.aspx

Curators: Margaret F. MacDonald  and Dr. Patricia de Montfort, University of Glasgow

From the Press Release: "This exhibition brings together numerous paintings, prints, and drawings from this pivotal period in Whistler's career, providing a detailed examination of his approach to composition, subject and technique."

This exhibition opened at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London and will travel to the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, after the Addison.

Reviews of the London installation can be found here and here.

Recommended For: A deep, meaningful and satisfying connection with James McNeill Whistler

Experience:
Museum administrators may dream longingly of big-draw blockbusters, but often it is the smaller exhibitions that deliver a more satisfying experience for the visitor. An American in London is the kind of small show that proves this point. The show is thoughtful, insightful, deftly composed and arranged, and full of works of outstanding artistic quality and achievement.

Whistler and the Thames introduces us to a young and eager artist and lets us journey with him across the decades of his career. Whistler experiments with a variety of media and techniques of representation, but the common context of the bustling banks of London's Thames- the neighborhood in which Whistler actually lived and worked- provides a strong connective narrative that tells a coherent and compelling story from beginning to end. Curators Margaret MacDonald and Patricia de Montfort connect us with the working Whistler in an engaging and thorough fashion.

Our introduction to Whistler comes in a series of etchings and drypoints of the gritty Thames waterfront begun in the late 1850s and published as a folio titled the Thames Set in 1871. The works are simply astounding. Whistler's adroit skill with the medium reminded me of John Singer Sargent's command of watercolor demonstrated by the recent MFA show. This section is enhanced by clear and eloquent labels outlining the demanding process of engraved prints. 

The body of An American in London brings together a large group of works that put us squarely behind Whistler's editorial eye. Through sketches, watercolors, oils and other media, we see the artist repetitively shaping, rearranging, and reworking his subject striving for a satisfactory balance of composition, color and effect. The impressive diversity of the sources of the loaned works is a telling tribute to the depth of scholarship achieved by curators MacDonald and de Montfort. 

Whistler's mature form, which we have seen develop over the course of the exhibition, really comes into its own in the final third of the show dedicated to his Nocturnes and his fascination with Battersea Bridge. The remarkable works shown here show the painter as daring, experimental and pushing the boundaries of aesthetic representation in his day.  The works, centered around the magical oil on canvas Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge, provide a deeply satisfying finish to the exhibition. Both the curators and the Addison are to be congratulated for bringing such a compelling show to the Boston area.

James McNeill Whistler, Nocturne in Blue and Gold, Old Battersea Bridge, 1872/73








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