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 Cast phenolic rods. Courtesy Amsterdam Bakelite® Collection,
© Reindert Groot
Far Right:
Inventor Leo Baekeland in his Laboratory, early 20th century. Photograph Courtesy of the Amsterdam Bakelite Collection |
 Every day we come into contact with synthetic materials so familiar to us that life without them would be hard to imagine. Bakelite in Yonkers is a dynamic exhibition of more than 300 objects that show the development of Bakelite, a new material vital to an array of twentieth century consumer products — ash trays, toilet seats, door handles, blocks, bracelets, clocks, dinnerware, flashlights, toasters, kitchen mixers, castanets, and toy cars — to name a few! Inventor Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite at Snug Rock, his home in Yonkers between 1905 and 1907. Pioneering and brilliant, he quickly realized the scientific and commercial value of his discovery. First an inexpensive alternative to precious materials such as ivory, this exhibition traces how Bakelite soon reached the height of popularity as a key material in Art Deco objects, and was a favorite material of designers from Norman Bel Geddes and Raymond Loewy to Philippe Starck.
Bakelite in Yonkers: Pioneering the Age of Plastics is organized by Reindert Groot for the Amsterdam Bakelite® Collection, and Hugh Karraker in partnership with the Hudson River Museum. Bakelite is a registered trade name of Hexion Specialty Chemicals, Inc., Columbus, Ohio
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William Mason Brown
Avon (New Jersey), April 1858
Oil on canvas; 35 x 28 in.
Collection of the Hudson River Museum
Gift of Irwin Goldenberg, 2008
Photograph by John Maggiotto |
The museum celebrates the first decade of this new millennium with a major exhibition of collections acquired since the year 2000. Its dual themes are inspired by connections between museum’s collecting mission and its unique setting along the Hudson, embracing the Trevor home, Glenview. Paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, textiles and historical objects illuminate the long narrative of a river and the people living beside it.
The museum’s focus on the river ranges from nineteenth-century paintings and postcards to works by recent photographers. Glenview and the Trevor family are the hub for the museum’s cultural history research and collecting. Objects on view include gifts from the Trevor family, Victorian clothing, and photographs of Yonkers people and places, and provides a rare opportunity to see over 100 recent acquisitions—many rarely on view—weave a web of enlightening stories.
Collecting for a New Millennium: Recent Acquisitions 2000-2010 is organized by the Hudson River Museum. |
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Red Grooms’ dazzling installation, was created as a working gift shop for the Hudson River Museum in 1979. After extensive conservation, this beloved Westchester landmark has been reinstalled in its own gallery. The Bookstore incorporates many of the themes that run through Grooms’ best work: the marriage of art and commerce, the clash of high and low, colorful New York characters, and an inviting three-dimensional space that envelops and transports the viewer. The Bookstore deftly joins two favorite haunts of New York City booklover – the lively, oldest secondhand bookshop in NYC, the Isaac Mendoza Book Company, and the patrician Morgan Library – into a work of art.
In terms of materials, The Bookstore was one of a limited number of pieces in which Grooms incorporated vinyl figures. The figures are painted from the inside, a technique inspired by medieval glass-painting techniques, and then are stuffed and sewn. Tens of thousands of visitors passed through The Bookstore, and, embraced by its environment, it inevitably began to suffer ravages caused by its popularity. Plans were developed to restore the work and Grooms enthusiastically approved the conservation efforts and changes, which include altering the position of the two  entrances to fit new gallery space, the creation of a central island that incorporated the original vinyl patrons, and the design of a painted floor. Grooms remains cautious of making too many changes to a piece that reflects a vision of New York in the 1970s, already passing into history. “An artist can overwork a thing – you can ruin the delicacy of a past moment very easily …I think it’s better to keep it like it was – primitive in that way.” |
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Red Grooms, The Bookstore, 1978-79 - Restored by Tom Burckhardt, 2007-08
Mixed media installation,
Hudson River Museum Purchase, 80.4.1 |
PHOTOS: Simon Alexander
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John Hill, after William Guy Wall
View Near Fishkill,
#18 of The Hudson River Portfolio
Published by Henry Megary, NY, c. 1821-25
Engraving/aquatint with hand painted watercolor; 14 1/4 x 21 1/4"
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Greener Pastures shows the arcadian ideal of an unchanging countryside inhabited by shepherds and farmers uncorrupted by civilization, a vision of the ancient Greeks that is still a powerful connection in Western art and literature. The pastoral landscape was also celebrated in Hudson River School paintings and in magazines, prints, and literature at the turn of the century. This exhibition is drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition includes more than 30 nineteenth-century works in oil, watercolor, photography, bronze, ceramics, wood, and textiles.
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Currently on view
A recent gift to the Hudson River Museum, it was created by dollhouse enthusiast Mark O’Banks over the course of a decade. Some of the architectural elements of the 26-room dollhouse were suggested by nineteenth-century houses in the Hudson Valley as well as sites around Washington, D.C.
The façade of the central portion is loosely based on the Hudson River estate, Staatsburg, the Ogden Mills House. The orange and green color scheme on the high Victorian addition is based on Wilderstein, the family home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s personal secretary. The concept of the lantern comes from George Washington’s home Mount Vernon. The roof line in the French style was drawn from buildings on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C. O’Banks furnished the house with found objects, rugs that he designed and were executed by his mother, and one of a kind, custom-made pieces. Nybelwyck Hall is filled with allusions to O’Banks’ friends, family, and special moments woven into the story of the dollhouse’s fictional Van Nybelwyck family.
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