Collection Spotlight: Cityscapes
Cityscapes invites discussion about the paradox of cities as places of opportunity and community while simultaneously grappling with inequality, alienation, and struggle.
Susan Wides (American, b. 1955). White Plains Sprawl, 2011. Chromogenic print. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of the artist, 2012 (2012.03.03).
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the towering and bustling urban landscape came to be regarded as a new type of sublimity—the “industrial sublime.” Painters once concerned with scenic vistas of “wilderness” turned their attention to man’s transformation of the natural landscape into a stage for his industry. Bridges, skyscrapers, and smokestacks were celebrated as signs of progress.
Yonkers, the third largest city in New York State, has been the home of the Hudson River Museum for more than 100 years. Urban life has inspired many of the paintings, prints, and photographs in the HRM’s collection. This selection spans works from the late nineteenth century to the present, capturing the commerce, culture, and leisure of cities—with both fascination and anxiety. Seen together, they invite discussion about the paradox of cities as places of opportunity and community while simultaneously grappling with inequality, alienation, and struggle.
Cityscapes complements The Bookstore (1979), Red Grooms’s tribute to the allure of books and urban life. This “sculpto-pictorama,” a permanent installation in the gallery, celebrates two New York landmarks—the Isaac Mendoza Book Company, an iconic used bookstore that operated in the Financial District from 1894 to 1990, and the Pierpont Morgan Library, which is open to the public as the Morgan Library & Museum in Midtown Manhattan. With this collection spotlight, we invite you to reflect upon the ever-changing metropolitan landscape and how you define yourself within it.
Exhibitions are made possible by assistance provided by the County of Westchester.
Featured Artists
Junius Allen • Ebony Bolt • Ralph Fasanella • Richard Haas • William Hahn • Susan Hall • Julius H. Janke • Jacob Lawrence • John Perreault • Librado Romero • John S. Vredenburgh • Susan Wides
Selected objects
William Hahn (American, b. Germany, 1829–1887). Union Square, New York City, 1878. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Miss Mary Colgate, 1925 (25.947). Photo: Steven Paneccasio.
Junius Allen (American, 1898–1962). Storm Over the Hudson, ca. 1944–46. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Mr. Donald A. Henderson, 1976 (76.6).
Ralph Fasanella (American, 1914–1997). The Other Side of the Tracks, 1947. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of R. Marc Fasanella, Anne Moyer, Gina and Donald Mostrando, and Kohler Foundation, Inc., 2017 (2017.01).
Susan Hall (American, b. 1943). Moving Home, 1978. Acrylic on paper mounted on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Schorr, 1983 (83.19.1).
Jacob Lawrence (American, 1917–2000). The Studio, 1996. Lithograph (edition 51 of 60). Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Henry S. Hacker, by exchange, 2018 (2018.05). © 2018 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Reproduction, including downloading of Jacob Lawrence works is prohibited by copyright laws and international conventions without the express written permission of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Richard Haas (American, b. 1936). View of Manhattan and Governors Island, 1999. Etching and aquatint on paper. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Steven Gano, 1999 (99.11.3).
Susan Wides (American, b. 1955). White Plains Sprawl, 2011. Chromogenic print. Collection of the Hudson River Museum
Gift of the artist, 2012 (2012.03.03).
Ebony Bolt (American, b. 1991). Botanical Dreams in the Concrete Jungle, 2017. Digital rendering printed on plexiglass. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Museum Purchase, 2018 (2018.06).
