El Paso Museum of Art
El Paso Museum of Art, exterior view of entrance and reflecting pool, photo by Christian Chapman
915-532-1707
http://www.elpasoartmuseum.org
American Impressionism from the El Paso Museum of Art
July 15 - September 30, 2001
The El Paso Museum of Art presents American
Impressionism from the El Paso Museum of Art, an exhibition of more than
60 paintings illustrating the 
influence
of French Impressionist masters such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Pierre
Auguste Renoir on American artists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
(left: Edmund C. Tarbell, American, 1862-1938, Interior of the Corcoran
Gallery, Washington, D.C., oil on canvas, Gift of El Paso Art Museum
Association, Collectors' Council Purchase, 1982.10.1)
"The El Paso Museum of Art houses one of the finest collections of American Impressionism in the Southwest," remarked Museum director Becky Duval Reese. "We are pleased to present this special exhibition, the first such showing of these important holdings since the Museum opened its new downtown facility in 1998." (right: William Paxton, American, 1869-1941, The Other Room, 1916, oil on canvas, Gift of El Paso Art Museum Association, Members Guild, 1974.52.1)
The El Paso Museum of Art's collection of American Impressionism
was assembled in the 1970s and 1980s and focuses primarily on the artists
of Boston and New England, including such masters as Childe Hassam, William
M. Paxton, Edmund C. Tarbell, and John H. Twachtman. A number of other regional
schools are well represented in the Museum, particularly the art colonies
of Taos and Santa Fe, with artists Fremont Ellis, Julius Rolshoven, and
Joseph Henry Sharp. The exhibition 
also
highlights the Museum's comprehensive holdings of works by George Noyes
and Mabel Woodward.
"The Museum's holdings of American Impressionism are truly unique in that they include so many of the canonical artists working in the Northeast as well as those who brought the style to the Southwest and other parts of the country," added the Museum's curator Bill Thompson. (left: John J. Enneking, American, 1841-1916, Field, Brook and Stream, oil on canvas, Gift of El Paso Art Museum Association, Members Guild, 1975.24.2)
The exhibition encompasses a variety of subjects, from pastoral landscapes painted in both Europe and America, to intimate still lifes, portraits, and scenes of daily life. Like their European predecessors, many of the American Impressionists made use of luminous colors and fluid brushstrokes to capture subtle nuances of light and atmosphere.
Read more about the artists referenced above in our distinguished artists section and essays about American Impressionism in the subject and chronology sections.
Read more about the El Paso Museum of Art in Resource Library Magazine
Please click on thumbnail images bordered by a red line to see enlargements.
This page was originally published in Resource Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for more information. rev. 6/7/11
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