The Met Fifth Avenue, The Tisch Galleries
National Gallery, London
(September 10, 2022–January 8, 2023)
Renowned for his powerful paintings of American life and scenery, Winslow Homer (1836–1910) remains a beloved and consequential figure whose art continues to appeal to broad audiences. Opening April 11, 2022, Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents will reconsider the artist’s work through the lens of conflict, a theme that crosses his prolific career. A persistent fascination with struggle permeates his art—from emblematic images of the Civil War and Reconstruction that examine the effects of the conflict on the landscape, soldiers, and formerly enslaved to dramatic scenes of rescue and hunting as well as monumental seascapes and dazzling tropical works painted throughout the Atlantic world.
The centerpiece of the exhibition will be The Met’s iconic
The Gulf Stream, a painting that reveals Homer’s lifelong engagement with charged subjects of race, politics, nature, and the environment. Featuring approximately 90 oils and watercolors, this major loan exhibition will represent the largest critical overview of Homer’s art and life in more than a quarter of a century.
This exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The National Gallery, London.
The exhibition is curated by Stephanie Herdrich, Associate Curator of American Painting and Sculpture, and Sylvia Yount, Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of The American Wing, at The Met, in collaboration with Christopher Riopelle, The Neil Westreich Curator of Post-1800 Painting at the National Gallery, London.
A richly illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition, published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press.
Publication Date: April 26, 2022
Publishing Partner: Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press
140 color illus.
This timely study of Winslow Homer highlights his imagery of the Atlantic world and reveals themes of racial, political, and natural conflict across his career
Long celebrated as the quintessential New England regionalist, Winslow Homer (1836–1910) in fact brushed a much wider canvas, traveling throughout the Atlantic world and frequently engaging in his art with issues of race, imperialism, and the environment. This publication focuses, for the first time, on the watercolors and oil paintings Homer made during visits to Bermuda, Cuba, coastal Florida, and the Bahamas. Among these, The Gulf Stream (1899), often considered the most consequential painting of his career, reveals Homer’s lifelong fascination with struggle and conflict. Recognizing the artist’s keen ability to distill complex issues, Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents upends popular conceptions and convincingly argues that Homer’s work resonates with the challenges of the present day.