LSU Museum of Art Opens American Impressionism Exhibition | Entertainment/Life

Wow!

Michelle Schulte’s reaction is echoed by staff hanging a large ship on the LSU Museum of Art’s newly painted sea green wall.

Well, they’re not hanging a real ship, but a painting – a very large Arthur Goodwin painting of a ship in harbor, the elements of which don’t fully blend together to the eye until you move away from it.

Then go back a bit. Then a little more.

That’s the amazing thing about impressionism. What looks like a hodgepodge of pleasant colors up close completely transforms into a clear scene as you move away.

But the key word here is “complete,” because the ship in Goodwin’s 1910 painting “T Warf” may look like a ship up close, but something happens when you move away from it. You notice things you didn’t notice before.

“Wow!” Schulte said again. “This painting looks absolutely beautiful on a green wall. I chose the color green for the wall because I thought it would go well with impressionist paintings. I didn’t realize how well it fit.”

Schulte is the museum’s senior curator and program director. She is coordinating the hanging of this exhibition, titled “In a New Light: American Impressionism 1870-1940, Works from the Bank of America Collection,” two weeks before its official opening on Friday.

For now, the paintings are sitting on deck around the Bert and Sue Turner Gallery, so to speak, waiting their turn. They represent works by more than 75 artists who will fill the 2,000-square-foot space with views of America in a then-new light.

This was in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, when Impressionism was in full swing on the European art scene. American artists had traveled to France and witnessed this entirely new genre of painting.

Claude Monet used it to paint his garden at Giverny, while Pierre-August Renoir used it to create scenes of boat lunches and Sunday afternoons at the Moulin de la Galette.

And Edgar Degas? He immortalized ballet dancers through impressionism.

“American artists who traveled abroad were fascinated by it,” Schulte said. “They were impressed by it. They learned about the different techniques and the ideas behind them, which are really about snapshots of life, the effect of paint on surfaces, the effect of light on surfaces and the emphasis on painting outside of those quick, short brush strokes and loose.” Brushy works. And of course a lightened color palette.

As fascinating as the French’s impressionistic scenes were, their settings were somewhere in France and not in the United States. On the other hand, France was a small country, an easier place to travel to find the perfect subject. The United States was huge, perhaps too big to capture in an Impressionist painting.

But the American artists didn’t let that stop them. They immediately fell in love with this pleasantly relaxed style of painting.

“The Americans took all of these ideas, brought them home, and then made impressionism a really distinctive American style,” Schulte said.

How did they do this in a country as large and diverse as the United States?

“They founded regional art colonies,” Schulte said. “Over the next few decades they added their own ideas, and the ideas really came from these regional centers. They gathered in these centers on the East Coast, the Midwest, or the West Coast. And of course the colors and landscapes were different because the atmosphere in each of these places was different.

The exhibition at the LSU Museum of Art is divided into regions of the colonies, beginning with the 1890s.

“We study it in the regional schools, starting in the East and ending on the West Coast,” Schulte said. “So let’s start with the Hudson River Valley School.”

The exhibition’s paintings were collected by Bank of America and were once displayed in bank buildings across the country.

The group ultimately removed the works from its holdings and put them together in a collection that also includes other art genres. The paintings were classified by genre and then loaned to museums through the Bank of America Art in Our Communities program.

“At Bank of America, we believe investing in the arts helps build strong communities,” said Jonathan Matessino, president of Bank of America New Orleans/Baton Rouge. “By sharing these works with the LSU Museum of Art, we hope to enhance educational experiences, inspire creativity and provide inspiration to our entire community.”

The installation alone caused enthusiasm among Schulte and her employees. As they walk through the gallery, they point out their favorites as Schulte tells the story behind the work.

“Before Impressionism, there were paintings that were generally scenes that were some kind of historical reconstruction,” Schulte said. “They were things like biblical scenes and allegories, and they were generally meant to take place during the day.”

Meanwhile, the United States art scene was late to Impressionism. Artists in Europe were painting entirely in this genre as early as the 1870s.

“Americans had to go and experience it, and the first Impressionism exhibition in the United States didn’t take place until several years after Impressionism debuted in France,” Schulte said.

Better late than never, right? And as Schulte mentioned, Americans have made it their own.

They painted places that might not have been noticed before, as well as ordinary people living everyday lives. Impressionism is, after all, a snapshot – sometimes multiple snapshots showing the same place at different times of year and day.

But one thing is for sure: This show is truly American, capturing the country and its people in candid, personal scenes.

It’s almost overwhelming to walk around there because you actually see the country in a new light.

And you can’t help but think, “Wow!”

“In a New Light: American Impressionism 1870-1940, Works from the Bank of America Collection” runs Friday through March 23 at the LSU Museum of Art in the Shaw Center for the Arts, 100 Lafayette St. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday , Wednesday and Saturday; Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 for ages 13 and older and free for children 12 and under, college students and military veterans and their families with ID. For more information, call (225) 578-3000 or visit lsumoa.org.