Description

Undertaking a new project model, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site will collaborate with the Olana State Historic Site, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and Reynolda House Museum of American Art on an exhibition that places works from the four collections in conversation with 16 paintings from Martin Johnson Heade’s 40-painting suite titled The Gems of Brazil. Painted in Brazil while the American Civil War raged, The Gems were a Darwininspired record of the behaviors of hummingbirds in their natural habitats. The curators have chosen cross-pollination–a nod to the role of hummingbirds as environmentally adapted pollinators, as the organizing principle of the exhibition. They will present The Gems in the context of contemporaneous and contemporary artworks in an effort to stimulate a conversation about the intersections of art, science, and environmental awareness. The exhibition will open simultaneously at the two Hudson Valley sites.