Events | Images and Sounds: Catskill, February 26

Main Street of Catskill is not too far from one of the sacred sites of the Hudson River School of Paintings: the residence of Thomas Cole. Last Saturday it felts like the energy of one of the greatest movements of American History of Art never left the small town on the west side of the Hudson.

The "New Masters on Main Street" exhibition presented works from ten contemporary from students and recent alumni of studio art programs across the country. Several art venues on Main Street exhibited works in different media and scale, from found object sculpture to video installation and more traditional representational paintings and photography.

From images to sounds: the other major event of the evening was the launch party for the community radio station, WGXC-FM, which broadcasts on 90.7 FM. Besides the discussion of important local issues the radio broadcast also news from the major alternative media Democracy Now "airing on over 900 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the United States."

The Last Setting of the 2010 Sun on the Hudson River

I witnessed the last 2010 sunset in Hudson and it felt like being in a Thomas Cole's painting. The temperature rose and the ice started melting: the majestic Hudson resumed its flow ---which seemed to have stopped for a few days. The low sunlight started reflecting again in the water constellated by myriads of ice island, creating a shimmering kaleidoscope.

Camminando | Pilgrimage at the Hudson River Art Trail :: 2. Cedar Grove

On Sunday I crossed the Hudson River at Rip Van Winkle Bridge for the second stop of my pilgrimage: Cedar Grove, Thomas Cole's home in the village of Catskill. Of a lesser spectacular tone than Olana, Cedar Grove presents a more intimate landscape and architectural design. The house and the garden were quite simple, in contrast with the extravagance of Frederic Church's estate.
I learned that Thomas Cole was born in 1801 in Northwestern England and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1818. Cole discovered the wilderness and beauty of the Catskill while hunting (he was 24 year old). He was primarily self-taught, but often worked with members of the Philadelphia Academy, and later became a fellow.
Cole painted The Course of Empire a five-part series of paintings in the years 1833-36, symbolizing how urbanesism will destroy the bucolic beauty and in Cole became Church's mentor.

Cole died on February 1848 in the west bedroom of Cedar Grove.

And a few photos from my pilgrimage...