A major international exhibition opening this fall at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will capture the excitement and range of emotions that steam-powered trains elicited as railroads reshaped culture around the world. The exhibition, Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America and the Railway, 1830-1960, open from Sept. 13 through Jan. 18, 2009, will feature more than 100 paintings, prints, drawings and photographs drawn from 64 museums and private collections.Art in the Age of Steam is the most wide-ranging exhibition ever assembled of American and European works of art responding to the drama of the railroad, from the earliest days when steam trains churned across the landscape through the romance of the Victorian era to the end of the steam era in the 1960s.Among the works of art are modern and Impressionist masterpieces, including Edouard Manet's The Railway, Claude Monet's Gare Saint-Lazare, Gustave Caillebotte's On the Pont de l'Europe and Rene Magritte's Time Transfixed. The exhibition features works that span a variety of styles, from an early lithograph by John Cooke Bourne, No. 1 Tunnel, to Edward Hopper's modern Railroad Sunset, and Thomas Hart Benton's The Wreck of the Ole 97. Photography, which also came of age during the rise of steam trains, is represented with works by Alfred Steiglitz, Charles Sheeler and O. Winston Link.
This event was posted Aug. 28, 2008 and last updated Feb. 19, 2009
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d_hagerty (anonymous) says...
This is a great show to see -- the works are arranged chronologically, so it's easy to see people's changing attitudes towards railways and the industrial revolution; in the beginning, the trains are sort of pushed curiously to the background, like a small foreign object, whereas later works put the trains in the foreground, showcasing their iconic power and movement. One small note, though: whereas the permanent collections in the museum are free, special exhibits aren't. I think this one costs about $8 (with usual discounts for students, kids, and seniors).
September 14, 2008 at 5:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )