P.T.Barnum’s Bearded Ladies, Donner Party: Lance Esplund
When Jumbo the elephant arrived in New York in 1882 he was an instant success, transforming the circus from bawdy attraction to family entertainment.
When he was killed by a locomotive, the circus display of his hide and skeleton sparked the headline: “Jumbo Stuffed a Greater Attraction than Jumbo Alive.”
The popular elephant figures prominently in the Bard Graduate Center’s big-top extravaganza, “Circus and the City: New York, 1793-2010.”
There are other exotic animals, as well as clowns, contortionists, daredevils, bearded ladies, Zulu cannibals, the “Fejee Mermaid” and General Tom Thumb, whose velvet suit, boots and tiny violin are featured artifacts.
But the star of the show is showman extraordinaire Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891). You can see his faded top hat and letterhead, illustrated with a parade of animals, Siamese twins and the Last Supper.
As in life, Barnum here is hard to ignore. His unidentified visage fills one poster with the words: “I am coming.”
The show has something for all ages: It chronicles not just the evolution of the circus and its effects on New York, but also the history of graphic and fashion design, photography, toys, advertising and the rise of the Big Apple as the entertainment capital of the world.
“Circus and the City: New York 1793-2010” runs through Feb. 3 at the Bard Graduate Center Galleries, 18 W. 86th St. Information: +1-212-501-3023; http://www.bgc.bard.edu.gallery.
Ferdinand Hodler
A bittersweet air permeates Neue Galerie’s intelligent exhibition, “Ferdinand Hodler: View to Infinity.”
The exhibition includes 65 paintings and 20 drawings, mostly late works, as well as 45 intimate photographs of Hodler (1853-1918). They show the Swiss Symbolist doing everything from painting pictures and pruning vines to lying on his deathbed.
A somber section of drawings and paintings chronicles his mistress’s illness and death from cancer. Some of these pictures, along with his strong, wide-eyed self-portraits, are among the most affecting works on view.
Its most ebullient works are landscapes. Though northern -- even desolate and brittle -- their mountains and skies are often saturated with color. At times, his spare sunsets presage the abstractions of Mark Rothko.
But Hodler, also prefiguring Lucian Freud, was primarily a figure painter, but without much feeling for flesh.
His skeletal paintings of the female nude resemble tinted drawings. Far from erotic, his images of the women with roughened skins -- furrowed like soil -- are well-drawn, earnest and hard-won.
“Ferdinand Hodler: View to Infinity” runs through Jan. 7 at the Neue Galerie, 1084 Fifth Ave. Information: +1-212-628-6200; http://www.neuegalerie.org.
‘American Vision’
If you haven’t visited the New-York Historical Society Museum & Library since its $70 million renovation, now is the perfect time.
After a long tour, 45 of its Hudson River School paintings, a number of them national treasures, have returned home. The commanding, one-room exhibition is a majestic grand tour of the U.S., with breathtaking works by Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, George Inness and John Frederick Kensett.
The tour-de-force is Cole’s five-part fictional landscape series “The Course of Empire” (1833-36). Beginning with dawn on a savage wilderness, it progresses to a pastoral idyll and then through the height, hellfire-destruction and desolation of civilization.
There are complicated politics and history at work in some of the most romantic pictures on view. Bierstadt’s serene, panoramic “Donner Lake From the Summit” (1873) was commissioned by railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington. It honors the ill-fated Donner Party, not the Central Pacific Railroad, and Huntington initially refused the painting because the railroad was obscured.
Steeped in the European landscape tradition of Claude, Poussin, Corot and Courbet, the show’s greatest works celebrate the American sublime.
“Nature and the American Vision: The Hudson River School” runs through Feb. 21 at the New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, 170 Central Park West. Information: +1-212-873-3400; http://www.nyhistory.org.
(Lance Esplund is U.S. art critic for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
Muse highlights include Patrick Cole on philanthropy and Daniel Billy on architecture.
To contact the writer on the story: Lance Esplund in New York at lesplund@gmail.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
"Jumbo the Children's Giant Pet" (1882), a 4-foot-tall lithograph poster, advancing P.T. Barnum's advertising campaign "Jumbomania," is included in the Bard Graduate Center's exhibition "Circus and the City: New York, 1793-2010," which runs through Feb. 3. Source: The Bard Graduate Center via Bloomberg
'Birdcage hat worn by Felix Adler'
The Bard Graduate Center via Bloomberg
"Birdcage hat worn by Felix Adler" (c. 1940-50). The mixed-media hat, worn by the circus clown Felix Adler, is among more than 200 works in a show that chronicles the relationship between the Big Top and the Big Apple.
"Birdcage hat worn by Felix Adler" (c. 1940-50). The mixed-media hat, worn by the circus clown Felix Adler, is among more than 200 works in a show that chronicles the relationship between the Big Top and the Big Apple. Source: The Bard Graduate Center via Bloomberg
Ferdinand Hodler 'Self-Portrait'
The Neue Galerie via Bloomberg
"Self-Portrait" (1916) by Ferdinand Hodler. The work is part of the Neue Galerie's show "Ferdinand Hodler: View to Infinity," which runs through Jan. 7. It is the largest U.S. exhibition ever devoted to the Swiss Symbolist painter.
"Self-Portrait" (1916) by Ferdinand Hodler. The work is part of the Neue Galerie's show "Ferdinand Hodler: View to Infinity," which runs through Jan. 7. It is the largest U.S. exhibition ever devoted to the Swiss Symbolist painter. Source: The Neue Galerie via Bloomberg
"Two Women in Flowers (Emotion 1A)" (1901-02) by Ferdinand Hodler. The oil-on-canvas is among 65 paintings, 20 drawings and 45 intimate photographs of the artist in the Hodler retrospective. Source: The Neue Galerie via Bloomberg
'Donner Lake from the Summit'
The New-York Historical Society Museum & Library via Bloomberg
"Donner Lake from the Summit" (1873) by Albert Bierstadt. The painting of the High Sierras, commissioned by a railroad magnate to celebrate manifest destiny, instead pays tribute to the cannibalistic Donner Party.
"Donner Lake from the Summit" (1873) by Albert Bierstadt. The painting of the High Sierras, commissioned by a railroad magnate to celebrate manifest destiny, instead pays tribute to the cannibalistic Donner Party. Source: The New-York Historical Society Museum & Library via Bloomberg
'The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire'
The New-York Historical Society Museum & Library via Bloomberg
"The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire" (1836) by Thomas Cole. The work is on view in the New-York Historical Society & Museum's "Nature and the American Vision: The Hudson River School," which runs through Feb. 21.
"The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire" (1836) by Thomas Cole. The work is on view in the New-York Historical Society & Museum's "Nature and the American Vision: The Hudson River School," which runs through Feb. 21. Source: The New-York Historical Society Museum & Library via Bloomberg
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