In a unique and groundbreaking 2015 presentation of important contemporary art rarely seen in the traditional environs of the Hudson River Valley, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Olana, Frederic Edwin Church’s Persian-inspired mansion, showcased the work of contemporary American artists such as Chuck Close, Cindy Sherman, Maya Lin, Martin Puryear, and Gregory Crewdson, some of the 30 artists featured in the exhibition. Stephen Hannock, celebrated Luminist painter and one of the exhibition’s co-curators, stated that “this is a terrific opportunity to open up contemporary art, as well as these historic properties, to audiences who will see firsthand these shared artistic concerns.”

The works of art selected for the exhibition were shown at the two venues to encourage visitors to experience both of the distinguished properties and the grandeur of their surroundings, and to present a complete overview and understanding of these contemporary works in a location where many art historians believe American art was born. The accompanying publication, River Crossings: Contemporary Art Comes Home, provides readers with a lavish record of this extraordinary and innovative exhibition, and offers unique and highly informative perspectives on the continuity of the American artistic tradition in two of the nation’s most historic sites.

In addition to an impressive plate section of more than 60 works with brief artist biographies and descriptive narratives for the individual works, this comprehensive presentation features noteworthy, exceptional contributions. Stephen Hannock’s preface details the development of this remarkable exhibition, while co-curator Jason Rosenfeld reveals in his essay the exhibition’s importance relative to historical perception as he considers Cole’s and Church’s support of contemporary art in their time. Cultural historian Maurice Berger considers the realities of race and gender from the nineteenth-century Hudson River Valley to the present, and Marvin Heiferman, curator and writer, examines photography in the exhibition and its connections to Church’s work and his use of the medium. Award-winning architectural and landscape photographer Peter Aaron generously provided the stunning installation, exterior, and landscape photographs, a gorgeous complement to this outstanding catalogue.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/arts/design/river-crossings-a-contemporary-art-exhibition-at-2-historic-sites-of-the-hudson-river-school.html

Preface | Stephen Hannock: 6
Foreword | Ken Burns: 9
River Crossings: “An Unbounded Capacity For Improvement By Art” | Jason Rosenfeld: 12
The Changing Nature Of Nature’s Image | Marvin Heiferman: 22
The Ghosts Of The Hudson Valley | Maurice Berger: 28
Thomas Cole National Historic Site Profile | Elizabeth B. Jacks and Kate Menconeri: 34
Thomas Cole Site Artist Biographies With Artwork Narratives | Jason Rosenfeld: 36
Olana Profile: “Artists and Friends” | Evelyn Trebilcock, Mark Prezorski, and Rena Zurofsky: 84
Olana Artist Biographies With Artwork Narratives | Jason Rosenfeld: 86
Acknowledgments | Elizabeth B. Jacks and Rena Zurofsky: 112
Checklist Of Additional Works By Site: Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Cole, And Other Artists: 114
Index: 116
Copyright: 120

Only a quarter-century after Cole’s death in 1848, his most important pupil, Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), would do much to fulfill his master’s prediction in building Olana across the Hudson from Cedar Grove, Cole’s property in Catskill. River Crossings extends Cole’s description of the future of the Hudson River and its valley to the present. This exhibition seeks to expand Cole’s architectonic and aesthetic mandate at both these historic properties, and to trace the “improvement by art” wrought in the Hudson Valley since the Church family decided to give up Olana, in 1964, and for the first time to employ these two great pilgrimage sites of American art history together to reveal this continuous story of novel and complex artistic creation. . . . These two houses are accessible to and preserved on behalf of the public and this exhibition enhances the sense of ownership and expands it, if only for a short time, to include gems of contemporary art. . . . The result has been that the paintings, sculptures, photographs, and videos have a sense of renewed animation; they breathe and exist in our own space and they seem, in these two handmade nineteenth-century houses, remarkably and comfortably, at home.