Even though it’s spring in Pennsylvania, cool weather and the coronavirus quarantine have kept people indoors and away from all the delights of the season.
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art is bringing nature inside for all to enjoy via “Spring in Pennsylvania,” a virtual exhibition available for viewing on the museum website.
The 18 works on paper include prints, watercolors, drawings and photographs from The Westmoreland’s permanent collection.
The exhibition, originally intended for the third-floor Carol R. Brown Gallery, was curated to appeal to a southwestern Pennsylvania audience, according to curatorial assistant Bonnie West.
“The four seasons and the transformation of our natural world have captured the fascination of artists for centuries. The ‘cycle of life’ and ‘change’ are popular metaphors for landscape painters, printmakers and photographers alike, and in the season of spring, especially, we are reminded of growth and new beginnings,” according to the exhibition notes.
“A couple of the pieces might not immediately say ‘spring,’ but we made the argument to include them, since they might have ‘Spring’ in the title,” West said.
That description covers the first piece in the exhibition, Malcolm Parcell’s “Field at Springtime,” a black-and-white etching of a sparse landscape that features a tree sprouting new growth.
West noted that Parcell, “a sort of renaissance man” who was interested in philosophy as well as art, was a native of Claysville, Washington County.
Another piece with local connections is Charles Linford’s “Woods in Spring.” The Pittsburgh-born artist was a student of George Hetzel, another Pittsburgh artist and founder of the Scalp Level School, named for a Cambria County borough, whose artists gathered annually to paint among the woods, ridges and streams near Johnstown.
“Spring Wildflowers, Ligonier” is a digital photograph by Donald M. Robinson, for whom the sculpture garden at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley is named.
“He bought an iPhone when he was in his late 80s, and started taking photos with it,” West says of the late photographer.
Also included in the exhibition is a watercolor study of the train station in Greensburg by Henry Koerner.
Details: thewestmoreland.org
