(An Appropriate Distance)

 

FROM THE MAYOR'S DOORSTEP

Sep 06, 2013 1:25 PM EDT

Hello, I was disappointed that this exhibit didn't actually explore imagery dealing directly with the Civil War or discuss its importance in shaping memories of that historic episode of U.S. history. As you rightly point out, the exhibits images are linked together by the rather tenuous argument that artists were too distraught to deal with the war and thus turned to landscape and genre to make veiled allusions to the war. Considering the incredible amount of popular imagery of the war produced in the form of newspaper illustration, prints and other ephemera, I really can't buy this argument. I wrote to the curator to ask why the important American painter, G. C. Bingham, who fought in the war and served in Missouri's Unionist government, was not included in the exhibit. Her response was that Bingham's Civil war imagery didn't fit into the theme. If you have an interest in Bingham and his Civil war artworks, feel free to e-mail me.

- Joan Stack, Curator of Art Collections, State Historical Society of Missouri

Sep 06, 2013 1:49 PM EDT

I am happy to find such a well-informer observer reading my review. Would love to have seen some Bingham in the show. I think he was a very fine painter, and the response you got from the show's curator is like a classic example of wrongheadedness. Thanks for taking the trouble to let us know your experience & your thoughts.

- Piri Halasz