In the 19th century, icebergs were a hot topic for artists looking for exotic subject matter. In the 21st century, icebergs are literally hot, at least warmer than they used to be, and are melting at a steady pace.
A small exhibit at Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury celebrates artworks from both eras. The show is centered on two 1863 Frederic Church paintings: one owned by the Mattatuck, one of the jewels in its collection, the other a tiny oil owned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The loan of that piece was made possible by a collaboration funded by the Terra Foundation of American Art and Art Bridges.
Church headed to the North Atlantic in 1859, after an artistic sojourn in Ecuador. The works he created on his Arctic mission are marked by Church’s trademark emphasis on the play of light off of his subjects: the orange sky turns the iceberg a warm yellow.
William Bradford was inspired by Church’s trip to set out for the bergs on his own. Three works by Bradford show a different view than Church’s lonely monoliths: as backgrounds surrounded by ships, life and activity. “Fishing Fleet off Labrador” and “Coast of Labrador” show these workaday activities, and “Off the Greenland Coast Under the Midnight Sun” depicts a lone ship surrounded by the white mountains, under a glorious yellow sky.
A 1990 Sol LeWitt sculpture – on loan from the collection of the late David Hayes of Coventry – is an abstracted vision of an iceberg, and stands near a 1948 oil by Gregory Amenoff, another abstraction. A 2004 photo by Lynn Davis taken off of Greenland shows a different vision: a berg that has clearly diminished in size.
“During the age of exploration, the icebergs were awesome, an unknown wilderness, things that would be there forever,” curator Cynthia Roznoy says. “Now we have awareness that they’re not forever. They are still awesome, but there are things we have to do to change what is happening to them.”
ICEBERGS! is at Mattatuck Museum, 144 W. Main St. in Waterbury, until Sept. 2. mattmuseum.org.
On Other Walls
“Vacation Time,” an exhibit of work of people at leisure, is at the art gallery at University of St. Joseph, 1678 Asylum Ave. in West Hartford, until Aug. 26. usj.edu/arts/art-museum.
“Salt and Silver: Early Photography, 1840-1860” is at Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St. in New Haven, until Sept. 9. britishart.yale.edu.
“Let My People Go: A Personal Reflection by a Soviet Jewry Activist” is at the Chase Family Gallery at Mandell JCC, 335 Bloomfield Ave. in West Hartford, until Aug. 26. mandelljcc.org.
“Be Afraid … Be Very Afraid … The Cinema of Horror” features posters from classic thriller movies. The exhibit is in the Rick Nicita gallery at the School of Film Studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown, all summer. The gallery is open weekdays. wesleyan.edu.
“New Britain in World War I,” an exhibit of war-related projects manufactured in New Britain factories, is at New Britain Industrial Museum, 59 West Main St., until the end of the year. nbindustrial.org.
