One of my most favorite paintings, Asher B. Durand's 1853 landscape Progress (The Advance of Civilization), has been sold by the Westervelt Company and that means it will be leaving the wonderful Westervelt-Warner Museum in Tuscaloosa. The Tuscaloosa News has the story here and another story here. I've blogged about this several times before (and long-time readers may recall that Progress lies at the center of my article, "Property and Progress: Antebellum Landscape Art and Property Law").
Though I am sad that Progress is leaving Tuscaloosa, I hope that this will give more people a chance to see it. (At least that's one argument in common circulation regarding cultural property like the Elgin Marbles -- more people will see them in London than if they were back in Athens -- and perhaps we can all take comfort in the fact that though Tuscaloosa has lost one of its greatest treasures, more people may end up enjoying that most beautiful and important landscape.) Just last night I was thinking about how that single object connects people across generations. No word yet on where Progress is headed, but if I might be permitted to venture a guess, it'll end up in Crystal Bridges, which has been aggressively acquiring art -- including Durand's more famous painting, Kindred Spirits (which depicts Thomas Cole and William Cullen Bryant).
Many thanks to Steven Stetson and Alan Durham for passing this news along.
When one reads the line in the newspaper story about the propriety of "non-core corporate assets" being sold you just have to stop and think of the wonder of that great clooection of American art (including art by others about America). I was lucky to see it several times as the museum was open to the public. If it goes through sales to other museums where it will be more accessible that is to the good. I know the board of Westervelt has every right and some may say duty to sell the collection in pieces to the highest bidders. I just hope that most of it works its way into public places. Personally I shall never forget the small Hooper Civil War painting of Union soldiers resting along a picket fence. I had never known he painted Civil War scenes (probably just a monument to my ignorance). The paintings of former slaves in the Reconstruction era scratching out a living as share croppers are some of the most moving pictures I have ever seen.
Posted by: Bill Turnier | February 28, 2011 at 02:05 PM