On view on the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork from Could 2 to September 20, 2026, the exhibition “Niagara Falls: Mist and Majesty” probes the layered histories of Niagara Falls from the early Nineteenth century to immediately.
Supply: Nationwide Gallery of Artwork, Washington · Picture: Frederic Edwin Church, “Niagara”, 1857, oil on canvas
This exhibition marks the bicentennial of celebrated panorama painter Frederic Edwin Church’s beginning in 1826. His iconic panorama Niagara (1857) anchors a presentation of roughly 20 works that reveal evolving views in regards to the falls. “Niagara Falls: Mist and Majesty” consists of Nineteenth-century prints, drawings, and pictures by artists equivalent to Régis François Gignoux and Platt D. Babbitt that captured the expertise of visiting the location. A few of these photos, equivalent to an 1880 {photograph} by George Barker, additionally performed a task within the preservation motion led by Church and panorama architect Frederick Regulation Olmsted. Different works emphasize the waterfall’s significance to enslaved individuals looking for their freedom.
A video work by Shelley Niro (Mohawk [Six Nations of the Grand River, Brantford, Ontario]) and a not too long ago acquired portray by Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) spotlight the importance of Niagara Falls to Indigenous peoples. Drawing on the longstanding reputation of Niagara Falls as a vacationer attraction, a self-portrait taken by Tseng Kwong Chi subtly performs with the conventions of vacationer pictures to discover nationwide identification and perceptions of cultural distinction, whereas up to date pictures by Alec Soth reveal the individuals—each resident and visiting—who now populate a spot radically altered from the wild great thing about Church’s portray.
The exhibition is organized by the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork, Washington. The exhibition is curated by Sarah Money, affiliate curator, division of American and British work, and Diane Waggoner, curator of pictures, division of pictures, each of the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork.
