Night Vision: Nocturnes in American Art, 1860-1960
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Jan. 27, 2024 - Dec. 29, 2023
The recently renovated Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick Main is a corner stone of Maine’s expanding art community. The beautifully restoration museum houses thousands of paintings, sculpture, works on paper and decorative arts.
The works featured in ‘Night Vision’ reflect an extensive range of themes that draw artists to night scenes that include technical painting concepts like reflections of moonlight on sea waves, urban streets, and firework celebrations. For nineteenth century artist Albert Bierstadt, paintings of the night presented the challenge of expressing natural the elements of clouds, moon, and sky surrounded by night’s darkness, while at the same time offering the opportunity to focus on symbolic painted images.