FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 14, 2022
MUSKEGON, MI — The Muskegon Museum of Art presents a new exhibition, Winslow Homer: Illustrating a Nation, opening Thursday, January 20. Winslow Homer was one of the most significant American artists of the 19th century, famed for his dramatic depictions of people and nature, as well as his illustrations of day-to-day life and the battles of the Civil War in Harper’s Weekly, a New York City based illustrated magazine that extensively covered the American Civil War.
The exhibition features several of Homer’s best known images, including The Noon Recess, Snap the Whip, A Sharpshooter on Picket Duty, and The Dinner Horn, a companion image to the MMA’s oil painting Answering the Horn. Other works in the exhibition depict illustrations of leisure, work, and the everyday lives of people, as well as dramatic scenes and circumstances.
In 1861, Harper’s Weekly assigned Homer to illustrate the events of the Civil War, which brought his work to the forefront of the nation. Homer captured the day-to-day events of the war, illustrating battles, soldiers in conflict and at rest, and the effects of the war on the families at home. Today, the Harper’s Weekly illustrations serve as a direct record of the events of the Civil War.
An opening reception will be held at the Muskegon Museum of Art on January 20 from 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm. Refreshments will be provided.
The Winslow Homer: Illustrating a Nation Exhibition is underwritten by the JSJ Foundation, Thelma & Paul Wiener Fund for the Arts of the Community Foundation for Muskegon County, and Blue Lake Public Radio.
For more information or questions, contact Kristina Broughton at [email protected] or call at 231-720-2574.