By Claire Remsnyder ’27, staff writer
The Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery at LVC officially debuted its fall exhibit “Indigenous Landscapes” on Friday, Aug. 29.
The exhibit was carefully curated by Dr. Barbara McNulty, Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery endowed director and Dr. Kristine Larison, gallery assistant. It aims to highlight the importance of the indigenous presence, or lack thereof, in the landscapes of North America.
When preparing the collection, McNulty and Larison primarily wanted to use works from the Vesell Family Collection, donated by Hilary Peery Vesell, Esq. in memory of her father, Dr. Elliot Vesell.
“These are 19th-century American landscape paintings from the Hudson River School of Art and represent an exciting period of artistic inspiration drawn from the natural features of the American wilderness…The Hudson River School is often described as the first ‘native’ school of American art within a European visual tradition. However, the Hudson River School rarely included traces of the over 500 Indigenous tribes native to North America in their depictions of the American landscape,” Larison said.
The exhibit additionally features 20th century Inuit sculptures and stone prints donated by Mrs. Kathryn Bork, part of the LVC alum class of ’29, and contemporary landscape and portrait paintings loaned by Dr. Thomas Carmany, LVC alum class of ’58, an Annville local who spent many years working near the Navajo Reservation in Gallup, New Mexico.
The Gallery also recently acquired an exciting painting from Albright College. “Pocohontas,” by Venezuelan American artist Marisol, depicts Pocohontas with dark skin in a light European style dress against a dark background, a harsh contrast against previous light-skinned depictions of her. The piece is an important commentary on colonialism, the forced assimilation of Native people to European culture and it draws comparisons between Native people and Black Americans.
Larison also discusses some of the difficulties the Gallery faced during the construction of the exhibit.
“We didn’t choose a very easy topic for discussion! Both because of the challenges involved in talking about something that wasn’t there in the visual record and because of the difficult stories and injustices that accompany the long history of the United States as a settler-colonial nation,” Larison said.
“Challenges included a lot of moving parts as we explored possible loans from area institutions and private collections that might supplement works in the LVCFAC, and as some of the collections that we explored were not available for loan due to the recent expansion of NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection & Repatriation Act) legislation. Our aim is to respect and honor the cultural heritage of Indigenous nations that are shown in the paintings and photography produced by non-Indigenous artists, but we also acknowledge that these are artifacts of a specific time and place and may be offensive to some viewers.”
Despite this, the exhibit had a very successful opening reception, and Indigenous Landscapes will be on display at the Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery located at 75 N. White Oak St., Annville, PA, until October 12. The Gallery always welcomes class visits and group tours and is open Weds., 5-8 p.m., Thurs. & Friday, 1-4:30 p.m., and Sat. & Sunday, 11a.m. – 5 p.m.
cmr015@lvc.edu