Artist: Lloyd Mifflin

The Susquehanna Art Museum in downtown Harrisburg will be the latest stop for a traveling exhibit of more than 40 paintings spanning 250 years called, “Visions of the Susquehanna” from October 12 to December 31.

In the four centuries that have passed since John Smith first entered the mouth of the Susquehanna in 1608, this extraordinary river has captured the intrigue and imagination of many of this nation’s most significant artists.

While not as dramatically picturesque as many of the other scenic American rivers which flow through deep mountainous gorges or over thunderous waterfalls, the Susquehanna has had a different type of allure.

Its quiet meandering nature and fertile valleys made it ideal for human habitation and settlement and thus it became a major entry point and incubator for the nation’s earliest inland settlements. Its level shores and access to the rich bounty of coal, timber and farm produce upriver enabled it to become a prime corridor for transportation and commerce.

For this reason, many of the artists who have been drawn to its shores to paint have been primarily interested in chronicling and interpreting the changing nature of this relationship between the river valley landscape and its human inhabitants, especially as this dynamic unfolded through the growth of settlements, towns, cities, canals, bridges, railroads and industry along the river’s shores over time.

As metaphors for change and progress, all of these manifestations of human habitation became reoccurring themes in their work and continue to attract the attention of today’s artists.

Comprised of approximately 40 major paintings spanning nearly 250 years, this exhibit will include two groups of work. The first is a cross section of the many important images of the river created in the mid 18th century through the early 20th century, with requested works by such prominent American painters as Benjamin West, William Trost Richards, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Sanford Robinson Gifford, Louis Reigmy Mignot, George Inness, Thomas Moran, Charles Demuth, Stephen Etnier and others.

The other group will consist of paintings of or about the river by a group of nationally prominent contemporary artists (Mark Innerst, Leonard Koscianski, George Sorrels, Debra Bermingham, Randall Exon, Peter Paone, Dozier Bell, Raoul Middleman, Mark Workman, Rob Evans, Matthew Daub, and others), many of whom have agreed to create works specifically for this exhibit.

While linked by the common thread of the Susquehanna, the exhibit will also examine the contrasting points of view between these two very different groups of work: the 18th and 19th century romantic view of the sublime landscape as a metaphor for America's promise versus the current postmodern role of the landscape as an open ended and often detached vehicle for presenting a multitude of perspectives and critiques on contemporary culture, investigating such issues as environmental decay, nuclear energy, and urban sprawl.

9/8/2006