The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College will present Great “Green Hope for the Urban Blues,” an exhibition exploring the art and myths of the Hudson Valley. The show opens on Saturday, February 22, with a panel discussion at 2pm. eaturing Hudson Valley artists Tanya Marcuse, Qiana Mestrich, and Lisa Sanditz, moderated by Mary-Kay Lombino, the Loeb’s Deputy Director. The opening reception will follow at 3:30pm. “Great Green Hope for the Urban Blues” runs through August 17 and serves as part of the Loeb’s ongoing initiative to reinterpret its collection of Hudson River School artworks.
This exhibition is framed around the dual role the Hudson Valley has played in American imagination: a pastoral escape from the industrialized urban landscape, and a hub of commercial and tourist activity. The term “great green hope” comes from a New York journalist’s phrase describing the region as an antidote to the “urban blues,” a notion rooted in the landscape paintings of the Hudson River School. These works presented the valley as an idyllic, untouched paradise, far removed from the bustling city. Yet, as this exhibition highlights, the same beauty was often built on histories of exploitation, from resource extraction to the labor of enslaved people.
As Bart Thurber, the Anne Hendricks Bass Director of the Loeb, explains, the exhibition’s goal is not just to explore the Hudson Valley’s landscape in art, but to “serve the Loeb’s teaching mission and commitment to a positive impact in our communities.”
The exhibition brings together historic works, including pieces from the Hudson River Port-Folio of the 1820s, alongside contemporary responses to the region’s changing identity. Lisa Sanditz’s Kaaterskill Falls captures the landscape overtaken by modern tourists, offering a sharp commentary on the commercialization of these once-sacred spaces. The show also includes works by artists such as Qiana Mestrich, who reflects on the Hudson Valley’s natural world through her collaborative zine up)rooted, which she created with her children.
In addition to the historical and contemporary works, the exhibition will feature a series of new commissions, including two papier-mache sculptures by Tamara Aupaumut, an artist of Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican, Oneida, and Brothertown descent. Aupaumut’s work responds to the exhibition’s themes, challenging the myth of the region’s pastoral ideal while confronting the destruction wrought by colonization. As Aupaumut notes, “Dispelling the myth… is important in recognizing the truth and the destruction that comes along with lies, greed, and genocide.”
“Great Green Hope for the Urban Blues” is part of a larger rethinking of how the Hudson Valley is represented in art. The Loeb has also launched two complementary exhibitions: “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Black Space-Making from Harlem to the Hudson Valley” by Vassar student Harrison Brisbon-McKinnon and “Water/Bodies: Sa’dia Rehman,” both of which will run through August 17. These concurrent shows reflect the Loeb’s ongoing efforts to interrogate the region’s complicated relationship with its environment, its people, and its mythologies.
Related events
“Great Green Hope for the Urban Blues”
Through Aug. 10
Location: Vassar College – The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie
“Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Black Space-Making from Harlem to the Hudson Valley”
Through Aug. 17
Location: Vassar College – The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie
“Water/Bodies”
Through Aug. 17
Location: Vassar College – The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie
This article appears in February 2025.
