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Credit: Collection of John P. Eckblad |
“Coal, Iron, and Steam” at the FLLAC
The show titled “At the Heart of Progress: Coal, Iron, and Steam since 1750: Industrial Imagery from the John P. Eckblad Collection,” will open on January 22. The exhibit features 76 works — etchings, lithographs, aquatints, and other prints — from the private collection of Dr. John P. Eckblad of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Paris, France.
Eckblad, who has spent decades “surrounded” by industrial landscapes working as a management consultant in the petrochemical industry, says, “Having had the privilege of working in heavy industry, my collection helps me recall the rhythms, colors, sounds, and feel of these places and times.”
The artwork in the exhibit surveys two and a half centuries of depictions of industrial landscapes and industry’s impact on humanity, from a 1758 engraving titled “A View of the Upper Works at Coalbrook Dale” to a 1997 mezzotint by Craig McPherson titled “Clairton.” Other artists whose work is represented in the show include Camille Pissarro, Theophile Steinlen, and Joseph Pennell. The exhibit was organized by the Ackland Art Museum of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and curated by Timothy Riggs, Ackland Curator of Collections at UNC.
The show will open with a symposium featuring Vassar faculty, who will discuss the art in the exhibit from the vantage points of their respective disciplines. The symposium will be in Taylor Hall, room 203, at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, January 22. A reception will follow. Admission to both the exhibition and opening is free and open to the public.
Shown here, a color lithograph by G. Lebart, titled “Bernot Coal,” 1895, which is part of the exhibition.