GLENS FALLS, NY – The Hyde Collection presents two new summer exhibitions, sharing the works of two outstanding artists. Opening Saturday, June 11, 2022, are the exhibitions: Transformations: The Art of John Van Alstine and José Guadalupe Posada: Legendary Printmaker of Mexico. The exhibitions are open to the public from June 11–September 18, 2022, Thursday through Sunday from 10 am–5 pm.

“The art of José Guadalupe Posada and John Van Alstine are quintessential of their time and particular corner of this great American continent,” remarked Jonathan Canning, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Programming. “Steeped in both the indigenous and European traditions of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Mexico, Posada harnessed the power of modern printing to
promote his art and engage the people. Van Alstine, an Adirondack native, is well-versed in the Classical and Eastern philosophies that underpin modern America, its “can-do” spirit, and the country’s great industrial legacy and awesome natural resources. I can think of no other continent on which either artist could thrive than ours.”

Commented artist John Van Alstine, “The interaction of materials, primarily stone and found object metal, is central to my work. On the most basic level, the sculpture explores the marriage of nature to the built environment. The duality of an eastern or Asian acceptance of stone, combined with a twentieth-century American “can do” attitude embodied in the steel, is at the conceptual core of my work.”

John Van Alstine has been described as an abstract artist with a keen sense of composition, who evokes narratives from inanimate objects, and a sculptor who finds the balance and energy in the moment. At the intersection between wild nature and technology, Van Alstine works at the nexus of natural forces and the manmade. This career retrospective examines recurrent themes drawn from Greek and Roman mythology, celestial navigation, and the human figure in Western art. He responds to the tension between Nature and the American drive to command and shape the environment to their will. The curator for the exhibition is Caroline M. Welsh.

John Van Alstine creating in his Sculpture Studio, Wells, NY. Photo credit: Caroline Ramersdorfer.

John Van Alstine (American, b. 1952), Sisyphean Circle 10-16-16, 2016, granite and galvanized and powder coated steel, 57 x 52 x 18 in. © John Van Alstine.

Related Programming:

Transformations: The Art of John Van Alstine + Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, Saturday, August 6 @ 2:00 pm

The Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company returns to The Hyde Collection to present a site-specific concert created in response to Transformations: The Art of John Van Alstine, featuring guitarist Maria
Zemantauski. Spanning two large galleries, Van Alstine’s work offers a heightened experience for both the audience and the dancer of a simultaneous sense of weight and floating that occurs when natural stone and manmade objects are combined. Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company and Van Alstine have collaborated before, and each experience opens new expanses, queries, and ultimately, a new vision between choreographer and sculptor. Free for Members / Free for non-members with Museum admission.

John Van Alstine (American, b. 1952) Cambre IV, 2004, enamel on steel and granite. © John Van Alstine.

John Van Alstine (American, b. 1952), Sisyphean Circle (twirl), 2014, Vermont slate, and pigmented and sealed steel. © John Van Alstine.

More about John Van Alstine here: http://johnvanalstine.com/

Check out the following video created by Adirondack Explorer reporter, Mike Lynch as part of a profile on John Van Alstine and his work.

José Guadalupe Posada: Legendary Printmaker of Mexico June 11–September 18

José Posada (1852-1913) dominated Mexico’s first communications revolution in the late nineteenth century. His art was ubiquitous, published in daily newspapers, cheap paperback books, board games, advertising flyers, revolutionary broadsides, and religious tracts. His Calaveras, or skeletons, became iconic. By visually combining an indigenous reverence for the dead with a devout Catholic veneration of the souls of the departed, he created humorous, satirical, and insightful commentaries on the issues of the day that influenced such later artists as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. The exhibition was organized by the Catalina Island Museum in association with the Posada Art Foundation.

More about José Guadalupe Posada here: www.posada-art-foundation.com

José Guadalupe Posada (Mexican; 1852-1913), Published by Antonio Vanegas Arroyo (Mexican; 1852-1917), Gran fandango y francachela (Dancing and Revelry), date unknown, Broadside, full sheet, type-metal engraving, Brady Nikas Collection, www.posada-art-foundation.com

José Guadalupe Posada (Mexican, 1852-1913), Art Hazelwood (American, b. 1961), Jim Nikas (Mexican, b.) Marsha Shaw (American, b.) La Calavera 99% [The 99 percent skull], 2012, Color lithograph, Brady Nikas Collection, www.posada-art-Foundation.com

José Guadalupe Posada (Mexican, 1852-1913) Cemetery of the Bald/Dead (El panteón de las pelonas), 1924, broadsheet, full sheet, type metal engraving, published by Vanegas Arroyo Workshop. Brady Nikas Collection

2022 Sponsors
The 2022 Season of Exhibitions at The Hyde Collection is sponsored in honor of Louis P. Brown. Thank you, sponsors: Benjamin and India Adams, with the generous support of Ellen-Deane Cummins and Nemer Motor Group.

About The Hyde Collection

The Hyde is one of the Northeast’s exceptional small art museums with distinguished European and American art collections. Comparable to that of a major metropolitan museum, the core collection, acquired by Museum founders Louis and Charlotte Hyde, includes works by such artists as Sandro Botticelli, El Greco, Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat, Pablo Picasso, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and American artists Thomas Eakins, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, and James McNeill Whistler. The Museum’s Modern and Contemporary art collection features works by artists including Josef Albers, Dorothy Dehner, Sam Gilliam, Adolph Gottlieb, Grace Hartigan, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, George McNeil, Robert Motherwell, Ben Nicholson, Robert Rauschenberg, and Bridget Riley.

Today, The Hyde offers significant national and international exhibitions and a packed schedule of events that help visitors experience art in new ways.

Visit Hydecollection.org for more information.

Photo at top: The Hyde Collection website photo.