National Gallery of Art Announces 'Niagara Falls: Mist and Majesty' Exhibition
The Facts
The National Gallery of Art in Washington announced an exhibition titled 'Niagara Falls: Mist and Majesty,' exploring the layered histories of Niagara Falls from the early 19th century to today. The exhibition marks the bicentennial of landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church's birth in 1826 and is anchored by his iconic 1857 panorama 'Niagara.' It includes approximately 20 works—prints, drawings, photographs, and contemporary pieces—by artists such as Régis François Gignoux, Platt D. Babbitt, George Barker, Shelley Niro, Kay WalkingStick, Tseng Kwong Chi, and Alec Soth. The exhibition is curated by Sarah Cash and Diane Waggoner.
The Signal
The exhibition situates Church's canonical painting within a broader narrative that includes Indigenous perspectives, the role of the falls in the Underground Railroad, and the preservation movement led by Church and Frederick Law Olmsted. By juxtaposing 19th-century imagery with contemporary works by Indigenous and other artists, the National Gallery signals a continued institutional commitment to reexamining American art history through multiple viewpoints. For collectors and curators, the show underscores the growing market and scholarly interest in works that address historical complexity and Indigenous representation.
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- Artists: Frederic Edwin Church, Régis François Gignoux, Platt D. Babbitt, George Barker, Shelley Niro, Kay WalkingStick, Tseng Kwong Chi, Alec Soth
- People: Sarah Cash, Diane Waggoner, Frederick Law Olmsted
- Museums: National Gallery of Art
- Locations: Washington
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