Sue McNally: Ascutney Revisited opened at The Fruitlands Museum June 18 – November 8, 2020
Sue McNally’s distinctive paintings shape outdoor spaces into magnetic, surreal vistas with radiant, gem-like colors. To create her series, This Land is Our Land, McNally road-tripped annually for over 25 years across the United States and painted alternately personal and iconic views of each state.
For Ascutney Revisited, McNally creates a new painting in dialogue with the painting Mount Ascutney from Claremont, NH by Albert Bierstadt (1862). She traveled to find the view that Bierstadt captured and create a painting that will be both a tribute and a course in contrasts. The new work will consider both the view as it appears much altered 150 years later, with vivid colors and forms contrasting with Bierstadt’s meticulous marks. She will also present a painting of the well-loved view from the grounds of Fruitlands Museum. In addition to the gallery exhibition, her new, large-scale, stained glass sculptures will echo the shapes of the distant mountain range outside.
