Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents

Renowned for his powerful paintings of American life and scenery, Winslow Homer (1836-1910) remains a consequential figure whose art continues to appeal to broad audiences. Crosscurrents reconsiders Homer’s work through the lens of conflict, a theme that crosses his prolific career. A persistent fascination with struggle permeates his art—from emblematic images of the Civil War and Reconstruction that examine the effects of the conflict on the landscape, soldiers, and formerly enslaved people to dramatic scenes of rescue and hunting as well as monumental seascapes and dazzling tropical works painted throughout the Atlantic world. The centrepiece of the exhibition is Homer’s iconic The Gulf Stream, a painting that reveals his lifelong engagement with charged subjects of race, geopolitics, and the environment. Featuring 88 oils and watercolours, Crosscurrents represents the largest critical overview of Homer’s art and life in more than a quarter of a century.

The exhibition webpage includes an audioguide, and links to a ‘Contemporary Dialogues’ page with artworks by Kerry James Marshall, Elizabeth Colomba, Hugh Hayden, and Kara Walker.

The exhibition is accompanied by a scholarly publication.

Winslow Homer, The Gulf Stream, 1899; reworked by 1906, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1906.