The exhibition Jonas Lie (1880-1940) in New York will feature thirty-one oils, ranging from the artist’s early Tonalist-inspired landscapes to the radiant mountain and coastal scenes that comprise his mature work and contributed to his reputation as one of the most celebrated landscape painters of his era.
Lie was born in Moss, Norway, the only son of a Norwegian civil engineer and his Connecticut-born wife. He began studying art at the age of twelve, spending three months in the studio of his cousin, the artist Christian Skredsvig. Later that year, while residing in Paris with his famous uncle and namesake, the novelist Jonas Lauritz Edemil Lie, he took drawing lessons during the evening and visited the Louvre and Luxembourg museums. After moving to New York City in 1893, he studied art under Dewing Woodward at Felix Adler’s Ethical Culture School. On graduating in 1897, he worked for Manchester Mills, a textile factory in New York, while continuing his formal training at the Cooper Union School, the Art Students League, and probably, the National Academy of Design. Lie occupied a mainstream position in the art world. He attracted sustained critical support from the early 1910s well into the 1930s, during which time he enjoyed numerous solo exhibitions throughout the country and was inducted into the most prestigious art societies. In the wake of Lie’s death in 1940, Peyton Boswell of Art Digest summed up his oeuvre as reflecting the front-yard’ of the American scene--picturesque seaboard villages, snug fishing harbors, silvery birches mirrored in still, blue-green water, peaceful landscapes and other aspects of beauty in America. Ambassador Knut Vollebæk will co-host the event.
When: January 12 – February 25, Gallery Hours: Monday-Saturday 9:30-5:30
Where: Spanierman Gallery, 45 East 58 Street, New York
Info: 212 832 0208