The painted reveries and dreamscapes of one of the South’s most celebrated artists will be showcased in the next exhibit at the Hunter Museum of Ameican Art. “Seeking the Spiritual: The Visionary Art of Elliott Daingerfield” opens Friday, Dec. 4.
Spanning 1887 to 1920, the 48 paintings, pastels and drawings in the exhibition explore Daingerfield’s interest in the intangible spiritual plane that he felt existed beneath the surface of material things.
Museum visitors will discover the mysteries of nature in his landscapes, the sacredness of Christianity in his religious pictures and the spirit of place in his allegorical art. Through these themes, this exhibition delves into one of the many responses American artists had to the impact of modernization upon American society.
Daingerfield (1859-1932) enjoyed enormous success as a painter, poet, author and teacher in his lifetime. Although his main studio was in New York City and his patrons hailed from New York, Boston and Chicago, he was born and raised in the South and, as such, was one of the most important Southern artists of the era. Moving from the war-ravaged South to the rapidly industrializing and booming economy of the Northeast, Daingerfield became concerned about the rampant materialism of the age and sought to create paintings that reconnected viewers with the spiritual.
Like his friend and mentor George Inness, Daingerfield felt that art should engage emotions, elevating the viewer to the realm of spiritual experience and transcending the everyday material world. He encouraged viewers to contemplate his paintings as a means of communing with the divine.