Feb. 28 through May 25, 2025
Canvas to Culture features more than 50 works from Munson and other prominent collections inspired by Thomas Cole’s epic, The Voyage of Life (1839–40). Learn how Cole’s four paintings spread from a private gallery to many people’s homes and even the movie palace. Canvas to Culture reveals the generations who adopted Cole’s iconic four stages of spiritual growth as their own.
Organized by Museum Director Emeritus Paul Schweizer, Ph.D., this exhibition is the first to uncover the enduring legacy of Munson's beloved quartet by Cole. From the first printed and painted reproductions to popular imagery in early multimedia shows, the journey culminates in the translation of Cole’s painted vision of Youth to the silver screen in the first full-length "talkie" film, The Jazz Singer (1927).
Sponsored by Mary Ann Gadziala, Christian and Cheryl Heilmann, Elizabeth R. Lemieux, Ph.D., the Family of F. X. Matt II, Hon. Beverly Tobin (ret), in memory of Edwin J. Tobin, and Linda and Alan Vincent
Art Talk with Paul D. Schweizer, Ph.D., Museum Director Emeritus
Includes book signing and light refreshments
Sunday, April 13, 2 p.m., Free
Museum of Art | 1 West Gallery
Few American artworks have had as sustained an impact on the nation's visual culture as Thomas Cole's pictorial allegory of a person's passage through the four stages of life. In this informal gallery talk, Paul D. Schweizer, Ph.D., Museum Director Emeritus, will discuss some of the highlights of the pictures' voyage through eight decades of American culture.
