Mathias Kessler
As part of FREE AWAY.
After a successful stay in Italy, I traveled to the Hudson Valley in New York. Thanks to an invitation extended by my friend Mark Dion, I also was at https://mildredslane.org/. Here I continued to work on my project of finding and taking pictures sunsets depicted in art history. The Hudson Valley was a prominent site of American Romanticism. The landscapes around the river were immortalized in numerous paintings by famous painters of the ‘Hudson River School’ such as Frederic Edwin Church and Thomas Cole. In the Catskill Mountains, they found elevated positions from which they showed nature in its full idyllic, pristine splendor. With the help of the Hudson River Art Trail, I tried to follow the routes that the painters walked themselves and, in part, sketched landscapes in plein air on site and I attempted to capture the scenery with my camera. Thus, I was not only able to see the places as such, but also run through the process that the artists experienced at that time. Hiking through nature was an integral part of Romantic landscape painting. The journey was the destination.
I use the photos to identify changes in the pigments and, as a result, draw conclusions on anthropogenic particulate matter in the atmosphere resulting from the use of fossil fuels. This builds on the studies carried out by the meteorologist Christos Zerefos who analyzed 800 paintings from 400 years of art history with regard to the colors of the sky to deduce climate-relevant data. Hence, the colors of the sky are directly indicative of the particulate matter content of air. Following my two residencies, I convert these photos into color gradients and, eventually, graduation paintings.
My "Away Studio" is both in Italy – Rome, Naples, Tuscany – and in Catskill, New York, where I follow the tracks of 18th century painters and gather further information for my work.
| 1. | My stay in one word: |
| Road trip | |
| 2. | Dos & don’ts in this place: |
| Unfortunately, bad weather is not good for my project. | |
| 3. | Things I miss since I am no longer there: |
| Great exchanges with artists I met on Mildred’s Lane. https://mildredslane.org/ | |
| 4. | Where to shop great supplies: |
| https://www.thespottydog.com/ or online or Albany https://www.yelp.com/biz/arlenes-artist-materials-albany | |
| 5. | What you should definitely bring with you from home: |
| 6. | Concerning art at this destination and where I visited the best exhibitions: |
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There is much art to be seen in the Hudson Valley:
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| 7. | Around the studio – where I shop, drink my coffee and get the best lunch deal in walking distance: |
| Athens Rooster, or https://nycitiot.com/ in Catskill, or Hudson, Moto https://www.motocoffeemachine.com/ | |
| 8. | Where I like to spend the evening (dinner, drinks, best sound and networking opportunity): |
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Tips for eating out and exploring: Brushland Eating House Butcher & Bar Foxfire Mountain House Frogs End Tavern Gaskins Grazin’ Livingston Manor Fly Fishing Club Phoenicia Diner Quinn's Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture Talbott & Arding The Grange The Kaatskeller Tuthilltown Spirits Distillery Wayside Cider Backbar The Athens Rooster The Meat Hook Olana Estate Thomas Cole National Historic Site Hudson Cruises |
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| 9. | What would have been useful to know before coming here and starting my residency: |
| I was at Mildred’s Lane, but also spent much time on a road trip as I took pictures of various locations. These experiences are reflected by my tips. |
Website resident: mathiaskessler.com