Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment

Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment takes flight from the influential series of paintings The Gems of Brazil (1863-64) by Martin Johnson Heade but expands outward to explore pollination in nature and ecology, cultural and artistic influence and exchange, and the interconnection between art and science.

In addition to nineteenth-century American artists Martin Johnson Heade, Thomas Cole, and Frederic Church, the exhibition also features contemporary artists such as Paula Hayes, Maya Lin, Richard Estes, Juan Fontanive, Roxy Paine, Rachel Sussman, and Vik Muniz.

Explore your own connections between art and nature on visits to the estate's greater and formal gardens, which include birding and nature trails, and see if you can spot the objects and specimens featured in the exhibition.

Cross Pollination was created by The Olana Partnership at Olana State Historic Site, Thomas Cole National Historical Site, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Ark. Its tour is organized by Crystal Bridges. The exhibition has traveled to The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, Fla., and will travel to Olana State Historic Site, Thomas Cole National Historic Site, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. over the coming months.

Cross Pollination is accompanied by a full-color catalogue with essays by the curators.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website 

Image credit:  Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), View on the Magdalena River,1857. Oil on canvas, 35 x 47 in. (framed). Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art; Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund, and Estate of Hildegarde Graham van Roijen, by exchange. Photo: Travis Fullerton © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.​​