Seascapes: Tryon and Sugimoto

For the first time since the Freer Gallery of Art opened in 1923, works from its American collection will be displayed with works from outside the museum. A series of 22 pastels of the Maine coast by American landscape painter Dwight Tryon (1849–1925) will be on view at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, juxtaposed with six black-and-white photographs of the sea by contemporary Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto from his ongoing series “Seascapes.” Separated by history and medium, the works are linked by a common subject—the sea—and document the perceptual activity of the artist as well as a natural motif. The formal resonances between these two series will encourage quiet contemplation and allow viewers to discern aesthetic connections between the diverse artworks on view throughout the Freer and Sackler galleries.