In 1922, Pennsylvania Impressionist Daniel Garber celebrated the quarries along the Delaware River for offering “things like the Grand Canyon but on a scale commensurate with the canvas.” For Garber and his contemporaries, these dramatic sites of extraction provided striking new artistic subjects and fresh opportunities for landscape painting. Yet, while inspired by industry-altered terrain, artists often omitted the less picturesque signs of active labor and production from their compositions. 

Join us online for a conversation with Laura Igoe, the Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest Chief Curator, as she leads a virtual tour of the exhibition Abstractions in Nature: Quarries and Industry in Pennsylvania Impressionism. Discover how Pennsylvania Impressionists transformed industrial landscapes into compelling works of art and explore the complex relationship between nature, industry, and artistic vision. 

Image credit: Daniel Garber (1880-1958), Over at Byram, 1940. Oil on canvas mounted on Masonite, 30 x 30 inches. James A. Michener Art Museum. Gift of Oliver Pearson.