After Ryder: Photographs by Nicholas Whitman
Opened: March 16, 2018
Closed: June 2, 2019
Former Whaling Museum curator Nicholas Whitman exhibits a selection of his recent photographic work adjacent to the Whaling Museum’s Albert Pinkham Ryder painting, Landscape, c. 1870.
Whitman has a deep appreciation for Ryder’s work. His photographs address themes in common with the painter, including moody maritime nocturnes and allegorical interpretations of nature. According to the artist, Whitman’s photographs align with Ryder’s emotive expressionism with a modernist’s view.
"Ryder's paintings evoke emotions from a world beneath the surface. He probes dark seas to find a reality illuminated in moonlight." ~Nicholas Whitman
About the Artist
After graduating from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1978, Nicholas Whitman was commissioned to photograph collections at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. During his tenure, he brought order and interest to the Museum’s superb photographic holdings.
In 1986, he moved to freelance practice. Returning to the Berkshires in 1990, he has since provided imagery for many of the region’s cultural institutions, including the Bennington Museum, Berkshire Museum, Berkshire Theater Group/Colonial Theatre, Chesterwood, Olana, MASS MoCA, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williams College Museum of Art, and Williams College. Whitman’s Williams College winter study Landscape Photography class has run continuously for well over a decade.
In concert with commissioned work, Whitman continues to mine numerous veins of expressive photography. Several of which have resulted in books, gallery shows, and museum exhibitions.
