(easy jazz music)
- [Beth] We're in the storage room
at the Terra Foundation for American Art,
looking at a painting by Childe Hassam,
Horticulture Building World's Columbian Exposition.
What we're looking at is the grounds of the World's Fair
that was held here in Chicago in 1893.
Sometimes it's called the Columbian Exposition
because it was supposed to mark the 400th anniversary
of Columbus' voyage to the Americas.
- [Katherine] Hassam is showing us just one of the buildings
on what was a huge space, many buildings built
just for this World's Fair.
- [Beth] This was a truly spectacular event,
and it was the architecture and the grounds
that captured people's attention.
- [Katherine] The World's Fairs were the occasion
for countries to demonstrate how advanced they were in terms
of architecture, in terms of art, in terms of industry,
everything, and it's only the second time that this
young country was able to host a World's Fair.
The building that we're looking at is the horticulture
building, and the critics at the time were saying
that this building had every specimen of plant in the world.
We know that can't be true, but we do know
that they were taking examples of exotic palm trees
and other kinds of plants and putting them on display,
so it's not just art, it's not just machinery,
it's also the natural world.
- [Beth] That gives us a great sense of the incredible
ambition of this World's Fair, and some of the greatest
architects of the day were involved in building
the architecture and creating the landscaping.
- [Katherine] We know Childe Hassam was in Chicago
before the fair opened.
- [Beth] He's here to create images that will be used
in souvenir brochures and things like that,
so there was an enormous reservoir.
There were canals, bridges.
There were buildings that looked like they were made
of marble and stone that gleamed in the light.
The fair got the nickname of the White City.
It seemed to people to be almost a cross of Rome and Venice.
- [Katherine] And you say it looked like marble
because most of the buildings are actually made
of stucco and plaster, and they are meant to be temporary,
and yet, visually, for the fair-goers, it would be
as if they arrived in a magical destination.
- [Beth] And as we look at this painting, we feel very much
invited to walk into the fair, and we have a pathway
that opens before us, benches, people strolling toward us,
the horticulture building with the flags,
and the grounds look so beautiful.
They're lush.
- [Katherine] Hassam has done a wonderful job,
especially because you have to know he did invent
some of this.
He had the architectural drawings in front of him.
He had seen the building on its way,
but he had to invent what would it be like to be there,
and he creates an inviting, friendly, safe place.
There's a woman and child in the foreground.
They look exhausted.
They've been walking everywhere, so he tries to give us
that sense that we too could be visitors to this fair.
- [Beth] We think about paintings in this impressionist
style of the late 19th century, this loose,
open brushwork that looks very sketchy with this emphasis
on bright colors and an interest in light and atmosphere.
We think about the artists who painted in that style
painting (speaking foreign language),
that is, painting outside, and directly from nature,
and yet Hassam is inventing this
(Katherine laughing) largely in his studio.
- [Katherine] It's true, and some of his paintings
were painted outdoors, but in this particular painting,
perhaps that's the difference between that carefully
rendered building that doesn't seem sketchy
and quickly painted and the foreground that is more,
as we say, impressionistic because of this loose brushwork.
- [Beth] Just at this time, Frederick Jackson Turner
explains his Frontier Thesis.
In fact, Turner delivered the Frontier Thesis
at the World's Fair.
It's this idea that the frontier had been so important
to the creation of an American identity,
this continual move westward, and this creation
of an American character because of the frontier,
but Turner also talks about how that period
of American history's ended, and so, the White City,
this exposition, points to a new moment for America
to reimagine its cities.
- [Katherine] And something else that happens
at this particular fair is that the American art
on display gets a lot of attention.
It is as if the critics in this country can
finally say, "American art has made something of itself."
And Hassam doesn't exhibit this work at the fair,
but he does have other paintings on view, and he is
among his colleagues exhibiting in this fair
that receives international attention.
- [Beth] So, the world comes to Chicago in 1893,
and Chicago assumes importance in the world
thanks to the World's Fair.
(easy jazz music)