Walking for Art's Sake: The Galleries of Hudson
by Johanne Renbeck

In her book, Wanderlust, A History of Walking, (Penguin Books, 2000) Rebecca Solnit, traces the origins of our modern idea that walking is recreational and pleasurable. Interestingly, some of our modern ideas about art have a common history with walking. I had leisure to ponder the connection recently when I set out on foot to tour the art galleries of Hudson,

Opaque blue sky arched over this picturesque city. Maples misty with a yellow-green only seen in May billowed out of the occasional yard. On the sunny side of Warren Street, luminous as an Edward Hooper painting, I found I had dressed too warmly. In the shade of buildings on the south side, I felt I could walk forever, which was a good thing since Hudson's abundance of art galleries ranges over nearly a mile of Warren Street and spills into nearby streets.

In the conjoined history of art and walking, going the distance is the link. For instance the word gallery, which to our eyes is synonymous with art display, actually was the name for a long corridor built into grand Renaissance homes for the specific purpose of exercise. Pleasure was not the goal, only the newly touted health benefits ascribed to walking. At some point, the bare walls invited adornment. What better place to hang the family portraits?

Hudson's galleries for the most part leave family portraits to history and offer a wide assortment of art genres to viewers. It hasn't always been so. Just twelve years ago, Carrie Haddad opened the first gallery in Hudson. Today, there are at least a dozen galleries with more on the way and I asked Haddad for her thoughts, as the pioneer of this blossoming. "Well, I didn't set out to be a pioneer. I simply opened a gallery, but it's exciting," Haddad told me with obvious delight. "I'm pleased to be part of such a talented group of gallery owners." Her spacious gallery features work of contemporary regional artists. The June show of figurative and abstract painting will highlight the work of three established artists who the gallery has represented since its opening. "There are so many talented artists in the region, I often wish I had a second gallery to be able to represent more."

Other galleries feature contemporary artists as well. The John Davis Gallery offers two floors of exhibit space and opens into a back courtyard bordered by an old carriage house making space in warm weather a sculpture garden. When asked what he looks for in the art he chooses for his gallery, he smiled, "You just fall in love." Additionally, artists who "have something to say and have a voice to say it in" garner his attention. "You have to support that."

When I left John Davis's luminous gallery, I found I had not left behind the large bold landscapes of his May exhibit. They filled my mind's eye and elevated my spirit as I continued my Hudson trek. As Davis said in our conversation about reasons to visit a gallery, "Why not just step into a gallery and receive a little joy?"

So how did those long dim corridors built for dutiful exercise and festooned with dour family portraits evolve into light filled rooms filled with visual treasures? Again, walking is the key. From Solnit's Wanderlust we learn that by the late 18th century, circumstances began to favor walking out of doors and people found it pleasurable. The condition and safety of roads had much improved, but the real revolution erupted in English gardens. The growing sense of social order had, over the centuries, moved garden space out of small, walled enclosures into the expansive gardens, parks and game preserves. Paths were designed to feature outlooks on beautiful scenery and books instructed enthusiasts on the correct ways to identify and describe the "picturesque." Wealthy landowners had their portraits painted against the backdrop of nature. Nature became a destination for walkers and, as art history shows, a subject for painters. These "picturesque" renderings of nature inevitably became part of commerce.

Just as ideas about walking or art evolve over time, so can galleries themselves. The Nicole Fiacco Gallery is a case in point. Known until recently as Modo Gallery, this space specialized in contemporary Native American pottery and art. Fiacco's journey as gallery owner began with the eye. "I saw the Pueblo ceramics and fell in love." Now the gallery is in transition to "work that is of some consequence other than the artist's ethnicity. The work may be informed by ethnicity, but is not defined by it." Nicole Fiacco's journey continues with the eye. How does she choose art for her gallery? "I am visually struck," she said and then went on to give word to the visual vocabulary of one of the paintings in the gallery that had struck me. In doing so she mediated with an articulate enthusiasm, between the viewer-me and the absent painter.

I met enthusiasm again at the Hudson Opera House where Gary Schiro, executive director of this non-profit multi-arts center, introduced me to the grand old building and its offerings. The Opera House featured 560 events and programs last year, most of which were free of charge. I asked, "What do you hope people will see or sense when they come through the front doors of HOH?" The answer was instantaneous. "Welcome," he beamed, "first and foremost, welcome, and then the sense that something interesting is going on here." The art gallery at HOH is up a few steps from the main entrance and extends down a wide, bright inviting hallway. An interesting new show featuring the cross-Atlantic correspondence of Red Hook-based artist Lise Poirier and Grethe Wittrock—a collection of intriguing handmade collaged postcards—was being installed..

Another non-commercial gallery in Hudson can be found a block off Warren Street at Time and Space Limited. Known for its live theater, TSL also functions as a busy community center that features an art gallery among its offerings. "It's basically a theater space," explained intern Emily Malina, "so (art) shows go up and down easily." Malina talked about the challenges associated with mounting "The Archive Project," a thirty year retrospective of productions by Linda Mussmann and Claudia Bruce, the founders of TSL. "It's a text-heavy show displaying notes upon notes, fragile documents, an ephemeral collection. How do you reveal some of the process and evolution?" With drama, I discovered as I wound through a labyrinth of visual collages and constructions that gave insight into collaboration. The planned June exhibit, "Made in China" will explore this country's appetite for belongings and China's outpouring of products to feed this hunger. "We'll paint the gallery red," says Malina. More drama!

Adventure awaits those who walk their eyes through Hudson. Variety, quality and spirit abound. Galleries featuring furniture design, 19th century painting, artifacts, jewelry, fine craft, and the work of regional artists, national mid-career contemporary artists, and art stars commingle here, making Hudson a treasure for everyone from seasoned art connoisseurs to the newly curious. Many galleries mount new shows monthly, so even if visitors to Hudson somehow manage to take in everything in one day, something new will await them on their return. I've planned mine already. n

Johanne Renbeck is a painter and writer blessed to live the lush Hudson Valley. Her work may soon be viewed at www.JohanneRenbeck.com.

Art Galleries in Hudson

A.D.D. Gallery. Fri–Sun Noon–5pm. 22 Park Place. 518-822-9763

Agora Foundation. Open by appt. until 9/06 due to construction. 101 Paul Ave. 518-828-1116.

BCB Art. St; Thu–Sun Noon–6pm. 116 Warren St. 518-828-4539

Bonnie Andretta Fine Arts, Inc. Thu–Mon 11am–5pm. 415 Warren St. 518-828-1024

Carrie Haddad Gallery. Thu–Mon 11am–5pm. 622 Warren St. 518-828-1915

Chatsu. 234 Warren St.

Columbia Cty. Council on the Arts. Gallery hrs.: Tue–Fri 9:30am–5pm. 209 Warren St. 518-671-6213

Columbia-Greene Comm. Coll. Galleries: Blue Hill, Foundation & Kaaterskill Galleries. Mon–Thu 8am–8pm; Fri 8am–5pm; Sun Noon–5pm. 4400 Rt. 23. Info: 518-828-4181 x3344

Deborah Davis Fine Art. Thu–Mon 11am–5pm. 345 Warren St. 518-822-1890

The Gallery at Stageworks. Wed–Sun Noon–4pm. 41 Cross St. (opposite Amtrak). 518-851-7044

Hitchcock & Eve. Thu–Mon 11am–6pm. 624 Warren St. 518-822-0106

Hudson Opera House. Mon–Sat Noon–5pm. 327 Warren St. 518-828-1438

Hudson Valley Art Ctr. Thu–Mon 11am–5pm. 337 Warren St. 518-828-2661

J. Damiani Gallery. Thu–Sun 9am–5:30pm. 437 Warren St. 518-828-5490

John Davis Gallery. Thu–Sat 11am–5pm; Sun Noon–5pm. 362 1/2 Warren St. 518-828-0778

Marianne Courville Gallery. Thu–Mon 11am–5pm. 431 Warren St. 518-828-6411

Modo Gallery. Thu–Mon Noon–5. 506 Warren St. 518-828-5090

Museum of the Imagination. Sat & Sun Noon–5pm. 217 Warren St., 2nd Fl. 518-671-6711

Ornamentum.Thu, Fri & Sun 11am–5pm; Sat 11am–6pm. 506 Warren St. 518-671-6770

Peter Jung Fine Arts. By Appt. 512 Warren St. 518-828-2698

Richard Senna Gallery. Call for hours. 238 Warren St. 518-828-1996

Sharada. Thu–Mon 11am–5pm. 433 Warren St. 518-828-9750

Time & Space Limited, TLS Warehouse. Daily 11am–3pm. 4343 Columbia St. 518-822-8448