Curators at Work: The Watercolor in Virginia

The Watercolor in Virginia: A Survey of Paintings from the Present and the Past

One way that the VMHC records culture (the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a people) is by painstakingly collecting paintings from the past. The Virginia Watercolor Society’s juried show for 2020, on view in the VMHC galleries, presents a remarkably rich record of tastes and interests in Virginia today. What subjects did watercolor artists select to paint in the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s, and what subjects do their successors choose to paint today? Each faced an empty sheet of paper with the freedom to paint whatever intrigued him or her. The VMHC watercolor collection numbers nearly 600 works; the VWS exhibition presents more than 80 paintings with which to examine the question. A sampling from each source will be presented in this program from November 13, 2020.