ISSUED: 23 October 2024
MEDIA CONTACT: Hans Fogle
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. – Shepherd University’s Scarborough Library recently welcomed an exhibit featuring the work of Carl Frederick Gaertner, a nationally known landscape artist.
The Shepherd University Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities supports the exhibit that opened on October 15 in the library’s main reading room.
Appalachian Center Director, Dr. Benjamin Bankhurst, called the exhibit exciting and said it connects perfectly with the Appalachian Studies program.
“Gaertner’s work, spanning the early and middle decades of the twentieth century, touches on rural themes and locations, as well as the changes wrought by industrialization,” Bankhurst said.
The exhibit is the graduate project of Gaertner’s granddaughter, Erin Gaertner. Bankhurst said it is a passion project for the Appalachian Studies Program graduate student.
“She used the opportunity to both honor her illustrious ancestor and to illustrate the relevance of the themes present in Gaertner’s work to the residents of the Appalachian region in the twenty-first century.”
Gaertner (1898-1952) specialized in portraying an emerging industrial Cleveland of the early twentieth century; however, he also produced bucolic settings that were the reaction to industrial America, scenes of West Virginia landscapes to the seascapes of New England.
His later works offered glimpses of the natural world, which though often stark and severe, clearly reveal the color and light that gave psychological insights into the cultural landscape.
The Gaertner exhibit is free and open to the public. It can be enjoyed online in the Appalachian Studies Graduate Studies Archive or in person at Shepherd University’s Scarborough Library.
— 30 —
