Hugely successful during his own lifetime, the Detroit-born artist Julius Garibaldi ("Gari") Melchers left behind an artistic legacy that is as varied as it is compelling. From engaging peasant scenes inspired by his years at the Egmonds, Holland (where he shared a studio with the great American painter George Hitchcock in the late 19th century) to intimate portraits of mothers and their children, Melchers' oeuvre is inflected by a dynamic range of influences, including Impressionism and Symbolism. From this broad range of sources, Melchers created a style that was uniquely his own; remarkable for its insistent structural rigor and careful draughtsmanship (absorbed through his years at Düsseldorf‘s Royal Academy of Art) as well as a lyrical palette and keen observance of humanity.
This exhibition, which is jointly curated by the Lowe Art Musem and the Gari Melchers Home and Studio, surveys more than a half-century of Melchers' career with key examples of the genres he favored, including landscape, genre scenes, and portraiture.
An American Master at Home & Abroad: Gari Melchers (1860-1932) is made possible thanks to additional support from the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade Mayor and Board of Commissioner, the State of Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the City of Coral Gables.
