Purdy Eaton
The Lackawanna Valley Purdy Eaton
associated with Purdy
posted by Purdy / Meta-data
George Inness’s Lackawanna Valley, 1856 considers nature in terms of the contrasts between raw nature and the rapid progression of cultural evolution and the industrial revolution. The president of Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad at Scranton, Pennsylvania commissioned Inness to paint Lackawanna Valley, requiring him to add more tracks than existed and to paint the company’s name on the engine. This begs the question whether one should experience Lackawanna Valley as an advertisement for the railroad or a critique of development. In the same vein, Lackawanna Valley, 2008 suggests both an advertisement for grassy suburban living and nostalgia for the country landscape that once flourished. The four minute video embedded in the panel depicts the rapid destruction of a hundred year old farmhouse, representing the death of the family farm as Americans distance themselves from nature and move toward industrial food production.
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