The Venice Of The Venetians

"(James McNeill) Whistler is this really important figure to, not only American art, but to art internationally."

Domenic Iacono, curator of "An American in Venice: James McNeill Whistler and His Legacy," says Whistler was an American expatriate who traveled to Europe and "never returned to the United States." Whistler lived for the most part in England, but he spent periods of time in Holland, Paris and Venice. He was commissioned in 1879 by the Fine Arts Society of London to create a portfolio of prints from Venice during a monthlong trip, but he stayed much longer than that in the city.

"He fell in love with it," Iacono says. "He ended up creating so many prints that when he came back to London, he didn't publish just one series, but he actually published two."

Etchings by Whistler and his followers are part of this traveling exhibit, which opened in early October at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, where it will be on display through Jan. 4.

The exhibition includes 12 pieces from Whistler's Venice sets, along with works by artists -- among them John Marin, Ernest David Roth, Cadwallader Washburn, Herman Armour Webster, Joseph Pennell, James McBey, Samuel K. Popkins and Sidney Tushingham -- who were inspired by Whistler "to make images of Italy," Iacono says. He says there is something "very Whistlerian that we see in their work."

Whistler believed in plein air, which is working on a piece on site. For the etching process, the artist takes copper plate and puts a tar-like material over it, he says. It is impervious to acid, so if the copper plate covered in this ground material is put in an acid bath, nothing happens to the copper plate, he adds. The artist takes a plate covered in this ground material and uses a sharp metal stylus to draw a design. The artist is not carving into the copper plate, but he is breaking away that ground material and exposing the copper, he says.

"It's almost like drawing with a pencil on a sheet of paper," Iacono says.

The plate is then put in an acid bath, and the acid eats away at the exposed copper creating a line and an indention in the copper plate. The artist then takes a pasty ink and pushes that into those lines indented in the copper before putting the plate into a press, which takes the ink out of the lines, giving the linear look of an etching, he says. The plate can create multiple prints.

"We consider all of those prints to be original that are pulled from that particular plate," he says.

Whistler had a unique view in his work. He has an image of St. Mark's Basilica, but it is not the focal point of the work. The main focuses of his works include the people in the space, the sense of light and air and the reflective qualities of water, Iacono says. These are aspects he could find anywhere, so he went to courtyards or lesser known canals, not "typical Venice highlights."

"He really captures the Venice of the Venetians," Iacono says.

All of the images are monochromatic, but some are like looking at a blazing sun and others are nighttime scenes, he says.

"These are black and white images, yet you still see that reflection. You see that brightness of light."