The Newport Art Museum will present "Howard Gardiner Cushing: A Harmony of Line and Color," the first major retrospective in decades of the Gilded Age artist, opening July 11. Guest curated by Ricardo Mercado in collaboration with Newport Curates, the exhibition features dozens of Cushing's full-length portraits and Asian-influenced decorative paintings, organized into two galleries that separate his two main genres: intimate depictions of family and friends, and semi-theatrical works. Cushing, who died in 1916 and was later dismissed as old-fashioned, is being restored to his place as an innovative artist who challenged academic conventions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
This exhibition matters because it reclaims a significant but overlooked American artist whose work is held in major institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MFA Boston, the Whitney Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. By gathering paintings from dozens of collections and funding the show through local benefactors, the Newport Art Museum not only honors Cushing's legacy but also highlights the cultural history of Newport and Rhode Island. The show underscores how regional museums can revive forgotten artists and reshape art historical narratives, offering a fresh perspective on Gilded Age American art.