Valerie Hegarty (American, born 1967). <em>Fallen Bierstadt</em>, 2007. Foamcore, paint, paper, glue, gel medium, canvas, wire, wood, 2008.9a Wall piece: 70 × 50 × 16 3/4 in. (177.8 × 127 × 42.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Campari, USA, 2008.9a-b. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2008.9a-b_PS11.jpg)

Valerie Hegarty (American, born 1967). Fallen Bierstadt, 2007. Foamcore, paint, paper, glue, gel medium, canvas, wire, wood, 2008.9a Wall piece: 70 × 50 × 16 3/4 in. (177.8 × 127 × 42.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Campari, USA, 2008.9a-b. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2008.9a-b_PS11.jpg)

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We're curious about Hegarty's Fallen Bierstadt. The description suggests that the artist is trying to convey that nature ultimately decays our attempts to control it. But from our perspective it seems like the piece has endured a massive human-induced attack with shrapnel tears and burns and seemingly dried blood. Are we missing something?

You may have read this in the label, but in Fallen Bierstadt the “canvas” appears to decay, as if affected by the ravages of nature, more so than a "human" attack. The title "Fallen Bierstadt" seems to refer both to the physical appearance of the piece and to the end of a heroic tradition of landscape painting.

However, you are right, the destruction of the piece seems to suggest a more human-made intervention. Contemporary works like this are open to interpretation, and in a sense it can be seen as a question of how the promise that the great wilderness of the West (which was promoted through 19th century landscape painting) has been destroyed.

Was the piece set up by the artist or by a museum employee? Also, how was this burnt look created?

The artist intentionally distressed the canvas in various ways. It is actually melted and burned. You may have already found the label, but it talks about how the decay can relate to the ravages of nature or the end of a certain type of landscape painting. The artist had the original idea of how the bottom should look but a member of the conservation team had to get involved. They affixed the pieces to the floor to make sure that they stay there are can be accounted for.

Actually, the artist hasn't shared anything that specific (i.e. which came first) about her process with the curators. But the distressing/melting/burning/modifying of surfaces of recognizable paintings is very typical of her work.

I don't really understand this, could you help me?

Valerie Hegarty created her own painting to look like a landscape by Bierstadt, and then she deliberately damaged and distressed it.

Bierstadt's work was designed to encourage excitement about westward expansion in the late 1800s the frontier was seen as a land of opportunity.

So the artist has deliberately damaged her work, as if the painting has been exposed outside for a long time and destroyed by the nature?

That's definitely one way to think about about it, all landscapes change over time. It might also be suggested that we can think about what massive western expansion and settlement have done to the landscape.

Hegarty is also asking us to think about the ways that all kinds of American Dreams have been changed and challenged over the past 100-plus years.

What is this all about?

The artist intentionally distressed the canvas in various ways. The painting is actually melted and burned. And the artist had the original idea of how the bottom should look, but a member of the conservation team had to get involved to make sure that all the pieces are always accounted for. They are affixed to the floor now! You may have already found the label, but it talks about how the decay can relate to the ravages of nature or the end of a certain type of landscape painting.

Valerie Hegarty was thinking about grand 19th century landscapes by Bierstadt, like the one to your right.

I'm also happy a work by Bierstadt is right there for comparison. I love this style of landscape, but never thought of the achievement (arrogance?) of capturing it in a painting, until seeing Hegarty's deconstruction.

She is able to emulate his style, and then she destroys and distresses it. I just thought of this as kind of an Oedipal moment for an artist -- killing the "father"!

And she's definitely thinking about the effects of Euro-American settlement (promoted by art like Bierstadt's) on the actual landscape and on the eventual collapse of the Manifest Destiny narrative.

Interesting, destroying the tradition so she and we can come at it anew.

She definitely gets us to look with "new" eyes.

A couple of years ago, she created some "interventions" in two American period rooms up on the 4th floor -- making them look damaged and invaded by birds!

Hegarty based this work on a painting by the nineteenth-century American artist Albert Bierstadt, who was famous for his large-scale depictions of the American West. You can see one of his paintings to your right. All the art in this room encourages us to look at and/or think about landscape in a new way. Hegarty is thinking about gradual changes (and potential destruction) of the American landscape, as well as the decline of a traditional way of showing landscapes in art.

Fascinating, thank you!

You're welcome!

Fallen Bierstadt

Valerie Hegarty

Contemporary Art

Valerie Hegarty’s Fallen Bierstadt is inspired by the work of the renowned nineteenth-century American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt (whose monumental A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie hangs to the right). Hegarty was drawn to the way nineteenth-century landscape artists depicted vast expanses of wilderness as an expression of “Manifest Destiny,” the notion that the United States was divinely entitled to expand across the entire North American continent. In Fallen Bierstadt the “canvas” appears to decay, as if affected by the ravages of nature. The title seems to refer both to the physical appearance of the piece and to the end of a heroic tradition of landscape painting.

ARTIST Valerie Hegarty, American, born 1967

MEDIUM Foamcore, paint, paper, glue, gel medium, canvas, wire, wood

DATES 2007

DIMENSIONS 2008.9a Wall piece: 70 × 50 × 16 3/4 in. (177.8 × 127 × 42.5 cm) 2008.9b Floor piece: 3 × 39 1/2 × 10 in. (7.6 × 100.3 × 25.4 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 2008.9a-b

CREDIT LINE Gift of Campari, USA

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Valerie Hegarty (American, born 1967). Fallen Bierstadt, 2007. Foamcore, paint, paper, glue, gel medium, canvas, wire, wood, 2008.9a Wall piece: 70 × 50 × 16 3/4 in. (177.8 × 127 × 42.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Campari, USA, 2008.9a-b. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2008.9a-b_PS11.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 2008.9a-b_PS11.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2018

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

RIGHTS STATEMENT © Valerie Hegarty

The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Was the piece set up by the artist or by a museum employee? Also, how was this burnt look created?

I don't really understand this, could you help me?

Valerie Hegarty created her own painting to look like a landscape by Bierstadt, and then she deliberately damaged and distressed it.

Bierstadt's work was designed to encourage excitement about westward expansion in the late 1800s the frontier was seen as a land of opportunity.

So the artist has deliberately damaged her work, as if the painting has been exposed outside for a long time and destroyed by the nature?

Hegarty is also asking us to think about the ways that all kinds of American Dreams have been changed and challenged over the past 100-plus years.

What is this all about?

Valerie Hegarty was thinking about grand 19th century landscapes by Bierstadt, like the one to your right.

She is able to emulate his style, and then she destroys and distresses it. I just thought of this as kind of an Oedipal moment for an artist -- killing the "father"!

And she's definitely thinking about the effects of Euro-American settlement (promoted by art like Bierstadt's) on the actual landscape and on the eventual collapse of the Manifest Destiny narrative.

Interesting, destroying the tradition so she and we can come at it anew.

She definitely gets us to look with "new" eyes.

A couple of years ago, she created some "interventions" in two American period rooms up on the 4th floor -- making them look damaged and invaded by birds!

Fascinating, thank you!

You're welcome!

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Fallen Bierstadt

Valerie Hegarty

Contemporary Art

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Valerie Hegarty

Contemporary Art

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