The exhibit will feature nearly 50 different pieces of art, including the works of such legendary railroad painters as Howard Fogg and Ted Rose. Some of the pieces are evening being painted just for the show, says co-curator Rob Akey of Whitefish. Akey specializes in landscapes but grew up in a railroad town and says he’s always appreciated trains. He is preparing an oil painting of a Great Northern Railway steam locomotive at the Whitefish roundhouse in the 1940s.
Akey has been working on the exhibit with Jack Dykstra for almost two years and have searched high and low for some of the best railroad art available. “One of my criteria was that if you put your thumb over the train, is it still a good painting?” Dykstra says.
Dykstra says the exhibit will explore how artists have been captivated by railroads for more than a century. Besides original art, the exhibit will feature artifacts borrowed from the Stumptown Historical Society Museum in the old Great Northern depot in Whitefish.
The Hockaday was founded with the mission to preserve the artistic legacy of Glacier National Park and the surrounding region. Among its holdings include art that was originally commissioned by the Great Northern in the early 20th century to promote Glacier Park.
For more information, visit www.hockadaymuseum.org.
At the University of Iowa, I did master thesis in Art on paintings incorporating railway scenes.
Fine article by Gil Bennett and a blurb by Justin Franz about this exhibit in “Railroad Heritage” published recently by the Center for Railroad Photography and Art.