Buffalo Watering 

Editor: Here we have "Buffalo Watering" by Thomas Moran. It’s a watercolor landscape and evokes a sense of the vast American West, doesn’t it? I am curious to know your take on this work? Curator: This watercolour, it is not just about aesthetic representation. Consider the paper, the pigments—how were these materials sourced? Did the artist create his own pigments using minerals? The Hudson River School, despite its celebration of nature, relied heavily on industrial advancements for its materials. The railway made landscapes accessible and artists dependent on a consumer economy for their means of making art. Editor: That's interesting! So, even this seemingly untouched landscape is connected to industry and consumption. Curator: Exactly! Look at the very act of creating plein-air works – the accessibility of paints and canvases afforded by mass production. This makes us think, who owned these images? Were they the upper class in eastern cities buying these landscape as proof of conquest and domination? These became objects of desire within a burgeoning consumer culture. How do these details color your perspective now? Editor: It definitely complicates the romantic view. I never really considered the connection between art and the supply chain that makes it possible! Curator: And how do you see the role of labour reflected in such images, if at all? Whose labour enabled leisure to experience landscapes, the travel to make the artwork or even the means to acquire these artworks? Editor: Wow. I will definitely look at landscape paintings differently now. I hadn’t really thought about the materials and economic relationships embedded within this piece. Curator: Indeed, seeing art through a materialist lens can unearth these obscured networks. It prompts critical inquiries regarding the role of artistic production in broader social and historical contexts.