The 2025 government shutdown caused a delay in the opening of the exhibition “Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The exhibition started with landscapes depicting chaos, a departure from Grandma Moses’s usual idyllic rural scenes. While the scale of the exhibition was impressive, offering a vast collection of Moses’s work, it lacked in-depth analysis and interpretation.
The exhibition focused on Moses’s biography rather than providing a nuanced understanding of her art. The catalog accompanying the exhibition contained insightful essays that delved into Moses’s work, challenging the traditional narrative of her as a wholesome American artist. The exhibition’s reluctance to explore these complexities highlighted the tendency to preserve myths of US exceptionalism.
Anna Mary Robertson Moses, born in 1860, overcame physical challenges to become a renowned artist in her later years. Her age and the impact it had on her artistic style were not adequately addressed in the exhibition. The deterioration of her fine motor skills over time was evident in her later works, yet the exhibition failed to acknowledge this aspect of her artistry.
Another overlooked aspect of Moses’s work was the absence of diverse representation, with only White figures depicted in her scenes. This omission was particularly striking in her depictions of Virginia, where she had employed Black laborers. The exhibition failed to address the racial dynamics present in Moses’s work, a critical oversight in the interpretation of her art.
Despite her formal skills as a painter, Moses’s depiction of figures was often criticized for lacking detail and expression. The exhibition did not fully explore this aspect of her work, focusing instead on her landscapes. While some of Moses’s paintings were technically impressive, others fell short in terms of aesthetic quality, such as “July Fourth,” which featured awkwardly rendered figures.
“Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work” felt outdated and missed an opportunity to provide a fresh perspective on the iconic artist. By refusing to complicate her legacy, the exhibition failed to fully explore the complexities of Moses’s work and the harmful mythologies it perpetuates. A more in-depth analysis could have offered a more nuanced understanding of Moses’s art while celebrating her significant contributions to American art.
The exhibition is currently on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, until July 12, before traveling to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Organized by Leslie Umberger, Randall R. Griffey, and Maria R. Eipert, the exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of Grandma Moses’s work but falls short in providing a critical examination of her legacy.
