[Le français suit] This work was created in the context of Whiteside’s solo exhibition 'After Arcadia' (2026), which featured a series of watercolors on panel inspired by the tradition of the Baroque pastoral landscape. By reinterpreting works by emblematic artists of this period, Whiteside reveals how these idealized landscapes seem to have lost their cohesion within the context of modernity. The panels are primed with gesso and an absorbent ground, then finished with acrylic varnish and cold wax medium. While the paint is still wet, the artist presses Styrofoam into the surface to create a distinctive honeycomb-shaped imprint. As art historian Tracy Valcourt notes in her review of the exhibition, published in issue no 170 of Border Crossings, “After Arcadia takes particular possession of the conception of landscape as medium. This artifice, where something seems other than it is, as a quality associated with a dual conception of Arcadia as both idyllic and wild, is the subtle and effective activator of this consistently paced collection.


Ripley Whiteside was born in 1982 and grew up in Chapel Hill and Durham, NC. After living a few years in Montreal, QC, he now lives in Nashville, TN. In 2012 he graduated with a MFA from SUNY-Buffalo, and received a BFA from UNC-CH in 2008. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions in the US and Canada, and has been a resident at Willapa Bay A.I.R., The Peanut Factory, I-Park, and The Vermont Studio Center. Whiteside teaches at Austin Peay State University and Belmont University. His works are part of many private collections all over the US and Canada.

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Pour découvrir l’œuvre originale ayant servi de source d'inspiration, veuillez suivre ce lien / To discover the original work that inspired this piece, please follow this link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arcadisch_landschap_met_Jupiter_en_Io_Rijksmuseum_SK-A-1200.jpeg

« Je m'intéresse à la finitude du paysage pastoral. Des peintures représentant des étendues de campagne pittoresques et invitantes apparaissaient déjà sur les murs romains, servant de toiles de fond tout au long de la Renaissance. Cependant, le genre prit véritablement son essor au cours de la période baroque, sous l'influence de Claude Lorrain. Ces vues idéalisées combinent et recombinent des motifs évoquant l'Arcadie, la terre de Pan en Grèce antique : de longues perspectives encadrées par de grands arbres laissent entrevoir de l'eau, des bergers, du bétail et des figures mythologiques. Le spectateur peut également toujours y trouver des traces de civilisation, parfois sous la forme de capriccios architecturaux, parfois sous celle du mercantilisme. Le genre reste extrêmement populaire jusqu'à la fin du XIXᵉ siècle, au moment où le pastoralisme bucolique perd sa cohésion ; ces fantasmes écologiques, qui représentent les ingrédients holistiques de l'existence, semblent s'effriter face à la modernité. »- RW