BROOKINGS – The South Dakota Art Museum is showcasing pairings of contrasting paintings by Harvey Dunn in the exhibit, Night and Day. 

Displaying these night scenes and day scenes beside one another gives visitors the chance to experience paintings that share not only striking similarities, but also clear differences. 

Dunn’s ability to use and adjust a range of artistic tools in capturing the truest spirit of whatever he was depicting is specifically highlighted in this exhibit. 

The exhibit is open through Feb. 14, 2018. The 27 Dunn originals displayed in Night and Day are all from the South Dakota Art Museum’s permanent collection, the largest collection of Harvey Dunn artwork in the world, with about 140 different pieces.

Jodi Lundgren, the South Dakota Art Museum’s coordinator of exhibitions, said “The Prairie is My Garden” and “Jedediah Smith in the Badlands” are part of this exhibit.

“We will always have some of his works on display,” Lundgren said. “Dunn is especially known for a few different bodies of work: his illustrations, war works and South Dakota prairie paintings. We’ve done different shows focusing on each of these, but this one includes representatives from all three bodies of works so visitors can see both his range and the continuity across his production.”

Lundgren said this show is unique because the artwork’s polarity is meant to raise questions.

“How do these things compare? How are they so different? What is common between them? These items are what we’re trying to encourage people to think about when they look at the works,” Lundgren said.