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Steven John Ross

In his mid-40s, Homer left America and lived alone in a small English fishing village for more than a year. When he returned, he built a studio residence on a cliff overlooking the ocean in Maine and lived there for the rest of his life. By the time of his death in 1910, he was mythologized as the great recluse of American art.

Steven John Ross is a professor in the Department of Communication at the U of M; his earlier, critically acclaimed works include Oh Freedom After While!, Black Diamonds, Blues City, and At the River I Stand.  The Homer film, recipient of the Juried Award for Artistic Achievement at the 2007 University Film and Video Association Annual Conference, has had many invitational screenings at major museums across the country.

“Homer’s work is so easy to like at first glance that many people don’t bother to give it a closer look,” said Ross. “But when you do look closer, I mean, really look closer, the paintings reveal layers of meaning and layers of sheer artistic brilliance that can blow you away.”

WKNO is presenting Winslow Homer: Society and Solitude to public television stations across the country through American Public Television. The broadcast is sponsored locally by The Dixon Gallery and Gardens and by the U of M College of Communication and Fine Arts.