Art: 'The Painterly Voice' is a bonanza of Bucks County art at the Michener Museum

So I asked Brian Peterson, chief curator at the James A. Michener Art Museum, if he would characterize his new exhibition, "The Painterly Voice," as the mother of all Bucks County shows.

"More like stepmother," he replied, because even though it's a huge production of more than 200 paintings, Peterson had to confine his search to public and private collections within the region.

"There is a better show to be done that draws from all over the country, but there are enough paintings in regional collections to do it properly," he said. "This is the best show we could do given our size, staff, and financial resources."

Perhaps a show assembled from a national base would advance a slightly stronger argument for the quality, variety, and inventiveness of paintings made by artists who have lived and worked in the region.

Yet this one - the most ambitious the museum has ever organized - has every artist it needs and some you should know but might never have encountered. It presents 50 artists, many of the major figures in depth, so visitors needn't try to make a judgment based on single examples.

"The Painterly Voice" rests on a foundation assiduously assembled over the more than 20 years of the Michener's existence. The museum has organized retrospectives for some of these artists, included others in theme shows, and regularly displays work by many of the more prominent ones, such as Daniel Garber, Edward Redfield, William L. Lathrop, John F. Folinsbee, and Fern Coppedge.

Peterson has written a book on the Pennsylvania impressionists and monographs on Lathrop, founder of the New Hope colony; Robert Spencer; and Charles Rosen.

Consequently, "The Painterly Voice" is familiar territory, yet it's the first time the museum has made such a broad statement about Bucks County art. And it's making it in a refreshingly unorthodox way.

Peterson is the first to point out something that's evident almost immediately - that this hanging is a personal assessment of the county's artistic legacy.

All curators make choices and value judgments based on their training (usually as art historians), experience, and taste. Peterson is a photographer and writer, and he tends to focus more intently on the content of a work rather than on an artist's curriculum vitae.

Instead of a traditional catalog, he developed what he calls a "script" in which he informally, and conversationally, discusses the artists' individuality, often by focusing on specific works.

This script is presented in what he calls a "text optional" format. Each artist or artist group is identified by a long brown panel, which is hinged to the wall.

Behind each panel is the portion of the script pertinent to the artist or artists in question. You can read or not as you choose, but when the panels are closed the paintings don't have to compete with the texts for your attention.

Visitors can also connect to the museum's full database for some artists by scanning QR codes on labels with their smartphones.

This is a satisfying alternative to the often over-texted museum installation, which tends to encourage more reading than looking.

Peterson's emphasis on looking and analyzing, and recognizing stylistic differences and affinities, is exactly right. If you read any of the script you'll realize that you couldn't have found a more engaging, nondidactic, and helpful cicerone.

He has organized the installation as a hierarchy, beginning with Garber and Redfield, usually considered the two most important and influential of the Bucks County impressionists.

The Garber section incorporates his large 1926 lunette mural A Wooded Watershed, displayed in what is normally a permanent collection gallery. Figure paintings, particularly the dazzling, luminous portrait of the artists's daughter, Tanis, hang on one flanking wall, with smaller landscapes opposite.

The Redfields, starting with The Burning of Center Bridge, introduce the bulk of "The Painterly Voice" in the adjacent special exhibitions gallery.

Other artists Peterson considers to be major figures are hung around the perimeter. Here one also finds painters such as Walter Schofield, Harry Leith-Ross, Spencer, Folinsbee, and Coppedge.

Other majors, including Charles Rosen, occupy rooms in the center. You can gauge Peterson's estimation of an artist not only by what he says about him or her, but also by how much space the artist is allotted and how many paintings each merits.

My only quibble with the installation is that, except for the Garber room, it's hard to see anything at a distance. The main-gallery scheme creates a perimeter corridor adequate for small easel-scale canvases but cramped for the few that are larger.

However, this seems necessary to accommodate every artist Peterson believes deserves mention.

Bucks County generally, and New Hope specifically, are renowned as centers of American impressionism. Who should be considered an impressionist is a theme that runs through the exhibition subliminally.

Peterson doesn't address the subject directly, but one can't help but wonder if historically the term hasn't been applied indiscriminately, more for convenience or marketing than out of conviction.

Garber, Redfield, and Spencer are certainly impressionists by any measure, but others found in the camp - Folinsbee in his later years is a good example - feel less comfortable in that pigeonhole.

As you go through the show, you might find yourself thinking about this issue, and ultimately whether it makes any difference in the way you feel about a particular artist. It shouldn't.

(This question also arises, more pointedly, in an exhibition about American impressionist colonies at the Reading Public Museum, which I'll discuss next week.)

Whether Bucks Country painting back to Edward Peaceable Kingdom Hicks is old news or whether it's a territory you'd like to explore, "The Painterly Voice" represents the best opportunity you'll ever have to do so comprehensively. It runs through April 1, so there isn't a plausible excuse not to see it.

A Web catalog provides a thorough introduction to all the painters; it allows you to absorb as much or as little about each one as you wish, or need. Access it through the museum site or at www.michenermuseum.org/catalogue/painterly-voice.

On the Web as in the museum, you'll find Peterson's delightfully demotic commentary easy to follow and persuasive in its conclusions and convictions.

This is an experiment in neutralizing the aesthetic intimidation factor that many museumgoers experience through acute observation and common sense, and I hope it catches on at other museums.

"The Painterly Voice" continues at the James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 S. Pine St., Doylestown, through April 1. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 to 5 Saturdays, and noon to 5 Sundays. Admission: $12.50 general, $11.50 for seniors, $9.50 for college students with valid ID, and $6 for visitors 6 through 18. Information: 215-349-9800 or www.michenerartmuseum.org.

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