Two new exhibitions displaying the cutting-edge works of 19th century pioneering artists will be on display at the BYU Museum of Art beginning this month.

"The Quiet Landscapes of William B. Post" opened Saturday and features 60 of the artist's original platinum prints. It is the first exhibit dedicated to the photographer since his death in 1921.

"We're looking at a style of photography that we really haven't shown much at the museum," said Christopher Wilson, the museum's marketing and communications manager. "His work was forgotten, but he was at the forefront of photography."

In order to escape the pressures of a busy career at a New York brokerage firm, Post began taking pictures of Maine's picturesque rural landscape in the late 19th century, focusing on its spiritual and aesthetic beauty. Instead of using the camera as an objective recorder, he used it to create ambiguous images, provoking viewers into a state of reflection.

"This type of photography was not common during that time period," Wilson said.

Post's photographs of water lilies, gardens and snow-covered fields were part of a photographic movement known as "pictorialism," in which various photographers aimed to establish themselves as high artists.

Many photographs from the time period paralleled the impressionist style then current in painting. The museum's second exhibit, "Paths to Impressionism: French and American Landscape Paintings from the Worcester Art Museum" will focus on this impressionistic style.

Opening Feb. 16, "Paths to Impressionism" will feature 42 paintings of well-known artists including Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, George Inness, Claude Monet, John Singer Sargent and Alfred Sisley, among others.

"The paintings in this exhibition are easy to love," Paul Anderson, Museum of Art curator, said in a news release. "Because landscape paintings like these have been so universally appreciated for more than a century, it is easy to forget how revolutionary and controversial they were in their own time."

French innovators, called Impressionists, were originally ridiculed for their ideas. Contrary to popular style at the time, they focussed their work on bold brushstrokes, light colors, emphasis on light in its changing qualities, and familiar subject matter. Over time, the elegant effects these Impressionists achieved changed the world of painting.

American artists traveled to be taught by the French masters, then returned home to create a more conservative version of Impressionism, which years later became the dominant style of the nation.

The exhibit will display works from both French and American Impressionists and will coincide with Post's "Quiet Landscapes."

"These two exhibits show how photography and painting moved from documentary functions to a type of art," Wilson said of the time period.

"Paths to Impressionism" and "Quiet Landscapes" will be held in adjacent galleries on the lower level of the BYU Museum of Art. Once "Paths to Impressionism" opens, information will be posted within the exhibits to link the two together, Wilson said.

Museum hours have been temporarily extended to allow maximum access to the exhibits.