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CMFA POSTS ITS 2001 EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
by
Burt Albert, Series Developer,
"Tuesdays with the Muse"
|
"Hailed by the New York Times as a "star
museum" the CMFA continues to shine with an extraordinary schedule for 2001. The
following article gives an excellent overview of what is in store for all us
luck viewers." Anita Winstanley-Roark, Artistic Forum Editor
FEBRUARY 3 - APRIL 15 Namesakes: Paintings by Robert Douglas Hunter One of the most distinguished living painters of the famed Boston School, Robert Douglas Hunter is known primarily for his landscapes and lifesize still lifes. His technique is derived from Paxton, Tarbell and DeCamp through his mentors, Henry Hensche and R.H. Ives Gammell. "Looking at nature," says Hunter, "with the profound curiosity based on the art of seeing and observing with respect the works of people who come before you - those are the keys to composition." A member of the Guild of Boston Artists, he has been awarded more than thirty national and regional prizes, including the First John Singleton Copley Award. As one critic has noted, Hunter is not only "a genius [but] in the last analysis, he is a poet, and his paintings speak directly to some inner part of us which seeks always to balance wild beauty with serene order." Often showing a fascination with the fixity of objects, his still lifes "establish a dialogue of beauty and light" and have been called "reminiscent of Chardin and Ingres." Works from the Fleet Collection Fleet is a banking component of Fleet Financial Group, Inc., one of the 500 largest corporations in the United States. This exhibition includes internationally renowned artists associated with the region - primarily Cape Cod in addition to Boston and Providence, sites of two other Fleet regional headquarters. Among the works are "Samarai II," by Robert Motherwell; "Silent Curtain," by Helen Frankenthaler; "The Net," by Michael Mazur; and "Moving On," by Benny Andrews. This exhibition inaugurates the Robert Douglas Hunter/Fleet Galleries in the new, $1.5 million addition to the museum. The Hunter Gallery was underwritten by donors to honor the artist whose outstanding career of 50 years has had such a significant and permanent impact on the Cape Cod art community. =============== APRIL 28 - JULY 15 The Twelfth National Exhibition of the American Society of Marine Artists Drawing from a membership of more than 700 artists across the country, each Society exhibit is always challenged by the outstanding quality of its predecessor. Here the juried entrants have outdone themselves again. As Robert C. Semler, president of the Society, once remarked, "No matter the medium or style, the works - serenely quiet one moment, ferocious the next - will rivet your attention, hold your interest and draw you into the world created by the artist." Members of the Society include Donald Stoltenberg, Chris-topher Blossom, Merrie Holbert, Konrad Hansalik John Atwater, Ronald Saporito, Loretta Krupinski, Rodney Cole and Ann Brodie Hill. A handsome, full-color catalogue accompanies the exhibit. Ralph Menconi: Bronze Medals The medallic work of Ralph Menconi (1915-1972) became nationally known with his series of U.S. Presi-dents from Washington through Nixon, medals of all the signers of the Declaration of Independence and a commemorative series for every state in the union. He also did the inaugural medal for President Nixon, memorial medals for John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Winston Churchill as well as the official statehood medal for Alaska. As a youth Menconi apprenticed with his father, Raffaelo E. Menconi, an artist who specialized in the kind of monumental sculpture the younger Menconi started creating after obtaining a degree in fine arts from Yale and further study at the National Academy of Design. Today some of those larger works can be seen at a number of public sites, including DePauw University, Pace University, the Brookgreen Sculpture Gardens in South Carolina and the Cathedral of Nassau, Bahamas. This exhibition takes viewers through Menconi’s process with medals, and showcases a number of his pieces. In the 1960s he and his family vacationed frequently on Cape Cod, where his widow, Marjorie Menconi, still resides. =============== JULY 21 – SEPTEMBER 9 Stealing the Show II: Cape Playhouse Set Designs by Herbert Senn and Helen Pond The fabled set designers (for the opera companies in Boston, New York and Houston plus Broadway and London’s Drury Lane) return after their blockbuster exhibit of two years ago ("The show is staggering—a his & hers triumph!"). This time, on the 75th anniversary of the Cape Playhouse and almost the 40th year of their collaboration, Herbert Senn and Helen Pond put the spotlight on sets, sketches, costumes and memorabilia linked to their more than 300 productions at the country’s longest-running, professional summer theater, where a Who’s Who of stage luminaries got their start: Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, Henry Fonda, Helen Hayes, Julie Harris, Gertrude Lawrence, Gregory Peck and others. Hence, the Play-house became known as "The Birthplace of Stars." Now it is fitting that in this retrospective Senn and Pond evidence why they deserve a place among the constellation of stage greats. Anita Askild: Scandinavian Imagery, Mythological Themes Often remembered for her "great warmth," Anita Askild (1933-1980) was also a woman of many talents: painter, weaver, fabric designer, potter and mosaicist. Born in Sweden, she won a state scholarship to study art at the Konstfacskolan. Afterwards she traveled to Paris to paint and, in her mid twenties, moved to New York where she not only studied with Hans Hofmann - both there and at his school in Provincetown - but started as a trainee for Gloria Buce’s print studio. Following Hofmann’s death she studied with Sam Feinstein, whom she eventually married. This exhibit focuses primarily on Askild’s paintings, which "reflect the lyricism of abstract expressionism," and on her weavings, some of which "divide colors into geometric solids, harmonically balanced." As one critic observed, Askild’s paintings are conditioned by the artist’s "deep love for the ordered wildness of nature" In commenting on her weavings, she herself said, "While observers have seen qualities related to primitive and peasant cultures, I feel that my imagery evolves more from Scandinavian mythological themes like the Kingdom of Asgard and its gods." Her larger canvases - powered by the placement of brilliant colors, vibrantly applied - are "symphonic in strength." So, too, are her tapestries. Whether in paint or fiber, Askild’s works are those of a free and creative spirit. Fine Arts Work Center Small Works* This exhibition comprises the second half of a two-year project featuring small works by former Visual Fellows of the Work Center in Provincetown. Founded in 1968, the Center provides seven-month residencies for 10 writing and 10 visual fellows, and is the largest residency program in the country. Each Fellow is given an apartment and a modest monthly stipend; visual artists are also provided a studio. In May 2000 the Work Center exhibited small works by artists who had been Fellows between 1968 and 1984, including Susan Baker, Paul Bowen, Jim Peters, Joan Pereira and Bert Yarborough. The second half of the project features the small works of Fellows from 1985 through 2000. Among their ranks were Lisa Yuskavage, Ellen Gallagher, Jack Pierson, Ellen Driscoll, Tabitha Vevers, Nick Kahn and Richard Selesnick. =============== SEPTEMBER 15 – NOVEMBER 1 Haynes Ownby: Patterns of Thought Ownby is one of the noted painters greatly influenced by his master teacher, Hans Hofmann, "the father of abstract art in the United States." Ownby studied with Hofmann in both New York City and Provincetown. Since Hofmann’s death, the Texas-born painter has been the country’s most articulate spokesman about his mentor’s "push-pull theory" and influence on artists. Of his own work Ownby says, "I go beyond color theory to concentrate on color practice, which is painting." His statement is evident in such paintings as "Rock and Roll," "Homage to Crop Circle" and "Cloud on the Left." Ownby, who paints and teaches in Provincetown, was recently honored with a grant from the Pollock/Krasner Foundation established by Lee Krasner (1908-1984), a leading abstract expressionist painter and widow of Jackson Pollock. Since its inception in 1985, the Foundation has awarded over $24 million to artists in 57 countries. Ownby’s works are in a number of private and corporate collections as well as in the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Bobi Eldridge: The Art of Travel* A fine arts photographer, Barbara Ann (Bobi) Eldridge has taken a number of trips sponsored by the Cape Museum of Fine Arts, and this exhibit reveals highlights of her adventures. Viewers are transported to England, Holland, France (Provence and Paris) as well as to Maine and the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, site of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA). Among her photos are vintage-type sepias of people and Polaroid transfers of European gardens. A winner of many prestigious awards, Eldridge holds degrees in art from Beaver College and the Hahneman Medical College - both in Pennsylvania. She also studied at the Tyler School of Fine Arts at Temple University. =============== NOVEMBER 18, 2001 – JANUARY 20, 2002 True Vision: The Paintings of C. Arnold Slade Around 1926 C. Arnold Slade (1882-1961) began painting in his Truro studio and exhibition space, which was a reconstructed Methodist meetinghouse that eventually became the centerpiece of a compound dubbed "Sladeville." During this period he mainly painted commissioned portraits of senators, generals and U.S. presidents. Born in Acushmet, Massachusetts, Slade graduated from Brown University in 1904. Afterwards he studied at the Art Student’s League in New York City with Louis Loab, Frank Dumond and others, and by the end of 1905 had established a cosmopolitan studio on the Left Bank in Paris, where he came under the influence of Jean-Paul Laurens, Baschet and Schommer. His impressionistic style reflected his academic training and the avant garde movements in Paris at the time. By the 1920s Slade had won renown for his paintings of soldiers going to and from war and for his seascapes and landscapes painted in Italy, France, North Africa and America. John Wanamaker and Isabella Stewart Gardner were among his early patrons. At different times in his career Slade was commended as "a painter who possesses the deepest imagination united with the keenest of understanding and mastery" and whose works are "frank and fearless…full of jolly color…enthusiasm and confidence." Robert Roark: Master of Light and Realism* With his luminist paintings often eliciting references to Vermeer, Robert Roark is considered a "master of reflected light," whose landscapes, portraits and still lifes "invite tactile exploration." A Mississippi native, Roark received his formal training at the Art Students League in New York City, the National Academy of Design and the Cape Cod School of Art, where he studied with such noted artists as William Draper, Daniel Green and Henry Hensche. Roark has won numerous awards, including first-place honors from both the National Arts Club and Salmagundi Club. What’s more, he holds the unique distinction of winning five national awards in one year. He paints with oils on both miniature and large canvases. * Mounted in the intimate space of the Polhemus/Savery Gallery, these exhibitions are part of the Cape Focus series temporarily discontinued during the museum’s recent expansion, and are designed to put focus on a contemporary artist of a particularly interesting aesthetic or intellectual point of view. |
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