GEORGIA O'KEEFFE: 1956 Gelatin silver print, 39 by 39 inches, by Yousuf Karsh. |
OK, summer’s here and it’s time to please the visitors. Venues that were closed are open, and those that were open are putting their most attractive feet forward in fervent hopes of traffic and consequent revenue. Summer in Maine is quirky but populous. Lhude sing cu-cu.
The PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART is summering with a show by, and about, GEORGIA O’KEEFFE. With O’Keeffe, image is not just the most important thing, it is everything, and the museum engages this idea directly. There are 60 photographs of her and 18 works by her. The photographs are by such luminaries as Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, Arnold Newman, and Todd Webb. Through September 7 | www.portlandmuseum.org
ALEX KATZ has become something of an artistic lord of the manor in Maine, with his own personal museum at Colby and now some significant contributions to the collection at the FARNSWORTH MUSEUM in Rockland. They are showing works by Katz and his friends, some of whom are rarely seen in Maine, including Sylvia Mangold, Janet Fish, Red Grooms, Philip Pearlstein, and Francesco Clemente. The Farnsworth’s collection includes plenty of Louise Nevelson pieces and American paintings by Childe Hassam, Frank Benson, and others, so it’s well worth the trip East. Through October 26 | www.farnsworthmuseum.org
The BOWDOIN COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART will be featuring the complex drawings of ANDREA SULZER, a Brunswick-based artist who has an unconventional approach to landscape art. The drawings are more a response to nature than representations of it. Through August 27 | www.bowdoin.edu/art-museum
The JUNE FITZPATRICK GALLERY ON HIGH STREET shows mostly work on paper, and for the summer she will have a special focus on the work of the drawings by EMILY NELLIGAN, prints by MARVIN BILECK, and mezzotints by JAMES GROLEAU. Nelligan, who is now in her 80s, has been making drawings on Cranberry Island for many years. Hilton Kramer called her work a "small, perfect achievement." July 8 through September |www.junefitzpatrickgallery.com
AUCOCISCO GALLERY will be featuring the work of the veteran landscape painter SUSAN SHATTER. Shatter has shown extensively for many years, painting grand landscapes of canyons, deserts, and volcanoes. In recent years her range of interest has become more intimate, focusing on the shore of Maine as seen up close. June 25 to July 26 |www.aucocisco.com
The summer offering at WHITNEY ART WORKS is "Arc of Visibility: The Shore and the Sea," featuring two artists who work on Monhegan Island, WENDY PRELLWITZ and MICHAEL TORLEN. Torlen’s paintings are informed by his interest in the sea, national parks, and the Northern Romantic tradition. Prellwitz watches the sea and sky of Monhegan and County Mayo for the sources of her paintings and monotypes. Through July 26 | www.whitneyartworks.com
The early summer at SUSAN MAASCH FINE ART finds paintings by WILLIAM BAILEY, who is a professor emeritus at Yale, and works by the sculptor WALTER HORAK. Bailey’s paintings of figures and still life are rendered as a studio ideal, simplified to essential forms with telling detail. Horak’s little bronze figures are joined together in rhythmic assemblies. Through July 15 | www.susanmaaschfineart.com
