Marsden Hartley’s Maine is at Colby College’s Museum of Art through November 12, 2017, after a successful run in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Breuer galleries. It’s worth a trip to Waterville, if you’re interested in unique interpretations of Maine and some unusual brush work. Non-flash photography is allowed. This one is Hartley’s Mount Katahdin, Autumn, No. 2 (1939-40):
The Met’s handsome and informative (but expensive) show catalog book also is worth the price or worth waiting in line for at libraries that have it (including Brooklin’s Friend Memorial Library).
Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine, in 1877 and died in Ellsworth in 1944. He promoted himself as “The Painter from Maine” to revive his career, which had peaked in Europe, but had to be discontinued because of World War I.
His moody and abstracted views of Maine in the show run from childish, to stunning, to homo-erotic. Of particular interest to us were his Cézanne-influenced series on Maine’s Mount Katahdin during the seasons. (Waterville, Maine)