"Motif #1," Harry Vincent,
circa 1920. Oil on canvas.
OLD LYME, CONN. - The Lyme Art Association will present a dual
exhibition, ": Contemporary Artists of the Lyme Art Association
and Cape Ann," and "The Legacy of Cape Ann Artists," a historic
presentation of noted early Cape Ann, Mass. artists, drawn from a
private collection, from February 22 through March 29.
Offering a contemporary connection, artists of the Lyme Art
Association created scenes of meadows and marshes of the
Connecticut River and Long Island Sound; artists who live in
Gloucester, Cape Ann and Rockport, have captured their particular
sea and landscapes.
Represented in the "Legacy" exhibition are their early mentors
who, a century and a half ago, immortalized Gloucester harbor
filled with fishing vessels surrounded by the rockbound coast;
they include Gifford Beal, Aldro Hibbard, Ted Kautzky, Max
Kuehne, Jonas Lie, Frederick Mulhaupt, Claire Shuttleworth, Paul
Strisik, Anthony Thieme, Harry Vincent, Frederick Waugh and Stow
Wengenroth. Many of their paintings will be on view for the first
time.
In his book, Artists of Cape Ann: A 150 Year Tradition,
Kristian Davies has written a colorful, fascinating history of
America's oldest art colony, the first such comprehensive
chronicle. "For about two centuries, artists have been coming to
Cape Ann, drawing a diverse roster of salon painters, folk
artists, Luminists, Tonalists, Impressionists, Ashcan painters,
magazine and children's book illustrators and Modernists alike,"
Davies wrote.
"Because of its geography, the light on Cape Ann offered a great
array of contrasts," Davies said. "Clear sunlight, dense fog,
horrific storms, brilliant sunsets and hazy dawns seem to follow
each other in rapid succession."
Thus not all of the early images are nautical. Jonas Lie's oil,
"Cape Ann Street Scene," is of white-washed village houses;
changing seasons are captured by Harry Vincent in an oil, "Fall
Colors" and by William Lester Stevens is an oil, "Fall
Landscape."
Continuing that redefinition are the exhibition's contemporary
Cape Ann, Mass. artists: Thomas A. Nicholas, NA, of Rockport and
his son, T.M. Nicholas, Essex; Jonathan Hotz and John Terelak,
Rockport; and Charles Movalli, Gloucester.
The Lyme Art Association is at 90 Lyme Street, just off I-95,
Exit 70. For information, 860-434-7802.
