Allan Stone Gallery announces that artist Robert S. Neuman will have an exhibition at the Heckscher Museum of Art titled “Robert S. Neuman’s ‘Ship to Paradise,'” on view August 18⁎ovember 25.
This exhibition focuses on the artist’s surrealist illustrations for an edition of Sebastian Brandt’s The Shyp of Fooles , a Fifteenth Century allegory on the foibles and folly of man. In speaking about the exhibition, Lisa Chalif, museum curator, said, “It is a privilege for the Heckscher Museum to present this exhibition of Neuman’s ‘Ship to Paradise’ works, which include etchings, lithographs, mixed-media drawings and printing plates. And, we are fortunate to be able to include the two-volume Shyp of Fooles /Ship to Paradise produced by a direct descendent of the museum’s founder August Heckscher.”
Neuman’s “Ship to Paradise” is the artist’s personal exploration of a theme that dates back to the Middle Ages. Reflecting on the modern day world around him and informed by knowledge of seafaring and shipbuilding intrinsic to life in Maine, Neuman’s fantastical compositions are a metaphor for the human condition and man’s quest for a better life.
Neuman’s exploration of the theme was realized in print as a portfolio of etchings commissioned by August Heckscher, grandson of the museum’s founder and a fellow summer resident of Mount Desert Island, to accompany a facsimile edition of humanist Sebastian Brandt’s best-selling medieval satire Shyp of Fooles , which outlines in 112 chapters the vices and worldly conceits of man that prevent him from reaching godly salvation in paradise.
The exhibition will travel to the Bates College Museum of Art in Lewiston, Maine, where it will be on view January 18⁍arch 22. A color catalog with essays by Philip Heckscher, Carl Little, and John C. Olin accompanies the exhibition.
The Heckscher Museum of Art is at 2 Prime Avenue. For information, www.heckscher.org or 631-351-3250.
