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ESCAPE INTO THE 75th
A Virtual Tour of the Farnsworth Museum
and the Art of Maine
Instructor: Christopher Williamson, Carter Jones Meyer
Tuesdays • 8 classes • 3/21-5/9 • 10:00 AM-12:00 PM
Class size 5-60 students
25 seats remaining
Location: Zoom only
Carter Jones Meyer and Chris Williamson will offer a fourth in their virtual tours of the Farnsworth Art Museum. This offering of eight zoom sessions, Escape into the 75th, will examine the new installation of the permanent collection (“New Visions, New Voices”) that opens in February 2023 in celebration of the Farnsworth’s 75th year, new Wyeth exhibits coming in the spring (including a focus on Alvaro and a comparison with Hopper), and the 2023 Maine in America awardee, the Alex Katz Foundation. In addition, we will consider some of these works through the lens of the theme of “escape” in relation to Maine artists and art. So many artists have sought out Maine as an escape – from the domineering art critics of New York, from urban industrialism, from tired art styles. Two sessions will be devoted specifically to this theme of escape, starting with Alvin Fisher and then touching on the Robert Henri circle, early modernists, abstract expressionists, and contemporary artists.
Participants will as always be encouraged to engage with the works and the class via a combination of “chat” and real time conversation, and follow-on materials will be available after most sessions. The continuing goal will be to expand our ability to engage with art, consider the historical context in which it is produced, develop our ability to notice, improve our visual vocabulary, and perhaps to reconnect with some favorite artists/works or to discover new ones. Joseph Cote will re-join Carter and Chris for one session.
VIRTUAL TOURS BY WEEK:
3/21
3/28
4/4
4/11
4/18
4/25
5/2
5/9
Escape to Maine, Part 1: 1820 – 1940
Our theme, “Escape to Maine,” begins with an exploration of several nineteenth and early twentieth century artists who were drawn to the pristine beauty of Maine as an escape from an increasingly urban industrial America. We will begin with nineteenth century landscape painters such as Alvin Fisher, and continue into the early twentieth century, focusing on Charles Woodbury and other artists of the Ogunquit colony as well as Robert Henri and his students, whose paintings became early expressions of modernism in Maine.
Wyeth and Hopper
Although seemingly from very different worlds – Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania versus New York City – Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper were each drawn to Maine, and painted some of the same subjects in and around Rockland, as the Farnsworth Museum exhibition opening May 27 will reveal. This session will focus on the extent to which Hopper and Wyeth knew, admired and may have learned from each other, and what their paintings have to say about life in Rockland and Midcoast Maine in the early and mid-twentieth century.
Wyeth and Alvaro
Alvaro Olson, Christina’s brother, seldom sat for Andrew Wyeth or for a photographer. Yet he was essential to all that made the Olson House such a central part of Wyeth’s experience of Maine. This exhibition, Alvaro’s World: Andrew Wyeth and the Olson House, opens June 17. We will explore the exhibition, which will include watercolors from the Marunuma Art Park collection in Japan that are likely to be exhibited for the last time in the United States.
New Visions, New Voices, Part 1
The Farnsworth’s Morehouse and Rothschild galleries have been reinstalled for a mid-February opening: Farnsworth at 75: New Voices from Maine in American Art. The Rothschild Gallery will provide a preview of the conversations between new works and more familiar pieces that will occur throughout the four galleries in the Morehouse Wing. The exhibit intends to engage these works in conversation with each other — and with us. This session will focus on the Rothschild overview.
Escape to Maine, Part 2: The Last 70 Years
Whether because of art scene expectations, the pressures of city life, or simply oppressive summer heat, artists have continued to come to Maine to escape. Since 1946, the Skowhegan School of Art and Sculpture has been one catalyst for this summer exodus; it helped spawn, for example, the “Slab City” artists of the 1950’s and 1960’s, several of whom have become fixtures in Maine. The impulse to get away continues into the twenty-first century. This session will consider artists from the last 70 years who have followed in the footsteps of the early ‘escape artists.’
The Alex Katz Foundation and Art
This year’s Farnsworth Art Museum’s Maine in America recipient is the Alex Katz Foundation, which has been instrumental in supporting emerging artists by placing their works in museums throughout Maine. Alex Katz, one of the original “Slab City” artists, has long been a champion of emerging artists’ work, including teaching at Skowhegan as well as at Pratt Institute and Yale. This session will consider the work of Katz and the emerging artists his foundation has supported.
New Visions, New Voices, Part 2
Building on “New Visions, New Voices, Part 1,” this session will explore recent acquisitions that are included in the New Voices from Maine in American Art exhibition. As in Part 1, we will view these new works in ‘conversation’ with more familiar works, and in doing so connect Maine’s stories across time and media.
New Visions, New Voices, Part 3
For our final session, we’ll continue to explore recent acquisitions included in the New Voices from Maine in American Art exhibition. In celebrating Maine’s role in American art, and in connection with our theme of escape, we’ll focus on how art, artists, and ideas help us to see our world anew.
Christopher Williamson
A retired educator, including 23 years as a Head of School in two independent schools, Chris Williamson has been a docent at the Farnsworth Art Museum since 2015, returning to his early interest in the arts. He graduated from Williams College with honors in history in 1970, earned a Master’s Degree in English from The University of New Hampshire in 1975, and took graduate courses at Boston University in education and the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in drama. After teaching, directing plays, coaching, and serving as Arts Chair, he took on various administrative roles prior to becoming a Head of School. Chris has presented at regional and national conferences, has served on several Boards, and has had articles published in professional journals. In addition to his on-going docent volunteering and training at the Farnsworth, Chris has taken the National Gallery of Art’s Teaching Critical Thinking Through Art course.
Carter Jones Meyer
Carter Jones Meyer is Professor Emerita of History at Ramapo College of New Jersey. She received a B.A. in American Studies from Skidmore College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and earned both the M.A. and Ph.D. in American Studies at Brown University. Carter specializes in and has published widely in the fields of late nineteenth and early twentieth century American cultural history, the history of the American West, and Native American history. At Ramapo, she served as chair of both the History and American Studies programs, and received awards for excellence in teaching and for significant contributions to the development of the College. In retirement she continues to pursue her interests in history, art, and culture, not only as a docent at the Farnsworth Art Museum, but also as a student and collector of Native art, including serving as a judge at Santa Fe Indian Market, the largest juried Native art show in the world. Most recently she has taught Native American history at the University of Southern Maine.