A few other notes on Painting Summer in New England:
- A small preperatory oil painting by Neil Welliver--one of his nudes posing outdoors in a stream--seemed to me to be among the very best works on view, there was so much energy and élan in his streaks and squiggles. The kicker? The first owner of the work was Fairfield Porter.
- Janet Fish's Grape Arbor, which is included in the exhibition, may be seen here if you scroll about halfway down the page. Looking at that page and elsewhere in search of an image, I came to the conclusion that while I can enjoy almost any still life painting by her, I wouldn't miss any of her figurative work if I didn't see it.
- Perhaps the curator felt that he had enough early modernist to Hofmann school work, but I was a little surprised not to see some of the artists that Acme Fine Art tends to specialize in appear. Lillian Orlowsky, for instance, would have fit right in. Choices have to be made, of course, but I'm just a little surprised.
- I know the exhibition quite properly ties to draw attention to artists with particular connection to Salem and the North Shore--Arthur Wesley Dow, Frank Benson, some others. So it's a pity that the pride of Beverly, Will Barnet, didn't get in. He left fairly young, of course, so it probably wasn't possible. Can't have everything.
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