 A NEW APPROACH "First House," by Charles DuBack, oil on canvas, 1957. |
Leaves are turning, roads aren't crowded; it's time to look ahead for interest in the fall art season.
The PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART will have a show from an interesting period in the career of Charles DuBack. DuBack has been visiting Maine from New York since the 1950s, and he will be showing paintings that he has described as a process he went through teaching himself a new approach. These paintings from the 1950s include some that are almost completely abstract, with simple horizontal stripes. These eventually lead him to the work he is most known for, brightly-colored modernist landscapes. "Charles DuBack: Coming to Maine" opens on October 10.
Also of interest at the PMA will be show of landscapes by Jay Hall Connaway (1893-1970) and a show covering five decades of printmaking by David Driskell.
The CENTER FOR MAINE CONTEMPORARY ART in Rockport will host a show by five abstract artists who live at least part of their lives in Maine. These quite different, very experienced, and very good artists share a simplicity of image, but not much else. Included are Scott Davis, Jeff Kellar, Duane Paluska, Don Voisine, and what may be the first Maine show of work by Winston Roeth, whose international reputation has been growing steadily in recent years. "Planes of Abstraction" will be up from October 14 to December 19.
The OGUNQUIT MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART's short season extends into October this year with a show of Maine paintings by the American modernist painter Maurice Freedman (1904-1985). Freedman was a nearly a generation younger than Marsden Hartley, and was informed by the same sources — Cezanne, Matisse, and Picasso, but had a distinct voice of his own. He loved to come to Maine to paint. "Painting Maine: Maurice Freedman" will be up through October 31.
In the deep end of the learning pool department, three recent graduates from MECA have opened a gallery to show their own and others' works at the FORE RIVER GALLERY in Portland. Dealing art is a really hard thing to do well, and most co-op or artist-run galleries find it hard sledding. Once in a great while they become viable over the long term. The artists are Mike Marks, Elizabeth Marks, and Anna Russo, and their show "Positive/Negative" runs through the end of September. I wish them well.
Among the established Portland galleries, GREENHUT will have shows by Alison Goodwin, Monica Kelley, Tina Ingraham, George Lloyd, Sandra Quinn, and David Driskell through the fall, and have their sprawling Annual Invitational Show in December.
JUNE FITZPATRICK will have drawings and paintings by Kendra Ferguson and Noa Warren in October at the Congress Street location, followed by a group show in November and pots by Paul Heroux, Sequoia Miller, and Warren Mackenzie in December. At her High Street location, she will have drawings by Amy Stacey Curtis in November, followed by a group show of gallery artists.
AUCOCISCO starts the fall with a large group of works from the Bernard Langlais estate, part of an ongoing project to catalog and exhibit the many works that mostly have not seen the light of day since Langlais's death in 1977. A show by the figurative painter Veronica Cross will be on view in October.
