‘The Monhegan Wildlands’ exhibition at the Monhegan Museum of Art & History illuminates the island’s extraordinary resilience

This summer, Monhegan Museum of Art & History will present an exhibition that reexamines the history of Monhegan Island in Maine. “The Monhegan Wildlands: Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island” illuminates the island’s extraordinary journey of environmental transformation and resilience from the close of the most recent ice age to the contemporary period, as seen through the eyes of the artists who depict the terrain and the scientists who study Monhegan’s dynamic ecology.

The exhibition, created in collaboration with Bowdoin College Museum of Art, is on view in Brunswick through June 1. The island version of this presentation will be on view at the Monhegan Museum July 1 through Sept. 30. 

The Monhegan Wildlands will feature a wide range of artworks — from paintings by American modernist artists such as Rockwell Kent and Edward Hopper, to contemporary pieces by Lynne Drexler and Barbara Putnam — alongside historical artifacts such as bone harpoon points and other objects created by Indigenous inhabitants, documents from the Island’s history, and scientific research on elements such as the human introduction, and subsequent removal, of first sheep and then deer.

“New York artist Rockwell Kent first visited Monhegan Island in 1905, just as more than a half century of intensive sheep farming was coming to an end, so the landscape he saw and depicted was in the earliest stages of recovery from its greatest ecological disturbance in recorded history,” said Barry Logan, the Samuel S. Butcher Professor in the Natural Sciences at Bowdoin College and a co-curator of the exhibition. “Although he was not the first, Kent helped to inspire a renowned on-island artistic tradition that continues to thrive more than a century later — and that also supported steps taken by the Islanders and others to preserve and protect Monhegan’s unique landscape.”

“Although visible from the mainland on clear days, Monhegan Island’s geographical isolation fosters a unique ecology, as well as self-reliance among its residents,” added Jennifer Pye, Monhegan Museum of Art & History director and a co-curator of the exhibition. “This distinct blend of accessibility and remoteness, coupled with a strong spirit of community, continues to draw visitors and artists alike, captivated by its rugged beauty and the sense of being part of something truly apart from the wider world. We are excited about this innovative collaboration between art historians and scientists at Bowdoin, and historians of the Island itself, to bring this unique story to the public. The Monhegan Museum’s presentation emphasizes different aspects of these narratives, sharing both some similar — and a few different — stories for those also seeing the exhibition at the Bowdoin.”

Located 10 miles off the coast of Maine — lying north of Portland but south of Rockland — Monhegan Island is just less than a square mile in size, with a year-round population of around 60 residents. Yet Monhegan’s small scale has enabled the kind of close study — by artists and scientists alike — that reveals in intimate detail the changes in the ecology of the forested landscape. Monhegan forests have been permitted to follow their own trajectory free from development thanks to the exceptional conservation-mindedness of the community. Fully three quarters of Monhegan Island — the Wildlands — is conserved in a land trust where the prevailing stewardship ethos is to let nature take its course.

The Monhegan Wildlands exhibition delves into the Island’s evolving ecology, history, and artistic representation through various thematic lenses. The exhibition spans 12,000 years, highlighting the significance of Monhegan to the Wabanaki’s fishing culture and showcasing the ancient Cathedral Woods that have inspired artists. It also addresses the decline of sheep farming in the late 19th century, which coincided with the arrival of modern artists and illustrates forest recovery through works by Rockwell Kent and Edward Hopper. The narrative continues to explore forest decline in the mid-20th century due to deer and mistletoe, leading to conservation efforts spearheaded by Ted Edison. Finally, it examines the resurgence of secondary forests in the 21st century, emphasizing stewardship and the role of contemporary artists in portraying the island’s dynamic landscape and community life.

“While Monhegan has long been a canvas for artists, it has been an equally enriching landscape for scientists, a unique opportunity to observe the mechanisms of forest succession and resilience on a small scale,” said Frank Goodyear, co-director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and a co-curator of the exhibition. “As an art historian, it has been an engaging experience to work on developing an exhibition that integrates the narratives of artists, ecologists, and the community, and that so effectively relates these unique and instructive histories to the arc of environmental stewardship on Monhegan Island. Building on this experience, our exhibition concludes with invitations for visitors to reflect upon and express their own relationship to the Monhegan Wildlands and wildlands elsewhere.”

“The Monhegan Wildlands: Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island” is accompanied by a catalogue written by Goodyear, Logan, and Pye, with new photography and an afterword from Accra Shepp of the School of Visual Arts, New York. David Foster, director emeritus of Harvard Forest and a noted expert on conservation, land-use history, and ecology in New England, authored the foreword. The catalogue will be available for purchase at the museum this summer, or online at www.monheganmuseum.org.

The Monhegan Museum of Art & History is located in the historic Monhegan Island Light Station, 11 miles off the coast of Maine. The museum is open daily from June 15 through Sept. 30, during which time the Kent/Fitzgerald Home and Studio are open Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. For more information, visit www.monheganmuseum.org.