‘Monhegan and Its Circle of Artists’ opens at Wiscasset Bay Gallery

“Monhegan and Its Circle of Artists” will open June 26 at the Wiscasset Bay Gallery. The gallery is celebrating its 41st year and the exhibition opening coincides with the Wiscasset Village Art Walk, which runs from 4 to 7 p.m.

“Monhegan and Its Circle of Artists” will explore the evolution of American art through the lens of Monhegan Island and its impact on the lives of artists connected to the island. Of particular note is a small luminous seascape “At Sea, 1876” by William Edward Norton (1843-1916). A wooden vessel under full sail glides past a fisherman in a dory on a foggy Maine morning. Additional schooners can be seen in the misty distance partially obscured by the fog. The painting once belonged to the prominent Maine governor, Percival Baxter.

Norton was born in 1843 to a family of Bostonian shipbuilders and he spent much of his childhood sailing the high seas. He was educated at both Harvard Medical School and the Lowell Institute. At the Lowell Institute, Norton studied under George Inness where the young artist was influenced by Inness’ soft poetic style and mastery of tonalism. He then travelled and studied in Europe and exhibited at the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy in London. The sometimes treacherous ledge off Monhegan’s Lobster Cove is named Norton’s Ledge in honor of the artist.

Over 70 years later, Morris Shulman (1912-1978) traveled to Monhegan for the first time in 1948 from New York City. He had completed his studies at the Art Students League and the Hofmann School of Fine Arts. In New York, Shulman’s work was largely pure abstraction, influenced by his teacher, Hans Hofmann, but the wildness of Monhegan Island and the strong natural presence of the place began to infuse his paintings. In the casein, “Music on the Rocks, Squeaker Cove,” Shulman utilizes a unique abstract style bordering on Cubism to capture the ledges, trees and other organic forms on the eastern shore of the island. Other important American artists with strong ties to Monhegan whose works are included in the exhibition are Lynne Drexler’s (1928-1999) colorful pointillist abstractions, bold seascapes by Abraham Bogdanove (1888-1946) and Jay Hall Connaway (1893-1970), as well as modernist works by William Thon (1906-2000), Yolanda Fusco (1920-2009) and James Fitzgerald (1899-1971).

In a more Impressionist vein, husband and wife Charles Ebert (1873-1959) and Mary Roberts Ebert (1873-1956) captured village life on Monhegan with its weathered, shingled buildings and iconic fish houses along the waterfront.

“Monhegan and Its Circle of Artists” will be on display through July 30. For further information, call 207-882-7682 or visit wiscassetbaygallery.com. The Wiscasset Bay Gallery is located at 75 Main St. (Route 1) in historic Wiscasset Village.