Bowdoin College Museum of Art Celebrates the Bicentennial of Maine Statehood
The cover of “At First Light: Two Centuries of Maine Artists, Their Homes and Studios”
On the occasion of Maine’s 200th anniversary of statehood, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art will bring together this summer some of the most outstanding artistic treasures created in Maine over the last two centuries. At First Light: Two Centuries of Artists in Maine will open at the BCMA on June 27 and remain on view until November 15.
In this exhibition, all artistic media will be represented, including painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, new media art, and various craft traditions. While many art works will come from the BCMA’s collection, the exhibition will also include important works from other institutions, artists, and private collectors in Maine and beyond. By featuring such a wide selection of artists, the exhibition will explore specific networks or artistic communities that grew up in different places across the state and will explicitly draw historic connections between artists. The exhibition will be organized chronologically to permit visitors to understand how the visual arts have evolved over the last two hundred years. Many remarkable artists—some well-known, others less so—will be celebrated in this bicentennial salute, and, as importantly, many questions will be posed about the history of the state, its diverse population, and the different artistic traditions that have flourished in Maine.
A companion book will be published by renowned fine art publisher Rizzoli Electa. In 2018, the BCMA and Rizzoli commissioned Walter Smalling, a celebrated architectural photographer from Washington, D.C., to create a new photographic record of the homes, studios, and favored locations of twenty-six celebrated Maine artists. Over the past two years Smalling has crisscrossed the state in all seasons to complete this photography. This publication will include Smalling’s photographs together with notable art works created by these artists. BCMA co-directors Anne Collins Goodyear and Frank H. Goodyear, and Michael Komanecky, Farnsworth Art Museum, have authored the book, and Stuart Kestenbaum, the poet laureate of Maine, has contributed a foreword titled “A Sense of Place.”
At First Light will be the only exhibition devoted to a broad survey of art-making in Maine during this bicentennial year. The exhibition will honor the extraordinary diversity that characterizes the arts in Maine and will foster productive conversations about the role of the visual arts and creative expression more generally in the state of Maine.
Frank Goodyear
Co-Director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art