Luigi Lucioni, The Big Haystack, 1946, watercolor on paper, gift of the Luigi Lucioni Estate John Sloan, Signals, 1916, oil on canvas, Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Modern Reveries: American Painting and Mainstream Realism, 1920-1960
July 31-October 7, 2007

Free Opening Reception
Saturday, August 4
2:00-4:00 p.m.

Historically overshadowed by later developments in contemporary art (notably Abstract Expressionism), American mainstream realism combined direct observation with a kind of mild modernism that many viewers found appealing. Using techniques derived from Impressionism as well as Cézanne and other early European modernists, twentieth-century American painters gave new vitality to landscape, still-life, and other familiar subjects.

This exhibition draws from the permanent collection of the Southern Vermont Arts Center, which is particularly strong in examples of mainstream realism. Starting with approximately twenty-five of the collection’s finest examples, the exhibition will be further enhanced with the loan of nine additional paintings from the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Known for its preeminent collection of colonial and early Federal portraits, Bowdoin possesses many fine twentieth-century works that are seldom seen by the public. Among the pieces on loan are three paintings by Ash Can School master John Sloan, a New York State landscape by Rockwell Kent, and works by Ernest Fiene and the Impressionist Waldo Peirce.

This exhibition sponsored in part by: Janet and Peter Saint Germain

Edwin Child, Chrysanthemums, n.d., oil on canvas, SVAC Permanent Collection

Jay H. Connaway, Kelly's Farm, Dorset, c. 1950, oil on board, gift of Mrs. J.H. Connaway