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8/29/18, 3)23 PMArt review: Borne from a rich history, Maine photography shows continued strength in three coastal galleries - Portland Press Herald

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Posted August 26

Art review: Borne from a richhistory, Maine photographyshows continued strength inthree coastal galleriesCourthouse in Ellsworth, Caldbeck in Rockland and CarverHill in Camden are all featuring photographers.

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BY DANIEL KANY

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ART REVIEW

WHAT: Todd Watts, KatherineBradford, Sam Cady, Alan Bray &Susan Williams

WHERE: Caldbeck Gallery, 12 ElmSt., Rockland

INFO: caldbeck.com

WHAT: Carver Hill Gallery

WHERE: 28 Bayview St., Camden

INFO: carverhillgallery.com

It wasn’t that long ago that Eliot Porter led thecharge for color photography to become its ownfield, changing everything. His brother,Fairfield, was not only a great painter but amuscular critic. His family’s island in Maine,Great Spruce Head, became not only a point ofimportance but a simple reminder that placewas a sort of key that could, potentially, unlockthe future.

And it did.

Photographywent far pastwhat AlfredSteiglitz, thechampion ofphotographicpictorialism, andhis colleaguescould haveimagined.Steiglitz, ofcourse, was so

Todd Watts, "String Too Short to Use," 2010, photograph, 15by 58 inches, at Caldbeck Gallery. Photo courtesy of CaldbeckGallery


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INFO: carverhillgallery.com

WHAT: Jeffery Becton, LindaPackard and others

WHERE: Courthouse Gallery, 6Court St., Ellsworth

INFO: courthousegallery.com

course, was somuch more thanphotography. Hisgallery, 291, ledthe way for somany artists tobecomeinternationalleaders, many of

which were to crystalize into the new image ofMaine art. Marsden Hartley and John Marin, forexample, weren’t merely two Mainers hechampioned; they were giants in the making.

Looking back, and not merely limiting ourselvesto the more obvious photo-oriented Maineartists, such as Berenice Abbott, JoyceTennyson, Richard Estes, Paul Caponigro andWilliam Wegman, Maine’s ranks ofphotography-related artists has been rich.

But the key, however, to Steiglitz’s pictorialismwas a reverence for painting. In Maine, it wasalways about painting. The early artists holdingcameras in their hands understood this: To beseen as art, photography had to take on painting.This was akin to the lesson that the firstabstractionists got from Cubism: Legibility waseverything. If a painting was legible as apainting, that was enough. Later, if aphotograph was legible as art, that would beenough. And from that perspective,



enough. And from that perspective,contemporary photography was born.

But what does that look like now? The new stuffand the new spaces in Maine we’re seeing thissummer aren’t simply doing what they had beendoing before. Photography, while it isn’t theonly aspect, is very much part of the growingvision of Maine art.

COURTHOUSE GALLERY

Courthouse Gallery is a reasonably new gallery,but it’s been ever-growing during the past fewyears. Not only does it feature many of Maine’sfreshest authors of traditional “Mainepainting,” such as Colin Page, Philip Frey andLinda Packard (whose Jon Imber-educatedchops have now turned delectably abstract), butthe gallery’s newest space is filled with a majorshow of digitally-deep-dug photography by

Jeffery Becton, “Caught Out,” digital montage, 20.4 by 33 inches, atCourthouse Gallery. Photo courtesy of Courthouse Gallery FineArt



show of digitally-deep-dug photography byJeffrey Becton. His current show goes deep withimages of the Maine coast as it might ebb andflow into our dreams. His “October Tide,” forexample, features a lobster boat broadsiding theforeground, which we can only imagine is a leeshore worthy of the nastiest machinations ofScylla and Charybdis. As a seascapephotographic image, it looks solid, evenbeautiful. But its inward bend lends a sense ofsuccubus gravity that lilts towards us with aterrifying sense of doom.

Becton has proved himself to be a major powerof compelling images. His “Caught Out”reminds us why. It’s a photo of a set of (rathertrashy) cupboards that look like the wheelhouseof a fishing boat. Becton turns the image downand Photoshops in ocean water as though a viewof a working boat in its final throes seen fromthe view of the crew. It’s terrifying. Yet thescene is imagined. There is no wheel or controlsof a boat. It’s a scene nightmarishly dreamed –or, maybe, imagined by children playing. ButBecton’s grown-up vision, so technicallyspecific, won’t let us hand the image off to thechildish or the playful. So the water rushes in onus, cold and deadly, and all we can do is hope towake up.

CALDBECK GALLERY



Todd Watts’s photos at Caldbeck are a reminderthat challenging photography is now finding aregular place in Maine’s best galleries during itsmost important seasons. Watts has been astalwart of the Maine scene, but to see his workowning the ground floor of one of the state’smost prestigious galleries in August is notable.After all, Watts’s newest work is difficult anddeeply creepy.

It’s no surprise that Caldbeck’s upstairs isloaded with excellent and smartly accessibleworks by well-known painters. Alan Bray’squirky high-focus canvases, KatherineBradford’s deliciously color-deep paintings ofbathers and divers, and Sam Cady’s brilliantshape-driven drawings and canvases mightcomprise a small show, but one well-worth

Katherine Bradford, “Fog Dive,” 2018, acrylic on canvas, 11 by 14inches, at Caldbeck Gallery. Photo courtesy of Caldbeck Gallery



comprise a small show, but one well-worthvisiting. One might imagine that SusanWilliams’s lusciously-painted acetone-supportlandscapes that dot the upstairs gallery withtheir deliriously brushy beauty would be whatmost art dealers would put on the main, street-level gallery. Yet, Caldbeck gives us Watts,complicated, difficult and sometimes troubling.

From a curatorial standpoint, I have to giveCaldbeck a big thumbs up for this move. Wattsis a challenge for me, as I imagine he’s going tobe for many. And that’s a good thing.

CARVER HILL GALLERY

I move to Carver Hill Gallery here, not merelybecause of photography, although the galleryindeed represents some challenging andaccomplished photographers, but because of the

Alan Bray, “Spring House,” 2018, casein on panel, 8 by 11 inches,at Caldbeck Gallery. Photo courtesy of Caldbeck Gallery



accomplished photographers, but because of thefreshness of its artists and their new work and,more importantly, its move to new digs inCamden.

Art-motivated Mainers should rejoice. CarverHill is one of Maine’s better and smartergalleries. The gallery represents artists fromaround the nation and around the world. CarverHill certainly shows photography (Nick Gervinand John Kolkin, among others), but itspecializes in strong (and sometimes quirky)painting, such as by America Martin or JenniferKnaus.

Martin is a young Californian painter whoseworks look to Picasso and Leger, but her handcan handle it. “Woman, Eel & Fish,” forexample, might seem simple things, in theechoes of Picasso, but there is nothing simpleabout the power of Picasso, Matisse, Leger,Marin, Utrillo or the other artists who workedso hard to make the seemingly simple seemsimple. To set it in motion, Martin usesexcellent drawing, scintillatingly clear, andplanar colors. But to make it work, Martin has tofind her own design, her own balance, her ownpicture. And she does.

Carver Hill Gallery’s new space is a healthy stepforward from its Rockland space. Its strong newspace can now better feature more artists from



Reviews: We take stock of arts offerings in southern Maine

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R E L A T E D S T O R I E S

space can now better feature more artists fromits notable roster, such as Ron Rovner, IngridEllison, Lesia Sochor and Rose Umerlik.

We’ve seen some major galleries close recentlybecause of age and time. But Coastal Maine is aplace of lively dynamism. Not all of the newnessrelates to the hitherto unknown; sometimes itrehashes aspects of what has always been. Andsometimes, the “new” is a fresh space for analready-known gallery. Sometimes it’s anaddition. Sometimes it’s new artists. And,sometimes, it’s us – hitting our own resetbuttons and looking with ever-fresh eyes.

Freelance writer Daniel Kany is an art historianwho lives in Cumberland. He can be contactedat:

[email protected]

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