The Maryhill Museum of Art presents The Subject Is Light: The Henry and Sharon Martin Collection of Contemporary Realist Paintings on view through- Sept 3, 2012.
William R. Davis (American, b. 1952), Somes Sound Breeze, 2002, oil on panel, 6” x 8”. Courtesy of the Henry and Sharon Martin Collection of Contemporary Realist Paintings
Henry and Sharon Martin began collecting art about 30 years ago and built what is arguably the strongest collection of Hudson River School Luminist paintings in private hands today. In the mid-1990s the Martins expanded their focus to the living artists of Cape Cod, assembling an outstanding group of contemporary representational paintings by leading regional artists of the genre. The Martins’ particular interest is artists who are skilled at depicting the changing effects of light, similar to that found the best 19th-century works.
Henry Martin says, “When we’ve looked at the same picture 100 times, we want to look at it for the 101st time and still see something new.” The Subject Is Light includes 27 still lifes, landscapes, and seascapes that possess this quality. Henry and Sharon Martin will speak at Maryhill Museum of Art on Saturday, July 14 at 3 p.m. as part of a program titled “The Joy of Collecting.”
The 11 artists featured in the exhibition received their training in diverse ways. Some were largely self-taught, while others came from families with an art background or trained at art school. Several artists included in the exhibition have ties to R.H. Ives Gammell, an influential American realist. Gammell’s passionate belief in representational art influenced the work of Robert Douglas Hunter, Pam Pindell, Joe McGurl and Jacob Collins, who are all featured in this exhibition. Gammell also had a close connection to the first director and curator at Maryhill Museum of Art, Clifford Dolph.
The Subject Is Light was organized by the Cape Cod Museum of Art, the regional art museum of Cape Cod, the Islands and Southeastern Massachusetts.
Maryhill Museum of Art
35 Maryhill Drive
Goldendale Washington 98620
509 773-3733
www.maryhillmuseum.org