VHS loans original artwork to historic exhibit
When: Now through March 15, 2009
Where: The Bryan Memorial Gallery
What: Exhibit - "The Northern Vermont Artists Association: Past and Present" including works on loan from the Vermont Historical Society
Location: Main Street, Jeffersonville, Vermont
The Vermont Historical Society has loaned two original Francis Colburn oil paintings and six watercolors by Grace Webb from its permanent collection for an exhibit at the Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville. Called "The Northern Vermont Artists Association: Past and Present," this exhibit includes 63 paintings in the historical section and 104 paintings in a juried show from current members of the Northern Vermont Artists Association (NVAA). The exhibit is on display through March 15. The Bryan Memorial Gallery is located on Main Street in Jeffersonville, and it is open Thursday through Sunday, from 10 am - 4 pm.
"Northern Vermont has had a vital art community for a long time," says Jackie Calder, VHS Curator. "I'm plea
sed to be able to lend artwork to show this connection between the past and present day."
Francis Colburn (1909-1984) was born in Fairfax, Vermont. After studying at the Art Students' League in New York City, Colburn returned to Vermont where he remained for the rest of his life. His paintings evolved through various styles, from the social realism of the 1930s to his own interpretation of cubism and surrealism, expressed through portraits, landscapes and still lifes. Colburn taught at and was chairman of the Art History Department of the University of Vermont. Vermont Historical Society lent his "Self Portrait (undated)" and "Variations on a Theme (1958)" to this exhibit.
Grace Webb's six watercolors in the NVAA exhibit chronicle the transport of the Ticonderoga steamboat from Lake Champlain to the Shelburne Museum, where it resides today. The Ticonderoga is a National Historic Landmark and the last walking beam side-wheel passenger steamer in existence. Webb painted these from mid-November 1954 to early March 1955, the time it took to move this vessel.
The NVAA was founded in 1931 and has a long tradition of attracting prominent Vermont artists, including Maxfield Parrish. The historical section of the Bryan Gallery's "Past and Present" exhibit includes notable past NVAA members Ruth Mould, Emile Gruppe, Stan Marc Wright, Roy Kennedy, and Georgia Balch among others.
