In 1890, the painter Thomas Eakins was walking a tightrope. His pictures, gaining relative notice after two decades of dismissal, had become overshadowed by his contentious teaching career. Forced to resign from his central position at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1886 due to scandal and a smear campaign — driven by members of his own family — the 46-year- old was now head instructor to the Art Students’ League of Philadelphia, a rag-tag band of his most loyal students. Added to this tumult was the arrival of his 17-year-old niece, Ella Crowell, to live and study. In the lengthy cast of characters that peopled Eakins’ life, Ella is one of the most enigmatic. And her status as an enigma is why Fitchburg Art Museum (FAM) has put up “Portrayed by Eakins: Ella Crowell as Model and Student,” running through June 2. A small but beautiful exhibition of 21 photographs and three … [Read more...] about QUESTIONS REMAIN: EAKINS’ FITCHBURG SURVEY LEAVES US WANTING MORE

“Morning.” “Homeschool and Housework.” “Dinnertime.” “Bedtime for the Boys.” “The Studio.” Five monochromatic woodblock prints that depict genre scenes from LaToya Hobbs’ life in 2021. “Carving Out Time,” the name of the series on display in “LaToya M. Hobbs: It’s Time” at Harvard Art Museums, began with a list of all the things she does in a day, then a photoshoot with her family in various parts of the house where her partner aids in directing the composition of those photographs, then Hobbs creates these composite drawings that take two to three weeks to complete. Afterwards, she carves them into, or one may say ‘out of’ since woodblock printing is a subtractive method. The three panels of paper are put into a manual press and joined together to form large-scale immersive works. The striations on the skin, elegant mixing of cross-hatched patterns and the rhythm of the work, reminds … [Read more...] about SONG OF THE DIURNAL AT HARVARD: LATOYA M. HOBB’S PORTRAIT OF A REGULAR DAY

Step inside the Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA), and a luminous transformation unfolds. The salt-spray roar of the Gulf of Maine retreats and a different type of sensory gale rises up. Phosphorescent dreamscapes. Intoxicating light and shadows. Hues so delicious you can almost taste them. Familiar faces you couldn’t possibly know. This is “Spinneret,” the first solo exhibition in the United States by the contemporary figurative painter Anthony Cudahy (b. 1989, Fort Myers, FL). “Spinneret refers to the interconnectedness and pattern-like repetition that lends meaning to Cudahy’s remarkable body of work,” stated Devon Zimmerman, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at OMAA, in “Anthony Cudahy: Spinneret” (Monacelli Press), the comprehensive monograph published as a companion to the artist’s exhibition. “It draws inspiration from – and is named for – the silk-producing organ that … [Read more...] about WEAVING DREAMS: ANTHONY CUDAHY’S SPINNERET AT OGUNQUIT

While it was easy to mistakenly see last fall’s Instagram posts of unique culinary adventures in Paris and Tokyo by Nancy Kathryn Burns, the Worcester Art Museum’s Stoddard Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, as a part of a bucket list vacation tour, the truth was much better — she was in search of unique works that would complete her upcoming “New Terrain: 21st- Century Landscape Photography” exhibition, the third show she’s curated from the museum’s own collection. “These photographs are acquisitions that I’ve made over the last seven or eight years,” Burns explained during a press tour of the exhibition prior to its opening. “Different curators have different ways on acquisition. Mine is to tell stories and to fill gaps in the museum’s collection. I found there was a landscape and still-life gap in the collection.” Part of the aforementioned “vacation” overseas was to fill … [Read more...] about PHOTOGRAPHY REDEFINED: WORCESTER EXHIBITION TRAVELS ‘NEW TERRAIN’