This summer the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, will present never-before exhibited early drawings by the iconic American artist Will Barnet, a collection-based overview of the work of Winslow Homer, and the contemporary artist Sharon Lockhart’s selections from and installation of the collection to accompany her Maine-made Lunch Break works. The Colby Museum’s ongoing exhibitions dedicated to the work of James McNeill Whistler continue with a special exhibition of works by Whistler and his aesthetically minded peers. Also on view will be numerous new acquisitions including recently acquired works for the Lunder Collection and gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation.

The Search for Beauty: Whistler and His Time, May 20, 2010–January 2, 2011

James McNeill Whistler was a leading figure of the Aesthetic Movement, which began in England in the 1860s and, over the course of the next four decades, transformed Americans’ understanding of art’s purpose. Proponents of Aestheticism on both sides of the Atlantic sought to free art from its historical role of teaching moral and religious lessons. In their hands, art became a wellspring of beauty and a catalyst for sensual pleasure. Aesthetic artists believed that fine art as well as literature, music, decorative arts, interior design, and fashion had the power to infuse daily life with refinement and charm. These works by Whistler and his American contemporaries and followers exemplify the search for beauty that characterized the Aesthetic Movement.

Collecting Winslow Homer, June 26–October 31, 2010

Winslow Homer’s The Trapper, a painting from 1870, is one of the founding artworks of the Colby Museum’s collection. Its principal subject—man in harmony with nature—satisfied the desire among American collectors of the late 19th century for paintings that offered an alternative to the urban realities of industrialism. Drawn mostly from the Colby Museum’s permanent holdings, Collecting Winslow Homer presents this and other works by the artist in acknowledgement of the centenary of his death. Including examples from the full range of media that comprises Homer’s oeuvre, the exhibition demonstrates the remarkable achievement of a largely self-taught artist who began his career as a popular illustrator and spent his last years on Maine’s Prouts Neck peninsula, creating visionary images of the American landscape. Of the 16 works in the exhibition, 11 are drawn from the Lunder Collection, which was promised to the Colby Museum in 2007.

Will Barnet: New York Drawings & Prints, the 1930s, July 10–October 17, 2010

In 1930, at the age of nineteen, Will Barnet moved to New York City from his native Massachusetts to study at the Art Students League. The young artist responded to the city by exploring it on foot, preferring long walks to the stuffiness and darkness of his rented rooms. New York’s Central Park became Barnet’s refuge, a place where he slept on hot summer nights and where he quickly and discreetly drew the people he encountered. This exhibition presents a group of Barnet’s Central Park drawings from the 1930s as well as a selection of related prints made from the copper plates that he carried in his pockets and etched on site. Many these works have remained in the artist’s possession and have never been exhibited. Created during the Depression, the drawings and prints describe a world of human intimacy and affection thoroughly removed from the époque’s harsh realities. In the verdant oasis of Central Park, which Barnet remembers as the people’s “front yard,” he captured figures in repose, embracing couples, mothers and children, and everyday people so deeply absorbed in conversation that they rarely noticed the artist in their midst.

Catalogue

A fully illustrated publication, Will Barnet: A Sketchbook, 1932–1934, accompanies the exhibition. This book includes a foreword by Will Barnet and an essay by Robert C. Morgan. Published in 2009 by George Braziller Publishers, New York, and distributed by W. W. Norton & Company, New York, it will be available for purchase at the Colby Museum during the exhibition.

Sharon Lockhart: Lunch Break, July 10–October 17, 2010

This special installation of the exhibition Sharon Lockhart: Lunch Break will include a group of works by other artists and artisans displayed in conjunction with works from Lockhart’s Lunch Break project.

Sharon Lockhart: Lunch Break is organized by the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Presentation of the exhibition at Colby College is co-organized by the Colby College Museum of Art and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Admission to the Colby Museum is free. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 4:30 p.m. Closed Monday.

Colby College Museum of Art

5600 Mayflower Hill

Waterville, Maine 04901

www.colby.edu/museum