Continuing through January 8, 2012
John Marin (1870 – 1953) was one of the most widely acclaimed artists of the early 20th century. Critics no less august than Lewis Mumford considered him “the most significant and poignant and accomplished landscape painter of his generation in America.” The more than sixty paintings brought together here bolster that claim and allow viewers to witness first-hand the power and resonance of Marin’s use of both oils and watercolor. “Movement: Sea, Ultramarine and Green; Sky, Cerulean and Grey” was painted in 1947; however, it would be wholly at home in a contemporary exhibition. It’s fraught with emotional appeal that few works achieve, possessing a lyric quality is resolutely cheering. Similarly, “Tunk Mountains, Maine” is gorgeously vivid and so ecstatically rendered as to be one of those rare instances in which representations of landscapes can be more vital and “real” than actual clouds, mountains and water. Marin’s work is marvelous.
