Curatorial Perspectives

The Role of an Art Museum: The Farnsworth at 75

by Jaime DeSimone, Chief Curator

The Farnsworth’s 75th Anniversary presents an opportunity to contemplate the role of an art museum in the twenty-first century, especially in my position as the museum’s new Chief Curator. At the time of this writing, my tenure totals three months—a blink of time to observe, study, and learn about the Farnsworth’s history, its collection and exhibitions, educational programs, and community, all of which will serve as informational guides for the future.

Yet as we navigate forward, each step must be intentional and strategic, aligning with the early vision of founder Lucy Copeland Farnsworth, as presented to the group of advisors who had the great responsibility of establishing the museum’s initial collection. From 1943 to 1948, even before the museum opened its doors to the public, the consultant Robert Bellows, then an architect and chairman of the Boston Arts Commission and a trustee of the Boston Athenaeum, along with Philip Hofer, Merle James, and Stephen Wheatland, acquired 915 objects for the future museum. Hofer, James, and Wheatland were not only versed in arts from diverse backgrounds, but were also longtime summer residents of the Rockland area. Now, seventy-five years later, these artworks by Eastman Johnson, Andrew Wyeth, Maurice Prendergast, and Winslow Homer, among many others, may be recognized or categorized as part of the museum’s historic founding collection. The works also directed the collection’s focus to Maine.

I find great joy in familiarizing myself with the museum’s history, whether reviewing ledger

Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009) Clouds and Shadows, 1940 Watercolor on paper 18 x 22 1/8 inches Museum purchase, 1944.155 © Andrew Wyeth / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

books that carefully documented the advisors’ early acquisitions or anecdotal musings about the process, or studying recent acquisitions and the museum’s exhibition history. In 1944, for instance, Bellows purchased four works by a twenty-seven-yearold Andrew Wyeth from Macbeth Gallery, and quipped about identifying “good ones before they became too famous.”1 For me, Bellows’s comment is less about pinpointing the next “it” artist, and more about recognizing an artist at an early stage of their career, and instilling confi dence in that artist with a museum purchase.

As a collecting institution, the collection is the Farnsworth’s greatest strength and ongoing responsibility. It presents an evolving opportunity to encourage curiosity and interest. Today, the museum’s collection consists of over 15,000 works in all media, and is recognized as one of the fi nest repositories of American art. Th e museum has always collected work by living artists—the “then little-known” Andrew Wyeth of 1944 is one early example of a living artist whose works today are considered some of the most celebrated historic objects in the Farnsworth’s collection.2

In 2022, the Farnsworth made signifi cant strides to advance its collecting priorities and broaden its understanding of artists living and working in Maine today. In 2023, the exhibition Farnsworth at 75: New Voices from Maine in American Art highlights the growing diversity of the collection and Maine, underscoring new understandings of the relationship between cultural identity, history, and place. For me, the institution’s mission— “celebrating Maine’s role in American art”—encompasses who we are, what we do, and why we do it. Th e many artists on view in Farnsworth at 75 are a testament to a myriad of artistic pursuits across time and media. Th is exhibition bolsters various thematic narratives and stylistic movements by pairing more recent acquisitions with works that have entered the collection in years prior.

Lois Dodd (b. 1927) The Painted Room, 1982 Oil on linen, 60 x 50 inches Gift of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York: Hassam, Speicher, Betts and Symons Funds, 1991.7 © Lois Dodd

Ann Craven (b. 1967) Moon (Pink Harvest Moon, Bright Red Dancing Trees, Cushing, 2021), 2021 Oil on linen, 84 x 60 inches Gift of Alexis Akre, 2022.2 © Ann Craven

Maine—as a subject and source of inspiration for artists—is a hallmark of many paintings in the Farnsworth’s collection. Observing nature, returning to it day after day, continues to fascinate the minds of many artists, residents, and visitors linked to our beloved state. Artists translate the world in which we live in unpredictable ways. Studying their objects allows us to be transported to a place of wonder, where our imagination and senses run wild, giving viewers the opportunity to see familiar objects anew, with fresh interpretations.

There are artistic liberties at play in many new works of art in the collection, too. Lois Dodd, for example, paints from observation, yet she is most notably recognized for her interiors that include references to the natural world. The Painted Room depicts a mural of painted woods across from the artist’s summer home, in Cushing, Maine. In it, Dodd combines interior worlds and the natural world, distinguishing the two with visual cues, such as a light bulb hanging from the ceiling and yellow curtains that frame the window and the distant yard.

Since 1995, Ann Craven has been recording the moon in paint, as in her Moon (Pink Harvest Moon, Bright Red Dancing Trees, Cushing), of 2021. Her process consists of sketching small studies before enhancing them in larger paintings. When she first arrived in Maine, she began “chasing the moon” on Lincolnville Beach before finding a home on the banks of the St. George River, in Cushing.

It is astonishing to ponder these acts of creation: two artists painting forested views outside their windows in Cushing, resulting in two entirely different renderings. This is the power and potential of the Farnsworth’s collection—to share stories, past and present, and to amplify the voices of artists during their lifetime. I hope you, our community, will visit us during our 75th Anniversary and re-engage with our collection, which will be entirely reinstalled for this monumental occasion.