Celebrating 200 Years of Printmaking in Maine
October 6, 2006

The Richard Estes and John Marin exhibitions at the museum this fall are part of the largest collaborative fine-arts project in Maine's history, Celebrating 200 Years of Printmaking in Maine is an innovative series of exhibitions, education programs, and a symposium about all aspects of Maine printmaking. Organized by The Maine Print Project, a statewide collaboration of 25 art museums and nonprofit arts institutions, Celebrating 200 Years of Printmaking in Maine will take place from August 2006 through March 2007.

The exhibitions, on view from Ogunquit to Presque Isle, will feature prints from the early 19th century to the present and include such artists as Peggy Bacon, Charlie Hewitt, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Robert Indiana, Dahlov Ipcar, Yvonne Jacquette, Alex Katz, Rockwell Kent, the Ogunquit circle, Neil Welliver, and many others.

The Maine Print Project was formed as a collaborative organization by leading Maine arts institutions and museums, including the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, the River Tree Center for the Arts, Kennebunk, the Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, the Chocolate Church Arts Center, Bath, the University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, and others, with the purpose of offering an unprecedented opportunity to showcase an array of Maine printmaking in every region of the state. Bruce Brown, Curator at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, is the coordinator and chair for The Maine Print Project.

In conjunction with the exhibitions and programs, The Maine Print Project will publish an illustrated history of Maine printmaking, to be written by David P. Becker, a distinguished scholar of printmaking. The history of Maine printmaking has never been documented and substantially collected in one volume, and is a rich and fasci-natingbut largely hiddenarea of American art.

In addition to the Estes and Marin exhibitions, the museum's permanent collection gallery will highlight the wealth of prints acquired during its 60 year history. Vincent Hartgen, the museum's founding director, crafted the nucleus of the collection towards graphics. The early acquisition of an important group of 58 prints depicting Roman architecture by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), set the museum on a course towards its focus on printmaking. The Robert Venn Carr Jr. '38 Collection of 289 prints contains important examples from the early 20th century (Kollowitz, Beckmann, Picasso.) The Carr Collection provides a comprehensive view of works that document the explosion of printmaking as a medium embraced with renewed enthusiasm by contemporary artists in the latter half of the century.

The Maine Print Project Participating institutions:

Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick
Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport
Chocolate Church Arts Center, Bath
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville
College of the Atlantic, Blum Gallery, Bar Harbor
Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland
Institute of Contemporary Art, Maine College of Art, Portland
L.C. Bates Museum, Hinckley
Maine Art Gallery, Wiscasset
Maine Historical Society, Portland
Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit
Old York Historical Society, George Marshall Store Gallery, York
Portland Museum of Art, Portland
River Tree Center for the Arts, Kennebunk
Round Top Center for the Arts, Damariscotta
SPACE Gallery, Portland
The Tides Institute and Museum of Art, Eastport
University of Maine, Augusta - Art Gallery
University of Maine, Machias - Art Gallery
University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor
University of Maine, Orono - Department of Art Gallery, Lord Hall
University of Maine, Presque Isle - Reed Art Gallery
University of New England - Art Gallery, Portland
University of Southern Maine, Gorham

Major funding for The Maine Print Project: Celebrating 200 Years of Printmaking in Maine is provided by the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces Program; and by a major grant from the Maine Community Foundation. Generous funding is also provided by the Davis Family Foundation, with additional support from June Fitzpatrick Gallery.