When it's lush
“Hoosick Valley” (oil on canvas), by John Ford Clymer (1907-1989), in the Bennington Museum show “For the Love of Vermont: The Lyman Orton Collection,’’ in collaboration with the Southern Vermont Arts Center.
— Courtesy of the Vermont Country Store
Green Mountain creepiness
From the “Haunted Vermont’’ show at the Bennington Museum, July 22-Dec. 31.
The Haunted Bridge, or Red Bridge, was a covered bridge that crossed the Walloomsack River just north of the Bennington Battle Monument. It was torn down around 1944. The caption for this postcard, c. 1920, reads: "The Haunted Bridge. On certain moonlight nights weird noises are said to have been heard in and around it. A phantom horseman is frequently heard clattering across and into a nearby farmyard."
The museum explains:
“Vermont has a long and storied history of otherworldly intrigue, ranging from accusations of witches in Pownal and vampires in Manchester, to Spiritualists communicating with the dead, haunted covered bridges, and our very own Bennington Triangle. Shirley Jackson, perhaps the greatest writer of the horror/gothic fiction genre in the 20th Century, lived and worked for most of her career in North Bennington. Drawing on this rich framework of historical tales of monsters, ghosts, missing persons and the occult, ‘Haunted Vermont’ will tell these stories and more.’’
Abenaki water
‘‘Water is Life,’’ by Francine Poitras Jones, in the group show “Nebizun: Water Is Life,’’ at the Bennington (Vt.) Museum through July 16.
The exhibition showcases the work of Abenaki artists of the Champlain Valley and Connecticut River Valley. Nebizun is the Abenaki word for water. The museum says the show "draws its inspiration from Native American grandmothers who have been doing water walks to pray for the water.’’
Satellite view of the Champlain Valley.
Visual hors d'oeuvres
“Neveruses à Table,” by J. (aka Josh) Stoner Blackwell, at the Bennington (Vt.) Museum. Neveruses are hybrid painting-objects composed of recovered plastic bags and colored fibers, such as wool yarn, silk thread, and patterned cloth. Mr. Blackwell is an artist originally from Louisiana who now lives and works in Vermont.
Frost in Bennington
“Apple Tree & Grindstone” (1923, wood engraving), by J.J. Lankes (1884-1960), in the Bennington (Vt.) Museum’s show “At Present in Vermont,’’ opening in April.
(Courtesy Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.)
The museum says:
A century ago “Robert Frost arrived in Bennington County, where he lived from 1920 to 1938. Coming in April to Bennington Museum, a new major exhibit… explores Frost’s life and work as an artist and farmer and celebrates the New England legacy of America’s most beloved poet.’’
What did this year mean?
“We Who Believe in Freedom” (study acrylic on birch panel), by LMNOPI (yes — that’s her name), in the Bennington (Vt.) Museum’s show through Dec. 28 entitled “Vermont Utopias: Imagining the Future .’’ The show is part of “2020 Vision: Reflecting on a World-Changing Year,’’ a statewide initiative by the Vermont Curators Group that aims to explore how 2020 has changed the world.
Robert Frost’s grave in Bennington
But a constitutional monarch
“King on Throne,’’ by Scot Borofsky, in his show “Gritty Streets to Green Mountains,’’ at the Bennington (Vermont) Museum through Dec. 31
The museum says:
”This exhibition illustrates the development of Borofsky's work over the last 40 years, ranging from early NYC street art, to his more recent paintings created in his Brattleboro (Vt.) studio, which incorporate an evolving language of complexly layered symbols and the gestural language of paint. ‘‘
The remarkably large museum for a small town like Bennington. See: https://benningtonmuseum.org/
The Bennington Battle Monument, which commemorates the Aug. 16, 1777 American victory there in the Revolutionary War
Downtown Brattleboro (where Mr. Borofsky has his studio) as seen from a walking trail across the Connecticut River, in New Hampshire. There are many miles of scenic trails in and around the town, where Rudyard Kipling lived for a time in the 1890s.
Musical instrumentation in Bennington
Promotional picture for exhibition of musical instruments at the Bennington (Vt.) Museum through Dec. 31. The museum says:
“Each musical instrument in the Bennington Museum collection has its own unique story, but has remained silent for decades. The exhibit explores the histories and traditional sounds of the instruments and provides opportunities to hear them brought back to life in new compositions.’’
As the crow doesn't fly
“Crooked Crow, ‘‘by Joe Chirchirillo, in the Bennington (Vt.) Museum’s North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show, wherein 20 sculptures from 18 regional artists are being displayed on the museum’s property in Old Bennington through Nov. 1
Bennington Museum is pleased to host an extension of the North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show, NBOSS at the Museum, where 20 sculptures from 18 regional artists will be displayed on our beautiful 10–acre property in Old Bennington, Vermont through November 1.
See:
benningtonmuseum.org
Minnie's old Vermont
“Hairnet Drawer,’’ (hand-colored silver gelatin print; courtesy of the Vermont Folklife Center)., photographed by Neil Rappaport and colored by Susanne Rappaport, in the show “Up Home: Hand-Colored Photographs by Susanne and Neil Rappaport,’’ at the Bennington (Vt.) Museum, through June 11. The museum explains:
“Minnie Griswold died in 1952, at which time her sons locked up their mother's house in Pawlet, VT., and left all her belongings in place, untouched, unaltered. Thirty years later, Pawlet documentarians Susanne and Neil Rappaport were invited into the home and went on to produce a collection of hand-colored photographs of Minnie's home. This exhibition brings together the best in documentary work and artistic expression.’’
Stoned in Vermont
“The Shelf Life of Stones’’ (mixed media), by Paul Katz, in his show ‘‘Vermont Folk Sculpture: A Recent Acquisition, Works on Paper: A Decade of Collecting, and The Mind's Eye: Paintings, Sculpture, and Books by Paul Katz,’' at the Bennington Museum through May 27.
Depression art in Vermont
“The Planter (1937)’' (oil on homasote) by Ronald Slayton (1910-1992), in the show “Crash to Creativity: The New Deal in Vermont,’’ through Nov. 4 at the Bennington Museum.
The museum explains:
”This exhibition sheds light on the important, under-studied aspect of Vermont's history (1933-1944), focusing on the role of government-sponsored New Deal projects. It features photography, paintings, studies for post office murals, furniture from Civilian Conservation Corps cabins, architectural plans, audio transcripts created by the Federal Writers Project as well as powerful examples of Regionalist and Social Realist paintings.’’
Enthusiastic about Vegas
"Las Vegas" (acrylic on paper), by Jessica Park, in her show "Enthusiasms: Personal Paintings by Jessica Park,'' at Bennington (Vt.) Museum, through May 26.
Park is an internationallly known artist on the autism spectrum.
Grandma Moses: Modernist?
"Bennington, 1945'' (oil and tempera on masonite), by Anna Mary Robertson, aka "Grandma" Moses'' (1860-1961), in the show "Grandma Moses: American Modernist,'' through Nov. 5 at the Bennington (Vt.) Museum.
The museum says: "This exhibition has a subversive goal, as it upsets your expectations and gets you to see her work with fresh eyes. By putting her paintings alongside works by Modernists such as Léger, Cornell, Frankenthalerand Warhol, and folk artists Hicks and Pickett, see how all these artists used color, collage, memory and their own artistic sensibility to create original masterpieces.''
Editor's Note: In the 1950s, Grandma Moses, a "primitive'' artist, may have been the most famous painter in America.
Laying it all out
Forty-three eggs and five feathers (c-print with hand applied text mounted to board paper.), by Duane Michals, at the Bennington (Vt.) Museum. The museum says his photos are well known for referencing "art-historical precedents, such as Japanese fan paintings and the late 19th Century French painters Bonnard and Vuillard.''
Only if you are
"Blue Trees'' (oil on canvas), by Milton Avery (1885-1965), in the show "Milton Avery's Vermont,'' July 2-Nov. 7 at the Bennington (Vt.) Museum. Property of the Neuberger Museum of Art.
This was one of the paintings of the famous modernist Mr. Avery based on his summers in southern Vermont in 1935-1943 and showing his response to the gorgeous Vermont landscape.