New Exhibitions at UMaine Museum of Art

Contact: Kathryn Jovanelli at (207)561-3350

ART EXHIBITION April 18 – July 5, 2008

Bangor, Maine

– The University of Maine Museum of Art will present three new exhibitions beginning April 18.

TODD WEBB JOY WITHOUT MEASURE

Todd Webb Joy Without Measure

provides a survey of the artist’s evocative photographs of life in Paris and New York City in the 1940s-1950s. The exhibition features 80 gelatin silver prints that highlight Webb’s significant contribution to American photography.

A master photographer, Todd Webb’s distinctive body of work has attained an important place in the history of American photography. Often described as a “historian with a camera,” Webb’s wonderfully rich images move beyond historical documentation, reflecting a more lyrical sense of time and place. His images are always deeply human and expressive, whether the subject is a group of children playing hand-in-hand on a hot New York summer day or an abandoned sculpture, left on a Paris street during the Nazi occupation.

Influenced by other well-known American photographers, such as Ansel Adams, Berenice Abbott and Alfred Stieglitz, Webb often worked to explore a particular idea or concept yet he allowed intuition to guide his sense of subject and visual structure. This integration of systematic looking and instinctive seeing is clearly evident in the photographs of Joy Without Measure.

Todd Webb first visited Maine in 1947. In 1975 he and his wife Lucille moved to Maine where they spent the last 25 years of his life.

Major funding for Todd Webb Joy Without Measure is provided by significant grants from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the University of Maine’s Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series. Generous funding is also provided by Merrill Bank, Bangor Daily News and WBRC Architects and Engineers.

SEAN BEAVERS

Sean Beavers

presents an exhibition of oil paintings by Maine artist Sean Beavers. Beaver’s self-described, symbolist paintings evoke a deceptive sense of hyperrealism integrated with alluring allegorical tendencies. His work reflects the 20th century move away from direct representation in art toward a more conceptual motivation for imagery.

Intended to “deceive the eye,” Sean Beaver’s work reflects more than the physical qualities of the subject matter portrayed. His hypnotic paintings embrace intensely personal, and potentially obscure, references that echo “dreams, desires, frustrations, spirit, emotions, whatever I’m thinking about at the time.” Through his attention to detail and the power of illusion, Beaver’s paintings tease our perception of reality, creating a sense of place that is both familiar and unknown at the same time. Sean Beavers resides in York.

STAFF SELECTS: WORKS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION

Staff Selects

is an exhibition of works which reflects the visual sensibilities and interests of the Museum’s staff. The staff was asked to pick several pieces from the collection that they found to be particularly appealing or interesting, and that have not recently been exhibited in the Museum. The result is a wonderfully eclectic assemblage of prints, paintings, and photographs that show the depth and richness of UMMA’s collection.

Image Information/Credits

1.

TODD WEBB (American, 1905-2000)
Cafe on Champs Elysees, Paris, 1946
Silver gelatin print,13 x 10″
Courtesy of Aucocisco Galleries, Portland, ME and the Estate of Todd Webb/Evans Gallery of Fine Art Photographs

2.

TODD WEBB (American, 1905-2000)
Madison Street at Pike Street, New York, 1946
Silver gelatin print, 11 x 14″
Courtesy of Aucocisco Galleries, Portland, ME and the Estate of Todd Webb/Evans Gallery of Fine Art Photographs

3.

SEAN BEAVERS (American, born 1970)
Anjou Evening, 2006
Oil on canvas on panel, 30 x 30″
Courtesy of the artist

4.

WILL BARNETT (American, born 1911)
Waiting, 1975
Screenprint, 33 3/4 x 32 7/8″
86.8.4
Gift of Robert Venn Carr Jr., Class of 1938