Marsden Hartley

Born in Lewiston in 1877, Marsden Hartley is now considered to be one of the most important American modernist painters. Although critical success eluded him during his lifetime, he was an integral member of the circle of Alfred Stieglitz, a progressive photographer and dealer whose "291" gallery was a locus of vanguard artists in New York City. Hartley blended a number of artistic and literary interests into a unique body of work that shifted in response to cultural and political stimuli, often in advance of modernist trends. Painters Paul Cezanne and Albert Pinkham Ryder, poet Walt Whitman, and Transcendentalist writers Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson were among his key influences. Equally important was the intense emotion Hartley felt toward the people and places that welcomed the lonely and eccentric artist. From impressionism, to abstraction, to expressionism, Hartley's interest in regionalism remained constant, as he embedded himself in the life and culture of his many adopted homes. Although he left at a young age and traveled often, Maine remained a touchstone for Hartley, who declared himself "the painter from Maine" shortly before his death in Ellsworth, in 1943.

Hartley Collection Leads to Concentration on Maine Artists and Works on Paper

Building on the notion of collecting art "from Maine" the Museum has consistently built a collection of many artists associated with Maine, from Marsden Hartley and Carl Sprinchorn to Neil Welliver, William Manning and Jocelyn Lee. Like most college museums, Bates also has collected an eclectic variation of objects relevant to a liberal arts college. Many of these works of art were donated by Bates alumnae or members of the Lewiston-Auburn community.

The collection concentrates on a broad range of works on paper: Old Master prints; 19-20^th century European works by artists such as Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Ruiz Picasso, and George Roualt; and 20^th century American works by Mary Cassatt, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, John Sloan, George Bellows; contemporary works on paper by Anne Harris, Charlie Hewitt, and Robert Indiana (the entire Elegy series), Alison Saar; and a growing collection of contemporary photography.

Non-western holdings in the collection range from an exceptional selection of pre-Columbian sculpture and ceramics, Japanese woodblock prints and contemporary African and Chinese photography.

Expanding Definition of Maine Artists: Return to Provocative Maine of Marsden Hartley

Throughout the world Maine is celebrated as a place of great natural beauty draped in exquisite light. It has a deep and long tradition of painting and photography best known through the work of a largely male group of artists including Ansel Adams, Thomas Cole, Walker Evans, Winslow Homer, Rockwell Kent, John Marin, Eliot Porter and Paul Strand, whose visits to the state created the enduring "picturesque" paradigm of Maine and Maine art. But today more and more diverse artists reside in Maine and their vision is changing how people "from away" perceive the state and its growing population of artists. These contemporary artists are changing the local and global perception of the artistic traditions of Maine, which is less and less based on the picturesque beauty of the state and more on its innovative spirit and the clarity provided by its light and environment.

These new Maine artists like Hartley are challenging the subject matter, techniques and presentation expected of Maine art. Their success is changing the perception of the state as a place to visit to make inspired art to a destination where more and more contemporary artists live and work. Ironically these artists, such as William Pope.L, Sean Foley, Yvonne Jacquette, JoAnn Jones and Jocelyn Lee - recently entered into the museum collection - are spiritually more aligned with the unpicturesque and provocative Maine of Marsden Hartley, who is the backbone and spine of the Museum collection. Guided by the challenging and creative tradition of Hartley, the museum continues to build on its core collection of Maine artists.

Focus on China

The museum has a focus on Maine artists but is keenly aware and willing to collect important trends relevant to the liberal arts curriculum and where it sees opportunity to diversify its holdings in a measured pace. For example, the college and the museum have reacted quickly to the increased exposure of Chinese culture on the global scene by offering students increased curricular opportunities and travel abroad as well as challenging exhibitions of Chinese contemporary art.

Each year the global prominence of China in economics and culture increases. China's cultural presence is so large today that it is hard to imagine that the first major presentation of contemporary Chinese art outside China was in the 1993 exhibition China's New Art, Post 1989, which was followed by the 1998 exhibition Inside Out: New Chinese Art. The Bates College Museum of Art is proud to be a leader in supporting the emerging field of Chinese contemporary art through its presentation of Wenda Gu: From Middle Kingdom to Biological Millennium, Documenting China: Photography and Social Change and the Xu Bing: Calligraphy for the People. Both Wenda Gu and Xu Bing created site specific work in the museum and by donating their work from the exhibition Documenting China the artists Zhou Hai, Jiang Jian, Zhou Min, Zhang Xinmin Liu Xiaodi, Luo Yongjin and Lu Yuanmin gave the museum a solid holding in contemporary Chinese art.

History of the College