  Call
of the Coast: Art Colonies of New England (Portland Museum of Art) ~ Mr.
Thomas Andrew Denenberg (Author), Amy Kurtz Lansing (Author), Susan Danly (Author),
Jamie Wyeth (Preface) – Paperback: 128 pages Portland Museum of Art (June 2,
2009)
The early twentieth century brought renewed focus upon the image of the coast and
witnessed the formation of art colonies in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and Ogunquit and
Monhegan, Maine. These creative communities became an inspiration for artists and
art students, among them Edward Hopper, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, Rockwell Kent,
and George Bellows. Visually stunning, Call of the Coast: Art Colonies of New England
explores the importance of place for artists in these colonies, and the development
of impressionist Connecticut and modernist Maine within the visual traditions of
the coast of New England.
Featuring approximately 80 works, Call of the Coast illustrates each major painting
with extensive interpretative text and includes documentary photography to provide
historical context for the artworks.
 
Hamptons Bohemia: Two Centuries of Artists and Writers on the Beach
by Helen Harrison, Constance Ayers, Edward Albee (Foreword) – Hardcover:
176 pages Publisher: Chronicle Books (April 1, 2002)
An unspoiled coastline bathed in spectacular light—just far enough from Manhattan
bustle—made the Hamptons seductive for generations of creative types. Hamptons
Bohemia: Two Centuries of Artists and Writers on the Beach is an entertaining
survey of the personalities who found a summer or year-round haven on the southeastern
end of Long Island. Numerous color photographs—of artworks, personalities,
and landscape views—offer inviting glimpses of the shifting tides of culture.
The story begins with early 19th-century figures like James Fenimore Cooper, who
abandoned a failing whaling business to take up writing novels. Then came the
genteel landscape painters with their portable easels and sunshades. By the 1950s
(the era of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, and
many others), bohemia was in full swing. Since then the Hamptons have become a
clubby getaway for artists who've already made it, from Kurt Vonnegut to Julian
Schnabel. —Cathy Curtis
  Cottages
by the Sea, The Handmade Homes of Carmel, America's First Artist Community
by Linda Leigh Paul, Radek Kurzaj (Photographer) – Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher:
Universe Publishing (November 18, 2000)
Carmel, California, has always been a community of artists, writers, and freethinkers.
During the early part of its rich history, the area was home to Robinson Jeffers,
Mary Austin, Ansel Adams, Charles Greene, Jack London, George Sterling, Upton
Sinclair, and Henry Miller, among other great artists of the twentieth century.
During the late 1980s, actor Clint Eastwood, a longtime resident, served as mayor.
While much about Carmel has changed since the days when Robinson Jeffers could
be seen strolling the beach, the area remains one of America's most beautiful.
It is also home to many of America's most charming but rarely seen cottages. In
Carmel's residential district—a very private, heavily wooded area surrounding
the shops and tourist attractions of the town's often busy main street—there
are no sidewalks or streetlights. The U.S. Postal Service does not offer mail
delivery. Homes have no addresses; they are simply known by name. Here, it is
not uncommon for tourists, so intrigued by the uniqueness of the local architecture,
to climb the fences of private homes in order to get a closer look or snapshot
of the house on the other side. Now, for the first time, 34 of these homes can
be seen more advantageously, in more than 270 specially commissioned and archival
exterior and interior photographs.
 
A
Place of Beauty: The Artists and Gardens of the Cornish Colony by Alma
M. Gilbert, Judith B. Tankard – Hardcover: 136 pages Publisher: Ten Speed
Press (August 2000)
Much has changed since the previous turn of the century, but our appreciation
of the restrained and peaceful beauty of Cornish, New Hampshire has remained.
In the early 1900s, Cornish was renowned as an artist's colony filled with magical
gardens that appeared in the work of many resident artists like Frances Houston,
William Hyde, Maria Oakey Dewing, and Stephen and Maxfield Parrish. In many cases,
the fame of the gardens outlasted the reputation of the artist, but in A Place
of Beauty, the art and the gardens that provided inspiration are seen as inseparable.
Garden admirers will enjoy this book as much as any art historian. Twelve different
houses are discussed in detail--the owners, architects, gardeners, and their stylistic
goals are revealed through fascinating text, historical photographs, and reproductions
of the works of art that were created by the talented residents. Between painting,
sculpting, and writing, Cornish's residents also found time to be surprisingly
competitive in the realm of gardening. While each house maintained a clear style,
the overall beauty was discussed and judged with a fairly critical eye, and professional
designers such as Ellen Shipman were brought in for expert consultations. As one
visitor said, "They bore me to death with their houses and their poor little
flower beds." The text is filled with personal notes, diary entries, and
letters—the Cornish residents were a prolific lot. And while the community
was described by one female citizen as "a place where men are acknowledged
to be more important than the women," the numerous photos and reproductions
of paintings that fill the book show a world filled with an astonishing beauty
rarely seen in our modern world. —Jill Lightner
 The
Good and Simple Life: Artist Colonies in Europe and America
by Michael Jacobs – Hardcover: 176 pages Publisher: Harpercollins (June 1986)
|
 Americans
in Paris 1850-1910: The Academy, the Salon, the Studio, and the Artists Colony
by Barbara H. Weinberg, Gabriel P. Weisberg, George Hardy, Carolyn Hill (Foreword),
Hardy George (Editor) – Paperback: 130 pages Publisher: Oklahoma City Art Museum
(February 2004)
Americans in Paris 1850–1910 represents the profound
French influence—both in style and subject—on
American painters following the Civil War. There was a great
deal of French art in America, mainly in the hands of urban
industrialists and financiers eager to display their wealth.
Meanwhile, American artists traveled to France to study under
the masters, either at the École des Beaux-Arts or at
one of the independent academies or studios. Paris proved immensely
appealing as a locale in which artists were supported and valued,
cultural life was rich, the surrounding countryside ispiring,
and the cost of living relatively low. The landscapes and human
figures favored by French painters offered a nostalgic appeal
that American artists translated into a national vernacular.
Alternating beautiful color plates of some of the most influential
artists from America and France—among them, James McNeill
Whistler, Kenyon Cox, Mary Cassatt, Camille Cordot, and Honoré
Daumier—with informative essays describing biographical,
historical, and stylistic influences, this volume brings to
life this pivotal and creatively vibrant moment in art history.
 
New Hampshire's Cornish Colony by Fern K. Meyers, James B. Atkinson –
Paperback: 128 pages Publisher: Arcadia Publishing (April 27, 2005)
New Hampshire’s Cornish Colony illustrates this distinguished
American art colony. First settled in 1885 by colleagues of America’s
Michelangelo, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the Cornish Colony was a retreat
for sculptors, painters, writers, and musicians. They were attracted
to this peaceful valley nestled in the New Hampshire hills in the
shadow of Vermont’s Mount Ascutney. Known as “the Athens
of America,” the Cornish Colony was a lively, glamorous society
during its heyday from 1885 to 1925. One outstanding member, the
famous artist Maxfield Parrish, was called a “chickadee”
because he spent the entire year in Cornish, not merely the summer.
In New Hampshire’s Cornish Colony, discover a portrait of the
colonists’ society and the fascinating people who contributed
to America’s cultural legacy.
 
Colonies of American Impressionism: Cos Cob, Old Lyme, Shinnecock, and Laguna
Beach by Deborah Epstein Solon, Will South, Calif.) Laguna Art Museum (Laguna
Beach – Paperback Publisher: Laguna Art Museum (December 1998)
 
American Art Colonies, 1850-1930: A Historical Guide to America's Original Art
Colonies and Their Artists by Steve Shipp – Hardcover: 192 pages Publisher:
Greenwood Press (December 30, 1996)
Some of America's most influential artists of the late 19th
and early 20th centuries are featured, along with a concise
overview of the colonies in which they worked. These colonies
ranged from Carmel-Monterey in California to Gloucester-Rockport
in Massachusetts to Taos and Santa Fe in New Mexico. Some of
the artists are famous today, such as Georgia O'Keeffe, while
others were well known at the time and added to the name recognition
of their particular colonies. Scholars, students, and anyone
interested in American Art History will find valuable information
on how the closeness of colonies can affect and influence artists.
For most artists, interest in art colonies began in the mid-1800s
in Europe, where they had gone to live, work, and study. On
returning to America, they continued what they believed was
a practice that benefited their personal maturity as professional
artists--living in a major city such as New York during the
winter and spending summers with other working artists in art
colonies. The impact of those early artists can be seen in the
paintings of many of today's artists.
 
Community of Creativity: A Century of Macdowell Colony Artists by P.
Andrew Spahr, William Nathaniel Banks – Paperback: 103 pages Publisher: Currier
Gallery of Art (October 1996)
 
Rural Artists' Colonies in Europe: 1870-1910 (Issues in Art History Series)
by Nina Lubbren – Paperback: 238 pages Publisher: Rutgers University Press
(August 15, 2001)
Why did thousands of nineteenth-century artists leave the established
urban centers of culture to live and work in the countryside?
By 1900, there were over eighty rural artists' communities across
northern and central Europe. This is the first book to offer
a critical analysis of this important phenomenon on the continent.
Nina Lübbren combines close visual readings of little-known
paintings with an innovative multidisciplinary approach, drawing
on sociology, geography, and theories of tourism.
Rural artists' colonies have been unjustly neglected by an art
history preoccupied with the urban avant-garde. Yet these communities
hatched some of the most exciting innovations of late nineteenth-century
painting. Moreover, the practices and images of rural artists
articulated central concerns of urban middle-class audiences,
in particular the yearning for a nostalgia-filled life that
was considered authentic, premodern, and immersed in nature.
Paradoxically, it was precisely this perception that placed
artists' colonies firmly within modernity, mainly through their
contribution to an emergent mass tourism. |
