North of Cape Cod, north of Boston, is Cape Ann home to the towns of Gloucester and Rockport.
Over the American centuries they began as hard-working fishing villages and evolved into tourist destinations. Gloucester, in particular, retains its ties to its industrial blue collar past. It’s home to a great fleet of commercial fishing operations. The harbors filled with a combination of ocean going fishing boats and bobbing pleasure boats.
The combination of nature and working man grit drew many artists to Cape Ann in the early part of the 1900s. Three of them; Milton Avery, Adolph Gottlieb, and Mark Rothko shared summers together on Cape Ann from the 1920s into the 1940s, before moving on to Provincetown in later years.
During their time together in New York City and Cape Ann they learned from each other and developed their personal styles. The work they created together on Cape Ann is the focus of an exhibition at the Cape Ann Museum, in Gloucester that is open to the public until September 26 of this year.
Cape Ann Museum.
More than eighty works from all three artists are on display.
The collection allows you to see the progression of their work over the decades and understand their motivations. Painters are often attracted to islands and peninsulas because of the quality of the light. In the case of Avery, Gottlieb and Rothko, they were also attracted by the mix of nature and industry they could choose from as subjects.
The three photos above were inspired by the work of the artists after visiting the exhibition at the end of August.
The exhibition was organized in coordination with The Phillips Museum in Washington, D.C., which happens to be one of my favorite museums in the nation’s capital. It’s near DuPont Circle.
When the show ends in Gloucester it will move to the Phillips. The work will be on display there until late January.
If you live in New England, the trip to Gloucester is worth making any time of year. It’s an area rich in history that tells part of the story of working class America. The Cape Ann Museum, in downtown Gloucester, is small scale, but filled with interesting work and artifacts.
Painted oars held up by children at annual Gloucester parades.