Monday, January 23, 2012

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Renowned art museum, Manchester, NH???


The dust is clear and political caravans have long since left the Granite State for South Carolina and beyond. I thought it would be fun to point out that there is more to New Hampshire than skiing and a quad-annual circus of a political primary. Manchester is home to an internationally renowned art museum: the Currier Museum of Art. I am planning a trip off the island and up north to the Currier at the end of the month. My second in recent years. This museum in a little treasure tucked away safely on a side street of a sleepy Northern New England city.

From their website: "The Currier features European and American paintings, decorative arts, photographs and sculpture, including works by Picasso, Monet, O'Keeffe, Wyeth, and LeWitt with exhibitions, tours, and programs year-round. The museum also offers tours of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Zimmerman House."

There are several goodies that are of interest and have me excited to return,

1.) The Henry Melville Fuller Paperweight Collection: 330 high quality glass paperweights from great glasshouses and artist in Europe and the United States.

2.) A fantastic ceramics collection including the works of Mary and Edwin Scheier.

3.)And finally two works by a true itinerant. The Portrait of Mark, Abigail and Lois Susan Demeritt (1835 watercolor, ink and graphite on paper - shown above) and a drawing of Bartholomew Van Dame (1836 watercolor, ink and graphite on paper) both by itinerant Joseph H. Davis. Davis painted more than 150 watercolor portraits of prosperous middle-class men, women, and children who lived along the Maine-New Hampshire border.


I plan to blog more about the Scheiers and Joseph H. Davis. folk pottery and a identified itinerant, how could I not. I may also at some time talk about the Medieval works at the Currier. However, for now I will say, visit the Currier and if you have been there, head back!