2018
A Swedish Folk Tale
March 23 – June 3, 2018
Opening Reception, Friday, March 23, 4:30-6:00pm
Martha Farham Cahoon (1905-1999) married her Swedish folk art heritage with early American and Pennsylvania-German design to create unique expressions in decorative art and painted furniture that had a bold impact on Cape Cod culture.
Image: Detail decorated by Ralph Cahoon, Sheba and Solomon Secretary, 1946, oil paint on antique Victorian secretary, Collection of the Cahoon Museum of American Art
Lead Sponsor: A Trustee of the Cahoon Museum of American Art
The Pollinators
June 8 – August 12
Opening Reception, Saturday, June 9, 4:30-6:00pm
Featuring new, regional artwork inspired by the intricate natural process between plants and their pollinators. Many living creatures assist plants in their reproduction, including species of bats, bees, birds, and butterflies, as well as other unusual animals. Wind and water also play a role in pollination, a theme that is highly timely and resonant with many contemporary artists.
Artists include: David Brooks, Don Cadoret, Ernesto Caivano, Candice Smith Corby, Sam Droege, Valerie Hammond, Duy Hoàng, Hilary Hutchison, Richard Perry, Shelley Reed, David Sigel, Annie Silverman, Randal Thurston
Don Cadoret, Pollinator, acrylic on board
Lead Sponsor: Cape Cod Healthcare
Herman Maril: The Strong Forms of Our Experience
August 17 – October 28
This exhibition of nearly 90 artworks, on loan from the Maril Foundation, provides a comprehensive display by the 20th Century modernist artist Herman Maril (1908-1986) and includes works executed from 1929 – 1985. Although Maril’s oil paintings are widely known, he also mastered virtually all drawing media, including watercolor, gouache, artist crayon, pencil, ink, and ball point pen, samples of which are the focus of this exhibition. A lifelong artist, Maril was a teacher of studio art at the University of Maryland and summered in Provincetown, MA where he worked daily in his studio. The exhibition includes many of his sketches and watercolors of fisherman, docks, and beaches from that time. Maril’s artworks are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, among others. A four-color catalog prepared by Dr. Ann Prentice Wagner, Curator of Drawings at the Arkansas Art Center, accompanies the show. For those visiting the museum who would like to learn more about Maril, a reading area is available with historic catalogs and books.
Herman Maril, Bluff and Sea, watercolor on paper
Lead Sponsor: Eaton Vance Investment Counsel
Twisted, Twined, and Woven: Contemporary Fiber Art
November 2 – December 22
Opening Reception, Friday, November 2, 4:30-6:00pm
Twisted, Twined, and Woven is an exhibition of contemporary fiber art that illustrates the experimental diversity of both method and themes in the work of regional fiber artists. The exhibit includes framed works as well as hanging installations and large scale, free-standing sculpture.
Artists include: Jodi Colella, Jacqueline Davidson, Anna Kristina Goransson, Sarah Haskell, Andy Mauery, Salley Mavor, Diane Savona and Elizabeth Whyte Schulze.
Salley Mavor, Cover Up, embroidery and fabric
Hands On History: The Cahoons and the Crocker House
On December 7th we unveiled a new historical installation designed by Mary Ann Agresti, Hands on History: The Cahoons and the Crocker House. The display highlights the Museum’s home, the historic Crocker House, and teaches about the artists Ralph and Martha Cahoon who both lived and had their studios in the building. It shows how they enlivened the house with their artistry while preserving its historic features. The display was made possible by a CARE for the Cape and Island grant.
SEASONAL EXHIBITIONS
Scrimshandering: Ralph Cahoon, Scrimshaw, and Nantucket Whaling Heritage
March 23 – December 22
Artist Ralph Cahoon (1910 – 1982) had a deep interest in scrimshaw, the American nuatical folk art which developed alongside the whaling industry during the first half of the nineteenth century. This exhibit features Cahoon’s trompe l’oeil scrimshaw works paired with examples of historic scrimshaw.
Lead Sponsor: The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod
Folk Art Traditions at the Cahoon: Highlights from the Permanent Collection
March 23 – December 22
This selection includes 10 folk art paintings from artists working from the early 19th century through contemporary times. The exhibition explores the history of folk art, as well as its particular importance as a cornerstone of the Cahoon’s permanent collection. The artworks on display include portraits and landscapes ranging from serious representation to works filled with humor and whimsy and the represented artists include T. Nye, Dorothy B. Davis, Martha Cahoon, Ralph Cahoon, Elizabeth Mumford and Janet Munro. The exhibition provides an excellent introduction to the art form and includes detailed explanatory labels and additional information on the development of folk art traditions.
Cahoon Studio
March 23 – December 22
Visit a recreation of the art studio of Cape Cod artists Ralph (1910-1982) and Martha Cahoon (1905-1999) who lived and worked in the museum’s Crocker house beginning in 1945. The Cahoons’ studio features artwork, journals, ledgers, archival artifacts, photographs and ephemera in the space where they painted.
Streetside: Head of the Cod & Tail of the Fish by Hilary Hutchison
May 25 – November 22
Fish are jumpin’ – in particular, one six-foot-tall cod, cast in concrete with a gray-green patina of oil paint and paste wax, whose head and tail break the lawn’s surface in front of the Cahoon Museum on Route 28 in Cotuit. It’s the first sculpture in a new public arts initiative at the museum, called “Streetside,” installed thanks to partial funding from the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod. The iconic New England fish is on view “streetside” at the Cahoon through October 31.
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Hutchison, who holds degrees in sculpture from Boston University, lives and teaches near Philadelphia in the winter, and continues to create new sculptures. She has completed a number of commissioned works, including at Tufts University and the Fessenden School in Newton. A resident of Cotuit during the summer, she often offers workshops in connection with various Cahoon gallery exhibits. She and her husband, artist David Sigel, teach a two-week summer studio-based program for young artists at the Cotuit Center for the Arts, and both paint in the Cahoon’s annual Brush Off event.A group of Hutchison’s fiber and wire sculptures were also included in The Pollinators exhibit at the Cahoon. The artworks in that exhibition, she said, were created by working from “microscopic photos of seeds and seed pods.” She added, “Nature is at the crux of what inspires me.”
– Barbara Clark, Barnstable Patriot, June 21, 2018
Sponsored in part by a grant from the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod
Color in Contemporary Art
October 30 – December 22
Contemporary artists use color not just as an element but often as a central feature in their work. This selection of artworks from the Cahoon Museum’s collection highlights artists who play with color as a way to evoke mood, feeling, and emotion.
2017
Paul Moro: A Painter’s Journey
March 15 – April 30, 2017
Opening reception – Saturday, March 18 from 4:30 to 6:00pm
This landmark exhibition is the first-ever retrospective of artist Paul Moro (1886-1953), whose oil paintings showcase a masterful vision of Cape Cod in the early twentieth century. Cape Cod was an important influence and inspiration to Moro and where he created some of his most memorable works. This exhibit surveys the body of work he created, including lushly rendered landscapes and energetic genre scenes.
Exhibition sponsored by “A Former Member of the Cahoon Museum’s Board of Trustees”
Paul Moro, Floral Bounty By The Bay, Dennis, 1936, oil on canvas
Elizabeth Mumford: New Works
May 3 – June 25, 2017
Opening reception – Friday, May 5 from 5:30 to 7:00pm
Liz Mumford’s nostalgic paintings of New England scenes and seaside life reflect a contemporary take on the simple pleasures and traditions of our American heritage. This exhibit highlights both Mumford’s signature style of painted tableaux with lettered borders drawn from such sources of New England wisdom as Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richards Almanac, bible verses, and sea shanties and presents a new direction in her creative work, that of large-scale circular watercolors.
Exhibition made possible by a Community Exhibition Partnership with:
Elizabeth Mumford, Rabbits and Potatoes, 2017, watercolor on paper
Master of the Maritime: James E. Buttersworth
June 28 – August 20, 2017
Opening reception – Sunday, July 2 from 4:30 to 6:00pm
James Edward Buttersworth (1817-1894) is considered among the foremost American ship portraitists of the nineteenth century. This exhibition features examples of his maritime paintings, known for their meticulous detail, dramatic settings, and grace in movement. Buttersworth was born in London to a family of maritime artists and studied with his father, Thomas Buttersworth who was also noted for the genre. This exhibition presents fine examples by both James and Thomas Buttersworth from private collections and museums including paintings from the collection of the Cahoon Museum of American Art.
Exhibition made possible by Community Exhibition Partnerships with:
James E. Buttersworth, Yacht Race off Sandy Hook, oil on canvas, Collection of Alan Granby and Janice Hyland
At Rest, In Flight: Cape Cod Bird Carvings
August 23 – October 8, 2017
Opening reception – Friday, August 25 from 5:30 to 7:00pm
The art and craft of bird carving has an important history on Cape Cod where the Cape’s rich bird life has drawn both bird watchers and bird carvers alike. This exhibition surveys the history of decoys and the change of the craft into a unique art form. Artists included are considered masters in the field who have the ability to capture wildlife subjects in precise detail, such as historic carvers Eldridge Arnold and A. Elmer Crowell, as well a number of prominent contemporary carvers.
Elmer Crowell (1862-1952), Lesser Yellowlegs Preening, circa 1930-1940, Private Collection
Exhibition made possible by a Community Exhibition Partnership with:
Contemporary Silhouettes: The Art of Cut Paper
October 11 – December 23, 2017
Opening reception will be held on Saturday, October 14 from 4:30 to 6:00pm
Contemporary Silhouettes presents an abundance of extraordinarily intricate work produced in the art form of cut paper. Contemporary paper artists draw upon many global folk traditions for inspiration, including Scherenschnitte, chuāng huā, and American portrait silhouettes as they re-imagine innovative new handcrafted pieces.
Historic and contemporary artists in this exhibit include Elizabeth Alexander, Ernesto Caivano, Pamela Dalton, Fred Liang, Lucy Gibbons Morse, Randal Thurston, Tomas Vu-Daniel, and Yuan Zuo, who explore themes of the silhouette to achieve highly intricate and inspiring effects.
Lucy Gibbons Morse (1839) – 1936), Illustration # 1 from “Breezes” published in 1921, Collection of Sarah Davis
Small Works Show
November 21 – December 23, 2017
Opening Reception and Holiday Party will be held on Friday, December 1 from 5:30 to 7:00pm
Small Works showcases paintings and mixed media works from talented local artists. With the theme of the miniature, this year’s exhibit emphasizes extra small works. A portion of the proceeds benefits the Cahoon Museum and helps to support the Museum’s dynamic exhibitions, conserve collection artworks, and develop meaningful creative experiences.
Artists include: Heather Blume, Howard L. Bonington, Don Cadoret, Betsy Payne Cook, Anne Doyle, Kelly Ferguson, Paula Grimes, William Hemmerdinger, Marieluise Hutchinson, Kathryn Kleekamp, Jane Lincoln, Alison McMurry, Rosalie Nadeau, Kevin Nolan, Susan O’Brien McLean, Carol-Jean O’Toole, Karen M. Pinard, Candice Ronesi, David Sigel, Christie Velesig, and Lynn Wallin.
2016
May 8 – June 26, 2016
Coming Home Again: Works by Ralph and Martha Cahoon
The museum is back home in Cotuit! And the inaugural show in our new gallery fetures works by Ralph and Marhta Cahoon that are also coming home again – most for the very first time.
Grand Re-opening – Sunday, May 8, 1-3pm
Caption: Ralph Cahoon, WHOI, oil on masonite, private collection
June 28 – August 14, 2016
Face to Face: Recent Portrait Studies by Jon Friedman
Jon Friedman, a nationally known portrait painter who works out of his Truro studio, exhibits new portrait studies of notable figures. His large-scale oil renderings highlight the creative process of contemporary portraiture.
Caption: Jon Friedman, Helena & Christopher, mixed media on paper
August 17 – October 2, 2016
Contemporary Pastel: Cape Cod Landscapes
This exhibit is a survey of contemporary pastel paintings from eighteen artists who are inspired by Cape Cod. Contemporary artists are drawn to Cape Cod for its light and ever-changing natural beauty. The artists represented in Contemporary Pastel: Cape Cod Landscapes capture snapshots of the Cape’s varied landscapes using a range of techniques from abstraction to realism. The exhibition opens to the public on August 17 and continues through October 2. A reception will be held on Friday, August 19 from 5:30 to 7:00pm at the Museum’s location at 4676 Falmouth Road in Cotuit.
Artists in this exhibit include: Edith Cohenno Bryant, Margaret Farrell Bruno, Susan Carey, Eileen Casey, Ed Chesnovitch, Betsy Payne Cook, Cynthia Crimmin, Kathy Edmonston, Carole Chisholm Garvey, Susan Hollis, David Kelley, Alison McMurray, Rosalie Nadeau, Donna Rosetti-Bailey, Susan Sigel, Jeanne Rosier Smith, Barbara Stone, and Linda Young.
Caption: David Kelly, Windy Greenpond, pastel on paper
October 5 – November 20, 2016
Botanica
Botanica is an exhibition of art inspired by botany, horticulture, and nature featuring artists from the National Association of Women Artists, Massachusetts Chapter. Botanica includes 47 works of art by 24 artists in a range of mediums such as drawing, painting, and sculpture. The exhibition opens to the public on Wednesday, October 5 and continues through Sunday, November 20. A free public reception with the artists will be held on Friday, October 7 from 5:30 to 7:00pm at the Museum’s location at 4676 Falmouth Road in Cotuit.
Artists in this exhibit include: Kim Alemian of Cohasset, Lorrie Berry of Wenham, Anita Helen Cohen of Newton, Debra Corbett of Melrose, Jennifer Costello of Charlestown, Elena duPlessis of Waban, Margie Florini of Danvers, Christine Frisbee of Osterville, Lisa Goren of Hyde Park, Susan Hammond of Hackettstown NJ, Lynne Johnson of Bolton, Sandee Johnson, Linda Pearlman Karlsberg, Carolyn Latanision of Winchester, Nella Lush of North Andover, Judy Metcalfe of Rockport, Silvina Mizrahi, Carol A. O’Neill of Fairhaven, Pokey Park of Tucscon AZ, Patti Robbins of Arroyo Grande CA, Jessica Scott of Scituate, Laurie Simko of Chelmsford, Pamela Tarbell of Concord, and Idaherma Williams of Princeton NJ.
Caption: Jennifer Jean Costello, (Nature 6) Papaver, oil on canvas
November 23 – December 23, 2016
Fourth Annual Small Works Show
Our Fourth Annual Small Works Show features fine art from 38 contemporary Cape Cod artists. This popular invitational exhibit celebrates the high level of creativity of emerging and established local artists; artworks are for sale as a benefit for the Cahoon Museum.
Artists featured in the exhibit include: Sandi Blanda, Howard L. Bonington, Edith Cohenno Bryant, Don Cadoret, Betsy Payne Cook, Cynthia Cronig, Stanley Cronig, Dan Cutrona, Anne Doyle, Jane Eccles, Jason Eldredge, Ziegmont Guzikowski, William Hemmerdinger, Susan A. Hollis, Hilary Hutchison, Marieluise Hutchinson, David F. Kelley, Kathryn Kleekamp, Abby Lammers, Jane Lincoln, Isabella Luff, Susan O’Brien McLean, Carol Jean O’Toole, Alison L. McMurry, Elizabeth Mumford, Rosalie Nadeau, Kevin Nolan, John Ricciardi, Candice Ronesi, Nancy Rubens, David Sigel, Ellen Sinel, Barbara Sparre, Timothy Struna, Barbara Stone, Christine Velesig, Lynn Wallin, and Arlene Weibel.
Get in your holiday shopping while supporting the arts!
Opening Reception and Holiday Party: Friday, December 2 from 5:30 – 7:00pm
Above left: Don Cadoret, Magic of the Night, acrylic on panel
Above right: Marieluise Hutchinson, Winter Traveler, oil on panel