Marsden Hartley-Painter

"The Picture Show, presenting works of art from the permanent collection of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska."

[Vincent Price] "Here is one of the first paintings of a famous American artist. He had no formal training when he painted it. It was his home state of Maine and very close to his heart. The cloud and mountain motif is something he would use repeatedly. Thirty three years later the artist painted a similar view of Maine. Again we see mountains, sky, clouds and water. Color is applied in a special way that has personal meaning for the artist. This painting, Mount Catadin, is by Marsden Hartley. It is loaned for exhibition more than any other work in the Sheldon Gallery. Between these two paintings is the story of much exploration of artistic styles. Marsden Hartley went through more phases of European Modernism and American Realism than any other important 20th Century American artist. In Paris Hartley was influenced by the Cubists. At age 24 he painted Still Life with Fan, a Cubist study of ordinary objects. Then he turned away from the logic of the Cubists to the emotional and symbolic expression that he found in Germany, and he returned to a more relaxed style. Painting Number One is one of the first Abstract paintings by an American. Hartley continued to explore various styles including American Folk Art. There were paintings of nature. But he finally returned to the landscape of New England. Soon he was back to mountains. Here is a volcano. And then of course, Mount Catadin. Accepting that he was best and happiest with his own unique way of seeing he wrote, 'I am trying to return to the earlier conditions of my inner life, and to take out of them experiences as they have come to me in the intervening years.' "