20/20 Vision: First Day of Class

Are you signed up for Winter Studies yet?Maybe a sneak peek at the first class will persuade you to join us. The lecture is entitled "Visualizing Colonial Identity" but don't let that intimidate you. 

 

As the story of the Massachusetts Bay Colony unfolds you'll hear about hairstyles that Puritan ministers condemned for "inciting lust" and the clever ways the colonists found to smuggle lace from Venice. You'll get a teenager's view of the Boston Massacre and learn how a failed brewery lead to the start of the American Revolution. Plus, in a small tribute Valentine's Day, we'll take time to appreciate Ann Bradstreet's 1678 poem "To My Dear and Loving Husband." And that's just the first hour.  

Click here to register online or call the Museum to reserve your place right away.

The Flip Side of Nason

In the current Thomas Nason exhibition I've pointed out the modern elements incorporated into several of Nason's prints. I knew I was on the right track when I was able to examine some of his wood blocks up close. I thought the blocks would help to explain the process of printmaking and wanted to include a number of them in the show. I was very surprised to find that some blocks revealed a "flip side" to Nason's aesthetic. On one face of the block was a a typical landscape or farm scene, but on the other side. . .  well, let's just say the imagery leans more toward the Dada or Pop Art styles. This video explains what I mean.

Flo on the Go!

Just last week I was flipping through my stack of week old Daily Variety and was thrilled to see that the pre-Broadway run for the revival of West Side Story was getting great reviews. Phew! I just that week secured 50 highly desirable seats in the front mezzanine for museum members and friends for a trip to Broadway on Wednesday, May 6th. What makes this revival so important is that this version will be bilingual for the first time with Spanish text and lyrics for the Puerto Rican Sharks. Although WSS is turning 50, both the Arthur Laurents and Steven Sondheim who created the original version are involved with the rewrites—very cool. Click HERE for FGM tickets! Day trips are open to Museum members and friends and information is available online.

Wood Engraving Explained

Tammi helped me make this video to explain the process of wood engraving. The blocks shown in the video are two versions of Birches on for the cover and one for the title page of Robert Frost's 1959 volume You Come Too.

Ex Libris

Shortly after Thomas Nason's death the Boston Public Library began work on a complete catalogue of his prints.  In 1977, Francis Comstock and William Fletcher released  The Work of Thomas W. Nason in conjunction with the BPL.  The book contains reproductions of every Nason print, critical essays, extensive indexes, as well as Nason's own essay on the history of wood engraving.  It is the definitive work on Nason that's been on my desk for months while I was preparing the exhibition.  In addition to a deluxe edition, a limited run of 1000 copies was printed.  

Our shop manager, Matt Greene, intrepidly tracked down the last remaining lot of these books and they will soon arrive in our shop. These are new, not used, copies of the original limited edition.  You may even find the deluxe edition on our shelves as well.  While you're shopping make sure to check out the the volumes of Frost poetry and other books illustrated by Nason on sale now.

Frost/Kennedy

In our current exhibition we're spotlighting the collaboration between printmaker Thomas Nason and poet Robert Frost. The two men met only once, in the Spring of 1961. Frost was, by that time, the most well-known poet in America. On January 20, 1961, Frost took the stage at President Kennedy's inauguration to read "Dedication," a poem he'd written for the event. The sun glinting off the snow made the glare too bright for Frost to read his lengthy work. Instead, he recited "The Gift Outright," a 1942 poem, from memory. 

The final lines of "Dedication" fittingly read:
It makes the prophet in us all presage
The glory of a next Augustan age
Of a power leading from its strength and pride,
Of young ambition eager to be tried,
Firm in our free beliefs without dismay,
In any game the nations want to play.
A golden age of poetry and power
Of which this noonday's the beginning hour.

See you on Sunday

I heard so many interesting questions about printmaking last night at the Member's Preview for the Thomas Nason exhibition that I'm thinking about adding an additional gallery talk focused on his technique.  Did you know that the Encyclopedia Britannica contacted Nason in 1951 to get permission to use his images in their entry on printmaking?  That's how technically admired he was in his time.  

This Sunday at 2 PM I'll be giving a gallery talk entitled "Nothing Gold Can Stay: Conjuring the Past in Thomas Nason's Prints of New England."  In this informal discussion, I'll focus on the melancholy evident in Nason's farm scenery.  Both Nason and Frost expressed, each in their own medium, a kind of despair at the passing of traditional New England ways.  We'll look in depth at Farm Buildings, A New England Scene, The Leaning Silo, A Deserted Farm, and Factory Village.

More gallery talks will follow, one comparing Frost and Nason and another on the modern elements in Nason's prints.