Since the Aidron Duckworth Art Museum announced it would close at the end of the season, it has been hard for me to keep up with the sheer number of exhibitions and performances. It seems as though every week a new artist is waltzing into the former schoolhouse on Bean Road in Meriden that Duckworth called home.
This weekend might be the unruliest of them all, as the museum opens a “Guest Artist Grand Salon,” featuring works by the nearly 60 guest artists who have shown work at the museum over the years.
Duckworth taught art classes in the Upper Valley from the mid-1970s until his death in 2001. The 18th anniversary of his death falls next month, a few days after the museum’s closure. Expect former students, Upper Valley artists who have shown work at the museum and many other people who knew Duckworth to be in attendance at a bustling reception from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday.
The “Grand Salon” — so called because the work will hang all over the walls, salon style — along with “Exhibition XXXIV – The Multitudes Contained,” the museum’s final exhibition of Aidron Duckworth paintings and drawings, is on view through Oct. 27, when the museum closes.
Also in a retrospective mood is the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park in Cornish. Opening Saturday, “On View in Cornish: American Art at the Picture Gallery, 1948–2019” looks back at all of the exhibitions sponsored by the Saint-Gaudens Memorial, the private organization that preserved the Cornish home of Augustus Saint-Gaudens before handing it off to the National Park Service.
The show ranges from Maxfield Parrish, Marguerite Zorach and Paul Sample to Varujan Boghosian, Ben Frank Moss and Shona Macdonald. A reception is planned for 4:30 to 6 on Sept. 28, starting with a curator’s talk. Through Oct. 31.
One of the themes of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park is that we Americans have art to thank, at least in part, for spurring the nation’s conservation movement. Paintings by Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Remington and others were hugely influential in encouraging the establishment of national parks and in fostering the idea that America had land worth preserving from the destructive forces of mining and drilling.
The latest example of the park’s message is a talk on at 7 on Saturday evening by art critic Tyler Green, who will describe how the work of photographer Carleton Watkins swayed such conservationists as Frederick Billings. In 1861, Watkins dragged a massive, two-foot-by-three-foot camera into the Yosemite Valley and when he re-emerged, he had with him 30 photographs that led directly to the 1864 legislation that protected the land and the 1890 establishment of Yosemite National Park.
Green, who is probably best known as the producer and host of The Modern Art Notes Podcast (though he was an influential art blogger prior to the podcast), has written a book about Watkins, Carleton Watkins: Making the West American. A book signing is planned for 6 p.m. Saturday, before Green’s talk.
Most importantly, the park is exhibiting “Creating an American Landscape,” a show of eight of Watkins’ Yosemite prints, reproduced from originals in the Billings Family Archives at Billings Farm & Museum. The show is on view in the park’s Carriage Barn visitors center through Oct. 31 and is open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“Colors in Life,” an exhibition of watercolor paintings by members of the Connecticut River Chapter of the Vermont Watercolor Society, go on display at Tunbridge Public Library on Wednesday. A reception is planned for 2 to 4 p.m. on Sept. 29. Through Nov. 10.
“Places We Call Home,” an exhibition of paintings by Marilyn Farnsworth Wendling, goes on view on Friday at The Square Rabbit in New London. A reception and pie social are planned for 4 to 7 p.m. on Friday. Through Oct. 5.
ArtisTree Gallery, South Pomfret. “Faces and Places,” recent digital paintings by Samuel Neustadt, of Pomfret, Through Sept. 28.
AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon. “Marked” and “Rough/Polished,” by Montpelier sculptors Mary Admasian and Robert Hitzig, respectively. The two will hold a discussion in the galleries at 6 p.m. on Sept. 26. “Love at First Sight” paintings by Rosemary Conroy, of Weare, N.H., and “What Is on Your Balcony?” paintings by Concord artist Pamela R. Tarbell. Through Oct. 3.
Betty Grant Gallery, Converse Free Library, Lyme. “How’s it gonna end?” drawing and paintings by Lyme artist Carl Mehrbach. Through Sept. 28.
BigTown Gallery, Rochester, Vt. “East to West: A Ceramic Dialogue,” ceramics by Mark Pharis, Liz Quackenbush, and Cappy Thompson. Through Sept. 28.
Center for Art + Design, Colby-Sawyer College, New London. “Coming Home: The Ceramics of Vivika and Otto Heino.” Through Oct. 15.
Center for the Arts, New London. Paintings by Penny Koburger, Ludmila Gayvoronsky and Marianne Stillwagon hang at Bar Harbor Bank and Trust, New London Inn and Blue Loon Bakery, respectively. Through October.
Chandler Gallery, Randolph. “An Archive of Feeling,” a group show curated by J. Turk. Through Nov. 3.
Cider Hill Gardens and Gallery, Windsor. Outdoor sculpture by William Ballantyne and paintings in egg tempera and gold leaf by gallery co-owner Gary Milek.
Collective — the Art of Craft, Woodstock. Ceramics by Andrea Trzaskos, as well as works by jeweler T. Breeze Verdant, glass sculptor Alissa Faber and fiber artist Jennifer Johnson. Through September.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon. The shows feature Elliot Burg, Jane Masters and Mark Washburn, photographs; Bruce Conklin, oil paintings; Sherry Saint-Germaine, botanical drawings; Sara Goodman, textiles; Hartford High School Art Students and the Cardigan Mountain Arts Association.
The Great Hall, Springfield, Vt. “Alchemy: Metal, Mystery & Magic,” features work by Jeanne Carbonetti, Sabrina Fadial, Alexandra Heller, Peter Heller, Pat Musick, Dan O’Donnell, Gerald Stoner and Johnny Swing. and is on view into February.
Hall Art Foundation, in Reading, Vt. Shows include “Made in Vermont,” works by Vermont artists; exhibitions by Richard Artschwager and the super-realist artist Malcolm Morley. On the grounds: “English Sculptors in New England.” Admission is $10, except on the first Friday of the month, when it’s free.
Kilton Public Library, West Lebanon. Lebanon native Sam Wiebkin is the current artist-in-residence at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. An exhibition of her work is on view through September.
Ledyard Gallery, Howe Library, Hanover. Recent work by members of the Cardigan Mountain Art Association. Through Oct. 2.
Library Arts Center, Newport. The “Selections Exhibit,” work by Debbie Campbell, Rod Keller, Susan Lirakis, Gillian Martlew, Meg McLean, Susan Parmenter, Adele Sanborn and Ann Saunderson. Through Sept. 19.
Long River Gallery, White River Junction. Tattooed guitars by Hartland artist Jenna Rice, and “Birches,” paintings by Amy Hook-Therrien.
Matt Brown Fine Art, Lyme. Paintings by Marcie Maynard and handmade furniture by Peter Maynard, a husband and wife duo from South Acworth, N.H. Through Oct. 12.
North Common Arts, Chelsea. Abstract encaustic collages by mixed-media artist Athena Petra Tasiopoulos, of Barre, Vt.
Scavenger Gallery, White River Junction. “Skywriting,” recent mixed media works by Luciana Frigerio.
Sculpture Fest, Woodstock. Contemporary sculpture in outdoor settings at the Prosper Road home of Charlet and Peter Davenport, at the nearby King Farm, and at the Woodstock History Center, which hosts “Vermont Carvers & Sculptors Exhibition,” work by 15 Vermont sculptors. Both the King Farm and History Center shows are open through the end of October. The work at the Davenports’ is on view year-round.
Steven Thomas Inc. Fine Arts & Antiques, White River Junction. Work by Upper Valley “vintage” artists, such as Alice Standish Buell, John Semple, Horace Brown, Neil Drevitson and Robert Caulfield.
Two Rivers Printmaking Studio, White River Junction. “Through the Curve,” recent prints by Hartland artist Rachel Gross. Through Oct. 28.
Alex Hanson can be reached at ahanson@vnews.com or 603-727-3207.
Correction: Aidron Duckworth died Oct. 30, 2001. The date of his death was incorrect in an earlier version of this column.
