AFA Autumn 2021

2021 Antiques & Fine Art 59 Fig. 17: Rudolph Colao (1927–2014), Monhegan Fish Shack, m.d. Oil on Masonite, 12 x 16 inches. Courtesy of the R. Colao Estate. harbor), and the sea in the distance. Little has changed since Bernstein put down her brush. Emile A. Gruppé’s (1896–1978) oil painting of idle sailing craft in Gloucester Harbor, (Fig. 14), with the tower of City Hall rising beyond a dense mass of buildings, is a firm rendering of a substantial urban scene. On the Island he used a lighter touch in painting the much smaller and quieter Monhegan Harbor , (Fig. 15), with its wooden lobster traps and small fishing fleet. For this he switched from oil to watercolor, a change that suggests he agreed with Marshall McLuhan that “the medium is the message.” Some artists drilled down to the details of daily life. Charles Movalli (1945–2016) offered an image of battered wooden sheds and colorful lobster buoys emblematic of the time-worn Monhegan Harbor (Fig. 16). While in Monhegan Fish Shack (Fig. 17), Rudy Colao (1927–2014) visually inventoried the contents of a harborside fish house, including lobstermen’s boxes, buckets, barrels, ropes, and foul weather slickers.  The paintings in the exhibit provide only a glimpse of the works inspired by these two locations over the past dozen or more decades. They are, no doubt but a prologue to continued creativity in future years. Cape Ann and Monhegan Island Vistas: Contrasted New England Art Colonies is scheduled to be on view at the Monhegan Museum of Art & History, Monhegan, Maine, July 1–September 30, 2021, and the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Massachusetts, October 30, 2021–February 13, 2022. An illustrated 64-page catalogue, with contributions by James F. O’Gorman, Martha Oaks, Jennifer G. Pye, and Oliver Barker, will accompany the exhibition. for more information and to confirm schedules, visit www.monheganmuseum.org or call 207.596.7003; or visit www.capeannmuseum.org or call 978.283.0455. James F. O’Gorman, guest curator of the exhibition, is the Grace Slack McNeil Professor Emeritus of the History of American Art at Wellesley College.