Touring Exhibit of New Paintings By Bruce Herman Comes to Cape Ann Museum

“I’ve tried and failed countless times to capture this place in straightforward landscape painting. And I’ve tried to bear witness to something nearly impossible to articulate.” 

Since January 2010, "Presence/Absence: New Work by Bruce Herman" has been shown at various galleries throughout the country. Now the exhibit will be coming to Herman’s hometown of Gloucester, Massachusetts, opening October 9 at the Cape Ann Museum and running through December 12. A reception—free and open to the public—will be held Saturday, October 16, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Little Gidding © Bruce Herman, 2009
Oil on wood panel, 60” x 70”
NOTE: The title is taken from the fourth section of T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets—a masterpiece poem also inspired by Cape Ann.

Herman, the Lothlorien Distinguished Chair of Art at Gordon College, finds the Gloucester museum a fitting space to show his new collection of paintings. As a longtime resident of the peninsula north of Boston known as Cape Ann, Herman has been inspired by the raw beauty of the land, sea and sky as well as the changing weather.
 
“I’ve tried and failed countless times to capture this place in straightforward landscape painting,” he said. “And I’ve tried to bear witness to something nearly impossible to articulate, even for a great poet like T. S. Eliot who spent many summers here, much less a painter.”

Curator Kathrine Page believes Herman has accomplished such a goal. “His art is deeply rooted in an understanding of theology, philosophy and aesthetics—but it is also strongly physical,” she said. “He investigates complex layers of textures, color and form in a vigorous additive and subtractive process, actually employing an electric sander and scraper on his work.”

Page says Herman’s unique process gives him an intimacy with his materials and with the rich surface texture that results from the forces at play. The exhibit includes Sequences from the Great Ledge, a series of configurable wooden panels in mixed media, oils, silver leaf. Sizes vary from 28' x 72'.
 
Herman will also offer a lecture entitled “Presence/Absence” on his process Saturday, November 13, at 3 p.m. at the Museum. The lecture is included in the price of admission to the museum, but reservations are required.

And on Saturday, November 20 at 11 a.m., there will be a walking tour with Herman to the Great Ledge in West Gloucester. The program is $20 for members of the Cape Ann Museum or Essex County Greenbelt, and $25 for nonmembers. Space is limited and reservations are required.
  
For more information please visit www.capeannmuseum.org/special/exhibits.htm or call 978.283.0455.

Visit Bruce Herman's web site.

Read a recent news story in the Cape Ann Beacon on Bruce's exhibit here.

For media inquiries, please contact Jo Kadlecek, 978.867.4752 or [email protected]. 

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Gordon College is a multidenominational Christian college of the liberal arts and sciences on Boston’s North Shore, offering majors in 36 fields with graduate programs in education and music education. Gordon is nationally recognized for excellence in academics and in character building, and ranks as one of the nation’s top Christian colleges. www.gordon.edu

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