The Monhegan Museum of Art and History will present the Monhegan paintings of Lawrence Goldsmith.  Titled “Islandia, Lawrence Goldsmith’s Monhegan,” the exhibition takes its name from Goldsmith’s favorite novel, by Austin Tappan Wright, about an isolated utopian community living in harmony with the natural world.  On view now through September 30, the show includes 31 watercolor, oil, and acrylic paintings that record Goldsmith’s emotional response to the land, sky, and sea of Monhegan Island, located 10 miles from the nearest mainland.  

Lawrence Goldsmith (1916-2004) came to Monhegan from New York City in 1962 and returned for nearly 40 years.  He met his most influential teacher, Reuben Tam, during his first trip to the island.  Tam also lived in New York City and Goldsmith studied for years with Tam at the Brooklyn Museum Art School.  Earlier, while attending Yale, Goldsmith studied watercolor in a workshop with Eliot O’Hara at the Yale School of Art.  After college, he worked for many years as a book and magazine editor, studying at the same time with Philip Evergood, Will Barnet, Meyer Schapiro at the New School of Social Research, and later with Mario Cooper at the Art Students League. In 1968, he was elected to membership in the American Watercolor Society. 

The Monhegan art community appealed to Goldsmith because he felt that island artists shared the goal of exploring what he described as the ‘emotional effects of their subjects’.  His mature style emphasized atmospheric color washes overlaid with contrasting, intricate line work. His paintings border on abstraction, but almost always retain some recognizable element of the landscape.

Goldsmith worked with numerous students on Monhegan and in Vermont, where he spent winters after leaving New York City.  He reached many more students of watercolor through his successful book, “Watercolor Bold and Free,” which he structured as a series of experiments in watercolor designed to stimulate creativity and challenge art students to explore new techniques and approaches to composition. 

When Goldsmith’s eyesight failed in the last years of his life he did not stop painting.  No longer able to work outdoors, he painted in his studio with the help of his wife, Lynda, as well as students and friends.  He found that while he preferred painting outdoors, he also found value in painting from memory in order to capture the essence of a scene.   Until his last summer on Monhegan in 2003, Goldsmith continued to paint vibrant, spontaneous and highly personal responses to Monhegan Island where he found endless inspiration.

The Monhegan Museum of Art and History is open through Sept. 30 from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily through Aug. In Sept. the hours become 1:30–3:30 p.m. Admision is $5. A catalogue of the exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue available online and at the museum.

About the Monhegan Museum of Art and History

The Monhegan Museum displays a wide variety of exhibits relevant to the natural, social, industrial, cultural, and artistic history of Monhegan. It is the creation of many dedicated volunteers with a commitment to preserving, documenting, and exhibiting materials that convey the unique and appealing life of Monhegan Island. The Museum is housed in the historic Monhegan Light Station, which is the second tallest light on the coast of Maine.  The Monhegan Light has been in continuous service since its completion in 1824 and was home to twenty six different keeper’s families before its automation in 1960.  With tremendous community support, the museum opened to the public in the summer of 1968.  In 1980 the lighthouse and museum were placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Museum’s collections are comprised of the historic Monhegan Light Station itself; the house and studio built by Rockwell Kent; more than 1600 works of art; over 200 Native American stone artifacts; fishing equipment from the early 1800s to present; over 12,000 photographs predominantly circa 1900; and documents and objects pertaining to island families, artists, dwellings, and vessels.  Permanent exhibitions are installed in the Light keeper’s house, and the Assistant Light keeper’s house gallery features art exhibitions each summer, such as Lamar Dodd: Half a Century of Monhegan Summers (2015),  Monhegan 1914/2014 Famous and Forgotten (2014), A Spirit of Wonder: Monhegan Artists and the 1913 Armory Show (2013), A Sense of Place: Representational Painting on Monhegan 1950-2000 (2012), John Hultberg & Monhegan Island: The Man, the Place, & His Dreams (2011).