There is talk of a new art trail coming to Midcoast Maine this summer.

Several nonprofits and businesses have been gifted wood sculptures and reliefs made by the late Cushing sculptor Bernard (Blackie) Langlais.

Langlais, who died in 1977 at the age of 58, was known for his oversized, figurative, often humorous sculptures, mostly of animals, but with some lucky (or unlucky, as in the case of Richard Nixon) humans thrown in.

Of note is the seven and a half foot tall lady in a pink dress reclining in the yard beside his house titled “Local Girl.” The “girl” was actually fashioned after Christina Olson of “Christina's World” in the famous painting by Andrew Wyeth.

Kohler Foundation of Wisconsin, which deals in the preservation of art and the placement of it with nonprofits, has acquired a large number of pieces from the Langlais estate. Kohler's preservation coordinator, Susan Kelly, has been working hard to distribute and place them in nonprofits in Maine and elsewhere.

Colby College has had some of Langlais' work in its permanent collection for a number of years.

The first Langlais work at Colby was a gift from artist Alex Katz in 1962, according to Hannah Blunt, the Langlais Curator for Special Projects at Colby College Museum of Art. “(It was) a small, abstract wood relief,” Blunt said.

In the 1970s the college acquired four more works through private donors and museum acquisitions. Langlais' wife, Helen Friend Langlais, gifted several works sometime in the mid to late ’80s, after his death. And upon Helen's death in 2010, the entirety of the Langlais estate was willed to the college.
 

Terri Yoho of Kohler Foundation was first made aware of the Langlais sculptures and reliefs by Blunt in December of 2010.

“We were contacted by Colby College curator Hannah Blunt after they came to the realization that it wasn't practical for Colby to preserve the art and care for it in situ,” Yoho said. “They knew that while they wanted a major collection of Langlais' work, they couldn't take on the entire body of painting, sculptures and assemblage pieces.”

In December 2012 Colby transferred about 2,900 pieces of Langlais' work, along with the artist’s former residence and the 90-acre property in Cushing, to the Kohler Foundation, with an agreement that Kohler's conservators and technicians would conserve the pieces and preserve the property.

“Kohler Foundation is undertaking the monumental task of conserving outdoor sculptures on the Cushing property,” Yoho wrote on the Kohler Foundation website. Several will be adopted and cared for by the Colby College Museum of Art, and a part of the estate will be preserved as a sculpture park and will be named in honor of Bernard and Helen Langlais.

The Georges River Land Trust of Rockland has also become involved in the process and will be collaborating with the Colby Museum on programming at the site. These organizations, along with Kohler Foundation, are all intent upon preserving the work of Bernard Langlais.
“Work will continue at the Langlais estate this spring as we address the outdoor sculptures and create a public access sculpture park,” Yoho said. “Kohler Foundation and the Georges Land Trust are working together to determine which buildings might be saved and how the sculpture park will be structured.”

Kohler conservators spent a good amount of time last summer at the property in Cushing getting the art ready for the park, and Yoho is anxious to get back to work.

“Make that snow and cold go away so we can get back to Maine and finish our work!” Yoho said. “We have every intention of seeing the sculpture park open by mid-summer.”

In the meantime, art enthusiasts can get an idea of what to expect at the many places along the coast that have been gifted one or more pieces of these important works of art.
Here’s a list of nonprofit organizations in Maine that have received one or more of Langlais’ works:

• Bay Chamber Concerts & Music School, Rockport
• Bates College, Lewiston
  
• Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library
• Bowdoin College Museum of Art
• Canaan Public Library
• Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport
• Cushing Community School
• Cushing Historical Society
• Cushing Library
• Cushing (Town of)
  
• Damariscotta River Association
• Farnsworth Art Museum
• Fiddlehead School, Gray
  
• Georges River Land Trust, Rockland
  
• Hope Library
• Jackson Memorial Library, Tenants Harbor
• Kennebec Estuary Land Trust, Bath
• L.C. Bates Museum, Hinckley
  
• Lincoln County Community Theater, Damariscotta
• Maine Street Skowhegan
• McArthur Library, Biddeford
• Mildred Stevens Williams Library, Appleton
  
• Monhegan Memorial Library
• New Glouster (Town of)
  
• Ogunquit Museum of American Art
• Pittsfield (Town of)
  
• Portland Museum of Art
• Portland Public Art Committee
• Rice Library, Kittery
  
• Rockland Public Library
• Saint George School
• Searsmont Town Library
• Searsport District Middle/High School
• Skidompha Library, Damariscotta
• Southport Memorial Library
• Thomaston Public Library
• Tides Institute and Museum of Art, Eastport
  
• University of Maine, Orono & Presque Isle
  
• University of New England, Portland
• Vose Library, Union
• Waterfall Arts, Belfast
  
• Watershed School, Camden
• Western Foothills Landtrust, Norway
  
• Wiscasset Public Library
• York High School
  

If you're not familiar with Langlais’ work you're in for a treat. If you are, enjoy it again.

In a note on the Kohler Foundation’s website, Yoho summed up the project this way: “We intend to preserve and ultimately gift these works, which include wood reliefs, paintings, sculptures and works on paper, to nonprofit institutions throughout Maine and the United States, enabling other communities to enjoy Langlais’ spirited art.”