The unique opportunity to exhibit paintings and sculptures precisely focused upon time and place -- as reflected in the collection of John M. Day -- represents a privilege to examine a phenomenon of the artworld that continues to this present day. The selection shows the work of more than fifty American artists all responding to a particular setting during the advent of abstraction in the New York art scene from 1940 to 1970. The exhibition shows the work of artists who found fellowship and an intellectual community with friends and colleagues each summer on Monhegan, a small island off the coast of Maine. Though most were trained at a variety of professional art schools, some are products of self exploration in their efforts to arrive at an individual statement in their art. We are familiar with the various active summer artists’ colonies spawned in New England, Provincetown, Ogunquit, Cape Anne, and Old Lyme, however, none of these has the unusual distinction of attracting artists of diverse perspectives which are retained in their work as that of Monhegan. Though addressing abstraction as a universal experiment in the artworld at the time, each artist distinguishes vision and style with an absolute fidelity to individuality in spite of the tantalizing subjects which they all portray. John Day has been collecting art for more than twenty-five years. Determined to limit his selections to a particular time and place, he responded to the art of his home state, Maine, and became quickly enamored of the conceptual framework observed in paintings from Monhegan. The artists were often friends and neighbors as well as colleagues who had shared experiences in the Works Progress Administration in New York City in the 1930s. They often serendipitously found their way to Monhegan or were persuaded by their friends to try out the summer setting. Day was intrigued by the passion of their involvement with the island scenery and events, while noting the diversity of vision found in their work. During this thirty-year period, 1940-1970, New York was a hotbed of artistic activity. The Surrealists had emigrated from Europe because of their expulsion by the Nazi regime; young avant-garde New York artists were influenced by the newness of the gallery spirit; the Abstract Expressionists declared their pre-eminence in their “takeover” of international acclaim -- the first universally significant art movement for the United States. This was the flavor of the times during which most of these Monhegan artists emerged. Few of the artists embraced elements of Surrealism, but all the artists in this exhibition found their message in abstraction. Flavors of Cubism (Picasso and Braque), Neo-Plasticism (Mondrian and Van Doesburg), Abstract Expressionism (Hans Hofmann and de Kooning) to mention a few, began to show up in the subjects that Monhegan offered: shipwrecks; views of rocks and sea; houses and studios; and particularly the Headlands, 160’ cliffs that dashed the visitor visually down to a turbulent sea. These modernists, as they can best be described, were preceded by American artists from the turn of the 19th century: Robert Henri, Rockwell Kent, Edward Redfield, George Bellows, all of whose prominence in their careers began an awareness of Monhegan through their emphasis on realistic portrayals of the extraordinary scenery. Later, the Wyeths and Edward Hopper extended the views of land and sea to observe the natural phenomena with a personal idiom. Much of this effort of realism is still present today. But it is the modernists that attract our attention as they portray the subjects with an emphasis on a style of painting that can be recognized as uniquely responsive to the New York School beginning in the early 1940s. Artists, who witnessed tragic events found in the abstractions of a wreck in 1949 of a ship, the St. Christopher, such as Joseph de Martini and his painting in the exhibition, record the moment in an expressive disembowlment of the ship against a raging sea. This painting, one of three versions of the St. Christopher by the artist, is based upon his direct encounter with the subject. We know that the Metropolitan Museum acquired the painting in that same year, only to deaccession it recently, when John Day acquired it. Other paintings represented in the collection demonstrate the village and studios of the artists. William McCartin’s Interior of 1956 gives his viewer an intimate moment in his cottage where his subsequent involvement with non-objective abstraction emerged. McCartin was a member of a group of artists who focused their New York community around Zero Mostel at his studio on 28th Street. Calling themselves “the 28th Street Gang,” they held a weekly meeting at a poker game each Thursday in the city. Many of the group continued their friendship in their summers on Monhegan. Mostel’s close friend Herbie Kallem was a sculptor who built a studio just a few houses away from Zero’s cottage on the island. Summers perpetuated the spirit of New York by these artists, but their styles and approaches to their subjects remained individualized expressions. Several Monhegan artists claim early experiences with modernism because of their studies with Hans Hofmann, who never actually came to the island himself. Hofmann’s school of painting in New York attracted all the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s bringing a new realization of the visual impact of abstraction on the subjects of the island. As a result, Ted Davis, Alexander Minewski, Robert Casper, Michael Loew, and Lynne Drexler all observed the island in their paintings embracing the elements of Abstract Expressionism learned at the feet of the master, Hofmann. Loew, who also was part of the 28th Street group, eventually evolved his work to focus on the precise, analytical approach to nature established by the Neo-plasticist, Mondrian. Thus, it can be observed that a cross section of the American avant-garde was alive and well in the summers on Monhegan from 1940 to 1970. Of the more than seventy artworks in the exhibition, all demonstrate an adherence to the avant-garde aesthetic of the New York artworld. John Day’s vision in selecting artists and paintings that support this notion is the governing spirit of the exhibition. It is the intention to travel this show to colleges and museums across the country to share the wonders of this art. Though some of the paintings were shown at Bates College in the summer of 2001, the Lore Degenstein Gallery is appreciative of the opportunity to be the first to display this, the inaugural exhibition, that will be the focus of the subsequent tour. The efforts of the Lore Degenstein Gallery are made possible through the Charles B. Degenstein endowment, which supports our exhibition program.   Dr. Valerie Livingston Wreck of the St. Christopher, Joseph de Martini. Oil on canvas, 1950, 30 x 40"