Saturday, May 19, 2007

enlarge Staff photos by Jim Evans

Sculptor Joseph Mozier's ``Undine,'' foreground, and George Inness' painting ``Spirit of Autumn'' are among works of the Lunder collection on display at The Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville.

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Currently, 80 art works from the newly donated Lunder Collection, including 33 prints by James McNeill Whistler, are on view in at the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, through Sept. 9.

The museum of art is free and open to the public, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 4:30 p.m., Sunday. It is closed Mondays. For more information call: 859-5600, or go to: www. www.colby.edu/museum/

ART GIFT IS TREASURE TROVE FOR ALL

By LYNN ASCRIZZI

Staff Writer

In the painting, soft dark greens, deep yellows and flesh pinks create a vortex of energy that is both coolly detached and subtly erotic.

Titled "Birch and Pine Trees -- Pink," the art work was created in 1925 by Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1989), a renowned artist whose sensual abstractions of flowers, animal skulls and landscapes have become unmistakable icons in American art.

O'Keeffe's modest-sized but powerful painting is now part of the permanent collection of the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville.

Her painting, however, represents only one item in an extraordinary collection of 500 art works newly donated to the college by world-class art collectors Peter H. and Paula Crane Lunder of both Waterville and Scarborough.

"We just don't have O'Keeffes kicking around -- her original works of art, in the state. Now we do," said Brooks Stoddard, professor of art and art department chairman at the University of Maine at Augusta.

But Stoddard did not intend to focus only on O'Keeffe. The Lunder collection includes other American greats like Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Edward Hopper and minimalist Sol LeWitt.

"For Colby to have gotten this collection is wonderful for central Maine. For my art students, it's a treasure trove. We use the art center (at Colby), anyway. Now, it's even that much more exciting," Stoddard said.

Currently, 80 art works from the Lunder Collection, including 33 prints by James McNeill Whistler, are on view at the art museum, through Sept. 9. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

The outstanding new collection, valued at $100 million, puts Colby distinctly at the center of the art scene in Maine.

"These works are the one you travel for," said Colby art museum director and chief curator Sharon Corwin, referring to collection highlights that include a painted, metal-and-wire sculpture by Alexander Calder (1898-1976), one of the most innovative and influential American sculptors of the 20th century.

"The Calder -- the early ones like that -- they're quite rare," said Suzette McAvoy, former chief curator of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, and currently executive director of Waterfall Arts, an art center with locations in Belfast, Montville and Liberty.

"This collection adds another jewel in the crown. It's a collection of incredible magnitude. These things are rare, even on the market," she said, pointing out works, like the 1916 bronze sculpture "Dancer and Gazelles," by Paul Manship, and the richly hued autumnal landscape, "Spirit of Autumn," by George Inness, that she called "gorgeous."

"In terms of American art, this makes Colby the strongest collection in the state, by far," McAvoy said.

"Their collection is stronger than the Portland Museum. This makes the Colby American collection broad and deep.... The Lunders are major art collectors. They have routinely been included among the top 100 contemporary collectors in the world," she added.

"I'm extremely excited about this," said Alden Wilson, director of the Maine Arts Commission in Augusta, of the Lunder collection.

"Colby is one of the leading museums in the state. They are a college museum but also a public museum. It is a draw for cultural tourism. We've got lobsters and pine trees and also art and history and a sense of community," said Wilson, who is a Colby graduate and art major.

Stoddard, an art historian who believes in studying art history from original works of art, is delighted that the art-loving public has more major art to view.

"The original is what is really important. Reproductions these days are fantastic, but they're not the same animal. In the original, you get to see nuances of technique -- to see the real colors," he said.

Lynn Ascrizzi -- 621-5731

lascrizzi@centralmaine.com