The Long View Selections from the Norma B. Marin Collection of Maine Art

The Long View Selections from the Norma B. Marin Collection of Maine Art

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The Long View:  Selections from the Norma B. Marin Collection of Maine Art, on exhibit at the University of Maine Museum of Art in downtown Bangor from April 8 through July 2, features over seventy works in Marin’s collection by artists with a profound connection to Maine.

Fifty summers ago a young woman named Norma Boom Marin began what was to become a life long passion for collecting art.  Over that time her collection has grown into a diverse and thorough catalog of contemporary American art.  In 1977, Norma and her husband John Marin Jr. opened a gallery, which they called Cape Split Place, at their home in South Addison, Maine.  In a feature article in Down East in the fall of that year, writer Anne Weber focused on the out-of-the-way location of this “small gem of a gallery” at the tip of Cape Split.  “We’re prepared to entertain clients whether they arrive by boat, car, or on foot”, Norma reported.  During its years of operation until closing in 1986, Cape Split Place came to be known as a meeting place for artists and collectors alike.  “The gallery was a wonderful thing for me,” Marin notes.  “I got to know people that way.”

Many of the artists in The Long View had their work exhibited at Cape Split Place at one time or another, causing many of the pieces to be not just a collector’s purchase but also gifts from friends.  “One of our greatest treasures are the artists of Maine,” Marin states.  The engaging art on view at the University of Maine Museum of Art is a testimony to her efforts to bring recognition to an eclectic group of painters, sculptors, printmakers and photographers whose works share Maine as inspiration.  A checklist catalog, with an essay by Carl Little, is also available.

Artists in the exhibition include Anne Arnold, Katherine Bradford, Ernest Briggs, Jean Cohen, Daphne Cummings, George Daniell, Lois Dodd, Donald Dubose Duncan, Richard Estes, Gillyin Gatto, Francis Hamabe, Joseph Haroutunian, J. Thomas R. Higgins, Patricia P. Hill, Dahlov Ipcar, Yvonne Jacquette, Alex Katz, William Kienbusch, Louise Kruger, Bernard Langlais, Ellen Lowe, Leslie Mackin, Rose Marasco, Wally Mason, Dirk McDonnell, Melville McLean, Elizabeth Cashin McMillen, Joan Meyers, Catherine Murray, Anne Neely, Emily Nelligan, Dennis Pinette, Paul A. Plante, Katherine Porter, Jacque Rochester, Karl Schrag, Musya Sheeler, Hunt Slonem, Ruben Tam, Claire Van Vliet, Neil Welliver, Sharon Yates and Diane Young.