Charlie Hewitt at Work: at Farnsworth Art Museum

Wednesday, 05 July 2006 10:24

Rockland, Maine - Charlie Hewitt at Work runs through October 15, 2006 in the Morehouse wing of the Farnsworth Art Museum. The exhibition, in the Sam, Micah and Tim galleries will include a wall-sized mural, painted on site.

The range and exuberance of Charlie Hewitt’s art, is revealed in this first museum survey of his paintings, drawings and sculpture completed over the past twenty years.  A native of Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, Hewitt (b. 1946) draws upon his Franco-American roots and the urban industrial environment of his youth as inspiration for the idiosyncratic symbols and imagery that recur in his works.  “The immigrant culture that I was surrounded by as a child created a lasting impression,” he writes.  “The landscape was layered with a river, brick factories, tenements and church spires. It resonated with images of the factory, work and religion, the trinity of my Franco-American heritage.”

Adult years spent working and living in the Bowery in New York City, following art studies at the New York Studio School, where Philip Guston, George McNeil, David Hare and Elaine De Kooning were mentors, also enriched Hewitt’s vocabulary of images.  Powerful, passionate and energetic, Hewitt’s compositions of abstracted elements “often bump and jostle one another, yet ultimately establish balance through interaction,” wrote NY Times critic Helen Harrison in 2000.  Along with paintings, drawings and sculptures spanning the years 1986-2006, this exhibition includes a site-specific wall painting created by the artist for the Farnsworth installation.

Charlie Hewitt at Work is curated by Patricia Nick, former director and founder of Vinalhaven Press, where Hewitt was a frequent guest artist. An interview with Hewitt by Nick is included in the accompanying illustrated catalog, along with an essay by Edgar Allen Beem.

Visit The Farnsworth Art Museum at : http://www.farnsworthmuseum.org/