Lyman Allyn Art Museum Celebrates 75th Anniversary Year With Hidden Treasures Exhibition

WINSLOW HOMER ¦ 1836-1910 ¦ American
Shepherdess ¦ ceramic tile


HENRY C. WHITE ¦ 1861-1952 ¦ American
New London Harbor, 1924 ¦ oil on board

Lyman Allyn Art Museum announces a new exhibition Hidden Treasures: Celebrating 75 Years on view through July 15, 2007.

Mounted to commemorate the 75th Anniversary, this exhibit will feature highlights from the permanent collection and tell the story of the history of collecting at the Museum since it opened in 1932. Such treasures as Winslow Homer’s painted tile The Shepherdess and a one-of-kind Tiffany glass goblet are on display. The objects in Hidden Treasures: Celebrating 75 Years celebrate the donor as well as the actual object given to the museum. It is through the generosity of its supporters that Lyman Allyn Art Museum has been able to develop such a remarkable collection of art from many periods of art history.

Among other works on view are Henry C. White’s painting of New London Harbor, a gift from his son Nelson C. White; an oil painting View of Stifford from 1858 by Jasper Cropsey, a gift of Mrs. Ralph A. Powers for whose family one of the museum’s galleries is named; an actual fire bucket used by Captain Lyman Allyn when he was a volunteer fireman in New London; a wonderful aquatint Freight Yards done in1936 by local artist and early feminist Beatrice Cuming, a gift of Winslow Ames, the museum’s first Director; and exceptional examples of more contemporary American artworks by Andrew Wyeth, Dale Chihuly, Cleve Gray and William McCloy.

Please check the website for details about additional programs and events celebrating the 75th Anniversary.

For more information or to receive images, please contact Susan Hendricks, at 860.443.2545, ext 130 or at hendricks@lymanallyn.org.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum was established in 1926 by Harriet Upson Allyn in memory of her father, Lyman Allyn, as a place for local citizens to learn about art and culture. Housed in a handsome Neo-Classical building designed by Charles A. Platt, the permanent collection includes over 10,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18th through 20th centuries. The museum is located at 625 Williams Street, New London, Connecticut, 06320. Take exit 83 off of I-95 and follow brown cultural heritage signage. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am-5:00 pm and Sunday1:00 –5:00 pm. Closed Mondays and major holidays.

For more information, please call 860.443.2545 or visit us on the web at http://lymanallyn.org.

January 22, 2007 For Immediate Release
Contact: Susan Hendricks, Public Relations
860.443.2545 ext. 130

Lyman Allyn Art Museum Celebrating 75 Years!

Gas in Glass: The Light Sculptures of Mundy Hepburn Opens at Lyman Allyn Art Museum

Lyman Allyn Art Museum announces a new exhibition, Gas in Glass: The Light Sculptures of Mundy Hepburn, opening on Friday, February 23, 2007 and on view through June 24, 2007.

Gas in Glass: The Light Sculptures of Mundy Hepburn presents large-scale, whimsical blown glass sculptures filled with gas mixtures such as xenon, argon, neon, and krypton, among others. The resulting light sculptures are a vibrant visual cross between fantasy objects from the artist’s mind and flowers and forms seemingly from another planet. Hepburn activates the glass with high frequency static electricity causing the light sculptures to come “alive” with a kaleidoscope of changing colors, depending on what gas is in which glass form.

The science behind the art that Mundy Hepburn creates is based on the same principle as a simple florescent light. Because so little electricity is used to light the works, only about thirty watts of power, the sculptures will operate for a very long time. Some examples of Hepburn’s work have been running for as long as fifteen years.

Gas in Glass: The Light Sculptures of Mundy Hepburn reveals the fascination of a youngster captivated by science. Hepburn became interested in glass blowing in 1963 when he was eight years old, after seeing Paul Geyer blow glass animals at the Guildford Fair. He went home and melted down light bulbs on the kitchen stove after making sure that his parents had gone upstairs. Years of practice with glass and fire led him to the level of expertise that we see today. Hepburn has developed his own style of torches and glass compositions and has experimented with various gas mixtures to achieve the dazzling color combinations that manifest when the electricity is turned on. For the past decade, Mundy Hepburn has worked exclusively with his own furnace design and other homemade equipment to create his unique style of luminous glass sculpture.

Mundy Hepburn lives and works from his glass studio in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States. His light sculptures are collected by private individuals as well as public institutions. And for those curious about his name, yes, Mundy is the nephew of the late Katharine Hepburn.

Gas in Glass: The Light Sculptures of Mundy Hepburn will present the following related programming: Sunday, February 25 at 1:30 pm and Sunday, March 18 at 1:30 pm Dancing Cereal and Electric Pickles Electrifying fun! This program features kids’ activities using balloons, cereal, pickles and more to explore the science of electricity. Take part in hands-on experiments and tour the exhibit. This is a free program but space is limited.

Sunday, May 6, 2007: Glass, Color, and Light! 1:00 – 4:00 pm First Sunday Free Family Day Create a design for a stained glass window or try painting on glass and then compare to Mundy Hepburn’s beautiful glass works in the Stamm Galleries. The film Cathedral will be shown at 2 pm in the Lehman Auditorium.

This exhibition has been funded in part by generous grants from the Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, Bank of America, Trustee, and Pfizer, Inc.

For more information, or to receive images of artwork in Gas in Glass: The Light Sculptures of Mundy Hepburn, please contact Susan Hendricks, at 860.443.2545, ext 130 or at hendricks@lymanallyn.org.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum was established in 1926 by Harriet Upson Allyn in memory of her father, Lyman Allyn, as a place for local citizens to learn about art and culture. Housed in a handsome Neo-Classical building designed by Charles A. Platt, the permanent collection includes over 10,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18th through 20th centuries. The museum is located at 625 Williams Street, New London, Connecticut, 06320. Take exit 83 off of I-95 and follow brown cultural heritage signage. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am-5:00 pm and Sunday 1:00 –5:00 pm. Closed Mondays and major holidays.

For more information, please call 860.443.2545 or visit us on the web at http://lymanallyn.org

December 11, 2006 For Immediate Release
Contact: Susan Hendricks, Public Relations
860.443.2545 ext. 130

Lyman Allyn Art Museum Celebrating 75 Years!

Expresiones/Expressions: Caribbean and Latin American Art from the Benjamin Ortiz Collection opens at the museum

Lyman Allyn Art Museum announces a new exhibition, Expresiones/Expressions: Caribbean and Latin American Art from the Benjamin Ortiz Collection, opening on Friday, February 23, 2007 and on view through June 24, 2007. The exhibition is co-curated by art historian Gustavo Valdes and Nancy Stula, museum curator.

A thought-provoking exhibition of Caribbean and Latin American paintings, photographs, and drawings, Expresiones/Expressions: Caribbean and Latin American Art from the Benjamin Ortiz Collection surveys the formation and growth of an art collection and showcases the works of masters as well as other established and emerging artists of the Caribbean and Latin America.

The works on view are part of a collection that spans over three decades. Benjamin Ortiz acquired his first work of art at the age of twelve for seventy-five cents at a Connecticut consignment shop. The little oil painting he felt so passionate about turned out to be, as was later discovered by his mother, a wonderful example of the work of one of Puerto Rico’s most illustrious landscape artists, Don Miguel Pou (1880-1968). This purchase marked the beginning of Ortiz’s ever-growing involvement with the arts.

The work selected for this exhibition, primarily works on paper, represents a fraction of Ortiz’s large collection. The main criterion for selecting work was that it represent the human figure; it includes different styles and pictorial movements, from primitivism in painting to realism in photography and features different mediums, from collage to sculpture. Each work deciphers for the viewer the complexity and beauty of Caribbean and Latin American Art and its continuous development that brings it to the forefront of the arts today.

Expresiones/Expressions: Caribbean and Latin American Art from the Benjamin Ortiz Collection highlights artists and works that have helped to shape Mr. Ortiz’s aesthetics, not only as a collector, but also as a curator and art researcher. As a curator, Ortiz has had the opportunity to meet and to work with several artists who have become important voices and undisputable presences in the Caribbean and Latin American as well as the international art scene. Benjamin Ortiz has collected the work of such renowned masters such as Antonio Frasconi (Argentina), Eduardo Kingman (Ecuador), Roberto Matta (Chile), Alirio Palacios (Venezuela), and Diego Rivera, José Luis Cuevas and Rufino Tamayo (Mexico), just to name a few.

The exhibition will also feature artworks by the following partial list of artists and their respective countries of origin:

Cuba: Wifredo Lam
Rodolfo Abularach: Guatemala
Mexico: Luis Cuevas, Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Francisco Toledo and Francesco Zuniga
Puerto Rico: José R. Alicea, Imna Arroyo and Myrna Báez
Dominican Republic: Hochi Asiático and Belkis Ramírez

Expresiones/Expressions: Caribbean and Latin American Art from the Benjamin Ortiz Collection is the first exhibition during 2007 which marks the celebration of the museum’s 75th anniversary. Thanks to the generosity of benefactor Harriet Upson Allyn, Lyman Allyn Art Museum opened in 1932 as a place for local citizens to learn about art and culture. The museum has always made part of its mission to respond and to appeal to the regional community.

In that spirit, Expresiones/Expressions: Caribbean and Latin American Art from the Benjamin Ortiz Collection presents coordinating events that will interest everyone.
Sunday, April 1 from 1:00 – 4:00 pm. Families, art lovers and kids of all ages are invited to join in the fun. All events are free and open to the public.

• Co-Curator and art historian Gustavo Valdes will present a lecture about Expresiones/Expressions: Caribbean and Latin American Art from the Benjamin Ortiz Collection, in both English and Spanish. A great way to practice your Spanish while enjoying the art on view!
• Special Art Activity: Make a Lasting Impression! Referencing Latin Art prints from the exhibit, kids (of all ages!) may experiment with different printmaking techniques. From rubber stamps to block printing to string relief, there will be a variety of media to explore. Take your print project home with you!

This exhibition has been funded in part by Pfizer, with the support of the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism. Additional support for the exhibition and related programming in part by Centro de la Comunidad.

For more information about Expresiones/Expressions: Caribbean and Latin American Art from the Benjamin Ortiz Collection, or to receive images and a checklist of the artworks, please contact Susan Hendricks, at 860.443.2545, ext 130 or at hendricks@lymanallyn.org.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum was established in 1926 by Harriet Upson Allyn in memory of her father, Lyman Allyn, as a place for local citizens to learn about art and culture. Housed in a handsome Neo-Classical building designed by Charles A. Platt, the permanent collection includes over 10,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18th through 20th centuries. The museum is located at 625 Williams Street, New London, Connecticut, 06320. Take exit 83 off of I-95 and follow brown cultural heritage signage. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am-5:00 pm and Sunday 1:00 –5:00 pm. Closed Mondays and major holidays.

For more information, please call 860.443.2545 or visit us on the web at http://lymanallyn.org

Contact: Susan Hendricks November 6, 2006
Public Relations
860.443.2545 ext. 136

Les Santons de Provence Opens at Lyman Allyn Art Museum

Santons are hand-painted clay figurines, which populate a replica in miniature of a 19th-century village in southern France along with a traditional crèche. Santons are at the center of an important two hundred-year-old tradition that is still maintained today in the area of Provence. Complementing the exhibition are seasonal paintings and sculptures from the museum’s permanent collection.

Fuzzy Gipstein will share her knowledge in two slide lectures, Les Santons de Provence, on Sunday, December 10 at 2:00 p.m. and again on Sunday, January 14, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. All lectures are free with museum admission.

Showing in the Lehman Auditorium will be Fanny, a delightful 1960 film based on one of the stories of the Marseilles Trilogy that has many connections with the Santons on display. Fanny is an Academy Award-winning film and was filmed in Marseilles. The movie will be screened at 2:00 pm on December 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30. There is no charge with museum admission.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum was established in 1926 by Harriet Upson Allyn in memory of her father, Lyman Allyn, as a place for local citizens to learn about art and culture. Housed in a handsome Neo-Classical building designed by Charles A. Platt, the permanent collection includes over 10,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18th through 20th centuries. The museum is located at 625 Williams Street, New London, Connecticut, 06320. Take exit 83 off of I-95 and follow brown cultural heritage signage. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am-5:00 pm and Sunday1:00 –5:00 pm. Closed Mondays and major holidays.

For more information, please call 860.443.2545 or visit us on the web at www.lymanallyn.org

August 7, 2006
Contact: Susan Hendricks
Public Relations
860.443.2545 ext. 130

Melissa Manchester in Concert
Benefit for Lyman Allyn Art Museum

Lyman Allyn Art Museum is pleased to announce that Melissa Manchester will perform in concert to benefit the museum at 8:00 pm on Saturday, September 16, 2006. The concert will take place at Palmer Auditorium on the Connecticut College campus, adjacent to the museum.

The generosity of lead sponsors Pfizer Inc and People’s Bank has helped to make this event possible, with additional in-kind support from WBMW Radio and Pot of Green Florists.

Melissa Manchester Background
Melissa Manchester was born in New York where her father was a bassoonist for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He introduced her to all the classics and by the age of 15, Melissa was already a published poet. After graduating from the High School of the Performing Arts, where she studied acting, Melissa entered New York University and enrolled in a songwriting class taught by Paul Simon. She landed a staff-writing job at Chappell Music and performed as a solo singer and pianist in the clubs of Greenwich Village and Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where she met Bette Midler. As a back-up singer for Bette, Melissa fulfilled her childhood fantasy of playing New York’s Carnegie Hall. Six months later, she had a recording contract, and shortly thereafter was headlining Carnegie Hall and performing for sold-out audiences.

Melissa Manchester’s albums have established her as one of the most compelling singer-songwriters in contemporary music. Her album Melissa (1975) launched the smash hit single “Midnight Blue,” and in 1976, Melissa and Kenny Loggins co-wrote “Whenever I Call You Friend,” which has become a radio classic. Melissa was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1978 and 1979; she received the Grammy Award in 1982 for Best Female Vocalist for “You Should Hear How She Talks About You” from her Hey Ricky LP, produced by Arif Mardin. In 1980, she became the first artist in the history of the Academy Awards to have two nominated movie themes in a given year: for Ice Castles and The Promise. Melissa went on to make Oscar history by performing both of these works in their entirety during the show.

Melissa combined her acting and singing talents in starring roles in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Song And Dance and Music Of The Night; on the television series Blossom; and in the film For The Boys. She wrote the musical I Sent A Letter To My Love (2002), based on the acclaimed Bernice Rubens novel of the same name, and performed the leading role in a National Public Radio broadcast. Melissa Manchester recently received the Governor’s Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for her contributions to the music and the recording arts.

Melissa Manchester Benefit Concert at Lyman Allyn
The benefit concert at Lyman Allyn Art Museum will offer a unique evening for everyone, starting with a 6:00 pm cocktail buffet at the museum. The concert follows at 8:00 pm, after which guests will meet Melissa at a post-concert champagne and dessert reception. Tickets for the full evening are $150.
For those wishing to attend only the concert at 8:00 pm, tickets are $50.
Please call 860.443.2545 ext. 135 for ticket reservations or more information.

From the Hand of the Composer: The Art of Melissa Manchester, an exhibit of original musical compositions penned by Melissa Manchester, opens to the public on Thursday, September 14. Those attending the full evening event of the concert and both receptions may stroll through the museum to enjoy this unique experience. This exhibit highlights and makes visual the creative process, linking music with visual art forms. Her compositions will offer viewers insight into the composer’s creative process just as brushstrokes enable viewers to retrace a painter’s labor trail.

Of the forty compositions in From the Hand of the Composer: The Art of Melissa Manchester, none has ever been on view. The work includes the initial renderings of her hit songs “Midnight Blue” and “Just You and I,” as well as some tunes that were never recorded.

After the benefit concert, From the Hand of the Composer: The Art of Melissa Manchester, will remain on view at the museum through February 4, 2007.

For more information, or to receive images, please contact Susan Hendricks, at 860.443.2545, ext 130 or at hendricks@lymanallyn.org.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum was established in 1926 by Harriet Upson Allyn in memory of her father, Lyman Allyn, as a place for local citizens to learn about art and culture. Housed in a handsome Neo-Classical building designed by Charles A. Platt, the permanent collection includes over 10,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18th through 20th centuries. The museum is located at 625 Williams Street, New London, Connecticut, 06320. Take exit 83 off of I-95 and follow brown cultural heritage signage. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am-5:00 pm and Sunday1:00 –5:00 pm. Closed Mondays and major holidays.
For more information, please call 860.443.2545 or visit us on the web at http://lymanallyn.org.

June 26, 2006
Contact: Susan Hendricks
Public Relations
860.443.2545 ext. 130

femme brut(e)
Opens at Lyman Allyn Art Museum

Lyman Allyn Art Museum announces a new exhibition, femme brut(e), opening on Thursday, September 14, 2006 and on view through February 4, 2007.  

femme brut(e) features works by significant women artists in a range of media.  The focus is on those artists who demonstrate an interest in pushing the limits of their medium whether it is photography, drawing, or painting as well as those who challenge traditional expectations of women’s subject matter.  Included are works by May Stevens, Nancy Graves, Nancy Spero, June Wayne, Barbara Kruger; Louise Nevelson, Alice Neel; and Miriam Schapiro.

On view simultaneously with femme brut(e) will be Moires Blinks Monochromes Stops Starts Mixes, an installation of new work by contemporary lens-based artist Ellen Carey.  Carey’s work explores the photographic process using large-format Polaroid cameras.  Her monumental images are abstract—they do not record images seen through a camera lens—but rather the chemical process.  The resulting images are brightly colored shapes: the “pulls” resemble surfboards and the moirés, a type of fabric.  Ellen Carey’s unique work has been exhibited extensively throughout the U.S., including solo exhibitions at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut and the International Center of Photography in New York City.  Her work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Chicago Art Institute, among others.

Complementing femme brut(e) will be From the Hand of the Composer: The Art of Melissa Manchester, an exhibit of original musical compositions penned by Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Manchester.  This exhibit aims to highlight and make visual the creative process and to link music with visual art forms.  Text as image will offer the viewer insight into the composer’s creative process just as brushstrokes allow the viewer to retrace a painter’s labor trail.  Approximately fifty of Manchester’s compositions will be featured in this exhibition, none of which have ever been shown before, including the initial renderings of her hit songs “Midnight Blue” and “Just You and I,” as well as songs which were never recorded.  From the Hand of the Composer: The Art of Melissa Manchester is presented in conjunction with femme brut(e) as it also addresses the limits of artistic disciplines.

Melissa Manchester will perform a concert to benefit Lyman Allyn Art Museum at Palmer Auditorium on Saturday, September 16, 2006 at 8:00 p.m.  Please call 860.443.2545 ext. 135 for ticket reservations and/or more information.

On Thursday, September 28, Artist Ellen Carey will give a Gallery Talk in Glassenberg Gallery where her Moires Blinks Monochromes Stops Starts Mixes is installed. 

Sherry Buckberrough, Professor of Art History and Women’s Studies at the University of Hartford, will present a lecture on femme brut(e) on Thursday, October 26.  Buckberrough has curated exhibitions on women artists and has authored books and articles on artists including Sonia Delaunay and Mierle Ukeles.

Ann Hoy, Professor of Art History at New York University and former curator at the International Center of Photography in New York, will lecture on photography in the context of the femme brut(e)exhibition on Thursday, November 2.  Hoy is the author of National Geographic Society’s The Book of Photography (2005). 

Art historian Susan Fillin-Yeh, Visiting Professor of Art History at Connecticut College and author of several books on American art, will speak about the femme brut(e)exhibition, thatdate to be announced.

For more information, or to receive images and a checklist of the artworks in femme brut(e), please contact Susan Hendricks, at 860.443.2545, ext 130 or at hendricks@lymanallyn.org.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum was established in 1926 by Harriet Upson Allyn in memory of her father, Lyman Allyn, as a place for local citizens to learn about art and culture.  Housed in a handsome Neo-Classical building designed by Charles A. Platt, the permanent collection includes over 10,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18th through 20th centuries.  The museum is located at 625 Williams Street, New London, Connecticut, 06320.  Take exit 83 off of I-95 and follow brown cultural heritage signage. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am-5:00 pm and Sunday1:00 –5:00 pm.  Closed Mondays and major holidays.
For more information, please call 860.443.2545 or visit us on the web at http://lymanallyn.org.

April 10, 2006 For Immediate Release
Contact: Susan Hendricks
Public Relations
860.443.2545 ext. 130

Subject Opens at Lyman Allyn Art Museum

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (Self Portrait), 1985, acrylic and oilstick on canvas, 60" x 49"

This exciting new exhibition, culled from the renowned Cartin collection based in Hartford, Connecticut, of which Holmes is the resident Curator, introduces contemporary approaches to portraiture ranging from traditional oil on canvas portraits to enhanced photographs to three-dimensional assemblages referencing childhood memories. The works on view, by artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, R. Crumb, David Hammons, Glenn Ligon and John Waters , explore--visually, socially, politically, and psychologically—the nature of portraiture.

It is not often that museums in this region have the opportunity to present an exhibition that offers the public a comprehensive look at the type of cutting-edge, avant-garde contemporary art on view in Subject.

The exhibition will simultaneously provoke and stimulate viewers to explore their own reactions to what they see. For example, Jean-Michel Basquiat, in his large self-portrait painted in broad strokes of acrylic and oilstick on canvas, peers out at us from an oddly disjointed sitting position. The portrait seems to ask us what we see. Basquiat’s execution of his body and face brings to mind the label of “primitive” so frequently attached to both the artist and to his work.

R. Crumb’s 1996 pencil and “white-out” rendering of Bukowski in His Car brilliantly reflects the angst of Beat Poet and novelist Charles Bukowski, a writer long admired by the reclusive Crumb.

There are a variety of programs coordinating with the Subject exhibition. From gallery talks to free family days to a fancy-dress gala, the public is invited to share in this opportunity to learn more about contemporary art.
Related Programs

Gallery Talk:
Thursday, May 18, 6:00 pm
Steven Holmes, Guest Curator of Subject, speaks about the exhibition and the collection. Wine and cheese reception at 5:00 pm
Reservations suggested: $10 Non-members; $5 Members. Call 860.443.2545, x112.

First Sunday Free Family Day
Sunday, June 4, 1 – 4 pm
Families are invited to explore the galleries and participate in interesting art activities.
Children’s art activity: Create a unique self-portrait, using the new exhibition Subject as your guide. A complementing film on one of the contemporary artists featured in Subject will be shown in the Lehman Auditorium at 2 pm.

Subject Gala
Saturday, May 13, 6:00 – 10:00 pm
The exhibition preview of Subject IS the gala, an extraordinary event is not to be missed. This artful and art-filled evening includes cocktails and a sumptuous sit-down dinner. A silent auction during the cocktail hour will feature a variety of artworks and services to tempt every bidder. The Fine Art Live Auction will be hosted by Geraldine Nager-Griffin, Senior Vice-President of Sotheby’s. Dancing to Sugar Ray Norcia and the Big Band will round out the evening under the tent, under the stars.
For more information or to purchase tickets or tables, please call Alicia Kuranda, Director of Development at 860-443-2545, ext. 136.

This exhibition has been funded in part by generous grants from the Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, Bank of America, Trustee, and Pfizer, Inc.

For more information about Subject or to receive images, please contact: Susan Hendricks, Director of Public Relations, at 860.443.2545 ext. 130, or e-mail to hendricks@lymanallyn.org.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum was established in 1926 by Harriet Upson Allyn in memory of her father, Lyman Allyn, as a place for local citizens to learn about art and culture. Housed in a handsome Neo-Classical building designed by Charles A. Platt, the permanent collection includes over 10,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18th through 20th centuries. The museum is located at 625 Williams Street, New London, Connecticut, 06320. Take exit 83 off of I-95 and follow brown cultural heritage signage. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am-5:00 pm and Sunday1:00 –5:00 pm. Closed Mondays and major holidays.
For more information, please call 860.443.2545 or visit us on the web at http://lymanallyn.org.

April 25, 2006 For Immediate Release
Contact: Susan Hendricks, Public Relations
860.443.2545 ext. 130

Portrait of a City: The New London Project
opens at Lyman Allyn Art Museum

Lyman Allyn Art Museum announces a new exhibition, Portrait of a City: The New London Project , opening Friday, June 23 and on view through August 14.

The arts community of New London joins artist Joe Standart to present Portrait of a City:

Joe Standart opened his photographic studio in New London several years ago. Compelled to photograph New Londoners of all ages, he literally pulled them in off the street, still sipping coffees and writing traffic tickets or riding their motorcycles and bikes. Standart's work contemplates the individuals' spirit and the universality of the dignity we all share. The diversity he reveals shares a common ground of humanity and creates opportunity for understanding. Through its uniqueness and monumentality, the exhibition creates public engagement in a thriving arts community that is playing a powerful role in the rejuvenation of the Downtown. Through its breadth and experience, Portrait of a City: The New London Project seeks to unify and promote the art community, including musicians, artists, and photographers and those with a passion for the arts.

A professional photographer for 30 years, Joe Standart is acclaimed for capturing the ever-changing subtleties of light and mood. His award-winning photographs have been included in individual and group shows nationwide and his work is included in many private collections and museums. Recently, his work has been on view at New York's Beadleston Gallery, The Williams College Art Center, The Cooley Gallery, and The Duggal Art Space. His commercial work includes assigments for Architectural Digest, House & Garden, General Electric, Viking Range Corporation, and The Cindy Crawford Collection. Standart has published two books, The Scented Room and Passion for Detail , and he has contributed to many more.

Citywide opening night festivities include receptions at:
5:00 – 7:00 pm at Lyman Allyn Art Museum, 625 Williams Street
6:00 - 8:00 pm at ALVA Gallery, 54 State Street
6:00 - 9:00 pm at Golden Street Gallery, 94 Golden Street
7:00 - 10:00 pm at Hygienic Art Gallery, 79 Bank Street

Musicians will be at multiple venues and roaming the streets.

Portrait of a City: The New London Project will be on view throughout New London from June 23, 2006 through early August. Exhibiting venues include: Lyman Allyn Art Museum, ALVA Gallery, Hygienic Art Gallery, Golden Street Gallery. Union Train Station, Mitchell College and Muddy Waters Café.

Portrait of a City: The New London Project at Lyman Allyn Art Museum has been funded in part by generous grants from the Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, Bank of America, Trustee, and Pfizer, Inc.

The New London Project is being produced with the generous support of the Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, Cummings & Good, Tyler Cooper & Alcorn, LLP, and The Kitchings Foundation, and is sponsored by Hygienic Art, Inc. and The New York Foundation for the Arts.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum was established in 1926 by Harriet Upson Allyn in memory of her father, Lyman Allyn, as a place for local citizens to learn about art and culture. Housed in a handsome Neo-Classical building designed by Charles A. Platt, the permanent collection includes over 10,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18 th through 20 th centuries. The museum is located at 625 Williams Street, New London, Connecticut, 06320. Take exit 83 off of I-95 and follow brown cultural heritage signage. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am-5:00 pm and Sunday1:00 –5:00 pm. Closed Mondays and major holidays.

For more information, please call 860.443.2545 or visit us on the web at http://lymanallyn.org .

After William Meredith Opens at Lyman Allyn Art Museum

Lyman Allyn Art Museum announces a new exhibition, After William Meredith, opening to the public on April 15 and on view through May 15, 2006.

William Meredith is one of America’s most respected poets. He was a Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and is a Chancellor Emeritus of The Academy of American Poets as well as the U.S. Poet Laureate Emeritus. Meredith was born in New York City in 1919. He graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. in English, Magna Cum Laude, writing his senior thesis on fellow American Poet Robert Frost.

The author of nine books of poetry and, Meredith’s Effort at Speech won the 1997 National Book Award. In 1987, Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems. won the Pulitzer Prize. He has received many distinguished awards including the Loines Award and a grant from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, the Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize, the International Vaptsarov Prize in Poetry, a grant and senior fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and two Rockefeller Foundation grants.

William Meredith taught at Connecticut College from 1955-1983, when he suffered a stroke that left him unable to speak clearly and affected his ability to use language at all.

In After William Meredith, the Meredith poems will be presented in both his original English and a French translation, juxtaposing the text with images rendered by contemporary French artist, and friend of Meredith, Sooky Maniquant. After William Meredith has placed artwork and poems side by side, allowing the viewer to experience Meredith’s work from two different perspectives, including Maniquant’s striking visual interpretations.

Related Program

First Sunday Free Family Day
Sunday, May 7, 1 – 4 pm
Celebrate the poetry of William Meredith and the art of Sooky Maniquant by creating your own Poem Collages. See the exhibition After William Meredith on your visit.
A complementing film will be shown in the Lehman Auditorium at 2 pm.

This exhibition has been funded in part by generous grants from the Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, Bank of America, Trustee, and Pfizer, Inc.

For more information, please contact: Susan Hendricks, Director of Public Relations, at 860.443.2545 ext. 130, or e-mail to hendricks@lymanallyn.org.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum was established in 1926 by Harriet Upson Allyn in memory of her father, Lyman Allyn, as a place for local citizens to learn about art and culture. Housed in a handsome Neo-Classical building designed by Charles A. Platt, the permanent collection includes over 10,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18th through 20th centuries. The museum is located at 625 Williams Street, New London, Connecticut, 06320. Take exit 83 off of I-95 and follow brown cultural heritage signage. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am-5:00 pm and Sunday1:00 –5:00 pm. Closed Mondays and major holidays.
For more information, please call 860.443.2545 or visit us on the web at http://lymanallyn.org.

New London architectural exhibition wins award from Connecticut League of History Organizations

State Street exhibition was created by Connecticut College professor and students, currently being shown at Lyman Allyn Art Museum

NEW LONDON, Conn. — An exhibition spearheaded by a Connecticut College professor to document the architectural and social development of New London’s major commercial avenue has been awarded an Award of Merit from the Connecticut League of History Organizations (CLHO).

The exhibition, “Commerce and Culture: Architecture and Society on New London’s State Street,” is on display at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, located at 625 Williams Street in New London, through April 10.
Abigail Van Slyck, the Dayton Associate Professor of Art History and Director of Architectural Studies Program, coordinated and served as guest curator of the exhibition. The exhibition grew out of a project in Van Slyck’s senior seminar last year and relates the specific details of New London architecture to larger trends in American architecture and urbanism.
The exhibition features period photographs, historic maps, postcards, paintings and architectural drawings.
According to a recent article about the exhibition in the Hartford Courant newspaper: “The only thing missing is the honking of horns, the sound and smells of the sea, and the clatter of streetside conversations by the throngs once drawn to this richly compelling place.”

In addition, Van Slyck’s students have conducted walking tours of State Street, based on the information from the exhibition. Future student-led walking tours will be held on March 4 and March 5, at 3 p.m., starting at Union Station.
The award will be presented at the CLHO annual meeting, to be held in June. The CLHO, based in Hamden, presents Awards of Merit in recognition of outstanding institutional and individual contributions, in keeping with current professional standards, that enhance and further the knowledge and understanding of Connecticut history. The purpose of the Awards of Merit is to recognize the care, thought and effort invested in these contributions and to inspire and encourage others by acknowledging exceptional contributions to state and local history.

The CLHO presents Awards of Merit in four categories: project; publication; educational program; and, individual comprehensive work.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. It is closed Mondays and major holidays. The museum was established in 1926 by Harriet Upson Allyn in memory of her father, Lyman Allyn, as a place for local citizens to learn about art and culture. Housed in a handsome Neo-Classical building designed by Charles A. Platt, the permanent collection includes over 10,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18th through 20th centuries. For more information, please call 860-443-2545 or visit the museum on the web at http://lymanallyn.org.

Ranked among the most selective private liberal arts colleges in the nation, Connecticut College enrolls 1,900 men and women from 42 states and 41 countries. The college is known for putting the liberal arts into action through interdisciplinary studies, international programs, funded internships, student-faculty research and service learning. Founded in 1911, the college operates under an 84-year-old honor code. The college is located at 270 Mohegan Ave, New London, about two hours by car from Boston and New York. The 750-acre campus is an arboretum overlooking Long Island Sound. For more information, visit www.connecticutcollege.edu.

January 25, 2006                                                                                         For Immediate Release
Contact: Susan Hendricks
Public Relations
860.443.2545 ext. 130

Lyman Allyn Art Museum receives

Christopher Pearse Cranch (1813-1892) was a poet, art theorist, Transcendentalist, and Hudson River School painter. While his letters and journals are frequently cited in publications on 19th century American culture, Cranch’s work as an artist has been neglected and his paintings have never been exhibited. This exhibition will serve to introduce Cranch as an artist as well as provide an opportunity to explore his work within the larger context of American culture, and more specifically, in terms of the Transcendental philosophy which informed so much of his work.

Christopher Cranch began his career as a Unitarian minister but turned to landscape painting when his radical Transcendentalist views made preaching in Unitarian churches impossible. Ultimately, painting replaced preaching as an act of devotion. Cranch’s visual response to New England Transcendentalism was unique: no other American painter can be documented as having had direct involvement with this religious philosophy. Cranch not only participated in the movement but produced landscapes that reflect the tenets of Transcendentalism.

Cranch may be best known for his caricature of Ralph Waldo Emerson as an enormous "transparent" eyeball, perched atop a minuscule body in top hat and tails. Yet Cranch was also a noted artist who worked and exhibited with the Hudson River School painters. During his forty-five year career as a landscape painter, he met with success. He was elected Academician--the highest rank an artist could attain--at the National Academy of Design and, along with fellow Hudson River School artists, contributed to major American exhibitions, very often to critical acclaim. At two distinct periods in his career Cranch belonged to the American community of artists, writers, and intellectuals who settled abroad in the mid-nineteenth century. The fact that he spent several years in Europe--or perhaps because of his absence from America during the heyday of the Hudson River School--has given rise to misconceptions that Cranch remained abroad for most of his life.

In preparation for this exhibition and scholarly catalogue, Lyman Allyn Art Museum wishes to locate paintings, letters, diaries, and photographs related to Christopher Pearse Cranch. The exhibition’s curator Dr. Nancy Stula can be reached at 860.443.2545, ext. 113 and by email: stula@lymanallyn.org.

The Connecticut Humanities Council (CHC) is a statewide non-profit institution located in Middletown, Connecticut that focuses its work on two time-honored traditions in the humanities—reflective reading of literature and exploration of history. CHC reading programs like Motheread/Fatheread and Book Voyagers help parents and children strengthen family bonds by reading together while encouraging children to become lifelong, avid readers on their own. CHC heritage programs, often conducted in partnership with state and regional cultural organizations, fund exhibits, walking tours, cultural festivals, and community humanities projects that explore Connecticut’s diverse local heritage, as well as American and world history. This year, the CHC will produce or fund over $2.8 million in cultural programming that enriches the lives of state residents and visitors statewide.

For more information on the Connecticut Humanities Council and its programs, please visit www.ctculture.org or call (860) 685-2260.

August 29, 2005                                                                                         For Immediate Release
Contact: Susan Hendricks
Public Relations
860.443.2545 ext. 130

Commerce and Culture:
Architecture and Society on New London’s State Street
Opens at Lyman Allyn Art Museum

Featuring period photographs, historic maps, postcards, paintings, and architectural drawings, Commerce and Culture: Architecture and Society on New London’s State Street documents and interprets the architectural and social development of New London’s major commercial avenue. This exhibition will relate the specific details of New London architecture
to larger trends in American architecture and urbanism. As in many other small American cities, New London’s downtown is largely the product of a building boom that began in the Victorian era and lasted — with some ups and downs — until the Great Depression of the 1930s. During the postwar era, when the suburban landscape was in full bloom, these downtowns experienced little new building, although merchants engaged in multiple cycles of modernization that transformed the ground-floor facades of many historic buildings in an attempt to retain customers who increasingly patronized new indoor shopping malls.

Commerce and Culture: Architecture and Society on New London’s State Street is predicated on the idea that we can “read” the cultural landscape — vernacular structures, architect-designed buildings, and everything in between — as a three-dimensional textbook of social history. Instead of interpreting buildings solely in light of the architect’s interests, the exhibition and related programming consider the cultural aspirations and institutional priorities that informed the physical evolution of one particular—but in many respects typical—downtown thoroughfare. It will also suggest the ways in which this cultural landscape shaped the experiences of the people who lived and worked, shopped and played there.

Commerce and Culture: Architecture and Society on New London’s State Street is not just an exhibition of architects’ drawings and period photographs, although it includes wonderful examples of both. It will offer a rich range of objects that speak to the ways that New Londoners inhabited State Street and what the street meant to them. The show is very much about local involvement. Not only does it take the local community as its subject matter, it is also very much dependent on local collections and expertise. Ephemera from the permanent collection of the Lyman Allyn will be on view along with a wide range of objects borrowed from the New London Public Library, the New London County Historical Society, Special Collections at Connecticut College’s Shain Library and private collections.

The exhibition Commerce and Culture: Architecture and Society on New London’s State Street is organized into six sections:

Commerce and Culture: Architecture and Society on New London’s State Street presents a full schedule of coordinating events that will interest everyone. Family activities, walking tours and a community symposium are just some of the highlights.

Related Programs

Lecture:
“ New Perspectives on the History of State Street’s Architecture,”
Thursday, October 20, 2005, 6:00 pm; Wine and cheese reception at 5:00 pm
Guest Curator Abigail A. Van Slyck, Dayton Associate Professor of Art History, Connecticut College. Reservations suggested: $10 Non-members; $5 Members. Call 860.443.2545, x112.

First Sunday Free Family Day
Sunday, November 6, 2005, 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Reverse Gallery Talk - 2:00 pm: Visitors to share their memories
Walking Tour of State Street - 3:00 pm. Meet at Union Station
Children’s art activities: Create a coloring book of State Street; Go on a tricky scavenger hunt
Film: The Rescue of Mr. Richardson’s Last Station; 1:00 pm in the Auditorium

Symposium:
Looking Back to Move Forward: Understanding Downtown and its Architecture in Historical Perspective
Saturday, November 12, 2005, 9:30 am – 4:00 pm. At Weller Center, Mitchell College.
$25 non-members; $15 members; Free to the students, faculty and staff of Mitchell College and Connecticut College. AIA members continuing education credit available.
Co-sponsored by Mitchell College

Guided Walking Tours of State Street
Saturday, October 15 and Sunday, October 16, 2005
Saturday, November 5 and Sunday, November 6, 2005
Saturday, March 4 and Sunday, March 5, 2006
3:00 pm – Meet at Union Station

First Sunday Free Family Day
Sunday, February 5, 2006, 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Reverse Gallery Talk - 2:00 pm. Visitors to share their memories.
Children’s art activities: Create unique 3-D monument and scavenger hunt
Film: The Rescue of Mr. Richardson’s Last Station; 1:00 pm in the Auditorium

For more information about Commerce and Culture: Architecture and Society on New London’s State Street or to receive images, please contact: Susan Hendricks, Director of Public Relations, at 860.443.2545 ext. 130, or e-mail to hendricks@lymanallyn.org.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum gratefully acknowledges the financial support of The Connecticut Humanities Council (CHC), a statewide non-profit institution that focuses its work on two time-honored traditions in the humanities—reflective reading of literature and exploration of history. CHC reading programs like Motheread and Book Voyagers help parents and children strengthen family bonds by reading together while encouraging children to become lifelong, avid readers on their own. CHC heritage programs, often conducted in partnership with state and regional cultural organizations, fund exhibits, walking tours, cultural festivals, and community humanities projects that explore Connecticut’s amazingly diverse local heritage, as well as American and world history. Each year, the CHC produces and funds nearly $1.8 million in cultural programming that enriches the lives of over 600,000 state residents and visitors.
For more information about the Connecticut Humanities Council, please call (860) 685-2260 or visit www.ctculture.org.

Nut Collector Tashjian Back In The Spotlight Her Work Is On Exhibit At Lyman Allyn Museum Tim Cook Elizabeth Tashjian talks to her fans at the opening of a new exhibit of her work at the Lyman Allyn Museum. By KARIN CROMPTON Day Staff Writer, Lyme/Old Lyme Published on 2/14/2004 New London — Elizabeth Tashjian stands barely four feet tall, her shoulders hunched, her gait slowed. It would have taken great effort Friday for Tashjian, 91, to circle the room in the Lyman Allyn Art Museum that houses her artwork for an exhibit titled, “The Nut Museum: Visionary Art of Elizabeth Tashjian.” That didn't matter. Tashjian didn't have to circle. The 350 people who visited the museum for an opening reception flocked to her, pressing in for a closer look at the woman who ran the Nut Museum out of her home in Old Lyme for nearly 30 years. They stood on tiptoes at the back of the crowd to get a peek and leaned in to catch snippets of Tashjian's theories on life, art, nuts, and her crusade to escape a nursing home. It was Tashjian's first major public appearance in years, coordinated by the museum's interim director, Christopher Steiner. For many in attendance, it was an appearance they never would have thought possible almost two years ago. Tashjian collapsed at her home and was discovered by social workers May 2, 2002. She spent a month at Middlesex Hospital before being transferred to the Gladeview Healthcare Center in Old Saybrook. “I take this as a temporary pause,” Tashjian said of her current living arrangement. “Rest assured, I take this as a temporary pause.” Tashjian fought unsuccessfully to return to the 17-room mansion on Ferry Road where she had lived since 1950. A mountain of debt and concerns about her health prevented her from convincing the town's probate judge that she should return. Tashjian now spends her days in what she describes as “Studio 326,” a reference to her room number at Gladeview. She happily reports that she has the room to herself. It was Steiner who rescued Tashjian's artwork and famed nut collection, convincing the town that it should go to Connecticut College. The exhibit runs through June 6. The show is a combination of Tashjian's serious artwork — she studied at the National Academy of Design — and her whimsical nut collection. “My opinion as an art historian is that this is a significant body of work,” said Steiner, who also teaches museum studies at Connecticut College. “All across America we have these quirky, odd museums that have become part of the American landscape. If we take a serious look at it, we can begin to see how her museum relates to the origins of museums, which started as cabinets of curiosities.” Friday's reception began at 5 p.m., and Tashjian was scheduled to give a speech at 6. At 5:30, she began a tour around the room with a couple of reporters, advancing just a few feet into the room because she was too engrossed in storytelling to focus on the artwork on the walls. She flatly refused a chair offered to her. “No!” she said, slightly irritated at the interruption. At 6, when Steiner asked her to deliver her speech, she already considered her lecture almost over. She reluctantly spoke into a microphone for five minutes. Soon after, Tashjian accepted a chair and entertained visitors. They snapped photos, brought gifts and asked for her autograph. Mary Alapa of New London knelt in front of Tashjian and gave her a small white box with a golden ribbon. Inside was a golden acorn from the Florence Griswold Museum –– a tribute to the days when Tashjian charged a one-nut admission to her museum. “I just came to honor her,” said Alapa, who said she first saw Tashjian when she appeared on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.” Katarina Jaeger of Waterford told Tashjian how she and her grown son had visited the nut museum regularly from the time he was 10 years old. Jaeger said she was not sure Tashjian was even alive before reading an article about her in The Day on Thursday, and then knew immediately that she had to attend the reception. “I expected to see an older person,” Jaeger said, “But then, why? She's always been an exception to the rule.” k.crompton@theday.com

The Artist Of The Nut A New Exhibition Reveals The Paintings Of ‘The Nut Lady' The Portrait of a Nut Artist-- Lyman Allyn spotlights paintings by 'Nut Lady' Elizabeth Tashjian “Self-Portrait in Red Hat,” 1948 A detail of “Quote Me, Never Dwarf the Little Man,” 1975. By KATHLEEN EDGECOMB Day Staff Columnist, Arts Published on 2/12/2004 Elizabeth Tashjian wants to do for nuts what Cezanne did for apples. That's the assessment of Lyman Allyn Art Museum interim director Christopher Steiner, who has put together a new show at the museum called “The Nut Museum: Visionary Art of Elizabeth Tashjian.'' The exhibition opens Friday, and Tashjian will talk about her art that day at 6 p.m. The show follows Tashjian's journey from traditionally trained visual artist to avant-garde performance artist. “It's an incredibly interesting American story,'' says Steiner, who rescued Tashjian's artwork and the contents of the former Nut Museum in Old Lyme after Tashjian fell ill and went to live in a nursing home in 2002. Tashjian, now 91, studied art at the National Academy of Design in New York City and had a studio in Carnegie Hall. In 1938, she saw a human face in a Brazil nut. Her painting “The Speaker'' foreshadows her obsession with nuts. In the piece, a cracked nut with a human face inside sits atop a podium and a glass of water waits nearby. Tashjian moved to Old Lyme in 1950 and became active in the Lyme Art Association. In 1972, opened the Nut Museum. She became known as “The Nut Lady.” Her eccentric flair and unusual subject matter made her a media celebrity, with appearances on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,” among other shows. The Lyman Allyn show features three rooms of Tashjian's art and other paraphernalia, including a one-hour loop of her appearances on TV and a re-creation of the dining room in her Old Lyme home, complete with a table with special-ordered legs shaped like nutcracker handles. Some of her early works on view include “Self Portrait with Red Hat,'' an oil painting done in 1940, and “Nutcracker Suite” painted in 1937. “Nutcracker Suite” is a pleasant still-life of nuts and nutcrackers engulfed in pretty Armenian silk. She also painted still-lifes of nuts, nutcracker and nut memorabilia. She painted nuts, she says, because they were around the house. She switched to acrylic paints and created pieces with more vibrant colors, similar to “outsider art,'' according to Steiner. “Outsider art'' generally describes works by artists who have no formal training and a unique style. “Anyone who knows art can't dismiss her as having no talent,'' says Steiner. “There's a lot of complexity and a lot of talent here. And she's very aware of what she's doing.'' Steiner, who retrieved from Tashjian's house 100 paintings, a dozen sculptures and 50 files boxes of newspaper clippings and notes, says that Tashjian made nut masks, which she hung in her living room. She also created paintings to go along with a song she wrote, “Nuts are Beautiful.'' “She is an original,'' Steiner says. The opening reception for “The Nut Museum: Visionary Art of Elizabeth Tashjian'' is from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, 625 William St., New London. The show runs through June 6. Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat. and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Call 443-2545.

December 28, 2003, Sunday CONNECTICUT WEEKLY DESK ART REVIEW; A Painter's Embrace Of Impressionism By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO THE late Gregory and Anna Smith of Old Lyme had a modest art collection. But it included many fine paintings and drawings by the American Impressionist J. Alden Weir. Ms. Smith, it turns out, was his granddaughter. These works are on view at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, which has been temporary custodian of the collection while the Smiths's estate is being settled. Among these pieces are some great portraits, as well as rarely seen watercolors and pencil sketches, and even an unfinished portrait of Weir by John Singer Sargent. Weir (1852-1919) is commonly regarded as an Impressionist. But it is a term he never cared for. Nor, at least initially, did he care for Impressionism, reacting badly to the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1877. It was, he wrote at the time, ''worse than a chamber of horrors,'' and he left after a short interval ''with a headache.'' Weir began to paint in an Impressionist style around 1890. By then he was back in the United States, dividing his time between New York City, where he taught painting, and his rural home and studio in Wilton. The property, known as Weir Farm, is now a national historic site. Life in Wilton inspired much of his art, including finely executed portraits of his daughter Caroline and his two wives, Anna, and, after her death during childbirth, her sister Ella. Portraiture accounts for the most substantial works here. Among them is ''Portrait of Caro'' (1887), a life-sized portrait of the 3-year-old Caroline in a frilly white dress holding an orange. It is an odd painting, as much for the uncertain expression on the child's face as for its murky mixture of 17th-century Spanish and Dutch influences. But there are some beautiful passages of painting, especially around the dress. It is curious to contrast ''Portrait of Caro'' with a portrait of Ella, hanging on the wall opposite. Probably painted around 1894 (they were married in 1893), ''Portrait of Ella'' (no date) is completely different. First, it is set outdoors, suggesting that Weir had begun to work en plein air. The palette is lighter and it is not as finely finished. Weir, it seems, had finally come around to Impressionism. The most memorable painting in the show, however, is ''Against the Window'' (1884). It shows his wife Anna, dressed in black and sitting against a window, a New York skyline in the distance. On the windowsill is a glass filled with flowers, both beautifully painted. Everything is lovely, and yet Anna's expression is weary, even pained. Something is not quite right, and I think I know what. Anna is pregnant with Caroline. ''J. Alden Weir: Selections from a Private Collection'' is at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, 625 Williams Street, New London, through Jan. 18. Information: (860)443-2545. Published: 12 - 28 - 2003 , Late Edition - Final , Section 14CN , Column 1 , Page 11

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