The installation of these brilliant banners represents the next major step in bringing the new CAM Green campus to life. During October, the venue was open as a preview for the community and featured its first exhibition, the Porch-Rait Project, with photographs of local residents taken during the early pandemic shutdown.
The first artist in the lineup is local pride and international legend, Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865), with his View of the Babson and Ellery Houses, Gloucester, 1863. The painting has become symbolic of the new campus as CAM Green is situated on the site depicted in the painting. The next banner, a portrait of Jackie Hudson by William McGregor Paxton (1869-1941), was painted when he summered in Rockport and Jackie was his neighbor. Paxton, like many Boston artists of his era, was influenced by Vermeer, as evident in this genteel portrait.
Winslow Homer is the artist of the third banner, with detail from his Boy Hailing Schooners, 1880, featuring an image of Cape Ann’s continuous interaction between the shore and passing vessels. The young lad waves for us all. Next in this remarkable lineup is a portrait of local icon Howard Blackburn, painted by Peter Vincent (1947-2012), the youngest artist represented. After Howard is another symbolic image, depicting Cape Ann’s rough granite terrain. Marsden Hartley painted Rock Doxology (1931), during a visit to Dog Town where he was said to find solace.
The sixth portrait is Jimmie (Henry Parsons King, Jr.) 1905, painted by Cecilia Beaux, and a gift to the museum of Mary Parker King (Mrs. Henry Parsons, King, Jr.), 1980. The final banner is Smith’s Cove, East Gloucester, by Jane Peterson, of international renown and once a summer resident of Ipswich.
The technology for creating these hardy banners is not insubstantial. Cosmos chatted with the technical staff from White Light Visual, LLC, located in Beverly, Massachusetts. The process begins with a very high-resolution photograph provided by the museum. The high resolution maintains granularity of the images when magnified to the banner’s 12x14’ dimensions. The banner material is a high-performance vinyl onto which images are printed and bonded with UV curable inks. The banners should withstand weather exposure for 2-3 years, with no fading, even in New England.
According to Oliver Barker, Director of Cape Ann Museum, in the future this visible wall will continue to be actively employed with art displays and communications. Watch this Space…
The grand and formal opening of the CAM Green campus remains scheduled for June 2021, with the usual caveat of pandemic dependent. In the interim, we can enjoy these illustrious artists with their images of the place, the times and the people of Cape Ann, now showing in a modern high-tech, outdoor gallery.
— Chris Munkholm
