While the eyes of the antiques world are focused on the numerous antiques shows that make up Antiques Week in New Hampshire, taking place this week, August 3‸, it is worth noting that some of the best antiques and art available for viewing in this former industrial hub are located a short trip across town at The Currier Museum of Art. When not shopping the shows, or at any time for that matter, this venerable institution is well worth a visit.
The Currier is an internationally renowned art museum that features American and European paintings, decorative arts, photographs and sculpture. The art collections include works by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Georgia O’Keeffe, Andrew Wyeth and Rockwell Kent. The antique furniture and accessories holdings are rich with regional silver, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century New Hampshire furnishings and folk art, as well as contemporary crafts.
The Currier’s collection of decorative arts represents the three-century-long tradition of quality craftsmanship in New England. Highlights of the New England furniture on view include important examples from the 1700s to the 1900s, as well as contemporary studio furniture by the New Hampshire Furniture Masters. The glass collection comprises examples from the major manufacturing centers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and elsewhere, including select art glass by the likes of Tiffany and Quezal. Another feature of the glass housed at the Currier is the Henry Melville Fuller collection of historic and contemporary paperweights.
The collection of studio ceramics from 1950 to the present is extensive, representing the rich tradition of this craft in New England and, more to the point, locally, with artists such as Mary and Edwin Scheier. Mary was an Artist in Residence at the University of New Hampshire and the Scheiers have several important works on view.
Considered by many to be the gem of the Currier’s holdings is the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Zimmerman House, a structure built in 1950 for Lucille and Isadore J. Zimmerman. Wright designed the house, the interiors, the furniture, the gardens and even the mailbox, working hand-in-hand with the owners to meticulously design and situate the home on the property. Located just a short drive away from the Currier, it is the only Wright home open to the public in New England, and it is also one of only a few Wright buildings owned and operated by an art museum.
Dr and Mrs Zimmerman, who lived in the house for 36 years, bequeathed the property to the museum in 1988 and in 1990 the house and grounds were opened so that visitors could enjoy glimpses of a private world from the 1950s and 1960s. The home, one of Wright’s classic Utopian designs, was donated in its entirety, including the Zimmermans’ personal collection of modern art, pottery and sculpture. Viewed in its entire original context, many people believe that the Zimmerman House is a total work of art.
The brick structure, located on a corner lot in a residential neighborhood, has a distinct linear appearance, and although certainly appealing, it maintains a businesslike appearance. A horizontal row of windows across the front of the home are positioned high on the structure so as to allow light to enter, but to protect the occupant’s privacy when the home is observed from the street. In contrast, the interior of the home is warm and inviting, with clerestory lighting throughout the central living quarters.
The manicured and private backyard is also inviting, almost becoming a part of the living space as viewed through the expansive glass walls placed with a passive Southern exposure. Radiant heating in the poured concrete floors reflected energy efficiency, a theme that in 1950 was far ahead of its time, yet was common thinking of both Wright and the Zimmermans.
Typical of a Wright structure, much of the furniture is either built-in, or was created specifically for the house at the time it was constructed. One unique feature of the home is the music corner in the main living area, a place where the Zimmermans hosted formal evenings complete with live music one evening per week. Seating, music stands and a bench running the length of the room, all Wright designed, accommodated the guests.
Although this is certainly a museum, it is not meant to maintain an appearance as if the Zimmermans have just walked from the house. It is a true and accurate reflection of Wright’s visions combined with the cultured lifestyle and artistic flair of this unique and extremely art-conscious couple.
Interestingly, Wright never visited the site where the Zimmerman house was to be located, yet he was able to meticulously work with topographical-style maps that showed elevations and the natural appearance of the lot, down to the location of trees and shrubbery.
In 1979, the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. One extremely important note, tours of the Zimmerman House are by reservation only; reservations may be made at 603-669-6144, extension 108, or online at www.currier.org.
Back at the museum’s main location, it is a difficult choice in regard to which collections should be viewed first. A primary focus of the collection is the art and craft of New Hampshire artists, as well as works with subjects relating to the state. During the 1700s and early 1800s, cabinetmakers in New Hampshire produced furniture that is prized for its craftsmanship and originality of design.
The selection of Americana is stellar, perhaps best highlighted by a chest-on-chest in exceptional tiger maple attributed to New Hampshire’s iconic cabinetmaker Samuel Dunlap. The circa 1790 case piece is a work of art, from its pinwheel carved crest with whale’s tail finials, to its exquisitely carved lower apron with cutout central scrolls, carved pinwheels and classic bandy legs.
Another treasure from the American furniture collection is the stylish Queen Anne side chair attributed to Portsmouth maker John Gaines III, circa 1740. Exhibiting influences from several regions, the country chair was carved with a simple but graceful set of cabriole legs reflecting an English flavor, yet also with a sophisticated shell and foliate upper crest rail that emulates the finest Boston style.
Taunton, Mass., cabinetmaker Robert Crossman is represented with a superb blanket chest with one drawer over two faux drawers that is marked with the initials “SA” and dated 1729. Profusely paint decorated with birds, flowers and trees, the chest sits high on a simple base with half-moon cutout sides and William and Mary period drop pendant drawer pulls.
New Hampshire has been a popular subject for artists for almost two centuries. The state’s majestic White Mountains, picturesque villages, farm lands and rocky coastline have inspired artists of the Hudson River School, including Albert Bierstadt and Jasper Cropsey, as well as Modernists such as Charles Sheeler and William Zorach, all of whom are represented within the selection of American art.
Two of Cropsey’s works in the collection are “An Indian Summer Morning in the White Mountains” and “Winter Landscape, North Conway, N.H.,” while Bierstadt’s works include a sumptuous oil on paper titled “Moat Mountain, Intervale, New Hampshire,” circa 1862.
Another of the Hudson River School painters to have worked regionally was Martin Johnson Heade, and the collection contains at least two significant examples, highlighted by “Marshfield Meadows,” a classic interpretation of the South Shore salt marshes after haying.
Although executed nearby in his home state of Maine, Marsden Hartley’s “Abundance,” an oil on canvas, is typical of the quality and depth of the Currier’s Modernist collections. The painting depicts “the primitive strength that the artist saw in nearly every aspect of his native land,” according to museum text, and “while not beautiful in the conventional sense, is powerfully expressive of raw vitality.”
Another classic work is William Zorach’s 1917 oil on canvas, “Plowing the Fields.” Zorach and his wife Marguerite spent their summers during the period in which this painting was made in New England, dividing time between New Hampshire and Provincetown. Influenced by several styles, this painting depicts the mountainous terrain near Echo Farm, where the Zorachs spent time, with two figures working the fields with horse-drawn plows “cutting undulating pink furrows from the green turf” against a background where the “rolling hills, and distant forests give way to purple mountains.”
The European collection includes works in various media dating from the Thirteenth Century through the Impressionism period. Of particular note is the group of medieval objects that illustrate prevailing approaches to depicting Mary and Jesus in medieval France and Italy.
The real strength of the collection, however, are the Seventeenth Century Dutch paintings, including important works by Jan de Bray, Jacob van Ruisdael, Balthasar van der Ast and Hendrick Goltzius. Paintings from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries include a variety of styles popular throughout Europe. Of note is the Currier’s “small, but choice” Impressionist collection, which includes a pivotal, early painting by Monet.
Key figures at the center of avant-garde circles in Europe and America at the beginning of the Twentieth Century include prominent European artists such as Henri Matisse, Picasso and Georges Rouault. Paintings housed in the collection illustrate how these artists challenged previous conceptions of art with their radical manipulation of form, color and space.
Contemporary art at the Currier includes a wide spectrum of paintings, sculptures, prints and photographs. Highlights of the collection include Abstract Expressionist paintings by Adolph Gottlieb, Joan Mitchell and Mark Rothko; geometric abstraction by Josef Albers, Jules Olitski and Richard Anuskiewicz; and sculpture by Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson.
A major recent addition to the contemporary collection can be found outside the galleries where Mark di Suvero’s 35-foot-high painted steel sculpture “Origins,” 2001‰4, greets visitors. Sol LeWitt’s wall drawing for the Winter Garden, a site-specific commission designed by the artist before his death in 2007, was installed in 2008.
In 1998, Henry Melville Fuller donated his extraordinary collection of 330 glass paperweights to the Currier. A longtime trustee and patron of the Currier, Fuller’s collection includes outstanding works from the major French glass houses of Baccarat, Clichy and Saint-Louis and examples by Twentieth Century artists including Paul Stankard and Nashua, N.H., artist Rick Ayotte.
Lotte Jacobi, a leading figure in Twentieth Century photography, established her reputation in Berlin, Germany, before immigrating to New York in 1935. In 1955 she moved to Deering, N.H., becoming a key figure in the state’s arts community. Jacobi is best known for her photographs of famous men and women, many of which are now part of the collective visual consciousness. The Currier’s collection of more than 400 photographs is said to be surpassed only by the holdings at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum.
“Turning Wood into Art: The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection” is one of the current exhibits, on view through September 27. Organized by the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, the exhibition of 65 objects has been selected from one of the world’s foremost collections of contemporary lathe-turned wood. An international collection, it includes artists from Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States with representatives from the West Coast, Southwest and Eastern states, including three artists from Vermont and one former New Hampshire resident.
“Spotlight New England: Gary Haven Smith and Gerald Auten” is also on view and open through September 13. Organized by the Currier, it is the second installation in the Currier’s new Spotlight New England series that pairs two of the region’s finest artists †Gary Haven Smith and Gerald Auten. While both artists exhibit regularly in the region and nationally, this will be the first major show at the Currier for each.
The Currier Museum of Art is at 150 Ash Street. The museum is closed on Tuesdays. It is open Sunday through Friday 11 am to 5 pm, with extended hours on the first Thursday of each month till 8 pm. Saturday hours are 10 am to 5 pm with free admission until noon. For further information, 603-669-6144 (for Zimmerman House tour reservations dial extension 108) or www.currier.org .
