The Walpolean

On Saturday, October 8th, not July 24 as it says in the poster, the old Walpole Cemetery will once again be visited by spirits of years past, and the spirits are just dying for company!

The Walpole Historical Society has been producing these tours since 2002, and each one has a different cast of characters from Walpole’s past anxious to talk about their lives with the audience.

The tour will meet at the Walpole Middle School front lawn at 2:00 pm, when the ‘Funeral Director’ will start the procession through the beautiful cemetery with its stone markers – some of which have been standing for 300 years – stopping along the way to talk to long-departed citizens from Walpole’s past. For those who haven’t yet taken the tour, we urge you to come and see for yourself how Walpole’s history comes alive on this one day each year.

There is no admission. Refreshments will be served. Be sure to wear comfortable shoes, and come prepared for all weather – the tour goes on rain or shine! We all look forward to seeing you.

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Virgina found a set of keys on Maple Grove Rd between Prospect Hill Rd and North Rd.  If you think they might be yours you can email her at <starbellyv@yahoo.com>.  If your description matches the keys she found you can arrange for pick up.

Walpole Historical Museum Gift Shop celebrates Christmas in September! Come visit us from 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday September 17^th and get a head start on your holiday shopping.  Weather permitting we will be on the lawn by our roadside sign with new and sale items to tempt you for your Holiday decorating or gift giving. We have new Christmas cards and napkins from Caspari. Locally crafted note cards , ornaments & framed pictures — candles and votive candles too.

Ray Boas’ book about Walpole, Louisa May Alcott booklets written by Ray Boas – We also have books written by Louisa May Alcott for your reading pleasure- Walpole mugs and wine glasses –Walpole note cards, local honey and little bags of sweet tiny candies! Great stocking stuffers.    This year we have Dellamano painted glassware– and you must see our beautiful new scarves and beaded necklaces from Country on the Common that will give just the perfect touch to any outfit.

Come and browse our Louisa May Alcott exhibit and check out the many “Louisa” items in our gift shop as well. You are sure to find something you will want to bring home or wrap up for the perfect gift! Come to the Museum on Saturday the 17^th—10am to 4pm and enjoy a Christmas cookie or two with us!!

Justine Rogers wants you to know that:  “New library cards are available at the Walpole Library! Next time you’re in you’ll be able to pick one of three new card designs. Your library card number will change from a 4 digit number to a 14 digit number (as requried now by the New Hampshire State Library). If you use New Hampshire Downloadables for free e-books and audio books we’ll be able to sync your old card number with your new card number so you won’t lose any of your check outs, wish list, or holds!”

My apologies to Virginia Carter.  When I did the first post, I neglected to include the time of the movie.  The program is Friday, September 9 from 7:00 – 9:00.  So sorry for the confusion.  I appreciate those who showed me the “error of my ways”! – Lil

Michael Mulhern, OV2 – 45th Road, 2002, oil on canvas, 78 x 80 inches

MICHAEL MULHERN
RENDERING THE UNTHINKABLE: ARTISTS RESPOND TO 9/11
9/11 Memorial & Museum, New York City

(New York, New York) The National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center in New York City opens a new exhibition entitled Rendering the Unthinkable: Artists Respond to 9/11, on September 12, featuring seminal, mural-sized works from the estate of New York artist Michael Mulhern (1940 – 2012). Each provides a very personal narrative around the national tragedy and its aftermath, both for viewers and for members of our national community, as we all continue to process its reverberative effects.

Jan Ramirez, the Museum’s Chief Curator, met recently with gallerist Cynthia Reeves, who represents Michael Mulhern‘s estate. Ramirez and Reeves reflected on the artist, the genesis of his work, and the curatorial narrative now, more than a decade after the attack. They especially addressed the life and times of the late Michael Mulhern in vivid detail, as the narrative around his seminal Ash Road Paintings series is a living tribute to the victims.

On the morning of September 11, Mulhern was in his studio on the 9th floor of a Cedar Street building, directly across from the Towers. When they came down, the windows along the façade of his building shattered. The tremendous onrush of air brought with it a tidal wave of ash and detritus. Feet upon feet of gray ash enveloped him and his workspace. With tremendous presence of mind, he grabbed the respirator he used in the studio, and felt his way along the walls until he reached the bath where he was able to shut himself in and wait. He had no idea if the City was under attack, and if so, how much more was to come. Hours passed. He finally felt his way out to the stairwell, and got out on to the street and, like all other New Yorkers that day, began walking through the thick, swirling air.

Michael Mulhern, Ash Road 6/45, 2003, black and aluminum painton gessoed paper, 106 x 111 inches

For several years prior, Mulhern’s work had been centered on a strict monochromatic palette of black, white and gray, often incorporating aluminum paint. He found a tremendous range in this stark spectrum, often referencing them as “color paintings” in spite of their lack of color. Highly influenced by the New York Abstract Expressionist movement in the 1960’s, Mulhern’s surfaces were heavily marked by pooling paint, drips and curves, paintings of tremendous vibrancy and depth and nuance. In the years immediately following September 11, Mulhern decamped to a temporary studio in Long Island City, where he began experimenting with paints from his Cedar Street studio – paints mixed and infused with the ash from the lost Trade Towers. In his words, the paintings became more “severe”, and Reeves agrees: “They have a power and force that distinguish them from prior works. Many have a roiling dynamism that one cannot help but equate with the events of that day”.

Mulhern had a very personal connection to the towers and felt he could “reach out and touch the south tower” and he got to know the office workers across the way in Four World Trade Center, who would watch him at work in the studio. “It was like having an audience”, he recalled, “but we got used to each other.”

Chief Curator Jan Ramirez is responsible for archiving the personal stories of courage, loss and resilience from the events of 9/11, and this exhibition is a next step in bringing those stories alive in new ways, through the lens of thirteen select artists with firsthand experience of these events. This exhibition is a departure from the tasks that have absorbed much of her time thus far as Curator at the Museum — the artifacts, images and recorded sounds that defined that transformative day. The Museum is open daily 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. For more information, please visit online at: http://www.911memorial.org
Michael Mulhern was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1940. He attended the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts in Newark, NJ and then continued his fine art education at the Brooklyn Museum Art School in Brooklyn, NY. He began exhibiting in the early 1960s, and continued showing work consistently over forty years, through the mid- 2000’s, before he retired in Maine to be near his family. Notably, Mulhern had exhibitions in New York City at CYNTHIA-REEVES, The Drawing Center, The Painting Center, Stephen Haller Gallery, and at Exit Art. The upcoming book by Exit Art acknowledges his contribution to their exhibition history. Mulhern was the recipient of two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants, a National Endowment for the Arts painting fellowship, and a Gottlieb Foundation Grant.

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UPCOMING/ ONGOING EXHIBITIONS

SHEN CHEN, CYNTHIA-REEVES, The Barn at 28 Main Street, Walpole, NH – On view through October 22

LIONEL SMIT, ECHO, CYNTHIA-REEVES, 1315 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA – On view through September 25

LIONEL SMIT, MORPHOUS, (2014), Union Square, New York City – On view through April 2017

BETH GALSTON, 1315 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA – October 1 – November 13

 
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CYNTHIA-REEVES represents an international roster of established artists who share a process-apparent sensibility in their art. We are committed to artwork that demonstrates an authentic voice, an innovative use of materials and an appreciation of the mark in diverse media: site-based installation, video, sculpture, painting and works on paper.

A sub-text to the gallery’s program is artwork that celebrates the convergence of art and science, as well as our relationship to the natural world – a discourse essential to the examination of contemporary art and culture within the context of these broader challenges.

Please refer to the gallery’s News and Events tab on our website for the latest information concerning our exhibitions, public art initiatives, and art fair schedule. You can find additional information and images on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. As always, we look forward to connecting with you at our galleries, public art events, and at the art fairs, and continuing in the conversation around the artists we so respect and admire.

cynthia-reeves.com call: 212.714.0044 email: info@cynthia-reeves.com

“The Great Story,” a 49-minute film on the sacred story of the universe as a “cosmic liturgy,” in the words of the late Thomas Berry, a pioneer in the field of spirituality and ecology. He reminds us that “the entire natural world: mountains, rivers, birds, fish, and all living beings are not a collection of objects, but a communion of subjects.”

There will be time for a discussion following the film lead by Rev. Kitsy Winthrop.

No charge. All are welcome, of all ages.

Note: Hastings is NOT handicapped accessible, but there are two handicapped off-street parking spaces directly in front of the building if you arrive early.

Hastings House is on Union St., Walpole, behind the Walpole Unitarian Church on Main St. (the church with the clock in the steeple tower).