Alfreid Maurer painted “An Arrangement” (above) in 1901. Ten years later, he painted “Still Life” (below).
And in between he painted “Landscape (Autumn)” (1909).
Which is why “Alfred Maurer: Art on the Edge,” opening Saturday, Oct. 10, at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, should appeal to all sorts of art lovers. The show includes 65 works, including two from the Crystal Bridges Collection, “Jeanne,” the snarling, smoking larger-than-life lady in satin, and “Fauve Landscape with Red and Blue.”
The exhibition, organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., includes the broad sweep of the always experimenting artist’s work, from the fin-de-siecle “Jeanne” to America’s first Fauvist paintings and the Cubist still lifes. A catalog, “Alfred Maurer: At the Vanguard of Modernism,” will be available for purchase, and there will be several public programs connected to the show.
Alfred Henry Maurer, born in 1868 in New York City, was once grouped with Whistler and Sargent, but in his 30s in Paris he began to work in the highly saturated colors of the Fauvists and flirted with Cubism. Returning to the United States, he began to paint sketchy, elongated figures a la Modigliani. He was all over the place, and great wherever he was.
The exhibition is free and runs through Jan. 4. Unlike in the permanent galleries and for some temporary exhibits, photography will not be allowed.