Langlais Sculpture Park
Bernard Langlais was a Mainer, born and raised in Old Town. Part of New York’s modern art scene in the 1950’s he became an internationally known artist. While vacationing in Maine in 1956 he began working with wood scraps found around his summer camp. He created his mosaic-like wall compositions with a process he called painting with wood. He had significant exhibitions in 1960-61 in New York City but by the mid-1960s he’d become unhappy with the city’s art scene and moved to Cushing, Maine, where he lived and worked for the remainder of his life. At his death in 1977 he had created over 60 “monumental” wooden sculptures, perhaps the best known being the seventy-foot tall Indian in the town of Skowhegan. Many of the rest were scattered around his property in various stages of decay.
Fast forward to 2010: Colby College is the recipient of a bequest by Bernard’s widow, Helen Fried Langlais, leaving thousands of pieces of artwork and their 90-acre property to the college. With support from the Kohler Foundation Langlais’ works were repaired and placed in over 50 locations around Maine and are now part of the Langlais Art Trail.
In 2015 The Kohler Foundation gifted the Langlais homestead to the Georges River Land Trust. Over the next few years these two organizations created the Langlais Sculpture Preserveand restored twelve of the remaining sculptures. The preserve has become one of my favorite places to photograph. I find it a complicated place to photograph because the sculptures are in situ so I am forced to figure them out in their environment, rather than with a seamless background. These four images are the best I have created thus far. The titles are my titles, not those Bernard Langlais may have given the pieces.
Tricky Dick
I can think of no better place for Richard Nixon to stand forever than in a swamp. Moreover, a frozen swamp seems even more appropriate.
Not Christina
This sculpture is a reference to Christina Olson, the centerpiece of Andrew Wythe’s painting Christina’s World. In the preserve we get the chance to see her up close and she becomes monumental rather than a small figure in a broad field.
Hand of God?
There are five fingers (High Five) in this sculpture but I wanted them against the sky and I couldn’t find a vantage point that allowed me to get all five so I settled for four.
White Bear
This piece is called Five Bears, but I became fascinated by the polar bear rising above the other bears. I am not sure if this is a political piece or a humorous piece.
The next time you are in Maine or Cushing, take a few minutes and explore the Langlais Sculpture Park. It is an enjoyable place to photograph.
tillman