New Don Gorvett Woodcuts and Drawings: Rediscovering Cape Ann, 2019 to present

Opening Reception, June 25, 2022, 4-7 pm at The Don Gorvett Studio and Gallery

211 East Main St. (Beacon Marine Basin), Gloucester, MA.

More info at Dongorvettgallery.com or 603-436-7278

 

The Don Gorvett Studio and Gallery at the historic Beacon Marine Basin in East Gloucester, MA., is showing the most recent work of Don Gorvett since his return to Gloucester after 30 years. The exhibit will be on view until Aug 1, 2022.

 

Don moved his etching press from the Don Gorvett Gallery in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to a spacious sail loft in one of Gloucester Harbor’s most iconic waterfront buildings in the fall of 2019. The Studio and Gallery at the Beacon Marine Basin in Gloucester provides a venue for residents of Cape Ann and visitors to see Mr. Gorvett’s work and the work of other nationally recognized printmakers and artists. The Studio and Gallery are located upstairs at the Beacon Marine Basin and are within walking distance of the North Shore Artist Association and the Rocky Neck Artist Colony. The Don Gorvett Gallery in Portsmouth, NH, celebrating 16 years, continues to be a destination for visitors and art collectors. Both locations exhibit the work of other nationally-known artists and printmakers in addition to Don Gorvett and are open year-round.

 

Don Gorvett was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1949 and raised within the environs of Cambridge and Somerville, MA. Much of his youth was spent at the seashore swimming, fishing, and observing the fishing-town industry. After graduating from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1972, Mr. Gorvett moved to Gloucester, MA, to pursue a career as an artist. In 1990 Don left Gloucester for Ogunquit, Maine, and returned in 2019. Don’s immediate surroundings, the seaside, and harbors are fundamental to his work and are much influenced by a romantic passion for history, drama, and music. His considerable skills as a draughtsman and his thorough understanding of the medium of printmaking are paramount features of his bold, graphic style and the somewhat abstract nature of his imagery. The reduction woodcut marries naturally with the maritime rusticity of New England’s harbor towns. All woodcuts are designed and printed by Don in his studio. 

 

Don Gorvett’s woodcuts are in public and private collections, including Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, Boston Athenaeum, Boston, MA, Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA, Cambridge University, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH, Duxbury Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockport, ME, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, Museum of Fine Arts, Hanoi, Vietnam, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA, and the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA.

 

 

 

 

Following is an excerpt from a talk by Don Gorvett at the Cape Ann Museum in 2020. “Harbor Cove, part of Gloucester, Massachusetts’ inner harbor, is a perfect anchorage for fishing vessels, geographically snug and well protected from the elements. A depiction of Harbor Cove by nineteenth-century American painter Fitz Henry Lane, circa 1860, showed a pastoral, peaceful inlet with a fort on a distant hill. With rapid population growth and the building of the railroad line, Gloucester became a bustling fishing city. Soon Harbor Cove was cramped with spar yards, coal pockets, ice houses, and fish processing plants. Today the Cove has once again become a quieter place due to receding fish stocks. Fisherman’s Wharf, identified by the Texaco sign in the woodcut, has long since disappeared due to a fire. The cannery is now the Gloucester House Restaurant. Old City Hall still stands as a bright ornament above the city. Today fishing draggers sit in retirement against collapsing wharves. The woodcut Moonlight Memory, Harbor Cove, is a reminder of my experiences while living in the vibrant Cove during the 1970s. Despite the fishing industry’s decline, one’s memory remains undisturbed.”