I came to Ogunquit for a world-premiere musical and a lobster roll. I left thinking about a Swedish painter I’d never heard of.
The Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA) exhibition Carl Sprinchorn: All the World is a Painting closes November 1, but thanks to the museum’s free digital guide, you can dive deep into the artist’s alluring body of work from anywhere.
A queer modernist in the Maine woods
For me, discovering Sprinchorn, a Swedish-American artist who pushed modernism forward through a quietly queer lens, was the best kind of surprise.
Sprinchorn arrived in New York City at 16 to study under his mentor and teacher, Robert Henri, then traveled internationally to pursue his craft before settling, like many artists, in Maine.
Organized into themes of Labor, Leisure, and Landscape across three museum galleries, the exhibition gives viewers a full sense of Sprinchorn’s inspiration, particularly his attraction to Maine woodsmen.
“[T]hese two aspects—his sexuality and his sympathy for working-class life—profoundly shaped both the subjects Sprinchorn was drawn to and the ways he represented them,” Devon Zimmerman, OMAA’s curator of modern and contemporary art, told Forbes.
That duality leaped off the canvas as I stood before Sprinchorn’s body of work, the natural light pouring into the main gallery from Narrow Cove and the ocean beyond.
Make Ogunquit a 3-act trip
That musical was John Mellencamp’s Small Town at Ogunquit Playhouse, which has gained traction over the past few years as a premier regional theater producing new works and rarely seen revivals. This season was the Playhouse’s biggest yet, with Small Town pushing annual ticket revenue past $10 million. The lobster rolls were plentiful, too. But I love a wildcard, and OMAA delivered a third must-do for anyone venturing to the Pine Tree State.
I’ve always been a fan of single-artist museums and smaller, more bespoke institutions that allow for immersion without distraction, a welcome contrast to legacy giants like the Met, where I’m overwhelmed before I reach the second gallery. OMAA has already announced next season’s schedule, which includes the first solo museum exhibitions by Rebecca Ness, sculptor Ryan Schneider, and more.
The Ogunquit Museum of American Art proves that place and space are in dialogue with the work it houses. The museum goes dormant for the winter, but I can’t wait for it to bloom again next spring.
It wants better content.
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