Currier exhibit celebrates life, work of its first director

MANCHESTER, N.H. – A new exhibition at The Currier Museum of Art focuses on the watercolour and oil paintings of its first director.

Maud Briggs Knowlton was a lifelong Manchester, New Hampshire, resident, with deep ties to Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine. “A Life Made in Art: Maud Briggs Knowlton,” is on view through May 10. She was director from 1929-1946.

Knowlton was one of the few female artists to regularly work on Monhegan. The isolated island attracted a community of important artists, whom Knowlton befriended and included in exhibitions. Works from the collection of the Monhegan Museum of Art and History by prominent artists who painted on Monhegan, such as Rockwell Kent, Robert Henri, and Andrew and Jamie Wyeth will be featured in the exhibition to provide a fuller picture of the island as an artist colony.

The Currier will hold an ArtTalk on March 8 featuring lectures by the exhibition catalogue co-authors. Susan Strickler, former director of the Currier Museum of Art, will speak on Knowlton’s art and her career from young artist to first director of the Currier Museum. Robert Stahl, co-director of the Monhegan Museum of Art and History, will discuss life on Monhegan Island.