Lyme Art Association Celebrates Charles A. Platt, Artist & Architect In Special Exhibition
The Lyme Art Association will present a special exhibition entitled A Place for Art: Charles A. Platt, Architect of the Lyme Art Association Gallery celebrating the life and works of Charles A. Platt, a prominent artist and architect of the early 20th century. In addition to the Lyme Art Association Gallery, Platt was noted for his design of major art institutions such as the Freer Gallery in Washington , DC and The Lyman Allyn Museum in New London . He was also a noted etcher, painter, and landscape designer and the exhibition will present paintings, etchings, and photographs of Platt’s work on loan from museum holdings, private collections, and the Smithsonian Institution. The show will be on view through January 14, 2006.
“The Etcher” a major oil painting by Charles A. Platt, will be a highlight of the exhibition. “This canvas,” states Jeanne Ledoux-Stewart, curator of the exhibition, “was included in the Paris Salon of 1895. Amazingly, it was Platt’s first attempt at the figure in oil and is considered one of his masterpieces.”
“Platt was truly a ‘Renaissance man’ in his command of so many artistic endeavors,” states Bob Potter , Executive Director of the Lyme Art Association . “ This exhibition not only shows his range of talents, but underscores the architectural and historic importance of the Lyme Art Association Gallery which he designed.”
Since 1902, annual summer exhibitions of the Old Lyme art colony drew increasing crowds from New York and Boston . Many of the artists boarded at the home of Florence Griswold. The artists decided they needed a permanent place for their art and incorporated as the Lyme Art Association on July 13, 1914.
For the building site, Florence Griswold, the artists’ beloved patroness, sold the artists land next to her Old Lyme mansion for one dollar. Charles A. Platt volunteered to design the gallery. Due to labor and materials shortages of World War I, construction was delayed until 1920. Platt incorporated the shingle style of New England in his building exterior design, and created large, sky lit galleries with cove ceilings, a centered arched entrance, and solid facade that echo his national museum designs. When it opened in 1921, the New York Times described the Lyme Art Association Gallery as “an embodiment of art in harmony with its natural surroundings.”
LYME ART ASSOCIATION
90 Lyme Street, P. O. Box 222, Old Lyme, Connecticut 06371
Phone: 860-434-7802 | Fax: 860-434-7461|
Email: info@lymeartassociation.org
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10-5, Sundays, 1-5, Closed Mondays