Named for one the artist”™s favorite Emily Dickinson poems, the new Bruce Museum exhibition “She Sweeps with Many-Colored Brooms: Paintings and Prints by Emily Mason” showcases the vibrant work of Emily Mason (1932- 2019). Characterized by brilliant hues laid down in thin layers of varying transparency, often superimposed in surprising color combinations, Mason”™s work is the result of a rare alliance between spontaneity and premeditation.
On view in the Bruce Museum”™s recently renovated main art gallery from Nov. 22 through March 21 this major new art exhibition highlights Mason”™s earliest experiments in oil on paper and in printmaking from two decades of intense innovation in her career.
Born into a family with an artistic legacy that stretched back to early American history painter John Trumbull (1756-1843) and included her mother, the noted abstract painter Alice Trumbull Mason (1904-1971), Emily Mason carved out a nuanced artistic path of her own.
“Emily Mason”™s greatest achievement is to have translated the language of Abstract Expressionism, which was always one of gesture and movement, into an abstraction of pure color composed in delicate veils and washes,” said Robert Wolterstorff, The Susan E. Lynch executive director and one of the organizers of the exhibition.
The Bruce Museum is hosting a Member Appreciation Weekend, Friday, Nov. 20 ”“ Sunday, Nov. 22, with a members-only preview of the new exhibition on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20-21. To make a reservation for time-ticketed admission to this limited- capacity preview or to join as a member, visit brucemuseum.org or call 203-869-0376, ext. 311.
