Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. History Dept.
Advisor(s)
Sarah Duff
Second Advisor
Sarah Humphreville
Abstract
Maine has played a vital but largely unacknowledged role in the development of American modernism as both an environmental and cultural repository of inspiration. By examining the artistic and pedagogical tensions present in the Ogunquit, Maine art colony, this thesis explores Maine as an inspiration point for many of the foundational artists and teachers of the American modernist art movement. The gap in literature addressing the question, “why Maine?” leaves a void in the scholarship of American history and art history. Setting the scope of its research within this vital question, this thesis argues that Ogunquit, Maine served as a foundational turning point within the transition from the old guard to American modernism. Artists were inspired by the landscape, vernacular architecture, and folk art found in Maine, which they found to be a welcome antidote to the rigid prescriptions of modernity and industrialization, aiding them to establish a uniquely American artistic identity.
Keywords
Maine, art, American modernism, Ogunquit, art colony
Recommended Citation
Burke, Lydia C., "Maine as Modernism’s Vernacular Muse: The Ogunquit Artists Colony as Microcosm for the Transition to American Modernism" (2024). Honors Theses. Paper 1456.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/1456