Hello, my name is Julie Aronson, and I am the Curator of American Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings. I am also the curator overseeing the Cincinnati presentation of this exhibition. Today, I will be reading the Maine and Nature section panel for David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History along with label text and audio descriptions for two highlighted works.

Driskell’s art bears the imprint of his lifelong engagement with nature. His 1953 summer residency at Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in rural Maine marked the beginning of his enduring relationship with the state. In 1961, the Driskells purchased property in Falmouth, Maine, which became a summer home and a studio location. Laid out over time, the property includes an extensive garden that yields a bounty of color and food each summer. Nestled nearby is a free-standing studio that Driskell built. His gardens became an extension of his aesthetic sensibilities and the joy of the natural world that pervaded his art.

In 1980, Driskell did a summer residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York. His expanded collage materials included cheese cloth, torn paper, and long strips of cloth, stained to recall the tie-dyeing process. He drew upon his familiarity with American quilting and African strip-weaving traditions. His collage paintings, characterized by an emphasis on horizontal and vertical bands of color, take on a physical materiality not seen since his assemblage works of the 1960s. The fruits of this residency are most evident in his work from 1980, such as Upward Bound and Yaddo Circle.