SIZE MATTERS | SACRAMENTO STREET GALLERY

Small Works Exhibition

By David Day

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Maud Cabot Morgan was more than an icon to the art world—she was a legend. Not only was she a contemporary of Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce, but her art showed alongside giants like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Traveling the world, she started painting in Paris, lived in Munich, took a tour of China and in India, met Gandhi. She later mentored Frank Stella and, as a debutante, shot a moose (oh my, a Palindrome!). After a whirlwind of a life, she settled in Andover, Mass., and later, Cambridge. The Small Works Show, now in its eighth annual iteration, was established as a fundraiser for the Maud Morgan Visual Arts Program and Center, also based in Cambridge. The idea is, you guessed it, small works, generally nothing over 1 square-foot. This means not only a wide variety of mediums—everything from sculpture to watercolor—but also an affordable range of prices. Everybody wins. There are over 40 artists in the show, and most of them from right here in the People's Republic. As for Maud Morgan, she died in 1999, but her art remains in the permanent collections of such revered institutions as the Whitney, the Met and the MoMA. Our own Museum of Fine Arts even has a prize named in her honor. Yet, aside from this, there is relatively little out there about Morgan—not even a Wikipedia entry. Someone please write the best-selling biography of her life so it can be turned into an Oscar-winning film starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. Thanks.

[8th Annual Small Works Exhibition. Opening reception Fri 10.24.08, 5pm-8pm/free. Sacramento Street Gallery in the Agassiz Baldwin Community Center, 20 Sacramento St., Cambridge. 617.349.6287. Until 12.5.08. Mon-Fri, 9:30am-5pm, Sat noon-5pm. agassiz.org]