Opening day at the Field Gallery was Sunday, August 8, 1971, so it seemed fortuitous to be celebrating its 50th year with an opening on Sunday, August 8, 2021. A collection of Tom Maley’s paintings hung inside, while his iconic sculptures danced on the lawn. Ham and cheese sandwiches and lemonade were served underneath a shady tree, the same menu as the day the gallery opened, perhaps under the same tree. Visitors went through the gallery or chatted outside. Children ran around mimicking the poses of the sculptures. Except for the clothing, photographs of both events would appear much the same.
The building looked much the same, too. Its story is one of the town as it was, before zoning laws, before things having to conform to regulations, permits, inspections, and fancying up. The building plan was a sketch Bob Schwartz, an architect as well as a painter, made after the previous evening’s dinner table discussion of building a gallery of their own. It would be the first designed specifically to show art, “not started from a lobster pot or something,” as Tom liked to say.
The next morning, Bob arrived at the site with a measuring tape, a clipboard, and a pencil. He imagined a modern structure with three sections and large skylights. Soon after, the rest of the party appeared, along with kids and houseguests, all enthusiastically toting supplies and newly purchased tools. Throughout the construction, curious passersby often stopped, attracted and amused by the group, who appeared to be having fun. They were welcomed and put to work.
The Schwartzes’ teenage son, William, made a cardboard model to his father’s measurements; it sits on a table in the gallery during this show. Bob’s drawing is there, too. The building stands as it has since completed in 1971. Current gallery manager and artist Jhenn Watts said, “Besides a coat of paint, not much has changed.” The carpentry, plumbing, and electrical wiring, much of which was installed by William and other volunteers, has held up through the years. Island kids who participated were David Schwartz, Billy Miller, Tertius Runner, and Eddie Cottle.
The spirit of fun that imbued the gallery’s construction was built into its DNA. Tom Maley believed that artists should never be boring or take themselves too seriously. The Field continues in the spirit that Tom and Helen envisioned, informal enough that visitors often encountered Tom and his son, Tim, working on sculptures out behind the gallery.
Tom also believed in an educational and community component that opened the gallery as studio space or for some other use during the winter months. Wendy Weldon remembers sharing the studio with Tom and Travis Tuck during the early 1970s.
Many young artists had their first show at the Field. Besides Wendy Weldon, Marcia Rossi, Scott Terry, Jeanne Hewett, Alison Shaw, Rez Williams, and Allen Whiting were among that cohort. The tradition continues to this day; Colin Ruel, Jennifer Christy, Max Decker, and Rachael Cassiani are some of the young artists exhibited and nurtured at the Field. The gallery even has a romantic story; Allen Whiting met his wife, Lynne, when she was working there in 1976.
The weekly drawing group Tom started continues to this day. It brought Island artists together, fostering connections, and serving as a meeting place for artists new to the Island. Several of the artists’ groups still meeting regularly were formed there. Liz Taft recalls seeing an ad in The MV Times, and began attending a few weeks after moving here in 1998. She, Eleanor Rodegast, Leslie Baker, Wendy Weldon, Sunny Wilson, Hela Buchthal, and Ruth Kirchmeier formed the core of the group I have belonged to for the past 20 years.
The founding artists and their families manned the gallery in the early years, gradually hiring part-time staffers Eileen Maley, Helen Reed, Patrick Worlock, and Chris Phillipps. By their 25th year it was run by a professional staff headed by Priscilla Wrenn, with Chantal Legare, Allison Doherty, and Jan Lhormer. Jhenn Watts has served as director since 2003.
Chris and Sheila Morse took over running the Field in 2002. In 2011, West Tisbury voters agreed to buy the gallery from the Maleys, to keep it a landmark in the center of town.
The 50th anniversary show is a knockout. Tom Maley’s paintings cover two walls and make an interesting contrast to contemporary work by Benjamin M. Johnson, Jennifer Christy, and Max Decker. Tom envisioned his gallery showing more edgy, contemporary art. His fellow artist-founders, Max Kahn and Eleanor Coen, were ground-breaking printmakers, using color lithography in distinctive new ways. Robert Schwartz was a painter in both watercolor and oil of Island scenes, people, and events in a colorful, exuberant style. I would have liked to see the four of them represented.
That said, seeing so many of Tom Maley’s paintings showed a weight and a range of his talent, and a sense of the artists whom he admired. “Europa with Bull” is outlined in black over a kaleidoscope arrangement of colors. “Sailboats in Edgartown Harbor” is a rather John Marin-esque watercolor in dark blues, purples, and greens. There is a playful interpretation of Botticelli’s Venus de Milo, a lively “Nude with Lute Player,” a quiet “Portrait of Helen” with a gessoed-over start on the verso, and a lovely portrait of his daughter, “Sandra with a Pearl Necklace.” Two self-portraits show his elegant draftsmanship and brushwork.
My favorite painting is a portrait of Tim Maley, about age 15, intensely focused on his sketchbook. It is a loose, brushy painting in a unified palette of varied greens, the drawn outline describing the figure. The artist leads the viewer into a maelstrom of circular brushstrokes from the rockers at the bottom of the chair, the wrinkles in Tim’s pants, the line of his arm and shoulder. It is a superbly beautiful painting.
I sat outside on a garden bench after seeing the show, surveying the scene that somehow seems unchanged. I could imagine the Maleys, Schwartzes, and Khan/Coens stepping outside, too, at that moment in time.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been fifty years since the Gallery opened! Thank you for this article Hermine, I enjoyed it very much.
Just a bit of additional information- if you look closely at Photo #2, it shows a scene from the production of “Alice in Wonderland” directed by John Hall. I was in it as the White Queen. I don’t remember the date of the performance but I don’t think it was opening day in 1971, although it was sometime in the 1970’s. Maybe one of your readers might know?