Kenneth Stubbs
(American artist, 1907-1967)

ACME Fine Art's autumn season will open with a retrospective exhibition of still life paintings by the noted 20th century modern artist Kenneth Stubbs. The exhibition will be comprised of a fine group of paintings - in a variety of media - that date from between 1934 and 1965. The still life as a genre was an important subject for Stubbs throughout his career, and the paintings selected by gallery director David Cowan for this exhibition demonstrate the lasting vitality of the still life as a subject.

Kenneth Stubbs was a gifted artist and teacher who had an unwavering allegiance to modernism. In the early 1930s he studied in Provincetown with E. Ambose Webster, who is considered by many to be Provincetown's first important modernist. Webster's Summer Art School was the first of numerous art schools on Cape Cod to emphasize a modern point of view. Stubbs was one of Webster's most important students, and Webster became to Stubbs a mentor, an inspiration, and a colleague. Like his mentor, Stubbs was dedicated to the dissemination of modern ideas through his artwork and teaching. He taught for many years at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C., and the Corcoran also became an important venue for the exhibition of his work.

In recent years the Cape Cod Museum of Art and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum have mounted retrospective exhibitions of paintings and drawings by Kenneth Stubbs. ACME Fine Art has represented the artist's estate since 2002, and in 2003 an exhibition of landscapes titled Shorescapes, was the gallery's first solo exhibition of Stubbs' work. It was one of the gallery's most successful shows to date, drawing an enormously positive response from fans of more traditional forms of expression and from dyed in the wool modernists alike.

Stubbs had a fundamentally clear and consistent artistic vision; yet he, unlike many artists of his generation- was able to grow artistically without ever needing to negate or reject what had gone before. The paintings that comprise the basis for this exhibition were selected to demonstrate the remarkable arc of Stubbs' growth as an artist. Many of the paintings have not been exhibited since they were contemporary; nonetheless, each has a brilliantly fresh look that is evocative of the best of the period from which they come without losing contemporary appeal. Through his persistent use of universal themes in combination with his rigorous intellectual and artistic point of view, Kennth Stubbs was able to communicate a view of the world that is lasting, and continues to be relevant.

ACME Fine Art's exhibition of still life paintings by Kenneth Stubbs will open with a reception at the gallery from 6 to 8 o'clock on Thursday evening 8 September 2005. The exhibition will run through 8 October 2005. A catalogue that includes illustrations of twelve paintings from the exhibition and an essay by Gail R Scott are available through the gallery. ACME Fine Art and Design is located at 38 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02116.

For further information please contact the gallery at 617 585 9551 or at info@acmefineart.com.