Grace Hartigan

In her new show at the C. Grimaldis Gallery, painter Grace Hartigan remains true to herself, which means that she's not doing the same old thing. At 75, she's reinventing her art as energetically and imaginatively as ever.Through a distinguished career that now spans half a century, one of the constants of Hartigan's work has been change. Even when her followers have wished she would linger longer with a particular subject matter or style -- as with her much-admired pointillist period of the late 1980s and early 1990s -- she has felt the need to move on. Here, she introduces not one but two new series, the "Stars" of American popular culture that she produced in 1996 and earlier this year, and the more recent "Gods" (Greek and Roman)

In the 1880s, French artist Georges Seurat developed a system of applying paint to canvas in tiny dots that became known as pointillism. His greatest work, "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte," is at the Chicago Art Institute. In 1988, after seeing it, abstract expressionist painter Grace Hartigan began to employ a dotting technique in her own work.She created paintings in this style until 1993, and has since referred to those years as her "abstract expressionist pointillist" period.

Throughout her career, Grace Hartigan has repeatedly mined history and art history for inspiration. She has done it again for her latest show, a group of large- and medium-scaled watercolors collectively titled "The Medieval Hunt." The results are impressive and show the artist continuing to pursue new developments.Not strictly confined to the hunt, the show's 13 works contain both hunt scenes and individual figures. A few of these are based on specific pictures, such as her "Man with Red Hat," based on Hans Memling's "Portrait of a Man," but most are composites drawn from several sources.

The rear gallery at Grimaldis has the big news now.As usual in summer, the larger front gallery has a group show of Grimaldis' regular artists -- Grace Hartigan, Eugene Leake, Mel Kendrick and others. But gallery owner Constantine Grimaldis, who usually shows well-established artists, gives his rear gallery this month and next to two recent graduates of the Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, both former students of Grace Hartigan."I felt that they should be seen," he says.

At 71, Grace Hartigan is still, as she always has been, a searcher. She greets a visitor to her Fells Point studio and living space, in the city she has called home since 1960, and announces that her work is undergoing yet another major change. She's left the Seurat-like, pointillist style in which she was working for several years and is now doing paintings with much more drawing in them. Her work in the pointillist style, though, was hailed as some of her best work in decades, so she's taking a big chance.

Grace Hartigan's "Another Hunt," one of the best works in her new show at C. Grimaldis Gallery, takes us on a little trip through the history of modern art while remaining thoroughly Hartigan and thoroughly contemporary.Its horses and riders remind us of Degas, but there's something about the principal rider's black hat and formal air that speaks of Manet. The spattering of yellow paint that seems to hover over the surface can, of course, recall Seurat's pointillism, but the yellow and the brilliant red riders' coats combine to suggest the dazzle of impressionist dabs of brightness.

Three of the best-known contemporary artists associated with our area currently share wall space at the C. Grimaldis Gallery. "Maryland on the Map" features new work by Grace Hartigan and Eugene Leake and a selection of paintings by the late Keith Martin.From her early years as an abstract expressionist painter in the heady New York art world of the 1950s through her subsequent decades as a painter and Maryland Institute faculty member in Baltimore, Grace Hartigan has proven time and again that it is possible for an artist to go through stylistic shifts and yet always remain herself.

When Grace Hartigan became director of the Maryland Institute's Hoffberger School of Painting in 1965 -- a position she has held since -- she had left behind the glory days as a leading abstract expressionist painter in 1950s New York and settled quietly in Baltimore with husband Winston Price. Since then, her work has changed in major ways, and has emerged from the last quarter century looking awfully good. On the way, however, there were periods of struggle, doubt and uncertainty, and one can glimpse those along with successes in a show that opens at the Institute tomorrow.

Lively exhibitions of censored art, royal Kuwaiti treasures and contemporary visions of photography suggest the diversity of the new season of visual arts in Baltimore.Here's brief description of five of the most intriguing shows:* "Censored/Censured" is a show of approximately 30 works that have been removed from regional art shows or moved to other places within exhibition areas. Some pieces were physically altered. It runs through Oct. 5. at The BAUhouse, 1713 N. Charles St.* "Mermaids, Mummies & Mastodons," an exhibition about the history of Amerian museums, opens Dec. 2 at the Peale Museum.

"Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in America. Well we'll see," says Grace Hartigan, whose career may be poised for a socko second act beginning this fall.The curtain went down on its first act 30 years ago. After recognition as one of the leading abstract expressionist artists of the 1950s, in 1960 she married Dr. Winston Price, a researcher at Johns Hopkins, and moved from New York to Baltimore. She views that move now as both salvation and destruction."The attention that I got in the 1950s was almost impossible to deal with," she says.

FILM 'It's a Wonderful Life' The Senator Theatre hosts its annual benefit for the GEDCO CARES Food pantry Sunday with its traditional double-bill. You can view Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life (11 a.m., 3:45 p.m., 8:30 p.m.) either as a heartwarming tale of a well-spent life or a devastating account of an existence so miserable that only the intervention of an angel can redeem it (James Stewart, who stars, is so good it works either way). Then exult in the pathos-streaked exuberance of the premium 1951 British version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, starring Alastair Sim as Scrooge (1:45 p.m., 6:30 p.m.)

Grace Hartigan, the renowned artist and educator who died over the weekend at the age of 86, was a painter's painter. "The thing that's been incredible is that one way or another, I've been able to arrange my life so that I could paint every day," she told The Sun in a 2001 interview. "I have great plans to live as long as Georgia O'Keeffe," she added. Ms. O'Keeffe lived to 98, and Ms. Hartigan said she needed the time because "there's a lot of work I still want to do." Ms. Hartigan was not granted that wish, but what she accomplished over a career spanning more than six decades was little short of astonishing.

Before she passed away Saturday after a long illness, Grace Hartigan was adamant, even imperious about the arrangements for how she would be memorialized. And she will get her way, as Hartigan, a seminal figure in the U.S. art world and a longtime Baltimore resident, usually did. "There will be no memorial service. She said that her memorial should be more about her body of work than about her physical body. She's always felt that way," says Rex Stevens, chairman of the drawing and general fine arts department at the Maryland Institute College of Art. The 86-year-old painter will be cremated, he said.

Her bold canvases made her a bright star in the 1950s New York art world, but she "sank from view faster than the Titanic" when she moved to Baltimore, The New York Times said. Grace Hartigan, who ultimately found a second career offering her wisdom and advice to generations of young painters at the Maryland Institute College of Art, died of liver failure yesterday at the Lorien Mays Chapel nursing home. She was 86. "I feel that I am an aristocrat as far as painting is concerned; I believe in beautiful drawing, in elegance, in luminous color and light," she said in a 1990 biography.

The Maryland Institute College of Art will hold the world premiere of a 36-minute documentary about Maryland artist and educator Grace Hartigan at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Brown Center, 1301 Mount Royal Ave. Grace Hartigan - Shattering Boundaries, features studio interviews with Hartigan, the director of MICA's Hoffberger School of Painting since 1965, and artists she has influenced over the years. The reservations-only event includes a question-and-answer session with co-producers Janice Stanton and Alice Shure of Amici Films, as well as a reception.

What do Josephine Baker, Amelie Matisse and Lili Marlene have in common? Aside from their aura of European sophistication and glamour, they're all featured subjects in New Paintings, a lively exhibition of recent work by Baltimore master Grace Hartigan at C. Grimaldis Gallery. Over the years, Hartigan has repeatedly returned for inspiration to famous women from history, legend and the history of art. She was a leading member of the New York School of Abstract-Expressionist painters during the 1950s, and her subsequent work remains an inventive mix of delightful human forms and pure abstraction.

The lowdown -- Catch the gallery talk for the exhibition Time and Measure today at Maryland Art Place. Join participating artists R.L. Croft, Kevin Wolf and Christopher Whittey as they explain the exhibit and their works. If you go -- The talk will be at 6 p.m. today with a 7 p.m. reception. Time and Measure runs through Dec. 22. Maryland Art Place is at 8 Market Place, Suite 100. [ANDREA GROSSMAN] Grace Hartigan The lowdown -- Don't miss Grace Hartigan: New Painting, a new exhibit at C. Grimaldis Gallery.

WHEN GRACE HARTIGAN WAS A LITTLE girl, she was bewitched by gypsies. In the 1930s, the Travelers still roamed the countryside in nomadic caravans, and young Grace would shinny up the apple tree in her parents' backyard in Newark, N.J., to spy on them. She spent hours watching the women in colorful skirts and big hoop earrings telling fortunes, the men sharpening their knives. GRACE HARTIGAN: PORTRAITS FROM THE MASTERS, NEW PAINTINGS / / Exhibit runs through April 29 / / C. Grimaldis Gallery, 523 N. Charles St. / / Admission is free / / Call 410-539-1080 or visit cgrimaldisgallery.

Hartigan's styles New and old works by Baltimore artist Grace Hartigan will be on display at the C. Grimaldis Gallery starting Wednesday. Hartigan first became famous as an abstract expressionist who ran with Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning in New York City in the 1950s. She's shifted styles a number of times, and this show will include works from all phases of her career. There will be an opening reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday. The show, Grace Hartigan: A Survey, will be on display through June 11. The C. Grimaldis Gallery is at 523 N. Charles St. Hours are 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays.

Grace Hartigan held court Thursday evening at Maryland Institute College of Art's new Brown Center. It was the first time since the mid-1980's that the artist has addressed a large audience in Baltimore, and her thoughts on life, influences and art fell on the adoring ears of about 350 art students, faculty, trustees and friends. Though she wore all black and sat to the side of the stage, her colorful presence and personality seemed to fill the room. "She's a legend," said Carrie Fuclie, a MICA student who arrived before the doors opened.