Bernard Langlais at the Colby College Museum of Art

Bernard Langlais at the Colby College Museum of Art

Hannah W. Blunt, with Diana Tuite, Vincent Katz, Leslie Umberger, Nina Roth-Wells, and Ronald Harvey

Hardcover, 9.5 x 11.5 in., 224 pp.

$65

Corresponding Exhibition: Bernard Langlais 

Known for his monumental wall reliefs and sculptures of animals from the 1970s, American artist Bernard Langlais (1921–1977) created a diverse oeuvre of paintings, sculptures and environments that shifted regularly and freely between abstraction and figuration. This shift reflects Langlais’ constant effort to reconcile his rural roots (in Maine) and keen sense of place with postwar artistic movements and ideologies. In celebration of a substantial bequest by the artist’s widow, Helen Friend Langlais, the Colby College Museum of Art organized a retrospective of Langlais’ career, Bernard Langlais at the Colby College Museum of Art.

Published on the occasion of this major exhibition, this publication is the first comprehensive monograph on this singular American artist. Alongside abundant illustrations, three essays trace the arc of Langlais’ career, from his early experiments in painting and his transition to wood sculpture in the 1960s to his return to figuration and his exhaustive exploration of animal motifs.