Art Review: Sue Miller, John Walker Exhibits at Ogunquit Museum

‘Intense” is the best word describing Sue Miller: Personal Voyage and John Walker: From Low Tide to High Tide, two exhibitions at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art in this seaside town in southern Maine close to the New Hampshire border. I’m embarrassed to admit I’d never been to the museum, doubly embarrassed since it’s a museum of American art and I’m an American art scholar. When we go to Mount Desert Island, which we do every summer, we’re on a mission to get there, and when we leave, it’s a haul to get home. I’ll add that Ogunquit is a summer-resort town with terrible traffic.

Miller and Walker are exceptional artists, so, in a profile in perseverance, I got there last week. The treat’s worth the trouble. The museum’s very pretty, in a low-slung 1950s Modernist building set in a lovely sculpture garden, directly on the ocean, and blessedly far from the madding crowd. The Miller and Walker shows, both nautical in theme, deliver a sea that’s not a pretty view but, rather, a messy, tough, and uncertain thing.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

‘Intense” is the best word describing Sue Miller: Personal Voyage and John Walker: From Low Tide to High Tide, two exhibitions at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art in this seaside town in southern Maine close to the New Hampshire border. I’m embarrassed to admit I’d never been to the museum, doubly embarrassed since it’s a museum of American art and I’m an American art scholar. When we go to Mount Desert Island, which we do every summer, we’re on a mission to get there, and when we leave, it’s a haul to get home. I’ll add that Ogunquit is a summer-resort town with terrible traffic.

Miller and Walker are exceptional artists, so, in a profile in perseverance, I got there last week. The treat’s worth the trouble. The museum’s very pretty, in a low-slung 1950s Modernist building set in a lovely sculpture garden, directly on the ocean, and blessedly far from the madding crowd. The Miller and Walker shows, both nautical in theme, deliver a sea that’s not a pretty view but, rather, a messy, tough, and uncertain thing.