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Herman Maril exhibit to open in South Hall

By Jackie Mintz

The long-awaited exhibit of works by Herman Maril (1908-1986) comes to Broadmead’s South Hall on May 1. Maril, an acclaimed modernist painter with a national reputation, was born and raised in Baltimore. He studied at the Maryland Institute of Fine Arts (now MICA) and taught at the University of Maryland for over 30 years. His subjects range from urban landscapes to coastal seascapes. Many of the landscapes are of his beloved Cape Cod, where he spent summers with his family, but Maril remained rooted to Baltimore. He once said, "Living in Baltimore offers a type of serenity to me."

The show is curated by Bobby Donovan, a painter and sculptor who has written about Maril's work. It will consist of 28 works, featuring oil paintings, watercolors, and ink washes."Maril is an artist, among the few," says Donovan, "who is able to embrace both the poetic beauty of harmonious thoughtful order, with the emotional combustion of spontaneous impulse—a rare combination of intellect and passion." Maril's work is found in a number of museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and The Phillips Collection.

The Broadmead exhibit is drawn primarily from a recent, larger exhibit presented at University of Maryland College Park Art Gallery in 2016 titled Maril: The Strong Forms of Our Experiences. The current exhibition is made possible with the cooperation of David Maril, Herman Maril's son and executive director of the Herman Maril Foundation, and resident Herb Goldman, a legal advisor to the Maril Foundation. One of the paintings owned by the Goldmans, "The Dreamer," will be in the exhibit. Two other paintings come from the collection of another resident, Linda Robinson.

Supplementing the exhibit will be four lectures. On May 13, Chris McCarthy, Executive Director of the Provincetown (MA) Art Association and Museum will be the speaker. That will be followed by a lecture on June 13 by David Maril and two lectures in the fall by Bobby Donovan and Nadja Maril, daughter of Herman Maril. The Maril show is the inaugural exhibit in a program sponsored by the newly established Broadmead Arts Council and will be on display through October.