The de Menil Gallery

The de Menil Gallery at Groton School, a public gallery that opened in October 2001, is a cultural resource to the Town of Groton and the region. Designed by Perry Dean Rogers/Partners of Boston, this state-of-the-art gallery has approximately 900 square feet of exhibition space.

During each academic year, the de Menil Gallery hosts three exhibitions; they showcase a variety of media, including photographs, paintings, prints, and decorative arts.
The de Menil Gallery is located at the Dillon Art Center at Groton School, a mile and half south of Groton Center on Route 111. Enter at the first gate to the right. Parking is available either behind the Art Center (a silver-roofed building) or at the Groton School Athletic Center, a short walk away.

Gallery hours: The de Menil Gallery is open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays (except Wednesdays) and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends (except school holidays). The de Menil Gallery is free and open to the public.

For more information please call 978-448-7ART or Groton School at 978-448-3363.
Spring Exhibit
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Works of Passion
by Nancy Ellen Craig
April 2 - June 1, 2012

Nancy Ellen Craig began her long career as a portraitist. Among her many subjects have been artists (Hans Hofmann, Paul Cadmus), writers (Norman Mailer, Irwin Shaw), architects (Frank Lloyd Wright), and film stars (Cliff Robertson, Angelica Huston), as well as members of European royal families. Her careful technique and acute psychological insight have prompted comparison with that supreme American portrait painter, Thomas Eakins.

During the 1960s, she left New York to live with her poet husband in remote seclusion in Truro on Cape Cod.  When she wasn't away on a portrait commission, she began doing larger paintings—mural-size canvases—in her barn-studio. The inspiration for these canvasses comes from mythology, the Bible, political subjects, and her own imagination.

The museums that have purchased her work include the New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, CT, the John Ringling Museum in Sarasota, FL, and the Provincetown Art Association Museum in Provincetown, MA. Since 2000, there has been a spate of exhibitions of her work, mostly in galleries in Provincetown, culminating in a major show this winter at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, MA.

Her assured brushwork and confident mode of attack on such large canvases belie her diminutive size. Nor does she shy from controversy. Now in her 80s, Craig’s work is as lively and topical as ever.

The de Menil Gallery is open 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on weekdays except Wednesday and 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekends (except during the School’s spring long weekend, April 28 through May 1.) Admission is always free.