October 2000

Mary Ryan Gallery | Susan Sheehan Gallery

Curator, Essay, Chronologies- by Catherine Ryan 

An introduction to progressive American artists, Ethel Mars (1876-1959) and Maud Hunt Squire (1873-1954) who met at the Cincinnati Art Academy and spent most of their lives together. They established themselves as a significant presence in Paris in 1906, and later in Provincetown during WWI. Gertrude Stein immortalized them in her early word portrait, "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" (1908-11).  Spanning many mediums and fifty years, the retrospective highlighted early Pont-Aven school, avant-garde woodcuts, Provincetown prints, book illustrations, and drawings made in Occupied France during WWII. 

This resource was the first comprehensive publication on their lives and art as well as the first analysis through an art history and biographical lens of "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene", note the exact count, letter for letter, in their literary counterparts. - Catherine Ryan

"...Stein's text was relatively faithful to Mars's life especially. As there was absolutely no information about the personal background of Maud Hunt Squire, Stein's reference in "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" of Skeene visiting her 'brother of distinction' seemed a certain clue...Stein's repetition reduced the essential facts of their lives to give an overall expression of these women, similar to the aim of the modern and expressive art of the time that Stein collected and championed."- essay excerpt

There are more than 115 Edward Hopper works inspired by Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Edward Hopper All Around Gloucester  ©2010 is an online digital catalogue detailing where Hopper painted in Gloucester by art advisor and historian Catherine Ryan. She continues to research and update information about any Gloucester paintings, drawings and prints by Edward Hopper. 

"Step into Edward Hopper’s life in Gloucester with the web-based digital catalogue and  Google map I first created in 2009, Edward Hopper all around Gloucester, Massachusetts,  that reveals where scores of Hopper’s works of art were inspired in Gloucester beyond a well known core, and corrected several misidentifications possibly hinting at Maine or Cape Cod. By my last tally, there are more than 115 in Gloucester!"   

"When the Influenza of 1918 raged in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the death toll surged to 183 during six weeks in September and October. There was a perfect storm of transmissibility. Until there wasn’t. Gloucester ran a tight-ship..."

Author note, March 2020: The sources and inspiration (listed at the end) for this article were gathered from multiple books, journals, newspapers, rare old maps, local histories, photographs, background knowledge and family history.  I confess to a certain deliberate favoritism & primary sources related to the arts. I am grateful for the great archives and open content. Voices from the past may interest descendants, and give us perspective and hope during Covid-19. With so many worthy of honor, especially those who sacrificed to keep Gloucester safe, and those who suffered and died, I thought it valuable to make Gloucester’s part in this history accessible to all. So I curated a resource and visual gallery to put Gloucester’s 1918 Pandemic history online. The Gloucester Daily Times daily chronicle which I transcribed intentionally are exhaustive & inspiring, and no part since 1918 had been previously published, or its full pages and article reproductions searchable on line. Other newspapers are fully accessible including big publications (New York Times) and small (Manchester Cricket). - Catherine Ryan, March 2020

Background about the American architect, Donald F. Monell, catalogue of buildings, and visual context regarding his designs for the Sawyer Free Library expansion built in 1973. 

1998

Mary Ryan Gallery 

Curator- Catherine Ryan

Several artists we represented were extended "family".  I began to help Laurent in the late 1980s and was lucky to work with him closely through 2002.  Solo exhibitions featured his  contemporary art and surveys of Babar books already published or upcoming. This show was a catalyst to the Morgan Library acquiring both Laurent de Brunhoff's and Jean de Brunhoff first books, a deliberate and hopeful plan by he and Phyllis Rose, and his family, in the US, while planning specific holdings for repositories in France and the UK as well.

GLOUCESTER 

2014

HarborWalk | Fisherman's Wharf 

Compiled by Mark McDonough with help from Vito Giacalone, Peter Prybot, and Joey Ciaramitaro in 2010. Refurbished by the City of Gloucester (Matt Coogan) in 2014 with Catherine Ryan. Design by Cambridge Seven Assoc.

1999

Mary Ryan Gallery 

Co-Curator, exhibition planning, writing- Catherine Ryan