With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Guy Carleton Wiggins
Education/Curation, Painting/Drawing
1883 – 1962
A noted American Impressionist of New York City winter streetscapes in the years before World War I, Wiggins’ style began shifting toward Regionalism after a 1925 trip to Europe. In the 1930s and 1940s, he exposed students at his art school to more modern styles, inviting guest painters/teachers such as George Luks of the Ashcan School and Eugene Higgins a Social Realist in subject matter.
- Biography/Description of Work
Beginning in 1904, the Wiggins family of artists spent the summer season in a home in Old Lyme, and participated in the Old Lyme art colony. Guy Carleton Wiggins studied at the National Academy of Design with William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri, and achieved a reputation as an Impressionist, painting urban scenes of New York City in an Impressionist-inspired style. He settled in the Hamburg Cove section of Lyme from 1905 to 1937, painting landscapes in the Connecticut River Valley and shoreline, though he continued to spend time in New York City during the winters. Wiggins taught at his own art school, located seasonally in Lyme and New Haven until moving it to Essex.
- Sources view
- Interview with Eve Potts, by C. Hitchcock, 2014.
Wiggins, Guy Carleton, biography. Wally Findlay Galleries. Accessed at http://www.wallyfindlay.com/artists/period/guy-carleton-wiggins/
Farmer, Ann. 6/06/2011. 'A Family of Painters is Having its Moment.' New York Times. Accessed at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/nyregion/the-wiggins-family-of-painters-is-having-a-moment.html?_r=0
King, Noelle Warden. 2013. Mystic as Muse: 100 Years of Inspiration, Exhibit catalog. Mystic: Mystic Art Association, p. 72-73. - Associated Resource(s)