Joel Babb

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Joel Babb is an exceptional contemporary realistic painter with numerous ties to Maine. A graduate of Princeton University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, he had his first solo show at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.  HIs monumental work, Copley Plunge, which is shown to the right, was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2017.  In 2021 Gulf Hagas (also shown to the right) became part of the Portland Museum of Art's permanent collection.   Here is the link to the press release in Art Daily.  In 2023 the Farnsworth Art Museum acquired Joel's Bernd Heinrich's Brook, Autumn which was included in the museum's major exhibition, "The Farnsworth at 75."

 

His work was the subject of a 2012 book, "Nature and Culture: The Art of Joel Babb" by Carl Little, introduction by Chris Crossman, contributions by Anita Shreve and Bernd Heinrich. University Press of New England. (hereinafter "The Art of Joel Babb").  The following two quotations illustrate the quality of his work.  "With his images of Boston, Babb takes his place alongside his contemporaries Richard Estes, Rackstraw Downes, and a handful of other as one of the foremost city painters of his time." - Carl Little.  Michael Culver, Director of the Naples Museum of Art - ". . .his large, meticulously rendered scenes evoke a silence, grandeur and spirituality in the manner of great American landscapists such as Albert Bierstadt and Asher B. Durand."

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For more information about Joel, check out this recent article from the Maine Sunday Telegram or his biography.  Joel's painting "Church and State Boston from the Harvard Club" was featured in the February 2020 edition of American Art Collector magazine.  Also see Joel's essay in the Spring 2020 edition of the Maine Arts Journal.  Joel was the subject of a feature article in the July/August 2023 edition of Fine Arts Connoisseur magazine.

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Museum links:

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For images of some of Joel Babb's paintings in museum collections, click on the links below.

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Portland Museum of Art - Gulf Hagas.

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Harvard Art Museum - portraits and drawing

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Joel's work was exhibited at the Lewis Arts Complex at Princeton University in recognition of his graduating 50 years ago in May, 1969!