Jon Imber

The real essence of the work has, I believe, stayed consistent. There has always been a compelling need to make images that start from an effort to capture the spirit and light of the real world. Then, I need to transform that image until I have captured an inner emotional state.

~ Jon Imber
2012

Jon Imber (1950-2014), deemed “one of the most important painters of his generation” by former Danforth Art director, Katherine French, divided his time between the Boston area and Stonington, Maine, and is best known for his vibrant, expressionistic paintings of coastal Maine. Imber received a BFA from Cornell University in 1972, and an MFA from Boston University in 1977. At BU, Imber studied under Philip Guston, who became “a second father figure” and a strong early influence. The impact of other Imber favorites, such as Max Beckmann, Willem de Kooning, Marsden Hartley, Picasso, Cezanne, Matisse, and Alice Neel are, at times, apparent across his oeuvre. But, ultimately, as with all true masters, Imber’s lush, emotive style and his painterly vocabulary are uniquely and distinctively his own. In commenting on the consistency of his voice throughout his evolving style: The consistency may come from my gesture, my attachment to mark-making. There’s a lot of range in my paint — both application and paint consistency. It maybe be thick or thin but it always seems to be about personal gesture. The subject matter changes but my feel for paint seems to be the formal constant.

During his lifetime, Imber exhibited his work throughout the U.S. and Ireland. In 2012, Imber was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). But instead of, understandably, allowing himself to become utterly devastated and defeated by his terrible fate, Imber, an exuberant and unsinkable lover of life and an artist who never shied from a challenge, took his physical limitations in stride -- regarding them more as an artistic constraint and an opportunity for growth and experimentation than an insurmountable obstacle or immediate end to his career. When he lost the ability to use his dominant right-hand, Imber taught himself to paint with his left. And ultimately, as the disease continued to ravage his body, by attaching the brush between his two hands held at waist level. And thus, Jon Imber continued to paint vibrant, interesting work right up until his untimely death. As his wife, accomplished painter Jill Hoy, remarked in Richard Kane’s poignant, multiple award winning documentary, Jon Imber’s Left Hand, “painting [was] his life.” Shortly after losing the ability to paint in April of 2014, Jon Imber passed away.

Jon Imber's paintings are held in numerous collections and museums around the U.S., including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Harvard's Fogg Museum, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the DeCordova Museum, the Farnsworth Museum, the Danforth Museum, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Davis Museum at Wellesley, and the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis. He was the subject of a 2014 retrospective at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum at Queens College in New York.

Imber was the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, a Massachusetts Artists fellowship, an AVA award, an Engelhard Foundation award, the National Academy Museum's Altman Award, Boston University's Distinguished Alumni Award, two grants from the Massachusetts State Arts Lottery, and a Ballinglen Arts Foundation fellowship. His work has been included in many publications including Paintings of Maine: A New Selection by Carl Little and Boston Modern: Figurative Expressionism As Alternative Modernism by Judith Bookbinder. Imber’s courageous and inspiring battle with ALS is the subject of Richard Kane’s multiple award-winning 2014 documentary, Jon Imber’s Left Hand.

Jon Imber taught at Harvard for 27 years, and also taught for many years at the Rhode Island School of Design.

E D U C A T I O N

Boston University, Boston, MA, MFA, 1977
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, BFA, 1972

C O L L E C T I O N S

Boston Public Library
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH
Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA
Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA
Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME
Fitchburg Museum of Art, Fitchburg, MA
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum Fund, New York, NY
New Orleans Museum of Art
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

H O N O R S

2006 Altman Award, National Academy Museum, New York, NY
2004 Distinguished Alumni Award, Boston University School if Visual Arts
2002 Fellowship, Ballinglen Arts Foundation
1988 Grant, Massachusetts State Arts Lottery
1986 Grant, Massachusetts State Arts Lottery

T E A C H I N G

1988-2013 Art Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
1986-2009 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2006, 2003, 1999, 1992 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
1996, 1994 Art New England at Bennington College, Bennington, VT
1993-1995 Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA
1986-1993 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
1991-1992 School of the Visual Arts Graduate Dept., New York, NY

R E V I E W S

Beem, Edgar Allen. Abstraction Based on Observation, Yankee Magazine Online, Dec. 2008.
Ibid. Painting the Town Together, Down East Magazine, Sept. 2005.
Cigliano, Flavia. Primary Perceptions: Landscapes by Jon Imber, Beacon Hill Times, Nov. 2, 1999.
Ibid. Jon Imber: Between Sight & Invention, Arts Around Boston, Nov.–Dec. 1999.
Corbett, William. Chasing DeKooning, Finding Himself, ArtsMedia, Jan.-Feb. 2006.
Ibid. Painting in Boston: 1950-2000 at the DeCordova, Art New England, Oct. 2002.
Day, Meredith Fife. Jon Imber: Survey of Paintings, 1978-1981, Art New England, Dec. 1990-Jan. 1991.
Ibid. Fathers and Sons, Art New England, Feb. – March 2003.
Frank, Peter. Jill Hoy and Jon Imber, LA Weekly, Feb. 27, 2003.
Greenleaf, Ken. Life at the Shore: The Paintings of Jon Imber, catalogue essay, Greenhut Galleries, Portland, ME, 2011.
Ibid. No Accidents, Portland Phoenix, Aug. 15, 2008.
Jacks, Shirley. Works on Paper: Leon Golub, Stephen Pace, Jon Imber, Art
Little, Carl. Jon Imber at Nielsen Gallery, Art in America, April 2006.
McAvoy, Suzette. Canvas, Maine Home & Design, July 2009.
McQuaid, Cate. Change-ups, The Boston Globe, Dec. 31, 2008.
Ibid. Dexterity and daring on display, The Boston Globe, April, 6, 2011.
Ibid. Landscapes, The Boston Globe, Jan. 6, 2006.
Ibid. Walking on the Wild Side, The Boston Globe, April 22, 2005.
Mulski, Susan. The World as Mirror: Paintings by Jon Imber, Art New
England, Feb.–March 2000.
McQuaid, Cate. Boston Expressionists get their due, The Boston Globe, Dec. 27, 2011.
Nemser, Alexander. The Spiral and the Source: Jon Imber’s Recent
Paintings, Bomb Magazine/Bomblog, May 17, 2013.
Nigrosh, Leon. Mind Over Matter: Imber Captures His Changing Perceptions, The Worcester Pheonix, Feb. 13-20, 1998.
Paige, Ian. Greenhut Celebrates Portland, The Portland Phoenix, Nov. 15, 2006.
Silver, Joanne. Jon Imber, ARTnews, March 2006.
Smee, Sebastian. Jon Imber’s nimble shifts capture life, in all its forms, The Boston Globe, May 11, 2013.

C A T A L O G U E S

Arthur, John. Green Woods and Crystal Waters: The American Landscape
Tradition Since 1950, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, 1999.
Bookbinder, Judith. Boston Modern, Figurative Expressionism as Alternative Modernism, University of New Hampshire Press, Durham, NH, 2005.
Crusan, Ronald L., et al. Figure, Fantasy and Illusion: Selections from the Arthur S. Goldberg Collection, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA,
2000.
Driscoll, John. The Artist and the American Landscape, First Glance Books, 1998.
The Gettysburg Review. Jon Imber Portfolio, Gettysburg College, Autumn 2002.
Imber, Jon. Phillip Guston: Teacher, Mentor and Friend, Art New
England, Dec. 1994 – Jan. 1995.
Lafo, Rachel Rosenfield, et al. Painting in Boston: 1950-2000,
DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA, and Umass Press, Amherst, MA, 2002.
Little, Carl. Paintings of Maine: A New Selection, Down East Books, Camden, ME, 2006.
Art of the Maine Islands, Arnold Skolnick, editor. Down East Books, Camden, ME, 1997.
Open Studios Press, New American Paintings, Summer, 1996.
Stapen, Nancy. Jon Imber – Survey of Paintings, 1978-1989
Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA, 1990.
Gallery, Boston University, Boston, MA, 1999.

O N E A N D T W O P E R S O N E X H I B I T I O N S

2014

Jon Imber: Human Interest, Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
Jon Imber: Force of Nature, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME
Carry On, Danforth Art,
Framingham, MA
Jon Imber: Visionary Botanist, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA
Painting up a Storm, Maud Morgan Arts, Cambridge, MA

2013

Palaemon: A Survey of Paintings by Jon Imber, Godwin-Tembach Museum, Queens College, Queens, NY
Jon Imber: Windswept, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA

2012

Jon Imber: Life at the Shore, Greenhut Galleries, Portland, ME

2011

Jon Imber: Spring Totems, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA
Jon Imber Painting, St. Botolph Club, Boston, MA
2010 Not Far Out, But Still Not Close, Greenhut Gallery, Portland, ME
2009 New Paintings, G. Watson Gallery, Stonington, ME
Jon Imber’s Backyard, Nye Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA
Re-Working the Landscape: Charles Duback and Jon Imber, Greenhut Gallery, Portland;
McErlich Gallery, Marblehead, MA

2008

Jon Imber: New Paintings, Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
Coastal Views: Jon Imber and Vitali Massimo, The Gallery at 499 Park
Avenue, New York, NY
Greenhut Gallery, Portland, ME
Two Views – Plein Aire Painting: Jon Imber and Robin Reynolds,
Soprafina Gallery, Boston,MA
G. Watson Gallery, Stonington, ME

2007

Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
G. Watson Gallery, Stonington, ME

2005

University Club, Chicago, IL
Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
G. Watson Gallery, Stonington, ME

2004

G. Watson Gallery, Stonington, ME
Greenhut Gallery, Portland, ME

2003

G. Watson Gallery, Stonington, ME
Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

2002

G. Watson Gallery, Stonington, ME
Hess Gallery, Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill, MA

2001

G. Watson Gallery, Stonington, ME
Jon Imber – Self and Object Constructed, Boston Psychoanalytic Society, Boston, MA

2000

G. Watson Gallery, Stonington, ME
Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME

1999

Jon Imber – Landscape: Primary Perceptions, Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
The World as Mirror, Boston University, Boston, MA

1998

Recent Paintings, The University Gallery, Clark University, Worcester, MA
Jon Imber: Deer Isle Landscapes, Between the Muse Gallery, Rockland, ME
St. Mark’s School, Southborough, MA

1996

Deer Isle to Davis Square: Small Paintings, Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1995

Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
Jon Imber Drawings, Tabor Academy, Braitmayer Art Center, Marion, MA

1993

Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1992

Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1990

Survey of Paintings, 1978-1989, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA
Victoria Munroe Gallery, New York, NY

F I L M S

Imber’s Left Hand, one-hour documentary by Richard Kane, 2013 (Audience awards for Best Film at the Boston Jewish Film Festival, the New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival and the Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festiva)
Wake Up Call, in collaboration with Pooh Kaye. Shown at New England Film & Video Festival (First Prize, Animation); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; The Algerian Film Festival; Seque Film Series, New York, NY; New England Artists’ Foundation; LA MAMA Theatre; Jacob’s Pillow.
The Painted Princess, in collaboration with Pooh Kay. Shown at Lincoln Center, New York, NY and various other film festivals.