Caldbeck will present an exhibition of work by Cicely Aikman, “From Friendship to Florida” February 13 – April 13th, 2024. Aikman E-Catalogue 2024
“We live on a tidal cove in Friendship. Each morning a complete surprise awaits me as I walk around the corner of my studio down on the shore. What time, tide and weather have done to stun me once again. This small spot of coastline, rocks, water, mudflats and islands floating in the pristine air, hold the essence of the world. “ Cicely Aikman from an article by Natasha Meyers in the Union of Maine Visual Artists Journal
CICELY AIKMAN (American 1923-2013). Born in Texas, where she lived until the age of six, Aikman spent her childhood in Los Angeles – a child of the west – before going to high school in Washington D.C. She studied at the Corcoran School of Fine Arts (1938-40), the University of Chicago (1940-42), and the Art Student League with mentor Morris Cantor (1942-1946). Aikman reflected “This was a serious art education – our only regret was that due to World War ll, we could not go to Europe, in particular to Paris to see, first-hand, the works of Picasso and Matisse.”
After the war, Aikman traveled to Italy by boat with her young son, Paul, and lived in bohemian circles with others, drawn like Aikman, to the cultural life in Rome, Paris and elsewhere. Back in New York, Aikman began showing her work along with her downtown peers, among them Lois Dodd, Rudy Burkhardt and Gretna Campbell at the Pyramid Gallery. In the forties and fifties, Aikman painted winters in the city and summers in Provincetown. She exhibited in New York with Green Mountain Gallery, the Blue Mountain Gallery, the Artists’ Gallery and the Westbeth Gallery and with the Provincetown Art Association, while raising her son and holding down a series of jobs. She moved to Maine in 1973 with her second husband, Fred Scherer, whom she had met through her work at the Museum of Natural History in New York. Aikman began to show at Caldbeck Gallery in 1990. Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums, including the Farnsworth Art Museum, The Portland Museum of Art, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art and Roundtop Center for the Arts. Her work “January”, was included in WINTER IN MAINE by Carl Little, published by Down East Books. Aikman maintained a vigorous studio practice, splitting her time between Friendship, Maine and the Indian River in Florida. In 2005, Aikman and Scherer moved to Brattleboro, Vermont where they continued to live and work until 2013.
