Drawing upon the rich history of artistic collaboration that shaped American modernism, Cape Ann Museum Director Oliver Barker and guest curator Eliza Rathbone will lead an insightful discussion on the upcoming groundbreaking exhibition, Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea. This presentation will delve into the profound impact of Gloucester’s coastal landscape on the development of three titans of 20th-century art: Milton Avery, Adolph Gottlieb, and Mark Rothko. Barker and Rathbone will illuminate the shared summers and creative exchanges that fostered lifelong friendships and influenced the artists’ evolution from representational painting to abstraction. They will share behind-the-scenes details about the building blocks around creating the exhibit and highlight key works from the exhibition’s impressive roster of loans. 

Eliza Rathbone, Chief Curator Emerita of The Phillips Collection, has spent more than forty years as a museum curator, during twenty-five of which she led the curatorial department of The Phillips Collection.

Educated in art history at Smith College, New York University, and the Courtauld Institute of the University of London, Rathbone assumed her first curatorial position when she was 28 years old as Assistant Curator of 20th century art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. After eight years there engaged in major special exhibitions, she moved across town to become Associate, and then Chief Curator of The Phillips Collection. In these capacities Rathbone worked on the growth and care of the collection and its installation in the galleries including the Duncan Phillips Centennial exhibition occupying the entire museum. Rathbone researched and organized numerous special exhibitions and authored accompanying catalogues on 19th and 20th century American and European art, collaborating with major institutions in the US and abroad, including the National Gallery of Canada, Tate Britain, the Van Gogh Museum, the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, as well as the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Rathbone’s work has encompassed many and diverse artists, including Pierre Auguste Renoir, Hilaire-Germain Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, and Nicolas de Stael as well as Mark Tobey, Susan Rothenberg, Milton Avery, and Mark Rothko. In 1978, she contributed the essay on Mark Rothko to the catalogue of Art at Mid-Century: The Subjects of the Artist, at the National Gallery of Art, and in 1994 collaborated with the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation on an exhibition of Gottlieb’s Pictographs at The Phillips Collection. In 2003, she organized a special exhibition of the work of Milton Avery, authoring the accompanying catalogue. The special exhibitions she has organized in more recent years have often been sparked by new discoveries in conservation and involved technical and scientific examinations that have added significantly to our understanding of an artist’s work, including major works by Degas and van Gogh in The Phillips Collection.

As Director of the Cape Ann Museum (CAM), Oliver Barker has led the Museum through a period of tremendous growth. In 2019 Barker oversaw the presentation of the nationally acclaimed — Homer at the Beach: A Marine Painter’s Journey, 1869-1880 — exhibition along with the creation of the new Cape Ann Museum Green campus located at the gateway to Gloucester. Built to address the Museum’s critical need for expanded collections storage, this campus and the new state-of-the-art Janet & William Ellery James Center houses a flexible exhibition, programming and education space for school programs, contemporary art installations and is dedicated to engaging the community in new and creative ways. Prior to his time at CAM, Barker most recently served as Manager, Foundation, Government and International Relations for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). He is a cultural management professional with over 25 years of experience within global visual arts arenas. Prior to joining the MFA, Barker worked as Curator & Projects Director for the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and began his career as the Director of Education & Visitor Services at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy. Barker holds a master’s degree in Arts and Cultural Management from the University of Melbourne and an Honors Degree in Fine Arts, Painting and Printmaking from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), in Melbourne, Australia.

Curt DiCamillo is American Ancestors' Curator of Fine Art. As part of the Education team, he curates American Ancestors' large art collection, lectures around the world, and hosts the celebrated American Ancestors Art & Architecture webinar series.