An exquisite retrospective exhibition by Genevieve Ritchie Monahan is now on display at the Johnson Heritage Post in Grand Marais.
A retrospective exhibition and sale of works by the late Ranier, Minnesota, artist and teacher Genevieve “Gene” Ritchie Monahan runs through September 11 at the Johnson Heritage Post Art Gallery.
The exhibition, featuring about 70 works in oil, will include seascapes and landscapes, and the soulful, impressionistic portraits for which Monahan was best known.
It showcases two of her earlier self–portraits, one of which earned her the first of many national awards. The acclaimed painting became the cover image for an edition of The Art Digest in 1931.
The show also includes Ariel with Red Slippers, which won first prize in portraiture at the 1962 National League of American Pen Women’s biennial exhibition at the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
It is the first retrospective on Monahan’s work since her death, said her daughter, Jean Monahan Kelly, who spends her summers in Ranier.
“I’m very excited about it,” Kelly said. “It’s been a long time coming. It is really wonderful to have those paintings out of mothballs. And it’s a retrospective exhibit, so it’s a pretty comprehensive look back at her work.”
Monahan’s marine paintings of boats and people along Lake Superior, Staten Island and other locales highlight her connection to the water.
Other works in the exhibition include portraits of Native Americans from Minnesota and Canada. Monahan’s portrait of Canadian Anishinaabe artist Carl Ray is housed in the permanent collection of the Canadian Museum of History, formerly the Canadian National Museum of Civilization, near Ottawa.
Monahan earned many local, regional and national awards in a career spanning more than 60 years. She died in 1994 at age 85. Her work has been shown at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Walker Art Center, among other venues, and is held in private and corporate collections in the U.S., Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan and New Zealand.
She earned a bachelor’s degree and a master of arts in art education from the University of Minnesota, and was elected to Delta Phi Delta, the national honorary art fraternity, in 1939.
Monahan, a Duluth native, first visited Rainy Lake in 1931 with her future husband, George Monahan, whom she met in 1930 when they were students at the university.
Kelly said her mother liked to contribute to communities in which she lived. Monahan taught extension art courses for the University of Minnesota, and also taught in Fort Frances, Dryden and Kenora, Ontario.
“She felt it was a responsibility to enrich the lives of other people through her creative talents,” Kelly said. “She had a wonderful sense of humor, and she touched the lives of every person she came across in some way. She was extremely gifted, and she shared her gift with everybody.”
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