Artist Sean Cavanaugh reflects on the life and legacy of his grandmother, Sally Michel. See the exhibition, Sally Michel, Brilliant Legacy, before it closes on Sunday, May 4.
Taking inspiration from the grand tradition of American nineteenth-century landscape painting, particularly that of the Hudson River School, Sean Cavanaugh’s work, like that of his predecessors, draws from nature and displays a keen eye for detail. Not only does Cavanaugh revisit themes of American wildness in his work, but he often does so by documenting his travels. His favorite settings include the Catskills of upper New York State and the vast wilderness of the West, featuring the formidable mountains of Montana and the rugged California coast.
Sean Cavanaugh: I’m so pleased and proud that the show is here at the Morris Museum and that more people are getting to experience the work. And it’s very personal, this show: partially because I helped with the curatorial process, but mainly because I saw a lot of these works being created, particularly those of the 1970s and 1980s. As a teenager, I would watch my grandmother work in the summers up in the Catskills.
I don’t know if she would have ever truly contemplated having a show like this for her own work, as she was consistently focused on championing her husband’s work, my grandfather’s work, and she was always ready to take a back seat.
Morris Museum: Tell me about the painting behind you.
Sean Cavanaugh: Okay. This painting is of my grandmother’s place in the Catskills. The figure on the left, that’s me, and the redhead sitting across the table, that’s my wife.
My grandmother’s place in the Catskills was an amazing place where we spent a lot of time. My grandmother would invite a lot of people over to lunch or dinner. There’d be a lot of feasting around that table in the painting.
It was a summer place that I always felt energized her. She would leave New York for almost four months at a time for the Catskills. I would see her at the end of the summer with so much more energy. It was great for her.
And still for me, now, I can revitalize myself with fresh air and hikes in the woods. I draw a lot of my material from my photographs of the Catskills.
Morris Museum: Was she a travel enthusiast?
Sean Cavanaugh: Oh yeah. She and my grandfather used to travel in the summers with my mother. They always planned to sketch and paint watercolors during the summer and then create oil paintings from those works in the winter. They loved to travel. They’d go to Maine, drive to Mexico in the ‘40s, journey to California, and visit national parks. Other artist friends would say, “You should really come up to Vermont. It’s lovely in the summer.” So, they’d go up and end up staying in some little, run-down farmhouse for the summer.
Morris Museum: How would she feel about this exhibition if she could see it today?
Sean Cavanaugh: I think she would be over the moon about this exhibition. She would be floating about a foot off the ground right now. She was very outgoing and social. The night of the opening, I was just thinking, “Oh, man, she would be really in her element. She would be holding court and be so proud of the work.” But I felt like hopefully, somewhere she knows it all happened and thinks, “Wow, you made good.”
Artwork Caption: Sally Michel, Bill and Friends, 1988. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 inches. Collection of the Mennello Museum of American Art, Museum Purchase with Funds from the Friends of the Mennello Museum of American Art, 2018.001.001. Photographer: Noel Allum. © 2024 The Milton Avery Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
