The Silvermine Guild, 75 Years Later

June 28, 1998
By BESS LIEBENSON
The New York Times

A TRIO of exhibitions will celebrate Solon Borglum and the Silvermine Guild that he founded 75 years ago. Altogether they offer a feast of art and nature. ''Solon Borglum: Silvermine Visionary,'' on display through Sept. 6 at the Viewing Room of Silvermine Galleries in New Canaan, will highlight the bronze portrait sculptures of Borglum, a rancher in Nebraska and sculptor of Western themes: horses, cowboys and Indians. The younger brother of Gutzon Borglum (who carved the four heads on Mount Rushmore), Solon taught at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design in New York, established his own School of American Sculpture in Manhattan, wrote a book on sculpturing called ''Sound Construction,'' and won awards for his sculpture in Paris as well as in the United States. Solon Borglum's sculpture ''Lassoing Wild Horses'' received a place of honor at the Salon Exhibition of the Academie Julian in Paris (where he studied in 1897 and 1898), then a silver medal at the Exhibicion Internacional de las Artes in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

While living in New York he became captivated by the Silvermine area, dotted with farms, mills, woodlands, waterfalls and historic houses. In 1906 he purchased a farm on what is today known as Borglum Road in the Silvermine section of Wilton. His enthusiasm drew a colony of artists and sculptors and led to the formation of the Knockers Club, a Sunday morning gathering at his studio-barn where artists exchanged ideas and critiqued each other's work. In 1922, the group, having outgrown their space, incorporated as the Silvermine Guild of Artists. ''If it wasn't for Solon Borglum, we would not have a Silvermine Guild today,'' said Vincent Baldassano, Silvermine's gallery director who curated the current show. ''He was a visionary who started things percolating in the Silvermine area, impacting the community as well as the artists who migrated here because of him. He was a magnet drawing many New York artists to Silvermine, first to visit, then to settle.''

Borglum's two-story wood barn and studio still stands on a 3.5-acre (formerly 45-acre) parcel surrounded by gardens. Gwynneth Kelley, his granddaughter, and her family live in the studio-home, handed down through three generations. Although he died in 1922 at the age of 54, before she was born, Ms. Kelley, a potter and sculptor, said she felt spiritually connected to him. ''He was a man unusually close to nature,'' she said. ''He was a sheriff out West and owned a ranch, which influenced his thinking. He made drawings of horses, cows and other cattle, now in the Smithsonian. When he moved here, he farmed, grew potatoes and had an apple orchard. But he always had horses and called his farm 'Rocky Ranch.' '' Nine bronze sculptures will be displayed at Silvermine Galleries along with photographs of Solon and of other works.

In many, the cowboy is portrayed dismounted from the horse. In ''Pioneer in a Storm'' he shows a man crouching, sheltered by the horse in a windstorm. ''He expressed man and nature as equals working together, not man dominating nature,'' Ms. Kelley pointed out. ''He was humble.'' ''On the Trail,'' another sculpture, captures a cowboy, his horse and a rattlesnake, the cowboy reining his horse in tight like a spring that is wound tight. ''My grandfather was known as the 'poet of the West,' '' Ms. Kelley said. The second chance to view his sculptures occurs in ''The Knockers Club at Silvermine 1907-1922,'' an exhibition at the New Canaan Historical Society, where Mr. Borglum's studio is recreated among other vignettes including a grand finale first Silvermine Guild exhibition in 1922 with 21 paintings by original members. The last part of the round robin of exhibitions appropriately takes place at the Norwalk Museum (repository of the largest public collection of Silvermine works in the area) in its new home, the renovated former City Hall in SoNo. Their inaugural exhibition ''The Silvermine Guild -- Art in Our Community,'' on view through Oct. 18, illustrates through landscapes, portraits and commissioned work the development of the Silvermine Guild over the last 75 years.

Silvermine Guild Galleries, 1037 Silvermine Road in New Canaan, is open Tuesday through Saturday 11 A.M. to 5 P.M. and Sunday from 1 to 5 P.M.; the New Canaan Historical Society, 13 Oenoke Ridge in New Canaan Tuesday through Saturday 10 A.M. to noon and 2 to 4 P.M., and the Norwalk Museum, 41 North Main Street in Norwalk Tuesday through Sunday 1 to 5 P.M.