You are invited to two special events exploring the life and work of American self-taught painter Jon Serl: Jon Serl: Life Is a Dance, an intimate exhibition at the foundation’s gallery, from Nov. 2 to Jan. 15, and In Search of Jon Serl, a public lecture by art historian, author, and curator Susan C. Larsen at Mechanics’ Hall on Thursday, Nov. 12.
Jon Serl (c. 1898-1993) lived a quiet life in rural California, surrounded by his visionary paintings, chickens, and chihuahuas. Playful, curious, and fiercely true to himself, Serl filled his work with social commentary and fearless self-examination, exploring themes of spirituality, politics, gender, sexuality, and death. Weightless, ethereal figures move across his canvases in a kind of celestial dance.
The intimate exhibition at the Rabkin gallery, co-curated by Larsen and Rabkin Curator Danielle Yovino, gathers 12 paintings, as well as rarely seen letters, photographs, documents, and other archival materials that illuminate the artist’s creative practice. The paintings are drawn from Larsen’s personal collection alongside artworks owned by the foundation and collected by Dorothea and Leo Rabkin, who were among Serl's earliest champions.
At a moment of renewed national interest in Serl, Larsen’s lecture will provide a rare, firsthand account of the artist’s life and work rooted in the decadeslong friendship that shaped Larsen’s singular understanding of both. Through countless interviews and close study of his work, Larsen pieced together much of Serl’s storied life, while her late husband, photographer Lauri Robert Martin, documented the artist in an extraordinary body of photographs. Larsen’s years of scholarship have made her one of the earliest and most influential interpreters of Serl's work.
“Thoreau and Whitman were Jon Serl’s favorite writers,” says Larsen, the Rabkin Foundation’s emeritus executive director, who will draw on a forthcoming memoir about Serl for her lecture. “Jon’s art also embodies the transcendental American spirit: fearlessly honest yet gentle—loving and free.”
In one of the many interviews Larsen recorded with Serl, the artist reflected on his work and how people might receive it: “This business of becoming a personality in a world of madness isn’t a simple thing. People who have never seen a Jon Serl painting will be surprised. The paintings will make an awful lot of people happy, and an awful lot of people mad. They will confuse people. Good! Change is good.”
EVENT SCHEDULE & DETAILS
Jon Serl: Life Is a Dance exhibition
Dates: Nov. 2 to Jan. 15
The Rabkin Foundation, 13 Brown St., Portland, Maine
The exhibition can be viewed by appointment by contacting Danielle Yovino at dfrye@rabkinfoundation.org
Reception and In Search of Jon Serl lecture by Susan C. Larsen
Date: Thursday, Nov. 12
Reception: 5 p.m.
The Rabkin Foundation, 13 Brown St., Portland, Maine
Lecture: 6:30 p.m. (Doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
Mechanics’ Hall, 519 Congress St., Portland, Maine
Admission to the reception and lecture is free. Advanced reservation is required. Links to both events can be found here.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Susan C. Larsen is the founding and emeritus executive director of the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, where she developed the Rabkin Prize for excellence in arts writing and established the foundation’s Portland headquarters and gallery. She met Dorothea and Leo Rabkin in 1972 while conducting doctoral research at Northwestern University on the American Abstract Artists group, beginning a lifelong friendship.
Dr. Larsen served as a professor of art history at the University of Southern California (1975–1996), curator of the permanent collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1988–1991), and chief curator of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. She also has served as a regional collector for the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art and is the author of numerous books, articles, and museum catalogues. She lives in South Portland.
ABOUT JON SERL
Jon Serl (c. 1898-1993) is a celebrated self-taught American painter who lived a self-determined and vivid life, creating expressive paintings full of ethereal figures and social commentary. He fearlessly explored a breadth of human experiences and interactions in his theatrical paintings. He lived a storied life, growing up in a family of entertainers and later working as a voiceover actor, gardener, firefighter, and cook. In the 1940s, he moved to Lake Elsinore, Calif., where he turned a small home into a world to explore his imagination.
Serl, who remained mostly on the margins of the art world during his lifetime, has been reconsidered in recent presentations, including a 2024 exhibition at the David Zwirner gallery in New York featuring the artist’s work alongside that of contemporary painters influenced by him; a 2026 exhibition at the Orange County Museum of Art, the site of Serl’s first museum shows in 1981; and a recreation of Serl’s California studio by Shrine gallery at the Outsider Art Fair in New York earlier this year. His work is also held in several museum collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.; the American Folk Art Museum in New York; the High Museum of Art in Atlanta; and the Milwaukee Art Museum.