Seaweed As Art At The New Bedford Whaling Museum

New England summer beaches present a familiar, seemingly timeless motif: sand, sea, and large, funky clumps of seaweed. It’s safe to say that most beachgoers probably do not spend much time pondering the history of the scenes they take for granted…but now the New Bedford Whaling Museum has done the work for them. Scientifically, socially, politically, and ultimately artistically, the seaweed show in New Bedford, Massachusetts is as informative as it gets.

A Singularly Marine & Fabulous Produce: the Cultures of Seaweed is a thorough seaweed-focused showcase that wades through a number of artistic periods, mainly focused on 19th century decorative arts. The title of the show draws on a descriptive seaweed quote from Henry David Thoreau, and much of the art speaks to New England’s coastal culture in his lifetime. Silver, ceramic, glass, and stunning whalebone scrapbooks commemorate the evergreen seaweed of today’s shores.

The showcase was initially inspired by an American Clement Nye Swift painting called Seaweed Gatherers from 1878, underscoring the importance of working-class people bringing seaweed into the industrial era. Yet this expanded to 30 total lenders of seaweed art for discourse, 15 of which were seminal museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian Design Museum, Yale University, and local powerhouses such as the Mystic Seaport Museum, Newport Historical Society and the Portland Museum of Art.

The final curation by Naomi Slipp, Douglas and Cynthia Crocker Endowed Chair for the Chief Curator, and Maura Coughlin, Northeastern University, includes more than 125 works from 1780 to today, all singularly focused on seaweed.

This deep dive uncovers an impressive expanse of seaweed-forward expression, from significant American artists like John Singer Sargent and Andrew Wyeth to more personal, amateur-made seaweed collages, albums, and photos. There is even a knit sweater in seaweed and wax that has since been cast into bronze, and a photograph of a fabulous seaweed dress that perhaps has not stood the test of fashion’s time.

The 12 scholars who worked on the 222-page catalogue (as well as sponsors such as the Maine Seaweed Council and Main Coast Sea Vegetables, Inc.) can far better plunge into the significance of each historical moment, and the continued relevance of seaweed today as a force for climate change. In the meantime, be sure to ponder the history of the coastal crop the next time you’re at the beach. The show will be on all summer and fall, closing December 3rd…and seaweed will probably still be on the shore after that.