OMAA is pleased to present Carl Sprinchorn: All the World is a Painting, a major exhibition devoted to an underrecognized voice in American modernism. Born in Sweden and arriving in New York in 1903 to study with Robert Henri, Sprinchorn (1887–1971) developed a wide-ranging practice informed by global travel and deep artistic community. His friendships with figures such as Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Marguerite and William Zorach, B.J.O. Nordfeldt, and Florine Stettheimer placed him within the vibrant artistic networks that shaped early twentieth-century American art.
Although long associated with Maine—where he produced some of his most compelling images—Sprinchorn’s career reflects a much broader cultural and aesthetic landscape. The exhibition highlights his deft movement between working-class subjects and scenes of leisure, between intimate portraits and energetic compositions of lumberjacks, hunters, dancers, and swimmers. Together, these works illuminate the artist’s negotiations of identity as a Swedish immigrant, a gay man, and a modern painter attuned to shifting ideas of region, nation, labor, and the natural world.
All the World is a Painting brings renewed attention to Sprinchorn’s contribution to American art, contextualizing his practice within wider discussions of modernism, queer history, environmental concern, and transnational artistic exchange.
This exhibition will run contiguously with a presentation of Sprinchorn’s work at Bates College Museum of Art from October to December 2026. Together, the two projects represent the most comprehensive presentation of his paintings and drawings to date, deepening our understanding of an artist whose relevance continues to grow. Both exhibitions will be bridged by the largest survey of Sprinchorn’s work, to be published by the University of Maine Press.
