Too scared to open it?

“Letter from Karl”(1940) (oil on canvas), by Gertrude Abercrombie (1909-1977), in the show “Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery,’’ at the Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, through Jan. 1, 2026.

The curator says:

The show is the first nationally touring presentation of Abercrombie’s art, celebrating “an artist who has been historically marginalized. Abercrombie (1909–1977) was a critical figure in the mid-20th Century Chicago art and jazz scenes. Though she had a singular vision, her reliance on her inner consciousness and use of a fantastical style connected her to broader developments in American Modernism.’’