Martica Sawin

PORTLAND – Martica Sawin of Portland passed away peacefully at her home on June 8, 2024, at the age of 95, with her three daughters at her bedside.

Martica was a respected art historian and critic, a career that began as a writer for Arts Magazine in New York City in the 1950s. She authored reviews, essays and books on contemporary American art and artists. Her book, Surrealism in Exile, and the Beginning of the New York School, published in 1997, provides a detailed account of the cultural transfer that took place during 1938-1947 when European Surrealist artists fleeing fascism sought refuge in New York City. Martica knew many of these artists personally and had access to their studios and archives. Her work revealed the impact the Surrealists had on the evolution of abstract expressionism; in particular, the New York School – a cultural confluence that produced a new and exhilarating American art that drew world attention.

Martica chaired the art history department at Parsons School of Design in New York City from 1971 to 1994, and started the program “Parsons in Paris,” a study-abroad program that introduced American students to French art and culture while offering courses in fine arts, fashion, history, and literature. Martica made the Paris summers magical for the faculty and students, arranging countless special introductions, excursions and picnics for the group.

Martica’s roots in Maine were deep. Her father, the late Herman D. Ruhm Jr., was the president of Bates Manufacturing Co. in Lewiston in the 1950s. When her parents moved to Maine, she helped them to make their home at Meeting House Farm in Cumberland Center, which became a haven for the extended family for decades. In 1969, she began to spend time working and writing at a family camp in Harpswell, where she enjoyed a community of friends that would sustain and rejuvenate her for over 50 summer seasons. In 1988 she purchased a farm in New Gloucester, and tried her hand at growing and selling asparagus, while commuting back to New York to work at Parsons and teaching evening art history courses at the University of Maine in Augusta. She moved to Portland in 2019, enjoying close proximity to her daughters on Munjoy Hill.

Her happiest times were spent with her five grandchildren, whose lives she enhanced by introducing them to New York City, farm life in New Gloucester, and Harpswell’s rocky coast. She loved nothing more than to cook for family and friends, and could work magic in the kitchen, producing lavish feasts even when the larder was seemingly bare. She was a life-long ecologist who purchased nothing non-essential and shuddered at excessive consumerism, reflecting the frugality instilled in many of her Depression Era generation.

She was married to the painter and art historian David Sawin from 1949 until their divorce in 1970. In 1997, she married James Marston Fitch, an architect and well-known pioneer in the architectural preservation movement.

Martica is survived by her sister, Marny Smith of East Hampton, Mass.; her daughters, Martica Douglas and Maggy Wolf of Portland and Gina Sawin, with her husband Charles Gauvin, of New Gloucester; her grandchildren Will Douglas, TJ Douglas, Tom Wolf, Alice Gauvin, and Charlie Gauvin; and four great grandchildren: Leonora, George, Desmond, and Bowen. 

Sawin’s family extends their great appreciation to the nurses and aides at Hospice of Southern Maine, Coastal Care Solutions, and Kind Senior Care for the skilled and loving care they provided during the last two weeks of her life.

A memorial service will be conducted in Harpswell later this summer.

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