Terry Teachout investigates why and how an important artist like John Marin has 'vanished' from the critical conversation.  Marin's work is currently the subject of two museum exhibitions.  Teachout notes that each "make[s] a powerful case for taking a second look at Mr. Marin… now necessary, since [he] has in recent years fallen into something not far removed from obscurity. Indeed, the foreword to Portland's 'John Marin: Modernism at Midcentury' catalog goes so far as to describe him as 'the missing man among the pantheon of great American modernists.' "

John Marin: Modernism at Midcentury is on view at the Portland Museum of Art in Maine through October 10, 2011. John Marin's Watercolors: A Medium for Modernism is on view at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA through September 11, 2011.