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December Issue
2008
Gibbes Museum
of Art in Charleston, SC, Features Works by The Eight and from
the Schoen Collection
The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, will present two special traveling exhibitions including: Painters of American Life: The Eight and The American Scene on Paper: Prints and Drawings from the Schoen Collection. Both exhibits will be on view from Dec. 19 through Mar. 29, 2009.
Painters of American Life: The Eight will be on view in the Main Gallery and The American Scene on Paper: Prints and Drawings from the Schoen Collection will be showcased in the Rotunda Galleries. "These two exhibitions complement each other because of their focus on early 20th century American life but in two different mediums: paintings and prints. We are fortunate to be able to bring both exhibitions to Charleston simultaneously," states Gibbes Executive Director Angela Mack.
In 1908, eight American artists organized an exhibition at Macbeth Galleries in New York that became the talk of the town. Arthur B. Davies, William Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan openly challenged the National Academy of Design, which they considered out of step with progressive American art, and organized their own group exhibition. In 2008, Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art of Nashville, TN, organized this centennial exhibition that celebrates the many-faceted careers of the eight artists.
The Eight successfully staged an independent group show and launched the modern ritual of artistic rebellion in twentieth-century America. In the past, artists submitted their works to academic juries and experts before the public got a chance to see them. The Eight did away with the established hierarchy and sought a direct channel to reach audiences and market their work. They deliberately garnered the attention of the press which helped them orchestrate their exhibition as a media event. This form of independent group exhibition became a hallmark of modern art. Unlike other independent modern movements, The Eight did not pursue an exclusive program or aesthetic. After one hundred years, the group still stands out as a fascinating chapter in the history of modern art in America.
The 50 works included in Painters of American Life represent a cross-section of subjects that one would have encountered at Macbeth Galleries, from portraits and landscapes to scenes of urban life. Robert Henri was predominantly represented by portraits, the main pursuit of his career. Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Lawson, and Maurice Prendergast showed paintings that were based on nature and landscape observation. The remaining four demonstrated their predilection for urban realism, including one Street Scene by Luks, views of urban entertainment, such as vaudeville, by Shinn, and a variety of places in New York, including Central Park and the Lower East Side, by Glackens and Sloan.
The urban realism that characterized the works by Henri, Glackens, Luks, Shinn, and Sloan later garnered them the label Ashcan School painters. By 1908, when these artists joined forces, Modernism had not yet taken strong roots in the United States. In hindsight, The Eight truly pushed the American art world by promoting an eclectic range of expression, thereby raising the question of what American Modernism should look like.
Painters of American Life: The Eight is supported in Charleston by the volunteer organization Gibbes, etc, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina and media sponsor ART magazine.
Organized by the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, The American Scene on Paper: Prints and Drawings from the Schoen Collection, presents art that reflects the vast political, social and economic changes that occurred during the Great Depression and World War II. With images ranging from portrayals of the plight of the farm laborer to depictions of industry and the growing urban environment, the exhibit focuses on this important period in American art that has not had the attention it is due.
"The dynamic period of American art spanning the 1930s and 1940s is an era rich in complexity and diversity," said Jason Schoen, collector of American art. "I was captivated by the interest the artists had in American subjects. The quest for what was uniquely American inspired the artist to depict the heroic, the ordinary and the novel."
The approximately 50 prints, drawings and watercolors featured in the exhibition represent various manifestations of realism, whether magical, fantastic, social or romantic. Several of the artists moved from abstraction to realism as they searched for a distinctive, national voice. The art touches on the pulse of this nation with expressions that run the gamut from effusive appreciation of the beauty of place to sardonic commentary on politics and culture of the time. The diversity of style and subject suggests the astonishing energy and creative spirit that defined these years. The exhibition provides the opportunity to examine first-rate examples of the work of many of America's most influential artists of those decades including Paul Cadmus, William Gropper, Joe Jones, Rockwell Kent, Martin Lewis, Millard Sheets and John Sloan.
Organized by the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia in Athens, this exhibition is supported in part by the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The Council is a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by the Landon Family Foundation, the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation, the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, BNY Mellon Wealth Management, and Alfred Heber Holbrook Society members Mrs. M. Smith Griffith, George-Ann and Boone Knox, Mr. D. Jack Sawyer, Jr. and Dr. William E. Torres.
Established as the Carolina Art Association in 1858 , the Gibbes Museum of Art opened its doors to the public in 1905. Located in Charleston's historic district, the Gibbes houses a premier collection of over 10,000 works, principally American with a Charleston or Southern connection and presents special exhibitions throughout the year. In addition, the museum offers an extensive complement of public programming and educational outreach initiatives that serve the community by stimulating creative expression and improving the region's superb quality of life.
For further information
check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at
843/722-2706 or visit (www.gibbesmuseum.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.