June Issue 2001
Upstairs Gallery in Tryon, NC, Offers Historical Exhibition of Tryon's Early Artists' Colony
A landmark exhibition of historical and artistic
significance is on view at the Upstairs Gallery in Tryon, NC,
through June 23. Tryon Artists, 1892-1942: The First Fifty
Years brings together over 100 works of fine art by 30 artists
who worked in Tryon between the turn of the century and World
War II.
"Tryon is a town that has always attracted creative people,"
says Michael McCue, one of the show's curators. "During this
half a century, which was a remarkable one for visual arts in
America, Tryon became a magnet for artists who came from many
different places to our mountains."
Some artists represented in the exhibit are Augustus Vincent Tack, Lawrence Mazzanovich, Josephine S. Couper, Homer Ellertson, Amelia Watson, Elliott Daingerfield, Margaret Morley, Lois Wilcox, Gabrielle DeVaux Clements, Louis Rowell, George Aid, William Steene, J. S. Brown, Edward Bennett, Diana Nash and Amelia Van Buren. They came from New England, New York, Chicago and elsewhere. Their works include oil paintings, watercolors, charcoal drawings and etchings as well as photographs and book illustrations.
McCue notes that most of the artists were well trained in art, well traveled and cosmopolitan. While they spent time in Tryon, they were linked to other important cultural centers. "The Tryon artists' colony was quite fluid and diverse," says McCue. "That's why this community did not develop into a recognized esthetic 'school' such as the later, better-known one at Black Mountain College."
Nowell Guffey and Jim Boyle worked with McCue
to locate and select the art from numerous private collections
and public institutions. Guffey is the proprietor of Foothills
Fine Art in Tryon, which deals in American painting of the late
19th and early 20th centuries. Boyle is a partner in Ryan-Boyle
Antiques of Saluda, NC, handling vintage Tryon art. McCue curated
a recent Mazzanovich exhibit at the Asheville Art Museum and last
year produced a catalog for an Ellertson show at the Tryon Fine
Arts Center.
A handsome hardcover catalog has been produced for the exhibit.
The 100-page book containing many color illustrations and biographical
essays is a valuable reference for the approximately 50 artists
who were associated with Tryon during the era. Much of the information
has never been published.
The following is an excerpt from the catalog Tryon Artists, 1892-1942: The First Fifty Years by Michael McCue.
Tryon: A True Artists' Colony from 1892 - 1942
During the half century before World War II, Tryon was North Carolina's most vital community of visual artists. For the next 50 years Tryon's significance as an artists' colony was gradually forgotten. Today there is a growing interest in the history of American art as it has existed outside of major metropolitan centers. A new exhibition at the Upstairs Gallery, Tryon Artists, 1892-1942: The First Fifty Years, is a landmark in the revival of awareness of--and appreciation for--Tryon's artistic heritage.
In the 1880s Tryon became a "country colony" for northern artists, writers and intellectuals. The first figure in fine arts whom Tryon can definitely claim is Amelia Watson, an accomp-lished watercolorist from Martha's Vineyard, MA. Watson was painting mountain scenes in Tryon by 1892. Her patron was the famous playwright and actor William Gillette, who built his winter home called "Thousand Pines" in Tryon circa 1890. Watson and her good friend Margaret Morley, an artist from Boston, stayed with Gillette during the 1890s, and later, they both built homes with studios in Tryon.
During this period America's intellectuals
became increasingly disturbed by city life and sought out beautiful
rural areas where they could work at peace with others of their
own kind. A notable example of this phenomenon was the highly
successful New York City artist Augustus Vincent Tack. In 1919
the Tacks bought property near Tryon where Tack could paint and
the couple could ride horses with other refugees from northern
winters.
As Tryon developed as a magnet for accomplished artists, many
of them came first for a vacation or to spend a winter season.
They arrived from New York, Boston, Hartford, Philadelphia, Washington,
DC, Detroit and Chicago. And although many later settled in Tryon
on a more or less permanent basis, they usually stayed closely
connected to cities in order to further their careers.
In the 1920s and 1930s Tryon continued to be fashionable among
the northern intelligentsia and also wealthy people who liked
its cultural milieu and smart social scene. These people were
neither prudes or didactic moralists. Tryon was the perfect climate
for artists looking for a place where they could be true to themselves
and to their art.
Living in Tryon was inexpensive--always an important consideration
for artists. Yet the town was easily accessible by rail. Tryon
was linked to the nation's rail system in 1877, earlier than any
other North Carolina mountain town. Tryon had express package
delivery, telegraph and telephone service early on. Hence Tryon
was not remote from the metropolitan business and culture centers.
The attitudes and attributes of Tryon's artists did not resonate
well with the rest of North Carolina. Art critics in Raleigh,
Winston-Salem and Charlotte were skeptical of the "non-native"
character of the Tryon artistic community. But Tryon artists did
not care about the opinions of these arbiters of culture. Their
artistic influences came from beyond the state, and besides, the
market for contemporary art was scant in North Carolina. Tryon
artists made their living by selling art in the North or to well-to-do
clients who passed through Tryon.
The curators for the Upstairs Gallery show have identified at
least 50 artists who were on the Tryon art scene prior to World
War II and 20 who made Tryon their permanent residence. Half of
these artists were women. Earlier in the 20th century female artists
were not readily accepted as legitimate professionals, but the
liberal environment of Tryon encouraged women's accomplishments.
Indeed, the town's leading cultural institution, the Lanier Club
(precursor of the Lanier Library), was founded by women in 1890
and did not accept men as voting members until 1930.
Whether female or male, virtually all of Tryon's artists trained with some of America's leading artists. Among the institutions where they studied were the Art Institute of Chicago, Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art, St. Louis School of Fine Art, Boston Museum, and in New York, the Pratt Institute, Art Students' League and Cooper Union. Some received instruction abroad.
Documenting Tryon's artistic heritage is not
easy. There is no published survey of North Carolina's art history
that mentions Tryon as an artists' colony. Most of Tryon's early
full-time resident artists left no descendents who still live
in North Carolina; many were single and left no heirs. Some lived
in Tryon part time and died elsewhere.
Almost all Tryon art work was sold to private collectors outside
of North Carolina. Before World War II there were virtually no
public institutions in the state collecting work by North Carolina's
contemporary artists. A few out-of-state museums acquired art
by Tryon artists during their lifetimes. The Phillips Collection
in Washington, DC, houses work by Tack and Homer Ellertson. The
Smithsonian Institute has important prints by Gabrielle Clements
and photographs by Amelia Van Buren. A trove of Josephine Sibley
Couper's paintings is in Macon, GA, and the Morris Museum in Augusta,
GA, owns Lawrence Mazzanovich paintings. Watson's watercolors
are in public institutions in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
None of Tryon's institutions actively collected the art of the
town's early artists. Some works are at the Lanier Library, the
Tryon Fine Arts Center, St. Luke's Hospital, Holy Cross Episcopal
Church and the Polk County Historical Association. But most of
the art is hidden away in the private homes of people who inherited
it. Thanks to such owners, to Tryon institutions and to generous
out-of-town lenders, the Upstairs Gallery can exhibit works by
early Tryon artists that haven't been seen for at least 60 years.
For more info check our NC Institutional Gallery
listings or call the gallery at 828/859-2828 or e-mail at (nholmes@alltel.net).
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