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https://openvalley.org/files/original/312d7f225968f83834b8fa6b400183db.JPG
6c970aa2236229d94cbfe30b29882720
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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New Deal Gallery
Description
An account of the resource
This collection of more than 200 paintings owes its existence to two primary causes: allocations from the Federal Art Project to a New York state tuberculosis sanatorium located at Mt. Morris--the landscapes and still lifes were thought to be restful--and to the committed volunteers who helped preserve the paintings after the hospital closed. For several decades the canvases were stored in non-climate-controlled basements; it appears that doctors and staff removed at least three dozen works as "keepsakes." <br /><br />Despite the seeming tranquility of the paintings, they were created by artists primarily from New York City whose background was more political and aesthetically adventurous than this rural location would indicate. <a href="https://openvalley.org/exhibits/show/green-new-deal/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Follow this hyperlink to a short introduction to the New Deal Gallery collection</a>. We're grateful to the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts for access to their collection, which has been re-photographed and appears here at two resolutions: a cropped, web-friendly file size of around 1 MB; and a high-resolution file including the painting's frame.<br /><br />Items in this collection were created according to a consistent format: a short description of each painting in formal terms, followed by a biography of each artist. Where possible we have supplied hyperlinks relevant to their lives and to other examples of their art. In order to better view them using the Omeka program, click on the "View All" option at the bottom of this page to access various sorting options.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1935-1940
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Cooper, Ken (project director)
Ritz, Abigail (photography and project assistant)
Additional research: Justin Anderson, Jessica Apthorpe, Jay Bang, Kristopher Bangsil, Julia Caldwell, Sydney Cannioto, Sabrina Chan, Paige Closser, Victoria Domon, Elana Evenden, Yadelin Fernandez, Michael Griffin, Madison Jackson, Niamh McCrohan, Ben Michalak, Ricky Noel, Elizabeth Ramsay, Skye Rose, Samantha Schmeer, John Serbalik, Marianna Sheedy, Emily Spina, Alison Stern, Ravenna VanOstrand, and Nicholas Vanamee.
Special thanks to: Deborah Bump, Mark Calicchia, Elizabeth Harris, Melissa Moody, Rebecca Lomuto, and Mai Sato.
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials.
Original Format
The type of object, such as photograph, map, drawing, painting, etc., and any additional data
Watercolor on canvas?
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image
30 x 24 in.
Condition: surface dirt, scratches
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Wash Day in the Country
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg, 854 KB
Description
An account of the resource
This view adopts some several conventions of folk painting: a non-linear perspective, extremely simplified renderings of structures and people; and a “coverage” of the scene that feels complete. The style was one of several for Nichols. Perhaps most intriguing here is a network of lines, or tributaries, that link together disparate elements. Smoke from a house at bottom reaches a vegetable plot, but goes no further; the trunk of a large tree at center continues upward as a road, and its branches all serves as “paths” to different objects in the painting. The washline at bottom left is just one of many lines.<br /><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;">About the Artist</span>: Born in Maywood, IL, Nichols came from a wealthy family and at times struggled to find his own artistic voice. He trained at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, and the Art Students League. While studying at the Louvre, Paris in 1930, he became friends with the expatriate writer Henry Miller and painted his portrait with the Eiffel Tower in the background. For his part Miller wrote, hyperbolically, that “I feel convinced, when talking to [Nichols] that I am standing in the presence of a genius. I can see in him another Van Gogh, or better.[...] Nichols is a deeply cultured guy, a rich, ripe guy of the autumnal cities, a man of feeling, of intuition, of instinct, but also of great intellect, and of great ego...charming ego...charming effrontery. The child-man, the wonder-man, soft-voiced, musical, sure, suave, convincing, and never-ending” (<em>Cosmodemonic</em>). Not coincidentally Miller observed that a private income freed Nichols “to do what he wants,” which may be why one gallery owner recalled Nichols asking only $5 for his paintings: “I would say, ‘John, I can't give you $5. I’ll give you $20 for it.’ He'd say, ‘I can't accept that’...And whatever happened to John Nichols I don't know, but he painted in a Matisse-like manner and then went off to his own approach....He had marvelous reviews. I think money was not really the thing” (“Oral History”). Nichols’ work was exhibited throughout the 1930s and ‘40s at various galleries in Woodstock, NY, where he maintained a studio. His painting “Buzz Saw” was selected for the “New Horizons in Art” exhibit, MoMA (1936). He exhibited at the Federal Art Show, Woodstock, along with NDG artists Erna Lange, Leon Foster Jones. Ahead of a 1936 solo show at Sawkill Gallery, a press released described Nichols like this: “In spite of his conventional background and training he is somewhat of a rebel against established tradition” (<em>Kingston Daily Freeman</em> 24 July 1936: 6). 6 works at <a href="https://collections.hvvacc.org/digital/collection/waam/search/searchterm/Nichols" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Woodstock Artists Association & Museum</a>.
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Sources Consulted"</span> <a href="http://cosmotc.blogspot.com/2006/07/john-nichols-and-millers-beard.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company: A Henry Miller Blog</em></a>; (<a href="https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-bernard-braddon-and-sidney-paul-schectman-12316#transcript" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Oral History Interview with Bernard Braddon and Sidney Paul Schectman, 1981 October 9,”</a> <em>Archives of American Art</em>).</p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Nichols, John Crampton, 1899-1963
Publisher
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Federal Art Gallery
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1935
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Ritz, Abigail (photography)
Cooper, Ken (biography)
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
New Deal Gallery, Genesee Valley Council on the Arts
Object #FA18224
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Still image
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
131
Federal Art Project
John Nichols
Landscape Art
New Deal Gallery
painting