Two horses run along an earthen path through what appears to be a stockaded chute, but upon examination the vertical columns turn out to be strata of rock, and four more horses are joining the pair from atop a stylized landform. Through a crack a blossoming tree has pushed its way into daylight; along the base of rocks grow unlikely floweres. In the distance can be seen grassy hills that might be expected in a valley, or “dale.” Lebduska gives his incongruous elements a dreamlike coherence: the similar expression upon each horse’s face; the way brown coats of hair transform into otherworldly colors upon joining the chase. About the Artist: Born in Baltimore to Czech parents, Lebduska trained to be a stained glass artist like his father, before immigrating to the US in 1912. Initially he worked as a painter of interior murals but by the late 1920s was exhibiting his own paintings. The label of Lebkuska as as a “primitive” akin to Henri Rousseau initially gained him attention during the 1930s and early 1940s; reportedly his paintings inspired Abby Aldrich Rockefeller to begin assembling her large collection of folk art. But as a 1941 “Modern Primitives” show at MoMA illustrates, it was a constrictive rubric: “All share the common denominator of Western culture at its most democratic level and all express the straightforward, innocent and convincing vision of the common man, ignorant of art or unaffected by it” (Barr). With a change in art world fashions Lebduska’s work fell out of favor during the later 1940s and ‘50s, and he descended into poverty and alcoholism. In the 1960s an art dealer named Eva Lee, impressed by one of his paintings, sought out Lebduska and helped him recover his health. He resumed painting until his death in 1966 with renewed public appreciation. 2 works at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. 1 work at Albright-Knox Art Gallery. 3 works at Wadsworth Atheneum. 9 more images at FAP.
A side table, situated at the corner of two walls, displays a cobalt-blue vase filled with profuse blooms and fall folliage. Blue, cross-hatched walls and the table’s gray tone harmonize with the bouquet’s primarily pink and rose tones. The painting’s drama comes via light from upper right that is reflected upon the vase, sets apart its floral blooms from the background, and modulates the walls different tones. Compare the aesthetic here to his more experimental “Flower Study.” About the Artist: Very little is known about this artist born in Palermo, Sicily, who immigrated to the US in 1914 and became a citizen in 1936. Among his known works are a 1931 self-portrait, “Lady Justice Among Figures” (1932), “Portrait of Lillian” (1934), and “Pieta” (1949). In 1942 La Spina painted a FAP ceiling mural for the Psychiatric Wing of Bellevue Hospital, NYC. He published a book entitled Clouds and Dust in 1975.
This composition occupies a sort of uncanny valley in painting: its vase and flowers use one regime of three-dimensionality; its plant stand uses a different regime, or perhaps the same from a different vantage point. No viewing point can make those two cohere. La Spina’s still life is not cubist in its treatment of space, yet results in an object not simply floating in space, but tethered to another perspective. Compare the aesthetic here to his more traditional “October Bouquet.” About the Artist: Very little is known about this artist born in Palermo, Sicily, who immigrated to the US in 1914 and became a citizen in 1936. Among his known works are a 1931 self-portrait, “Lady Justice Among Figures” (1932), “Portrait of Lillian” (1934), and “Pieta” (1949). In 1942 La Spina painted a FAP ceiling mural for the Psychiatric Wing of Bellevue Hospital, NYC. He published a book entitled Clouds and Dust in 1975.
An arrangement of dried stalks in a ceramic urn creates this dazzling play of colors and light. Its setting is a wooden table, Navaho-patterned weaving, and earth-colored walls; along with the bright light passing in through a curtain at left, the effect is one of the American southwest, whether the still life was painted there or not. The painting’s otherwise haphazard lines draw our eyes to one particular globe and its shadow at top center. About the Artist: Born in Elizabeth, NJ, to German parents Lange attended school abroad before returning in 1916 to study art at the Cooper Union, the Art Students League, and the National Academy of Design. In 1923 Lange was the focus of a major controversy: her painting “Lament” was chosen by the Chaloner Foundation for a prize that allowed five years’ travel and study in Europe; newspapers announced that the “Girl Painter Wins $6,000 Prize Over Three Male Competitors.” Then an anonymous tip observed the close similarity between Lange’s painting and English artist James Williams’ work “The Lament,” published seven years previous. The award was revoked, although many observers were sympathetic to the process of unconscious assimilation—why would Lange have titled the painting as such if she had sought to hide anything? (“Tragic Likeness”). The Foundation’s underwriter also was supportive, and decided to grant her a trip in 1924, yet as Lange reported Chaloner “advised me to plead guilty. I therefore do so. I am very, very sorry, and I have suffered severely. I therefore ask the public to please try to forget the past and look at my work in Paris during the next five years as the proof of my sincere devotion to Art” (“Confession”). Given this potentially devastating episode, it’s remarkable how Lange persisted on to study (at the Academies Colarossi, Grand Chaumiere, Julian, and Billoul in Paris) and to produce vivid art. She became best known for her paintings of the American Southwest, having first traveled to Arizona in 1930. A 1931 solo show at the Argent Galleries suggested that “Erna Lange has taken much color and the drama and woven it into pictures, which add greatly to the artistic production of the country. Her clear vision and skillful handling of the medium equip her to record ably and with unusual understanding the moods of this one section of America wherein natural forces can still play a part in the lives of the people without disturbing their peace of mind.” Lange exhibited works in the 1936 and 1937 Woodstock WPA Expositions, and records indicate that her 1936 painting, “Winter Landscape,” was allocated to the NYS Board of Health. Lange moved near Phoenix permanently in 1940, where she opened her own gallery and taught painting. Almost all of Lange’s paintings are privately held, rather than displayed in museums. Sources Consulted: “Girl Painter Wins $6,000 Prize Over Three Male Competitors” (Baltimore Sun 9 July 1923: 2); (“Tragic Likeness of Her Picture to Another’s,” San Francisco Chronicle 23 Sept. 1923: 6); “Confession,” Time 9 June 1924.
A clearing in forested land, receding toward the painting’s center, draw our attention to a stone house. But it seems to have at least one and possibly two additions to its original structure; along with the farm outbuildings, road and bridge, and the cleared land itself, a passage of time is encoded into the landscape. In muted tones under a clear sky, massy and subtly rounded shapes lend a sculptural quality to the painting. About the Artist: Born in Brooklyn, NY Lane spent much of his young life in Europe studying art—Bonn, Munich, Vienna, Paris—before returning home in 1928. His wife, the former Erna Schurtz, was a dancer in the Isadora Duncan school. Land exhibited in the Ferargil Galleries (1931)—where his portraits were praised for solving the problem of definite physical presentment and of intangible traits of character and personality most successfully” (New York Evening Post 26 Dec. 1931: 3)—the 1939 World’s Fair, and the Bonestall Galleries (1940). He painted three murals for the Port Washington, NY post office in 1937 (“Lighthouse,” “Sailing,” and “Landscape”); another entitled “Air Express” ended up in Oakdale, LA. In 1949 Lane moved to the Berkshires permanently, continuing to exhibit and share his knowledge with artists in the community. 1 work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1 work at Worcester Art Museum. 1 work at Smithsonian American Art Museum. 3 more images at FAP.
A vase of flowers is built upon four colors—yellow, orange, green, and blue—along with well-chosen accents and whites. De-differentiating marigolds into puffs of color is complemented by Kerrwood’s flattened space; slight variations of texture on the wall and table push back against formal abstraction. A Grecian vase, the painting’s only modeled object, stands distinct among color fields. About the Artist: We haven’t located any reliable information about this artist. He may have lived in the Saratoga Springs area.
At least a third of this painting is dominated by a harbor, whose representation of waves resemble the letter "U" and whose boats are the simplest of icons. To characterize the scene as childlike, however, overlooks the skillful pattern-making applied to trees in the foreground and background. Kaufman creates a bounded world whose simplicity is deceptive; he strips away realist techniques while retaining their representational ends. About the Artist: Born in Cleveland, Kaufman began his art studies at an early age culminating with formal training at the Cleveland School of Art, where he studied with Harry Keller. One of his oil paintings won him the Agnes Gund European Traveling Scholarship; he spent a year there painting and studying under several artists: Hans Hofmann, Henry De Waroquier, Othon Friesz , and Abel G. Warshawsky. Kaufman seems to have been able to support himself through his work, in part because his primary medium was etching seriographs, in part because he was an effective agent for his own work. He died tragically, along with his wife and two-year old son, when a bridge they were crossing in Pennsylvania collapsed under the weight of a freight truck. As Henry Adams writes, “Kaufman’s best work is a curious blend of the 19th century picturesque, the social realism of the Ashcan School, and the bold patternmaking of the modernists he associated with in the thirties, such as [Louis] Lozowick....It’s intriguing and somewhat eerie to have his work resurface seventy-five years after his death; and a reminder that we should honor not only those who achieved great things, but those whose early promise was cut short.” 28 works at Cleveland Museum of Art. 2 more images at FAP.
We approach this still life obliquely, as a momentary and almost casual glimpse of domestic space: a covered table is pushed against the wall, next to a door frame, holding a few everyday objects set down in passing. Yet each of them points beyond the frame with unanswered questions. What is the apple doing here? What book is being read? And most urgently, what is inside the envelope mailed to “Mr. R. Kadowaki” at his Hell’s Kitchen address? Does the conspicuous dead leaf nearby signal some great disappointment? Regardless of what we don’t know, the plant at center has mass and its shadow is rendered in a distinctive tone—less a shadow than that of a spirit. About the Artist: Born Tokorogo, Japan, Kadowaki immigrated to Seattle, WA in 1909, giving as his profession a tailor for the famous Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo. He appears to have lived in California shortly after arrival. As of 1917, he was a waiter at an Oyster Bay, NY restaurant; in 1920 he was butler to the son of a US Vice President in Wayne, NJ; in 1930 he was servant to a Murray Hill attorney; in 1940 he was a cook. These occupations all were considered appropriate for Japanese immigrants, and yet Kadowaki persisted in his art. While in California he took classes at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design, exhibiting there in 1910; while in New York, he took classes at the Art Students League and exhibited at the ACA Gallery and Salons of America. In 1926 he designed a whimsical cockatoo light made of celluloid. After the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor, he was one of seven (along with NDG artist Thomas Nagai) to sign and publish a “Declaration of Japanese-American Artists”: “Let us express here and now our tremendous anxiety for national defense of America; our determination to support it to our utmost as artists and men, and further, to bear arms if necessary to ensure the final victory for the Democratic forces of the world. Whether a Fascist calls himself German, Italian, or Japanese, he is part and parcel of the same plot against all mankind.” Kadowaki became a US citizen in 1953. Source Consulted: Ruth L. Benjamin, “Japanese Painters in America” Parnassus 7.5 (October 1935): 13–15.
The plant depicted here probably is a Japanese arrowhead (Saggitaria japonica), which is native to marshes and due to its edible tuber occasionally called a “duck potato.” Kadowaki’s interest certainly is aesthetic—due to its distinctive leafs and graceful stems—and possibly symbolic, given the arrowhead’s remarkable adaptability. Far from wetlands and indoors, this one still is growing vigorously depite a couple of yellow leafs. About the Artist: Born Tokorogo, Japan, Kadowaki immigrated to Seattle, WA in 1909, giving as his profession a tailor for the famous Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo. He appears to have lived in California shortly after arrival. As of 1917, he was a waiter at an Oyster Bay, NY restaurant; in 1920 he was butler to the son of a US Vice President in Wayne, NJ; in 1930 he was servant to a Murray Hill attorney; in 1940 he was a cook. These occupations all were considered appropriate for Japanese immigrants, and yet Kadowaki persisted in his art. While in California he took classes at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design, exhibiting there in 1910; while in New York, he took classes at the Art Students League and exhibited at the ACA Gallery and Salons of America. In 1926 he designed a whimsical cockatoo light made of celluloid. After the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor, he was one of seven (along with NDG artist Thomas Nagai) to sign and publish a “Declaration of Japanese-American Artists”: “Let us express here and now our tremendous anxiety for national defense of America; our determination to support it to our utmost as artists and men, and further, to bear arms if necessary to ensure the final victory for the Democratic forces of the world. Whether a Fascist calls himself German, Italian, or Japanese, he is part and parcel of the same plot against all mankind.” Kadowaki became a US citizen in 1953. Source Consulted: Ruth L. Benjamin, “Japanese Painters in America” Parnassus 7.5 (October 1935): 13–15.
An apparently straightforward scene of home construction reveals a more complex, interconnected relationship between humans and the rest of nature. In the left foreground we see the stump of a tree, either downed by windfall or more likely cut down. A remaining tree at right includes another inhabitant of the area, a squirrel, now perhaps displaced; beneath that tree bloom a profusion of shade-loving flowers. What will become of them? At bottom center is a young sapling which, if allowed to flourish will maintain balance. The human and human habitation being built will be a determining factor in the forest’s health. About the Artist: Born Tokorogo, Japan, Kadowaki immigrated to Seattle, WA in 1909, giving as his profession a tailor for the famous Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo. He appears to have lived in California shortly after arrival. As of 1917, he was a waiter at an Oyster Bay, NY restaurant; in 1920 he was butler to the son of a US Vice President in Wayne, NJ; in 1930 he was servant to a Murray Hill attorney; in 1940 he was a cook. These occupations all were considered appropriate for Japanese immigrants, and yet Kadowaki persisted in his art. While in California he took classes at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design, exhibiting there in 1910; while in New York, he took classes at the Art Students League and exhibited at the ACA Gallery and Salons of America. In 1926 he designed a whimsical cockatoo light made of celluloid. After the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor, he was one of seven (along with NDG artist Thomas Nagai) to sign and publish a “Declaration of Japanese-American Artists”: “Let us express here and now our tremendous anxiety for national defense of America; our determination to support it to our utmost as artists and men, and further, to bear arms if necessary to ensure the final victory for the Democratic forces of the world. Whether a Fascist calls himself German, Italian, or Japanese, he is part and parcel of the same plot against all mankind.” Kadowaki became a US citizen in 1953. Source Consulted: Ruth L. Benjamin, “Japanese Painters in America” Parnassus 7.5 (October 1935): 13–15.