A mass of rocks at upper left is mirror by rising ground at lower right in this impressionist composition. Earth tones predominate, even in the water's surface, except for a delicately colored sky and treetops--at sunrise or sunset? About the Artist: We haven’t located any reliable information about this artist. 9 more images at FAP.
The title of this painting isn't clear; it's inscribed as "Gray Day" on the frame, but listed as "The Two Birches" in its NDG and General Services Administration records--which is followed here for the sake of institutional continuity. The canvas itself shows Gordon's talents as an evocative colorist, using cool tones of gray, rose, mauve and green. As in his other NDG works, tree trunks are one of the few elements that are sharply delineated. A light source at top center suggests that it may owe something to the moonlit landscapes of Ralph Albert Blakelock. About the Artist: We haven’t located any reliable information about this artist. 9 more images at FAP.
A neoclassical mansion, accessorized by ancestral family tree, looms over a woman wearing a long dress at lower left. Upon closer viewing the coherence of this scene breaks down; she's carrying an axe in her left hand, a la Lizzie Borden, along with something in her right hand we cannot see. Moreover, any attempt to inhabit a romantic tableau of the past is undermined by an historical marker on the front lawn--or is it a 1930s highway sign?--along with an airplane flying overhead. About the Artist: Born in Middletown, CT and trained at the Hartford Art School, Guy was among the earliest Americans to see European surrealism via a 1931 show at the Wadsworth Atheneum on the “Newer Super-Realism.” Thereafter he was strongly influenced by painters like Salvador Dali, Giorgio de Chirico, and José Clemente Orozco. At the same time, Guy’s work was characterized by a sharp satirical edge that may have owed something to his own work experience—after high school he had tried selling rugs and typewriters; was a sailor and census-taker—and to his political activities, including membership in the radical John Reed Club. In 1930 he helped stage a 1930 labor play entitled Strike; amid unsuccessful attempts to stage it in New York, Guy remained in the city. During the Great Depression Guy was among the leaders of the Unemployed Artists Group (later renamed the Artists Union), which advocated government support for the arts and later resisted proposed cuts to the Federal Arts Program. Guy’s paintings were exhibited at the Wadsworth Atheneum Annex (1931), the ACA Gallery (1937), American Artists’ Congress (1937), a “Fight War and Fascism” show at the La Salle Gallery (1937), Federal Art Gallery (1938), Boyer Gallery (1939), and Ferargil Galleries (1941). In 1936 he married the respected woodblock artist Clara Skinner, and they co-exhibited at several shows. Guy also undertook public mural projects, referenced only as located in Mexico and “New York churches” (Older). One that is known was a 1934 three-panel project for the Hartford Public High School’s cafeteria on the production of food: “The New England fishing industry is at its center—the port of Gloucester, Mass.—is brought to life in the first panel. The second reveals the story of the wheat belt; fields of grain, elevators, transportation on the Great Lakes. From pastures to stockyard, the cattle industry is recorded in the third” (Older). Perhaps the peak of Guy’s popular recognition, by that time including the epithet of “Yankee Surrealist,” involved a 1941 portfolio of paintings published in Esquire magazine as “Fun in Ghost Town.” “Today he is more or less established,” the profile stated, “if somewhat precariously....James Guy may be called a depression period radical, for there is nothing in his background or conditioning which would make inevitable the questioning of social values that has been going on in his picture making” (Saltpeter). During World War II Guy worked at the Pratt Read glider factory in Deep River, CT where his visual style changed markedly into a futurism he called “industrial symphonies” (Dickinson). After the war he taught art at Bennington College, MacMurray College, and Weslyan University—with a sabbatical of several years during which he wrote and photographed articles on fishing for outdoor magazines (Stedman). 2 works at the National Gallery of Art. 6 more images at FAP. Sources Consulted: Ernest Dickinson, “Paints ‘Symphonies of Industry’”, Hartford Courant 15 Oct. 1944: 67; Ilene Susan Fort, “Social Surrealism,” Archives of American Art Journal 22.3 (1982): 8-20; Gerald M. Monroe, “Artists as Militant Trade Union Workers During the Great Depression,” Archives of American Art Journal 14.1 (1974): 7-10; Cy Stedman, “Return of an Artist,” Hartford Courant 19 Jan. 1958: 114-115; Harry Saltpeter, “Guy: Ghoul of the Ghostly West,” Esquire 16.2 (Aug. 1941): 86-87; Julia Older, “Hartford Public Buildings Richly and Lastingly Adorned as Uncle Sam Becomes Nation’s Most Lavish Art Patron,” Hartford Courant 1 Jul. 1934: 59.
New Deal Gallery, Genesee Valley Council on the Arts Object #FA18167
Ritz, Abigail (photography) Cooper, Ken (biography)
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A riot of fourteen sunflower blossoms fills the borders of Gubin's composition, in hues of vivid red, orange, and yellow. Combined with their foliage, it takes an effort to locate the flower's container--a warm brown vase possibly incorporating a gourd into its design. The arrangement is set against the clapboard of a house's exterior, completing a vision of informal, everyday beauty. About the Artist: Born in Kiev, Russia, Gubin immigrated to the US in 1909. She studied art at Hunter College, the Art Students League, and New York University; her teachers included Raphael Soyer, Byron Brown, and John Sloan. Initially she supported herself as an office worker, but in 1933 managed to aquire a hot dog stand on Rockaway Beach that freed up time for her painting (Syracuse Post-Standard 24 Jan. 1973: 28). Gubin’s art was exhibited at the Muncipal Art Gallery (1938), ACA Gallery (1941), and the Woodstock Artists Association (1955). She was recognized with the F. W. Weber award by the National Association of Women Artists. Gubin often is mentioned as a teacher of art; along with private lessons, she managed the summer Timberline camp at Jewett, NY (a progressive hotbed later investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee). In later years she extended her classes to disadvantaged children: “When she wants to motivate them, Miss Gubin paints portraits of the youngsters, as they appear to her in class. Her happiest experience came when she brought a smile to a little girl’s face. ‘Why are you so sad?’ the artist asked her student. ‘My mother told me I was ugly, and mothers always tell the truth,’ explained the girl. Miss Gubin then painted a portrait of a pretty, smiling girl—with a flower in her hair” (Syracuse Post-Standard 11 Feb. 1974: 17). 2 works at Smithsonian American Art Museum. 1 work at Harvard Art Museum. 1 work at Smith College Museum of Art. 2 works at Delaware Art Museum. 7 more images at FAP.
The setting of this composition blurs the genres of En plein air landscapes and still lifes; there is no "background" to situate the basket of flowers in space, but the grass underneath them departs from carefully artificial indoor settings. A few buttercups growing in the grass echo those already collected for Hartl's basket. Hovering in space, the stems sometimes are so delicate that their blooms appear to be floating. About the Painter: Born in Paris, Hartl immigrated to the US in 1912 and became a citizen ten years later. His professional background had been with aniline dyes, working with ostrich and other rare feathers for milliners and couturiers. In 1922, he entered into a partnership with Marcel Duchamp creating a fabric and feather-dyeing shop that went bankrupt six months later. Hartl always held jobs out of necessity, painting his landscapes and still-lifes on Sundays, but was widely respected for his art. After viewing a 1924 show at Minneapolis Institute of Arts, one critic wrote that “The care with which he works out his subject is the touchstone which transforms a quiet scene into something broadly tender, beautiful in texture and tone” (Allen). Another described his still lifes as “lovely still-life arrangements of flowers, arranged on pale colored clothes, preferably pinks and grey blues. The bouquets have the simplicity of statement that a child’s concept of a bouquet would have with the difference that his work is neither accidental or immature” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle 28 Jan. 1934: 12). He exhibited at the New Gallery (1923), Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Institute, Corcoran, Museum of Modern Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Salons of America, Society of Independent Artists, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Hartl’s reputation usually was framed within the problematic concept of primitivism, like his contemporary Henri Rousseau; this was based upon his visual style but perhaps also due to his refreshingly down-to-earth view of painting. At a 1970 Teamsters Union show featuring the work of amateurs, the 81-year-old Hartl was quoted as saying “It’s very important for working people to develop a spiritual side” (New York Daily News 21 June 1970: 22). 4 works at Whitney Museum of American Art. 5 works at Asheville Art Museum. 7 works at Sheldon Museum of Art. 1 work at The Phillips Collection. His papers are at Syracuse University. Source Consulted: Burt Allen, “'Personality’ is Slogan of French Artists Whose Work is Being Shown at Institute,” Minneapolis Star Tribune 30 Mar. 1924: 61.
Nature's bounty is gathered into a late-summer array: grapes, pears, peaches, a plum and a melon; behind them, heads of wheat and various flowers. It is not a haphazard grouping, given the wheat stalks poking out from green grass; the effect is closer to that of a flower arrangement. At the intersection of nature and artifice stands a gourd-shaped pitcher, worked metal emulating the shape of indigenous dried gourds used for a similar purpose. About the Artist: Born in Paris, Hartl immigrated to the US in 1912 and became a citizen ten years later. His professional background had been with aniline dyes, working with ostrich and other rare feathers for milliners and couturiers. In 1922, he entered into a partnership with Marcel Duchamp creating a fabric and feather-dyeing shop that went bankrupt six months later. Hartl always held jobs out of necessity, painting his landscapes and still-lifes on Sundays, but was widely respected for his art. After viewing a 1924 show at Minneapolis Institute of Arts, one critic wrote that “The care with which he works out his subject is the touchstone which transforms a quiet scene into something broadly tender, beautiful in texture and tone” (Allen). Another described his still lifes as “lovely still-life arrangements of flowers, arranged on pale colored clothes, preferably pinks and grey blues. The bouquets have the simplicity of statement that a child’s concept of a bouquet would have with the difference that his work is neither accidental or immature” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle 28 Jan. 1934: 12). He exhibited at the New Gallery (1923), Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Institute, Corcoran, Museum of Modern Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Salons of America, Society of Independent Artists, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Hartl’s reputation usually was framed within the problematic concept of primitivism, like his contemporary Henri Rousseau; this was based upon his visual style but perhaps also due to his refreshingly down-to-earth view of painting. At a 1970 Teamsters Union show featuring the work of amateurs, the 81-year-old Hartl was quoted as saying “It’s very important for working people to develop a spiritual side” (New York Daily News 21 June 1970: 22). 4 works at Whitney Museum of American Art. 5 works at Asheville Art Museum. 7 works at Sheldon Museum of Art. 1 work at The Phillips Collection. His papers are at Syracuse University. Source Consulted: Burt Allen, “‘Personality’ is Slogan of French Artists Whose Work is Being Shown at Institute,” Minneapolis Star Tribune 30 Mar. 1924: 61.
More than a dozen species of fruit and flowers are mounded on a bed of grass. The painting's upper half, a skillfully mottled background, is crucial for establishing the space necessary to make sense of the lower half--without it, those objects flatten into a wallpaper. Stalks of wheat and the greenery of flowers likewise sketch out spatial coordinates within which the brightly colored icons acquire mass. About the Artist: Born in Paris, Hartl immigrated to the US in 1912 and became a citizen ten years later. His professional background had been with aniline dyes, working with ostrich and other rare feathers for milliners and couturiers. In 1922, he entered into a partnership with Marcel Duchamp creating a fabric and feather-dyeing shop that went bankrupt six months later. Hartl always held jobs out of necessity, painting his landscapes and still-lifes on Sundays, but was widely respected for his art. After viewing a 1924 show at Minneapolis Institute of Arts, one critic wrote that “The care with which he works out his subject is the touchstone which transforms a quiet scene into something broadly tender, beautiful in texture and tone” (Allen). Another described his still lifes as “lovely still-life arrangements of flowers, arranged on pale colored clothes, preferably pinks and grey blues. The bouquets have the simplicity of statement that a child’s concept of a bouquet would have with the difference that his work is neither accidental or immature” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle 28 Jan. 1934: 12). He exhibited at the New Gallery (1923), Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Institute, Corcoran, Museum of Modern Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Salons of America, Society of Independent Artists, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Hartl’s reputation usually was framed within the problematic concept of primitivism, like his contemporary Henri Rousseau; this was based upon his visual style but perhaps also due to his refreshingly down-to-earth view of painting. At a 1970 Teamsters Union show featuring the work of amateurs, the 81-year-old Hartl was quoted as saying “It’s very important for working people to develop a spiritual side” (New York Daily News 21 June 1970: 22). 4 works at Whitney Museum of American Art. 5 works at Asheville Art Museum. 7 works at Sheldon Museum of Art. 1 work at The Phillips Collection. His papers are at Syracuse University. Source Consulted: Burt Allen, “‘Personality’ is Slogan of French Artists Whose Work is Being Shown at Institute,” Minneapolis Star Tribune 30 Mar. 1924: 61.
New Deal Gallery, Genesee Valley Council on the Arts Object #FA18172
At the time of this painting, marine art in its modern form was less than a hundred years old. Henning shows the influence of Gustave Courbet's "landscapes of the sea" and of subsequent artists like Claude Monet, albeit in more representational form. A wave arriving at shore is secondary to the power of several elements in the painting--sky, cloud, ocean, wave, foam, and rock--each with its own distinctive style, each complicated by variations of light. About the Artist: We haven’t located much reliable information about this artist. He exhibited at the Brooklyn Artists Gallery in 1932. 38 works at National Gallery of Art as part of Index of American Design. 6 images at FAP.
A soothing rural landscape fades into the hazy distance. Its design is mostly symmetrical, save for a red barn and fence at left center; humans and livestock are conspicuous in their absence. Perhaps the painting's most remarkable feature is its almost kaleidoscopic foreground, bright and particular with color. It may be that Henning's extensive work on toleware for the Index of American Design influenced his palette of colors here. About the Artist: We haven’t located much reliable information about this artist. He exhibited at the Brooklyn Artists Gallery (1932). 38 works at National Gallery of Art as part of Index of American Design. 6 images at FAP.
In circular composition, we behold a miniature world. Three glamorous horseback performers; a clown and his costumed dog at lower left; a crowd of spectators beholding the action: all orbit around a circular red carpet. At right is an ambiguous figure that may be a clown, dwarf, or even the show's impresario. Hondius, like many other modernist painters, was fascinated by circuses for their picturesque qualities, and perhaps moreso for the marginal lives gathered under a tent. About the Artist: Born in Kampen, Netherlands, Hondius studied at the Royal Academy in The Hague and the Laren Art Colony before fleeing Europe to the US in 1915 (he became a citizen in 1939). In New York, he studied at the Art Students League with Max Weber and Andrew Dasburg. Thereafter he divided his time between New York and Provincetown, MA. He exhibited at Whitney Museum (1924-26,1932,1934,1945) and at numerous solo shows. A reputation for melancholic paintings seems to have been at least partly grounded in his temperamental personality, but they were ambitiously expressionist in their conception. Of a 1931 show at the New Art Circle, New York City, one critic wrote of his circus paintings that Hondius was “a painter not of the picturesque, but of the pictorial, of those moments when forms suspended in space describe an arabesque, an arabesque slightly twisted through strain, caught in no flashy decorative way, but rather enmeshed in those filaments of imperctibly changing light and color which only the artist’s eye can detect. In this transformation of the swift pace of the circus into something which at first seems an arresting of all movement, and is then seen to be a far subtler suggestion of the endless flow of matter, from its densest to most volatile form, there is a touch of melancholy, just as there is a somber tinge in the reflections of Lucretius on the nature of things” (Klein). 3 works at Smithonsian American Art Museum. 1 work at Whitney Museum of American Art. 3 works at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. 12 works at Benton Museum Art Collection. 6 images at FAP. His papers are at the Archives of American Art. Source Consulted: Jerome Klein, “Paintings of Hondius in New York,” Baltimore Sun 15 Feb. 1931: 71.