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
Ritz, Abigail (photography) Cooper, Ken (biography)
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.
Whereas other paintings may have smoothed out some of the elements in this classic northeastern fall landscape, Jacoby creates a network of lines. We see them as stone walls in the fields below, tree trunks and branches (and their many shadows), and two telephone poles. The grid is not strictly Cartesian, but many locations in the landscape can be mapped out in this manner; the exceptions are a range of mountains, a barn, and several orange-leafed trees. About the Artist: We haven’t located much reliable information about this artist. His work was exhibited at the Municipal Art Committee in1937. Judging from the locations of his paintings for the Federal Art Project, Jacoby seems to have worked in or near New York City. 8 more images at FAP.
A sunny, hazy day in western New York is framed by trees and a lush green lawn. The view of Ithaca rendered de-emphasizes its commercial center in favor of forested hill dotted with homes. It's possible that the tall structure depicted is part of the War Memorial at Lyon and McFaddin Halls, recently dedicated in 1932. About the Artist: Born in Heidelberg, Germany, Jehu (whose name sometimes has been misspelled as Jehn) immigrated to the US in the early 1880s. She was the wife of sculptor John Milton Jehu and lived in Teegarden, OH. His struggles to support the family as an artist led her to leave US in 1913 and live with her family, bringing along son John Paul Jehu. Eventually the couple divorced in 1923. It was probably during this time in Europe that Jehu studied art formally in Germany and France. She returned to America in 1934, briefly living in Selma, AB, where she had a well-regarded show at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in 1934. She moved again in 1935 to Ithaca while her son attended college (Cornell Class of 1937). Her painting at the NDG painting may have been produced during this time. She exhibited at the Fourth Street Artists Gallery (1937), Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club show in New York (1941), the Albany Institute of History and Art (1943), and the Schenecdaty Art Exhibit (1945). Jehu spent the last years of her life in Albany, NY and continued painting until her death in 1947.
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.
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.
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.
New Deal Gallery, Genesee Valley Council on the Arts Object #FA18186