Their America - Mellon essay

An essay to complement the exhibition

american art—in preparation

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he exhibition American Art—In Preparation presents preliminary studies and finished work in a variety of materials by thirteen American artists. Made over the course of more than a century, these works in wood, in paint, in bronze and on paper are tied together by two factors: they are created by American artists and reflect the artistic process. The former acknowledges the expansive category of American art, while the latter gives visitors a chance to trace the evolution of artists’ thoughts. Taken together, the preparatory works and fully realized pieces in this exhibition recognize a range of personal histories.

American Art—In Preparation includes artists who celebrate and who struggle with their own relationship to this country.

Three works drawn from this exhibition, a study for Aspects of Negro Life: An Idyll of the Deep South by Aaron Douglas (1898–1979), Theseus by Jacques Lipchitz (1891–1973) and Girl with a Newspaper by Isabel Bishop (1902–1988), not only reveal the technical developments of these artists but also represent the complexities of American experiences.

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ooking closely at Aaron Douglas’ gouache over graphite study for Aspects of Negro Life: An Idyll of the Deep South (1934, fig. 1), you can see the puncture of the artist’s compass at the center of the concentric circles that pulse outward in a visual suggestion of music. The sound radiates from the middle of the composition, where a group of African Americans play music, dance and sing. This joyful scene, however, is flanked by the harsh realities of life in this country after Reconstruction. Dangling feet at the upper left of the scene suggest a “strange fruit” in the trees—a body left suspended after a lynching.1 Just below the disembodied feet and lingering rope, a man bends over, as if in mourning or pain. On the other side of the central grouping, workers toil in the fields. These figures bend their backs doing agricultural work. One wields a shovel, another a hoe—labors that break their bodies. Douglas’ silhouettes reveal the pain and plunder (4)

of black lives in the Deep South while undermining the enduring myth of the “happy slave.”

Here, we see the sarcasm of the study’s title, Aspects of Negro Life: An Idyll of the Deep South. After inspecting the scenes of death and relentless labor, ambiguity washes over how you may read the movements of the musicians and dancers at the center of the painting. The central figure with a hoop earring throws her head back to the sky, arm tensed and locked to her partner. Together, their bodies may simultaneously suggest the movement of a dance and a painful cringe. Captured in gouache over graphite, the figures’ exact outlines and condensed form in this preparatory study match the precision laid down by Douglas’ compass. The artist confidently enlarged the study to over eleven feet wide at a time when the fear exposed by these silhouetted figures was still very

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real. Much of the virtue of Douglas’ Aspects of Negro Life: An Idyll of the Deep South lies in the circumstances in which he painted it—as an African American artist in Harlem in 1934, an accomplishment that speaks volumes about the evolution of the black experience in this country.

“…here was a city and here was a situation that was eventually to be the center for the great in american culture.”

– aaron douglas

The finished mural stretches across a wall of the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library in Harlem. Now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, this library was an integral part of the Harlem Renaissance as black

intellectuals and artists moved to the lively neighborhood following World War I. Harlem swelled with the energy of Alain Locke, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington and dozens more, including Douglas. Douglas immersed himself in a time and place that was synonymous with recognition of black achievements like never before in this country. In 1971, Douglas spoke of his early impressions of Harlem, “There are so many things that I had seen for the first time . . . from beginning to end you were impressed by the fact that black people were in charge of things and here was a city and here was a situation that was eventually to be the center for the great in American Culture.”2 As Harlem redefined what it meant to be black in America, Douglas propelled that conversation forward.

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iolently wrestling the Minotaur to the ground, Theseus, the mythical king of Athens, thrusts his blade into the head of the hybrid creature. According to ancient Greek mythology, Theseus killed the half-bull, half-man deep within the labyrinth on Crete, ending the sacrifice of youths from Athens. In the artist Jacques Lipchitz’s preliminary sketches on paper for Theseus (1942, fig. 2 and fig. 3), the tangled mass of limbs describes the struggle waiting to be rendered in bronze. The resulting sculpture, Theseus (1942, fig. 4), shows the hero clenching a dagger impossibly tight in this tense spectacle of aggression.

“we came to the harbor of new york… i can’t explain what kind of feeling i had. it was like i came from death to life.”

– jacques lipchitz

Lipchitz had retold ancient myths in his art prior to Theseus, but his own history gives a particular poignancy to the choice of this allegory. Born in Lithuania to a Jewish family, Lipchitz immigrated to France in 1909. Just over three decades later, with German forces advancing into Paris, Lipchitz and his wife, Berthe, fled to America.3 Initially, he thought of the journey as frightening and acted with much hesitancy, but in an interview near the end of his life he spoke of his arrival in (6)

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June 1941, “We came to the harbor of New York. I will never forget it. We were all on the deck. It was raining a little bit and there was the skyline of Manhattan. I can’t explain what kind of feeling I had. It was like I came from death to life.”4 Although the journey was strenuous, it was never a complete roadblock. Lipchitz continued to work throughout his relocation and immediately found a studio upon arrival in New York City. Just after settling in New York, he pulled the millennia-old myth of Theseus into his own contemporary era of turmoil. For the artist, Theseus represented “a metaphorical conception of his wish for the destruction of Hitler.”5 The rough modeling of the bronze lent itself to the issues at hand; aggression is inherent in the story, but Lipchitz’s sensibility with the material connects Theseus more clearly to the artist’s contemporary context.

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fig. 5

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asting a textured net of horizontal brushstrokes across the canvas, Isabel Bishop captures a moment of stillness in her oil painting Girl with a Newspaper (1946, fig. 5). A young woman wearing work-appropriate clothes stands with her newspaper unfolded, absorbed in reading. Her contrapposto pose firmly settles her onto an anonymous New York City sidewalk, which was often the stage for Bishop’s compositions.

Although Bishop depicts a personal moment of quietness, she was also interested in asserting the possibility of social movement. Two decades after painting Girl with a Newspaper, Bishop spoke of this potential to transcend class boundaries, “If [the subjects of the paintings] want to move into another class they can, and it’s that mobility that connected for me, something which I was absolutely focused on—the attempt to make forms which to the spectator were mobile or moveable, that could move.”6

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Just behind the figure’s unyielding stance, near the lower right corner of the painting, is the logo of the Bell Telephone Company. Missing from the preparatory etching (1945, fig. 6), it may have been added by Bishop as a nod to the company that employed telephone operators by the thousands, almost entirely women, in the early 1940s.

Although not paid equal wages, many women were granted newfound economic freedom through employment.

“if [the subjects of the paintings] want to move into another class they can, and it’s that mobility that connected for me.”

– isabel bishop

Advocated through iconic images such as Rosie the Riveter, an unprecedented number of women joined the American workforce in the 1940s. Social structures shifted rapidly in order to reconfigure the workforce after thousands of men were called upon for war efforts. The number of women working outside the home rose eleven percent in just the first half of the decade.7 The year before this painting was executed, World War II came to a close, sending home thousands of troops who expected to return to their pre-wartime jobs.

Observing these changes from her Fourteenth Street studio near Union Square, Bishop would often make sketches of women during their lunch break and walking to or from work.

By focusing on working women at a time when prejudices surrounded the subject, Bishop took a position on the matter.

Through subtle details, such as attire and inclusion of the logo, Bishop’s paintings like Girl with a Newspaper depict an increasing amount of mobility for women during a period of great change in this country.

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ntegral aspects of artists’ identities are often inherent in their work. These key elements may reveal themselves as tokens of struggle or evidence of persistence and accomplishment. This art reacts to the situation in which it was made, but it also pushes history. It can advocate on behalf of its maker as well as others by giving voice to those whose experiences are often underrepresented. Aaron Douglas, Jacques Lipchitz and Isabel Bishop each created art that in some way relates to their personal stories, but that also (10)

resonates more broadly to encompass the less frequently told narratives of many others. Tangible and valid testimonies of the artists’ own histories and their America, the art discussed within this essay serves as a reminder of the constant need to evaluate whether the richness and complexities of countless American experiences are acknowledged and preserved in order to reflect a fuller picture of our collective history and our America.

– issac logsdon Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellow, 2014 –2016

Notes:

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The term “strange fruit” was originally used in 1936 in a poem by the Bronx schoolteacher Abel Meeropol in response to a postcard bearing a photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abraham Smith in Marion, Indiana. The poem was later recorded and made popular by the jazz singer Billie Holliday.

Aaron Douglas, American (1899–1979). Study for Aspects of Negro Life: An Idyll of the Deep South (detail page 2), 1934. Gouache over pencil on artist board, 10 x 24 3/8 inches. Purchase: Nelson Trust through the gift of David C. and Thelma G. Driskell; the generosity of Jeannette Nichols, Gwyn Prentice and Andy Atterbury, Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield, Mary and Alan Atterbury, the Sosland Family, Adelaide C. Ward, G. Wesley Nedblake, J. Scott Francis, Nancy and Rick Green, Sherrill Mulhern, Ann and G. Kenneth Baum, Sandra and Willie Lawrence, Phyllis and Ron Nolan, Union Pacific Foundation, Ann Dickinson, Rose Bryant, and Barbara and Herman Jones; Clifton R. Mitchell Fund; bequest of Dorothy K. Rice; and exchange of the gifts and bequests of numerous donors, 2007.18. Art © Heirs of Aaron Douglas/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photo: Jamison Miller.

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2 Aaron Douglas, interview by Leslie M. Collins, July 16, 1971, Black Oral History Collection, Fisk University Franklin Library Special Collections, Nashville, Tennessee.

3 Lipchitz moved to Paris in 1909; attended the École des Beaux-Arts and Académie Julian from 1909 to 1910; became a French citizen in 1924; Nazis invaded Paris in 1940; fled Paris for Vichey, then later Toulouse in May of 1940; escaped Europe through Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon, arriving in New York on June 13, 1941; became a U.S. citizen in 1957.

[Conversations with Jacques Lipchitz.] Taped interview with Deborah Scott (New York: Jacques Lipchitz Art Foundation, 1968–70).

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5 Quoted in “Promethean Sculptor,” February 1979, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art curatorial files, Kansas City, Missouri.

John I. H. Baur, Isabel Bishop (Tucson: The University of Arizona Museum of Art, 1974), 23.

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Lois Banner, Women in America: A Brief History (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974), 202–3, 206.

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fig. 2 Jacques Lipchitz, American (b. Lithuania, 1891–1973). Study for Theseus, 1942. Ink, wash, and gouache on paper, 13 x 9 13/16 inches. Gift of Fine Arts Associates, 57-118. © Estate of Jacques Lipchitz, courtesy, Marlborough Gallery, New York. Photo: Robert Newcombe. fig. 3 Jacques Lipchitz, American (b. Lithuania, 1891–1973). Study for Theseus, 1942. Lithographic tusche and ink over graphite on paper, 15 3/8 x 12 7/8 inches. Gift of Mrs. Jane Wade in memory of Curt Valentin, 59-48/9. © Estate of Jacques Lipchitz, courtesy, Marlborough Gallery, New York. fig. 4 Jacques Lipchitz, American (b. Lithuania, 1891–1973). Theseus (detail page 2–3), 1942. Bronze, 24 1/2 x 28 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches. Gift of the Friends of Art, 57-98. © Estate of Jacques Lipchitz, courtesy, Marlborough Gallery, New York.

Photo: Jason Tracy. fig. 5

This essay was written in conjunction with the exhibition: American Art—In Preparation November 11, 2015–May 8, 2016 Curated by Issac Logsdon

Isabel Bishop, American (1902–1988). Girl with a Newspaper (detail, cover and page 3), 1946. Oil and tempera on Masonite, 24 3/4 x 15 1/8 inches. Bequest of Marie P. McCune, 68-8/2. Photo: Jamison Miller. fig. 6 Isabel Bishop, American (1902–1988). Study for Girl with Newspaper, 1945.

Etching, 38/50, 7 1/4 x 4 3/8 inches. Purchase: acquired through the Print Duplicate Fund and gift of Dr. and Mrs. Joseph F. Jacobs and the Woodcut Society, 87-17. Photo: Jamison Miller. fig. 7 Installation view of American Art—In Preparation. Photo: Jason Tracy.

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andrew w. mellon undergraduate curatorial fellowship program Established in 2013, The Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellowship Program aims to make a critical impact on American art museums by expanding the diversity of their curatorial staff. The program, which provides specialized training in the curatorial field for students across the United States from diverse backgrounds, is offered at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the following partnering institutions: The Art Institute of Chicago, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

andrew w. mellon foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation currently makes grants in five core program areas: Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities; Scholarly Communications; Arts and Cultural Heritage; International Higher Education and Strategic Projects; and Diversity. Within each of its core programs, the Foundation concentrates most of its grantmaking in a few areas. Institutions and programs receiving support are often leaders in fields of Foundation activity, but they may also be promising newcomers, or in a position to demonstrate new ways of overcoming obstacles to achieve program goals. Our grantmaking philosophy is to build, strengthen and sustain institutions and their core capacities, rather than be a source for narrowly defined projects. As such, we develop thoughtful, long-term collaborations with grant recipients and invest sufficient funds for an extended period to accomplish the purpose at hand and achieve meaningful results.

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