In Search of America: Art of the American Scene

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alt Whitman in I Hear America Singing, Sinclair Lewis in Main Street, Allen Ginsberg in Howl, Bob Dylan in The Times They Are A-Changin’ … all defining the American Scene. Painters in this country also worked to define the American Scene.

However, it seems that for several hundred years after the pilgrims set foot on this continent there was no truly American Art. There were artists who learned in France or Germany or England, and brought their academic influence to the United States. However, they were not interested in painting American scenes, but scenes with the look of European art.

American artists were good, but no equal to Veronese or John Constable or Edouard Manet. Europeans were great; Americans good. Early American collectors crossed the ocean and snatched up Old Masters, Renaissance painters, Georgian cartouches, Medieval tapestries, and Impressionist village scenes.

In every major city our philanthropists founded museums: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco. Examples of Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Medieval, Renaissance, and Impressionists were exhibition headliners. A city without a Rembrandt or a Cezanne was a city without pride.

And then we helped put an end to The Great War. Our soldiers came back humming George M. Cohan’s “Over There.” Suddenly “yanks” were proud of their music and their art. Following the First World War museums started to refer to American masters: Winslow Homer, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Thomas Eakins. Of the three only Eakins spent time studying abroad.

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Then, with the quiet of a Kansas thunderstorm came the great Midwestern triumvirate: John Steuart Curry, Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood.

Bang. Returning to the soil, local scenes and the nobility of physical labor, these painters lead the Nation through the Depression with a potency that is purely and simply American. Quickly the nation fell in love with its artists. The WPA and Roosevelt’s New Deal encouraged artists to work “in their own towns, in their own villages, in schoolhouses, in post offices, in the back rooms of shops and stores, pictures paintedbytheirsons,theirneighbors—peopletheyhave known and lived beside and talked to.”1 Lithographs, reproductions and originals could be found in many homes. Out of the heat of the Great Depression came New York painters Reginald Marsh, John Sloan and Isabel Bishop using the Scene format as a form of social protest..

Before World War II the scene tradition continued westward where regionalists Millard Sheets, Dan Lutz and Richard Haines carried the Scene banner.

Even in the modern era the work of Jacob Lawrence, Fairfield Porter, Andrew Wyeth and many others carry on the Scene tradition. Sullivan Goss has assembled a national view including a carnival scene in New York City by Cecil Bell, Midwestern WPA Post Office Mural sketches by Richard Haines, a view of Bunker Hill in Los Angeles by Dan Lutz (cover) and the work of many others. This exhibit also includes contemporary artists who choose to work in the Country’s native art – The American Scene Tradition.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the dedication of the National Gallery of Art, 1941

Ben Messick (1891-1981) • San Clemente Beach, circa 1948 • 19 x 27 inches • oil on canvas • signed lower right Cecil Bell (1906-1970) • The Amusement Park, circa 1957 • 22 x 28 inches • oil on artist’s board • signed lower right

Dorothy Sklar (1906-1996) Red Building at 1st and Boyle, 1944 13.75 x 20 inches watercolor on paper signed & dated lower left

Dorothy Sklar (1906-1996) The Tunnel, 1947 17 x 22.75 inches watercolor on paper signed & dated lower right

Ray Strong (b. 1905) Shanties and Shacks - North Coast, circa 1940s 21.5 x 27.5 inches oil on canvas signed lower left

OPPOSITE TOP: OPPOSITE BOTTOM: ABOVE: Richard Haines (1906-1984) Richard Haines (1906-1984) City of Many Nations - Morning, circa 1938 Big Business - Stock Market, circa 1938 9 x 16 inches 9 x 16 inches ink wash and graphite on artist’s board ink wash and graphite on artist’s board titled lower right - from the Estate titled lower right - from the Estate

Ben Messick (1891-1981) Olivera Street Scene, circa 1930 30 x 24 inches charcoal on paper signed upper right

Wayne LaCom (b. 1922) Desserted Farm, circa 1950s 24 x 36 inches oil on board signed lower right

Wayne LaCom (b. 1922) Gerome, Arizon, 1951 24 x 36 inches oil on board signed lower right

Emil Kosa Jr. (1903-1968) Near Malibu, 1944 24 x 36 inches oil on canvas signed & dated lower left

Don Freeman (1908-1978) Man Resting in Park, circa 1930s 15 x 20 inches gouache on board from the Estate

Douglass Parshall (1899-1990) Bicycle Race, 1949 20 x 30 inches oil on artist’s board signed lower left

Millard Sheets (1907-1989) Guaymus, Mexico, 1934 22 x 30 inches watercolor on paper signed & dated lower right

R. Kenton Nelson (b. 1955) One Way, n.d.

24 x 12 inches oil on panel signed lower left

Robin Gowen (b. 1957) On State Street, 2000 18 x 28 inches oil on canvas signed & dated lower right

Hank Pitcher (b. 1949) ‘68 John Deere 4020, 2004 15.875 x 37.5 inches oil on canvas signed

Jon Francis (b. 1940) Time For A Cool One, 2004 20 x 24 inches oil on canvas signed lower left & dated on reverse

Introducing American artist, Shiba Ward

TOP (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT):

Farmer’s Market Series, 2004 6 x 8 inches, 9.5 x 6 inches, 7 x 7 inches, 6 x 7.5 inches, 6 x 8 inches oil on panel Union Station Series, 2004 6 x 8 inches each oil on panel

In Search

of

America

-ART OF THE AMERICAN SCENE -

ON EXHIBIT

August 19 - September 29 1266 COAST VILLAGE ROAD • MONTECITO, CA • (805) 969-5112

FEATURED ARTISTS:

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Anders Gustave Aldrin • Cecil Bell • Harry Carmean • Jon Francis • Don Freeman • Robin Gowen Richard Haines • Emil Kosa, Jr. • Wayne LaCom • Betty Lane • Dan Lutz • Larry McAdams • Ben Messick • R. Kenton Nelson • Douglass Parshall • Angela Perko • Hank Pitcher • Millard Sheets Dorothy Sklar • Sally Storch • Ray Strong • Ray Turner • Shiba Ward • Milford Zornes

Sullivan Goss - An American Gallery 1266 Coast Village Road Montecito, CA 93108

TO LEARN MORE, PLEASE VISIT US ON THE WEB www.sullivangoss.com/exhibits/american_scene.asp

COVER: Dan Lutz (1906-1978) • First Street Filling Station (detail), circa 1937 • 30 x 24 inches • oil on canvas

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