coming April 2022- News from Rockport Art Assoc. & Museum –
Rockport Art Association & Museum’s Experimental Group Opens Seventeenth Show
The Rockport Art Association & Museum’s Experimental Group opens its seventeenth group exhibition, “Unexpected No. Seventeen” at Jane Deering Gallery, 19 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA 01930. Works on view in the exhibition range in medium to include paintings, mixed-media, graphics, sculpture, digital art and photography. The exhibition runs from April 2 through April 30. Gallery hours are Friday and Saturday 1 to 5 pm and Sunday 1 to 4 pm or by appointment at 978.886.4582.
The Experimental Group is a creative forum, its’ main mission is to increase public awareness and to foster self-expression by bringing artists together to explore and share ideas that cultivate creative freedom. The EG is encouraged and supported by the Rockport Art Association & Museum.
If you would like more information about the exhibition, would like to schedule an interview and a walk through, or need additional promotional images please contact: Nella Lush, Experimental Group Chair, 978.886.4582 or via email at experimentalgroupraa@gmail.com
The Rockport Art Association & Museum (RAA&M) is one of the oldest and most active art organizations in the country. The Association has a long and distinguished history that has spanned 100 years.
Donna Caselden shares save the date for an upcoming event in Rockport:
Experimental group of Rockport Art Association and Museum (RAAM) kicks off the year with a presentation from respected gallery owner and activist, Paula Estey.
“The Personal is Political: Art and Activism 2020” A presentation through Estey’s professional journey from Gallery owner to community activist. We’ll talk about things like our creative responsibility as artists for truth; how to avoid burnout or comparison; how to maintain an ethic of beauty in the face of challenges, and the artist’s personal paths to activism. Artists can be effective catalysts for conscious change. This exciting talk is free and open to the public! All are welcome!
Paula Estey (Abbreviated) Bio ~ Paula Estey (pictured here with her son) has been an art warrior from birth, through poetry, painting, performance and now as the founder of Paula Estey Gallery: A Center for Art and Activism, celebrating six years in 2020. Paula has curated meaningful contemporary fine art exhibits addressing environmental and other social justice topics. In 2017, Estey founded The Women in Action Huddle of Greater Newburyport,. a support and activism group with more than 250 members working on initiatives serving the environmental crisis in our communities and region. For more info: www.paulaesteygallery.com
courtesy photo Paula Estey (with son)
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Ray Cahill, Trustee, Awesome Rockport, thanks Joey Good Morning Gloucester for all its community help, and shares this opportunity:
PUBLIC CALL TO ARTISTS
Awesome Rockport is seeking proposals from local artists to create a permanent mural on a wall downtown in Rockport’s Cultural District. A $1500 grant will be given to the winner to help complete the work. We’re partnering with Rockport Music (the owner of the wall), the Rockport Art Association and the Rockport Public Library to bring this project to life. Spread the word! One sheet printable PDF here: Awesome Rockport Mural RFP
The Rockport Art Association & Museum invites artists to enter this exhibit to celebrate non-juried artist members of RAA&M. Artists need not be members of RAA&M but may be contributing members.This is an opportunity to show artwork that celebrates the diversity of the Creative Community about us.This exhibit will be juried using digital images (jpgs) submitted/ uploaded, by individual artists, during the May 15- June 15 submission period onto http://client.smarterentry.com/RAAM website. There is a link on the Rockport Art Association & Museum website.
IMPORTANT DATES
Exhibit online submission starts: May 15, 2019
Deadline for online entries: June 15, 2019
Notice of acceptance: June 21, 2019
Juried in drop off: Wednesday July 10, 2019 10-4P.M.
Exhibit opens: Saturday July 13, 2019
Exhibit closes: Monday August 5, 2019
Pick-up: Tuesday August 6, 2019 10-4P.M.
Work that has been juried into the exhibit should be hand delivered to The Rockport Art Association & Museum on the given date and time indicated when acceptance email is sent out.
SUBMISSION CRITERIA AND CONTENT
Entries must be original. Once artwork is submitted, it may not be withdrawn by the artist. All artwork must remain hanging until the end of the exhibit unless sold.
LOCATION
The Martha Moore Gallery, upstairs in The Rockport Art Association & Museum 12 Main Street Rockport MA 01966
ARTWORK FORMAT, PRESENTATION & SIZE REQUIREMENTS
Artwork submissions are limited to 3 artworks per artist in the following media: drawing, mixed media, collage, photography, painting, digital art and sculpture. Maximum size is 18×22” including the frame. All works on paper must be matted, framed and covered with glass or Plexiglas. Frames must be in good condition. Entries must be dry, properly prepared for exhibition and properly wired for hanging.The wire and eye screws must not show when the artwork is hung. Gallery wrapped canvas does not require framing unless the edges are unfinished. Maximum weight per hanging piece is 5 lbs.
ENTRIES & FEES
Up to 3 entries: $35.00.
A sales commission of 40% based on original price will be taken by RAA&M when a work sells during the exhibit. Fees are non-refundable. There is no guarantee of acceptance into the exhibit.
FORMAT FOR DIGITAL IMAGES (JPGS) AND HOW TO SEND THEM
All entries must be submitted in a digital JPEG format, either cropped to remove background or on a black background without a mat or frame. Photos of the artwork should not be taken through glass or Plexiglas. Image quality is critical: Poor photography and presentation may affect acceptance by the juror.The digital image must be representative of the painting.
RELEASE OF LIABILITY
By entering “Grass Roots: Emerging Artists”, the artist acknowledges that all reasonable care will be taken to safeguard the artwork(s) and the premises and said person accepts that RAA&M and its agents, directors, officers and volunteers will not be responsible for any damage, injury, liability loss or theft should any occur. Insurance for artwork entered in this exhibit is each individual artist’s responsibility.
REPRODUCTION OF ARTWORK
Any artwork entered in this exhibit may be reproduced for advertising, marketing, and promotional purposes for “Grass Roots: Emerging Artists” or future exhibits without consent from or notification to the artist or the artist’s agent.
SALES
All artwork should be for sale. Prices cannot be changed from those stated at submission. RAA&M will receive a 40% commission on any and all sales from the exhibit or as a result of the exhibit. The artist will receive 60%. Artists should expect payment within 4 weeks after the close of the exhibit. All sales are final.
PROMOTION OF THE EXHIBIT
Promotion will be handled by theRAA&M, but we welcome artists promoting the exhibit as well.
1951 notice indicates AAA show and artist’s studio in Carnegie Hall in NY and Bradford building in Gloucester, Mass.
The Art of Winslow Wilson & Pico Miran: Two Artists – One Life
June 8 – July 8, 2019
Rockport Art Association and Museum
12 Main Street, Rockport, MA
There are about forty Winslow Wilson (1892-1974) paintings in the exhibit and a new catalogue. I look foward to considering his work in person.
Back in February 2017, I wrote about Wilson/Miran in response to a GMG query from the artist’s granddaughter, Claudia Wilson-Howard, and her painstaking research and writing about his mysterious life and forgotten art, and filled in more context. Her excellent work is the genesis for the museum show and rediscovery of the artist. Wilson was a member and teacher at the Rockport Art Association. For local readers, Claudia’s online catalogue about his work www.winslowwilson.com helpfully provides some Gloucester addresses associated with Wilson.
June 21, 1951: Bradford Building, 209 Main Room 208, Gloucester, MA
August 1, 1951: Marine Basin, E. Gloucester, MA
June 18, 1952: Bradford Building, 209 Main Room 208, Gloucester, MA
July 26, 1955: Bradford Building, 209 Main Room 208, Gloucester, MA
1967 maybe 195 Main Street, Gloucester, MA
1969 maybe 195 Main Street, Gloucester, MA
June 2, 1971: PO. Box 414, Gloucester, MA
I added these: 21 Est 15th Street, 154 East 39th Street, Carnegie Hall, 3 Washington Square North in Greenwich Village, Woodstock, N.Y., and Lime Rock, CT.
page from Gloucester’s annual “Cape Ann Festival for the Arts” 1954. Artist Margaret Fitzhugh Brown selected his work for her group.
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Cape Ann Plein Air 2018 is winding down. There’s still time to see examples from the 2018 season at North Shore Art Association and Rockport Art Association Museum tomorrow. (Though keep in mind some work will have been removed from the walls as Cape Ann Plein Air artists head back home from Cape Ann and/or sales.)
NEAL HUGHES Dream Boat Nocturne takes home 1st Place Cape Ann Plein Air 2018
Rockport Art Association Museum
Quick Draw and members’ show:
evolution of Jason Burroughs Quick Draw – earned recognition at Cape Ann Plein Air 2018 at Rockport Art Assoc & Museum
Scenes from North Shore Arts Association
Cape Ann Plein Air
DON STONE studio showroom North Shore Arts
North Shore Arts NSAA Exhibition IV 2018
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Jason Burroughs before Cape Ann Plein Air 2018 quick draw competition. More than one hundred artists participated and they had two hours to complete. See the results at Rockport Art Association today. North Shore Art Assocation Cape Ann Plein Air exhibition is today as well.
Sunday, October 14:
Quick Draw paintings exhibit & sale at Rockport Art Association and Museum from 1-5 pm. Music, food and art. Prizes will be awarded. OPEN and FREE to the PUBLIC.
Sunday, from 10 am-5 pm, CAPA art exhibit and sale continues at North Shore Arts Association OPEN and FREE to the PUBLIC
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What: Unexpected No. 9 Exhibit
Where: Rockport Art Association & Museum, 12 Main Street, Rockport, MA
When: Sept. 29-October 13, 2018, Reception Sunday Sept 30, 2-4pm
Info: www.experimentalartgroup.com
Rockport Art Association & Museum’s Experimental Group Opens Ninth Show
The Rockport Art Association & Museum’s Experimental Group opens its ninth group exhibition, “Unexpected No. Nine” at Rockport Art Association & Museum, 12 Main Street, Rockport, MA, 978.546.6604. This juried show features artworks of both the RAA&M’s artists and contributing members. Works on view in the exhibition range in medium to include paintings, mixed-media, graphics, sculpture, digital art and photography. The exhibition runs from September 29 through October 13, with an Artist Reception on Sunday, September 30 from 2-4 pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 1-5 pm or by appointment. Closed Monday.
The Experimental Group is a creative forum, its main mission is to increase public awareness and to foster self-expression by bringing artists together to explore and share ideas that cultivate creative freedom. The EG is encouraged and supported by the Rockport Art Association & Museum.
If you would like more information about the exhibition, would like to schedule an interview and a walk through, or need additional promotional images please contact: Nella Lush, Experimental Group, Chair, 978.886.4582 or via email experimentalgroupraa@gmail.com
The Rockport Art Association & Museum (RAA&M) is one of the oldest and most active art organizations in the country. The Association has a long and distinguished history that has spanned 96 years.
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Additionally Sherri Casey from the Rockport Garden Club writes: All RGC members and guests are welcome to attend our July 9 evening meeting at the Rockport Art Association. This should be a beautiful, informative talk by Kim Smith titled, “Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly.” The evening starts at 6:00 with a wine and cheese reception followed by Kim’s presentation. If you would like to attend but do not drive at night we can arrange for a ride. Please contact Sherri Casey.
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Cape Ann Museum’s special exhibition of works by artist and illustrator Harrison Cady (1877–1970)
Affectionately known to many as the bug painter, Harrison Cady (1877–1970) was a much loved member of Cape Ann’s summer art colony throughout the 20th century. A prolific illustrator, a printmaker and a painter, Cady was one of the last links to our nation’s Golden Age of Illustration, a distinction he earned through his long collaboration with writer Thornton Burgess. View from the Headlands, a special exhibition of works by artist and illustrator Harrison Cady (1877-1970) will open at the Cape Ann Museum on July 7, 2018, and remain on display through October 28, 2018.
Cady began his 70-year career as an illustrator with the Brooklyn Eagle and later worked for numerous popular American publications, including Life magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal, the Saturday Evening Post, and Good Housekeeping. His syndicated comic strip “Peter Rabbit” ran in the New York Herald Tribune for 28 years.
A frequent visitor to Rockport, Massachusetts, Cady made it his permanent summer home in 1920, purchasing a seafront property known as “The Headlands.” With his studio “the Silo” located nearby, Cady shifted his focus to painting landscapes and harbor scenes. Cady was an early member of the Rockport Art Association, founded in 1921.
View from the Headlands draws on public and private collections throughout the region with examples of Cady’s early magazine illustrations, his work with writer Thornton W. Burgess, and his later landscape paintings. The exhibition reflects the Cape Ann Museum’s commitment to preserving and presenting work that celebrates the area’s culture and history.
Harrison Cady (1877–1970). Lane’s Cove, c.1930s. Oil on board. The James Collection, promised gift to the Cape Ann Museum.
Walter Harrison Cady was born and raised in Gardner, Massachusetts, and headed to New York City at eighteen. The successful artist eventually had an eight room studio in the Sixty Seventh Studios building at 27 West 67, NYC. The Cadys purchased a summer house and studio on Atlantic Avenue in Rockport (see photos above). In addition to this exciting and rare chance to see original work by Cady at Cape Ann Museum, there is a new book celebrating Cady’s art currently in production: Madness in Crowds: The Teeming Mind of Harrison Cady. Cady had long ties with the Rockport Art Association and local artists. Cady’s work is in the collection of the Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and various private collections and institutions. The Archives of American Art has a gifted collection of Harrison Cady (sketchbooks, correspondence, estate papers digitized. How fantastic that work will be acquired by the Cape Ann Museum.
photos below: Harrison Cady sketchbook, ca. 1943. Harrison Cady papers, 1902-2002. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Library of Congress
Life Magazine, Volume 62, number 1616, page 658 (1913-10-16) Savannah College of Art and Design
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If you haven’t seen the series of five murals painted circa 1945 by fine artist and muralist, Larry O’Toole (1909-1951), that were rescued and installed (decades ago) at O’Maley Innovation Middle School, perhaps you’ve noticed a poster of his brilliant pictorial map around Cape Ann.
O’Toole published editions of the map in 1947 and 1948. Reproductions of “A Salty Map of Cape Ann: Gloucester-Magnolia-Rockport-Pigeon Cove-Lanesville-Bay View-Annisquam” the 1948 blue version are available at Cape Ann Museum shop. The delightful map includes inventive and intricate details and local nods: a shout out to Ben Pine’s* wharf, “All maps like this have a sea serpent;” schooners like the Henry Ford and Gertrude Thebaud (again Pine); historic sites and characteristic scenes not to miss “Artists and Seagulls”; and upcoming landmarks to look forward to like the Annisquam Bridge slated for completion in 1950. The numbered border framing elements could have been inspired by Virginia Lee Burton.close up zoomable map (sold) can be found here
Ben Pine office, 1941, Howard Liberman FSA/OWI photograph
Ben Pine* portrait by FSA/OWI photographer, Howard Liberman, titled “Gloucester, Massachusetts. Capt. Ben Pine, the man who raced the schooner “Gertrude Thebaud” against the Canadian schooner “Blue Nose” for the fisherman’s trophy, is one of the three men who made Gloucester. The others were Tom Carrol and Ray Adams.” (author’s note: Ray Adams was a gal so the compliment is for two men and one woman…).
Art can be seen on the walls throughout the Gloucester Mariner’s Association in Howard Liberman’s faint photos from 1941. I’m looking for more interior shots. Some of the art could be O’Toole’s, who completed commissions for Pine.
Carved fish models at the Gloucester’s Mariners Association (Fishermen’s Institute)
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PRESS RELEASE What: Unexpected No. 8 Exhibit – www.experimentalartgroup.com featuring Rockport Art Association & Museum artists and contributing members
When: April 2-April 30, 2018 Reception Saturday April 7, 5-7 pm Where: NOTE VENUE Rockport Art Association & Museum’s Experimental group show at Charles Fine Art Gallery in Gloucester, 196 Main Street, Gloucester, MA
The Rockport Art Association & Museum’s Experimental Group opens its eighth group exhibition, “Unexpected No. Eight” at Charles Fine Arts Gallery, 196 Main Street, Gloucester, MA 978.559.7762. This juried show features artworks of both the RAA&M’s artists and contributing members. Works on view in the exhibition range in medium to include paintings, mixed-media, graphics, sculpture and photography. The exhibition runs from April 2 through April 30, with an Artist Reception on Saturday, April 7 from 5-7 pm. There will also be a gallery talk by Jeff Grassie held on April 12 at 7pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 1-5 pm or by appointment. Closed Monday.
The Experimental Group is a creative forum, its main mission is to increase public awareness and to foster self-expression by bringing artists together to explore and share ideas that cultivate creative freedom. The EG is encouraged and supported by the Rockport Art Association & Museum.
If you would like more information about the exhibition, would like to schedule an interview and a walk through, or need additional promotional images please contact: Nella Lush, Experimental Group, Chair, 978.886.4582 or via email experimentalgroupraa@gmail.com
Rockport Art Association & Museum, 12 Main Street, Rockport, MA 01930 (RAA&M) is one of the oldest and most active art organizations in the country. The Association has a long and distinguished history that has spanned 96 years.
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Last chance to catch the Steve Howard photography exhibition, December 2017, at Matz Gallery, Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Library, Gloucester, MA. Howard resides in Gloucester and is an exhibiting member of the Rockport Art Association.
Annisquam Sewing Circle Christmas Fair, Satuday Dec 2 ONLY 8am-noon
Rockport Art Association –Cape Ann Artisans Dec 1 (4-9) & Dec 2 (10-5)
Rocky Neck 2017 Annual Holiday Show at the Cultural Center weekends through December 10th
Rocky Neck 2017 Holiday Show
“December in November–Giving the Gift of Art” Rocky Neck Art Colony members’ fine art and crafts sale, through December 10th, OPEN Fridays 5-8pm, Saturdays and Sundays 10AM-4PM. Downstairs is a beautiful John Nesta tribute.
photo caption: Orginal watercolor painting, Birch on the Neck, by Deb Schradieck, booth at the Rocky Neck Art Colony 2017 Annual Holiday members show
Don’t miss Mary Rhinelander
Installation 2017 Rocky Neck holiday exhibition and MCC cultural visit
DEB
RUTH MORDECAI
RICHARD HONAN
JOHN NESTA tribute Rocky Neck
JOHN NESTA small tribute exhibit
Rockport Art Association
Rockport Art Association
Jonathan Hotz exhibit at the Rockport Art Association
Jonathan Hotz Country Lane, solo exhibition at the Rockport Art Assoc
Rockport Art Association members’ photography group exhibition Installation Stow Wengenroth Gallery Rockport Art Association
Law Hamilton, On approach Floating Box Series, photograph archival ink jet print, Rockport Art Association,
Janice Koskey Proud Egret color photo Rockport Art Association group exhibition
Ray Crane, The Inner Harbor Gloucester, group show, Rockport Art Association
Janet Wolahan, Trawler Gloucester, oil on canvas, New Members group exhibition Rockport Art Association
Tom Amend, Abrupt Transition, Oil on linen, new members group exhibition, Rockport Art Assocaition
Dennis Poirier, on the Waterfront, acrylic on panel, 7 x 5, Rockport Art Association
Deborah Babson Boulders( “Courage”), etching with hand coloring from an edition of 50, Rockport Art Association
Deborah Babson Boulders #3 ( Work), etching with hand coloring from an edition of 50, Rockport Art Association
Rockport Art Association group exhibition
Scott Tubby, New Moon, oil, Rockport Art Association
Nancy E Davis, Wayward Path, oil, “Polly Thayer Starr Award for Excellence in any Medium”, Rockport Art Association & Museum
TWO DAYS ONLY Cape Ann Artisans at the Rockport Art Association Friday December 1 and Saturday December 2nd (10-5). Cape Ann Artisans has also announced their special 2018 Cape Ann Artisan tour dates- June 2nd and 3rd and Oct 6-8
Annisquam Sewing Circle Christmas Fair
Sat Dec 2nd 8am-noon, 34 Leonard Street, Gloucester, MA 01930
Beautiful Wreaths to decorate your Home
Potted plants and bulbs to Give or to Keep
Elegant Table Arrangements
Gourmet Foods for your Guests and Family
Exquisite Hand-crafted Gift Items
$3 Grabs for Mom, Dad and your Favorite Pets wrapped and ready to go!
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Granddaughter Claudia Wilson-Howard writes Good Morning Gloucester seeking any information, biographical “tidbits”, or recollections about fine artist Winslow Wilson who resided in Gloucester and had studios in Gloucester and Rockport ca. 1946-1972.She is working on an excellent project: a digital resource about her grandfather.
“I am the granddaughter of Winslow Wilson,” she writes, “an artist who spent most of his life on Cape Ann, painting under two names in two studios. One studio, in Gloucester, the second in Rockport, and a member of the Rockport Art Association from 1946-1972, he was an active member of the art community. I have developed a website (www.winslowwilson.com), which is a work in progress. I am attempting to develop as detailed a biography as possible, and was hoping …to reach out to the community to help gather any tidbit of information. Thank you very much!”
Arthur William “Winslow” “Tex” Wilson, also known as Pico Miran was an American artist–primarily a painter– born on July 20, 1892 in Brady, Texas. His family moved to Junction, TX, where he graduated from high school, also the address he used while attending Harvard. Wilson was a veteran of the First World War (National Guard, AEF) deployed to France 1918-1919. He died November 18, 1974 in Miami, FLA.
At Harvard
Wilson transferred from Texas A&M University to Harvard. Roy Follett his professor at Texas A&M described Wilson’s impact on him as “atomic”, possessed with a creative intellect that surpassed the teacher’s. And then the unthinkable…
For Wilson, life changed punishingly July 4, 1912 as he accidentally and horrifically killed his fellow undergrad, a friend and co-worker Merle DeWitt Britten on the job, driving the streetcar that crushed him. Wilson left Harvard, then came back. He skipped classes. At times he soared. He was a writer and editor of The Harvard Monthly literary magazine with an impressive group of multi talented peers and friends: ee cummings; John Dos Passos; critic Gilbert Seldes; poet (Pulitzer prize winner) Robert Hillyer; poet (later Director MA Historical Society) R. Stewart Mitchell; Scofield Thayer*; and James Sibley Watson*.
Arthur Wilson undergraduate writing published in The Harvard Montly
The Harvard Monthly was founded in 1885 and ceased publication in 1917, its aim “to publish the best (undergraduate) articles, fiction and verse by students in the University.” The words “and verse” were added after E.E. Cummings gave their class commencement speech in 1915 on “The New Art” extolling contemporary expressions in music, the visual arts, and literature. “What really brought down the house was Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons,” he’d later say about this bit in the speech:
“unquestionably a proof of great imagination on the part of the authoress, as anyone who tries to imitate her work will discover for himself. Here we see traces of realism, similar to those which made the “Nude Descending a Staircase” so baffling. As far as these “Tender Buttons” are concerned, the sum and substance of criticism is impossible. The unparalleled familiarity of the medium precludes its use for the purpose of aesthetic effect. And here, in their logical conclusion, impressionistic tendencies are reduced to absurdity. The question now arises, how much of all this is really Art? The answer is: we do not know. The great men of the future will most certainly profit by the experimentation of the present period. An insight into the unbroken chain of artistic development during the last half century disproves the theory that modernism is without foundation; rather we are concerned with a natural unfolding of sound tendencies. That the conclusion is, in a particular case, absurdity, does not in any way impair the value of the experiment, so long as we are dealing with sincere effort. The New Art, maligned though it may be by fakirs and fanatics, will appear in its essential spirit to the unprejudiced critic as a courageous and genuine exploration of untrodden ways…how much of all this is really Art? The answer is: we do not know. The great men of the future will most certainly profit by the experimentation of the present period.” – ee cummings 1915
ee cummings portrait of Thayer, printed in the Dial
*The Dial was founded by James Sibley Watson and Scofield Thayer. Emily Sibley Watson, Founder of Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester was friends with Marianne Moore
1917 NYC apartment with Cummings
Wilson and e.e. cummings (1884-1962) were roommates at Harvard, friends who hit the town. (There’s one story with them caught at a prostitute’s apartment.) They remained friends enough to room together more and carouse Greenwich Village. Thanks to $1000 from Thayer, Cummings joined Wilson in New York at 21 East 15th Street in 1917.
There are striking parallels, comparisons, and secrets in the lives they led. Both men were artists and writers that had tragic and shattering life experiences, and estranged and scandalous family stories.
According to Virginia Spencer Carr‘s 1984 biography of John Dos Passos, Dos Passos envied these two: “Wilson was already signing his paintings (when he signed them at all) “Winslow Wilson” and Dos Passos surmised (when?) that he would be recognized eventually for his stunning portraits and seascapes. He was convinced that Cummings was too assured a reputation as a painter and saw Dudley Poore as the best poet of the lot from Harvard who aspired to a career in letters.”
All three enlisted in WW1. Cummings signed up for the volunteer ambulance corp along with Harvard chums Hillyer and Dos Passos. Cummings ended up a POW and wrote a novel about the experience, The Enormous Room. Cummings said he was a self-taught painter, helped along by friends from Harvard. Did he sign up for classes in New York? Where did Wilson study art in New York before WW1?
(Incidentally, Gertrude Stein was also a volunteer camion; it seems like a ‘who wasn’t?’ roster. The majority of the 3500+ drivers came from ivy league schools, especially Harvard. The American Field Service (AFS) ambulance unit grew to be the largest and was founded by Gloucester’s own A. Piatt Andrew in 1915, after helping out the year before.)
1920s
After the War, Wilson was in New York and abroad in Paris, and London (infamously). There was a blink of a marriage and divorce from Elizabeth Brice, and a daughter Caroline, a dancer, that he never saw again. At 34, Wilson and his 19 year old girlfriend Winifred Brown abandoned a baby. It was an international scandal. Wilson’s family stepped up and his brother Ernest raised the boy as his own. It was four decades before the baby learned about his biological parents. I know these wincing details because that boy, H Robert Wilson, is a good writer and did the research.
Arthur Wilson signed his paintings as “Winslow” Wilson, which fits as a wink at Homer. Seascapes as a subject. Private solitary life. It also works as a visual swapping out of “Tex” for East Coast “Winslow”. The initials become double letters (like e.e. cummings), and nearly a double name, minus one letter and there’s an anagram of Wilson. It’s even a way to differentiate his name ‘Arthur Wilson’ from other artists and writers with the same name(s), initials (AW or the comic Aww), and friends. Winslow Wilson is decidedly not Edmund Wilson (though like many writers he credits “nearly everything” about his sources of style as a painter to him), artist Edward Arthur Wilson, artist Arthur Wilson (UK), artist Arthur Wilson (LA), artist Edward Adrian Wilson, to name a few.
Mostly, Wilson using “Winslow” seems a deliberate break from his traumatic past: living with the death of his friend, letting his family down, fighting in WW1, divorce, scandal, family secrets, and that difficult ee cummings portrait poem about him.
ca. 1922 ee cummings poem ‘Arthur Wilson’
E.E. Cummings poem “Three Portraits” (I. Pianist II. Caritas III. Arthur Wilson) is published in the modernist magazine the Broom: An International Magazine of the Arts, Volume 2, Number 4, July 1922. Founded and backed not nearly enough by Harold Loeb and Alfred Kreymborg, the Broompublication was a short lived (1921-24) modernist monthly featuring “unknown, path-breaking” writers and artists (reproductions, original designs, translations). The cummings poem ‘Arthur Wilson’ was illustrated with woodcuts by Ladislaw Medgyes. The issue’s cover design was by Fernard Leger;
Cover design by Fernard Leger, Broom, Volume 2 No. 4, July 1922
Picasso, Modigliani and William Gropper drawings were reproduced inside.
The text for III. Arthur Wilson follows (refer to the image for the visual spatial break in cummings prose).
III. Arthur Wilson as usual i did not find him in cafes, the more dissolute atmosphere of a street superimposing a numbing imperfectness upon such peri- grinations as twilight spontaneously by inevitable tiredness of flang- ing shop-girls impersonally affords furnished a soft first clue to his innumerable whereabouts violet logic of annihilation demon- strating from woolworthian pinnacle a capable millenium of faces meshing with my curiously instant appreciation exposed his hiber- native contours, aimable immensity impeccably extending the courtesy of five o’clock became the omen of his prescience it was spring by the way in the soiled canary-cage of largest existence.
(when he would extemporise the innovation of muscularity upon the most crimson assistance of my comforter a click of deciding glory inflicted to the negative silence that primeval exposure whose elec- tric solidity remembers some accurately profuse scratchings in a recently discovered cave, the carouse of geometrical putrescence whereto my invariably commendable room had been forever subject his Earliest word wheeled out on the sunny dump of oblivion)
a tiny dust finely arising at the integration of my soul i coughed
, naturally.
-E.E. Cummings
Like The Harvard Monthly and The Dial, Broom contributors were or would become recognized luminaries: Sherwood Anderson, Guillaume Apollinaire, Hans Arp, Conrad Aiken, Kenneth Burke, Robert M Coates, Jean Cocteau, Malcolm Cowley, Hart Crane, Adolph Dehn, Andre Derain, Raoul Dufy, Paul Eldridge, T S Eliot, Wanda Gag, Robert Graves, Juan Gris, William Gropper, George Grosz, Rockwell Kent, Paul Klee, Fernand Leger, Lipchitz, El Lissitzky, Amy Lowell, Louis Lozowick, Marianne Moore, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Mondigliani, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, ‘Charles Sheeler, Gertrude Stein, Joseph Stella, Wallace Stevens, Paul Strand, Max Weber, William Carlos Williams, and Virginia Woolf among other artists and writers.
It was a small world and circle. The Broom contributors likely read that ee cummings poem about Wilson, and several knew both men. Names carried over from the Harvard-Dial network (Amy Lowell, Marianne Moore).
EE Cummings published Part III in later editions by the title “as usual I did not find him in cafes” omitting Arthur Wilson’s name.
1924 e.e. cummings visits Gloucester
to see writer, friend and editor R. Stewart Mitchell (1892-1957) who had a home here. Stewart Mitchell was another Harvard alumni (1915) and former Harvard Monthly editor. His face inspired the nickname “The Great Auk”. How nice being friends with artist-writers.
After serving in WW1, Mitchell was a managing editor and regular contributor for The Dial from 1919-21, then published poet. From 1928-1937 he was Managing Editor of the New England Quarterly journal, and from 1929- 57 an editor and Director of the Massachusetts Historical Society. On the Ma Historical Society seal : “It would hardly have done to compare the members of the Society to oxen, sheep, or birds … but bees had always had a good reputation for the sweetness and light of their honey and their wax. “– 1949 Stewart Mitchell
Did Cummings and Arthur W. Wilson come to Gloucester while attending Harvard or at other times in the 1920s to see Stewart? Was Cummings in Gloucester other years, decades? Did Wilson and Mitchell re-connect in Gloucester? John Sloan’s etching Frankie and Johnnie illustrates EE Cummings’ play HIM. Did Wilson interact with Stuart Davis in Gloucester or New York?
(Aside: In 1984 the play ViVa Cummings! opened in Gloucester under the direction of William Finlay and the New Stillington Players. Did they know Cummings had been here…)
1935
Wilson fails to update his Harvard alumni association requests. Here’s the 1935 entry:
1951 ELEANOR ROOSEVELT VISITS EXHIBIT AT AAA, NYC
Artist Winslow Wilson guiding Eleanor Roosevelt through his solo exhibition at Associated American Artists, June 4, 1951. Photograph from http://www.winslowwilson.com
Wilson’s painting from the 1951 Contemporary American Artists exhibition at the Associated American Artists won the people’s choice award, and his solo exhibit in June was attended and written about by Eleanor Roosevelt in her nationally syndicated MY DAY column:
HYDE PARK, Sunday—At lunch last Friday I had a visit from Mr. Tatsukichiro Horikawa, who is over here from Japan on a trip studying the World Federation movement in different countries. He has visited Switzerland, Germany, France and England, as well as the United States, and he came to see me before in New York City; but he wishes particularly to come up to Hyde Park and place some flowers on my husband’s grave.
I was especially interested in talking to him because, like so many of the World Federalists, he felt that the United Nations was very inadequate. He felt one must bring about more unity—and particularly, if we were going to have any settlements in the Far East, there must be unity between Great Britain and the United States as well as the other nations in their policy.
I asked him if he did not think it was a good deal to expect to have a unified policy among 60 nations when the organization bringing them together had been in existence only six years. It seems to me it requires longer for people to understand how the other peoples think and feel. World federation might someday be possible, but not until people have had a greater length of time to find out about each other. One of the American World Federalist members had also written me saying that the federation must come first and then be followed by understanding. I think this begs the question of how you obtain the federation and how, having obtained it in name, you do anything practical with it.
In New York City on Thursday afternoon I went to see an exhibition of paintings of the sea done by Winslow Wilson, at the Associated American Artists Galleries on Fifth Avenue. This exhibition was arranged under the auspices of Greenwich House, toward whose support a portion of the proceeds of any sale will go.
Mr. Wilson told me he did not paint actually from a scene he was looking at, but from memory. He said he particularly liked to use the sea because it was to him a symbol of the stress and strife we were all going through at present; and still it had a kind of discipline and control which was what most human beings were striving for today and finding difficult of achievement. I found some of his paintings quite beautiful, and reminiscent of many seacoasts I have known. In certain ones the light made one think of tropical climates; in others the shores of Maine seemed to stand out. More often the sky and the sea were stormy, but the light was nearly always breaking through. Let us hope that out of this turbulent period of history the light will break through for all human beings.
The other day I was sent a little pamphlet written by Eloise R. Griffith on the national anthems and their origin. I think this will be of interest to a great many people who want to know a little more than the mere words of the songs which we hear sung so often.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
I am thunderstruck reading a portion of sales would benefit Greenwich House. Talk about an undercurrent.
1951 Post-Modern Manifesto in the same year as the AAA seascapes
“A complete study of Cummings should take penetrating account of his painting and drawing. And no estimate of his literary work can begin without noting the important fact that Cummings is a painter.” That’s the opener for Syrinx., a critique of Cummings by Gorham B. Munson published in Secession July 1923. “His first stimulus comes from the emotional and perceptive materials of his experience…Cummings has jabbed his pen into life, but he has also twisted it in the wound, and it is this twist of the pen that makes literature.”
Knowing ee cummings facility with visual arts transforms how his poems read. He identifies both pursuits. The press announcement for Cummings appointment at Harvard in 1952 affirmed that he resided in New York City, writing and painting since the year 1920. It wasn’t that he sculpted marks–‘scratchings’- that could be seen as pictures in print,–it’s this charge when visual art and writing advance toward or basically obliterate media boundaries.
After reading Wilson’s 1951 Manifesto For Post-Modern Art published under his pseudonym Pico Miran, I felt a similar tug. For Wilson, when it comes to ideas and individuality, words and paint –and as many names and identities to match– matter. Some of Wilson’s paintings could be shown alongside pages from ee cummings The Enormous Room.
There are takeaways and points one can make about this manifesto and painting series of Wilson. I can think of art I’d like to show together with this work.
Yikes, the thoughts about women! Here’s Wilson writing as Pico Miran in his Manifesto, emphasis on man apparently:
“But while he proposes to save the personal symbol, he must emphatically reject the conception of its privacy–a conception which he is compelled to regard as an effeminate misery: he cannot help thinking an almost unmanly exaggeration of the one bit of feminine make-up in every artist, here flouncing in absurd esthetic millinery, with coy desire for secretiveness, mysterious subjectivity, and vain feelings of cryptic superiority to the vulgar mass.”
1951 Hidden, not lost
Wilson evidently maintained some contacts; note the supportive reviews by friends (Moore, Burke, Wheelock) later reprinted for his 1957 solo exhibit at Vose Galleries in Boston. Edward Alden Jewel, the New York Times critic, described Wilson as “living a hidden life of pure dedication and drudgery” in his 1951 NYC AAA review.