“Modern Dialect: American Paintings from the John and Susan Horseman Collection” includes more than 60 major American Scene paintings that illustrate the changes the United States underwent during that time period through the eyes of American artists who were often poor and out of work.
Clyde Singer, Barn Dance, 1938, oil on canvas, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens
SPRINGFIELD—An exhibition of “history through art” that illustrates American Modernism from the 1920s to the beginning of World War II will be on view in the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts through Feb. 24.
“Modern Dialect: American Paintings from the John and Susan Horseman Collection” includes more than 60 major American Scene paintings that illustrate the changes the United States underwent during that time period through the eyes of American artists who were often poor and out of work.
“It’s fascinating to see history through art,” said Julia Courtney, curator of art for the Springfield Museums, pointing out how even the color palette the artists used changed as they moved into the years of the Great Depression: The dark and gloomy mood “is palpable.”
According to John and Susan Horseman, the exhibit--organized by the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis--was assembled to reflect American “history and the important lessons that it continues to teach.”
Courtney noted that some people who will see the exhibit will not be familiar with images like people standing in line waiting for work. “It’s a profound lesson” to see such “primary documentation” of American history, she said.
Influenced by radical art movements taking hold in Europe at the time, the featured artists painted images ranging from urban laborers to Cubist-inspired abstractions and from fragmented rural landscapes to modern industrial cities and the people that inhabited them.
The exhibit illustrates the scope of the American modernist aesthetic and the vision and integrity each artist brought to the representation of the American experience.
Featured artists include William Sommer, Abraham Harriton, Clyde Singer, Louis Ribak, George Bellows, John Rogers Cox, Burgoyne Diller, Maurice Freedman, Marsden Hartley, Reginald Marsh, Charles Sheeler and Stuart Walker.
The exhibit complements the museum’s Early 20th Century American Collection that includes significant works by some of the same artists.
According to Courtney, the exhibit “reaches back into American history” yet “kind of parallels the present time” given the economic changes the country has undergone in recent years. “It looks back at similar times in American history in a visual way,” she said.
“This is quite remarkable in terms of what it conveys about American history and art history,” she continued, noting how things cycle and how America has struggled with its identity and rapid advancements that brought it from a rural, agricultural economy to an industrial economy.
The D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts is located on the Quadrangle at 21 Edwards St. in downtown Springfield; there is free, onsite parking.
Museum hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
General admission is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and college students,
$8 for children 3-17 and free for children under three and museum members. Springfield residents receive free general admission with proof of address.
Admission provides entrance to all five Springfield Museums.
For information, call (413) 263-6800 or visit www.springfieldmuseums.org.