Gertrude Greene: A Sense of Architectural Structure

Gertrude Greene - Construction - 1935 - Painted wood, board, and metal - 16 x 24" (40.6 x 61 cm) - Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (click photo for larger image)Gertrude Greene (1904-1956) was an abstract artist from New York, NY. Gertrude and her husband, artist Balcomb Greene, were heavily involved in political activism to promote mainstream acceptance of abstract art. They were founding members of the American Abstract Artists organization.

Greene was one of the earliest American artists, possibly the first, to produce non-objective relief sculptures in the early 1930s. She synthesized Cubist and Russian Constructivists themes into her work. By the 1940s, her work showed an interest in Mondrian and Neo-Plasticism. She produced her last sculpture in 1946. Although for the rest of her life Greene concentrated on abstract painting, her paintings embodied a "sense of architectural structure"

5 N.C. Wyeth: A Golden Age Illustrator

N.C. Wyeth - Tam on the Craig Face - oil on canvas - 86.4 x 63.5 cm (34.02" x 25”) - Private collection (click photo for larger image)N.C. (Newell Convers) Wyeth (1882-1945) was an American illustrator and muralist. Wyeth was raised on a farm, and he learned drafting and illustration in Boston before studying with the master illustrator Howard Pyle. 

During his career, Wyeth contributed his memorable illustrations to more than 100 books, including a famous series of children’s classicsTreasure Island, Kidnapped, King Arthur, Robin Hood, and The Black Arrow, among them. He also produced numerous murals in public buildings. N.C. was the teacher of his son, the painter Andrew Wyeth.

Preston Dickinson: A Fine Precisionist Lost Too Soon

Preston Dickinson - Industry - oil on canvas - 29 1/8 x 18 1/4 in. (74.0 x 46.5 cm) - Smithsonian American Art Museum (click photo for larger image)(William) Preston Dickinson (1889-1930) grew up in New York, where he worked as an office boy in a marine architect’s firm. One of the partners of the company was so impressed by the young boy’s sketches that he offered to pay for his tuition at the Art Students League.

Dickinson studied at the League for four years, then traveled to France, where he sketched at the Louvre and exhibited at the Salons. On his return to New York, he painted images of Manhattan and the Harlem River while selling socks door-to-door to support himself. 

Dickinson moved to Spain in 1930 but died a few months later from pneumonia, at the age of forty-one.

Alexander Calder: Father of the Mobile

Alexander Calder - Hollow Egg - 1939 - Wire and paint - 54 x 39 x 38 1/8 in. - The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (click photo for larger image)Alexander Calder (1898-1976) was an American artist best known for his innovation of the mobile—suspended sheet metal and wire assemblies, activated in space by air currents. Visually fascinating and emotionally engaging, these works—along with his monumental outdoor bolted sheet metal stabiles—make Calder one of the most-recognizable and beloved individuals among modern artists. 

Calder also made a smaller number of sculptures in the more-traditional materials of wood and bronze, created paintings in gouache (opaque watercolor), produced drawings (including illustrations for books), and fashioned designer jewelry. Quite a versatile artist!

Nancy Spero: Exploring the Experiences of Women

Nancy Spero - Untitled (Dancing Woman) - 1984 - Cut woodcut painted in brown in on Japanese paper - 43.8 x 32.4 cm (sheet) - Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (click photo for larger image)Nancy Spero (1926-2009) was an American artist who produced politically charged, highly symbolic figurative paintings and mixed-media works that reflected her feminist and political consciousness. She sometimes collaborated with her husband, painter Leon Golub (1922-2004). Spero’s works ranges from addressing extreme violence to the celebratory cycles of life—but they always embody social and cultural issues. Her most masterful works explore the experiences of women.