AMERICAN
MINING
PAINTINGS
AND WORKS ON PAPER, 1932 TO 1947
JUNE
4 -- 28, 2014
 |
| Fred Shane, Climax, Colorado, 1943-44 (A molybdenum mine) |
The paintings and works on
paper in this exhibition largely feature coalmines and miners of Pennsylvania
and West Virginia, as well as feldspar mining in North Carolina and a molybdenum mine in Climax, Colorado.
The earliest works in the show are by
Riva Helfond. Her future husband, Bill Barrett, was from the anthracite region
of northeastern Pennsylvania and her works of that area date from 1932.
In 1936 Harry Sternberg was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship to record American industry; the coalmines of
Pennsylvania were a focus of that project. Sternberg was an instructor at the
Art Students League in New York City. Helfond was in one of his classes and she
had entrée into the homes of miners. In the 1936-37 season Sternberg and a few
students would leave New York on Friday afternoons, drive to Pennsylvania, and
stay with a mining family. They would draw on Saturday and then head back to
the city on Sunday.
Will Barnet, Blanche Grambs, Mary
Sinclair (whose work in the show dates to 1934), and Charles Keller
(represented here by the Deer Park Mine, a source of feldspar in North Carolina),
all worked at the League. There are also pieces by Georges Schreiber and Ben
Shahn.
A number of the works in show are by
Michael J. Gallagher. From a mining family, Gallagher was the director of the
Philadelphia WPA Printmaking Project; Hugh Mesibov also worked at that shop.
Recently the Gallagher estate released a significant number of early prints,
including the iconic carborundum print Anthracite,
1939-40, that have not been on
the market in decades.
The
Fred Shane painting Climax, Colorado,
1943-44, refers to the site of an enormous molybdenum
mine still in operation. Molybdenum, a metal with an extremely high
melting point, is used in the production of steel.
HOURS: TUESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, 11 AM
TO 5 PM
