tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90847157535739740352024-02-21T08:24:33.610-08:00Rob MeredithInvestigating the Origins of Art Teaching at DaltonRob Meredith • Sabbaticalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660249766884548862noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9084715753573974035.post-13032057841526861092010-05-30T06:40:00.000-07:002010-10-15T05:46:46.034-07:00Visiting The Parkhurst Archives in Stevens Point Wisconsin<div style="text-align: center;">
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmy8I-aRb6ahW207n3oR8rbzfE_nEodCJoUmy3onP6RRNn8ipt5A_9kw3wHn8xUDqbCCFB38YVIR02UcdWSh0I559ooGTJ-Epat7xH1kzJ-3nA54CnZhfQGqHd0-QxC0A6sggxyHif6fEk/s1600/Archipenko+at+Dalton+w.+Constance+Heiman+%2741s.jpg"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In May I made a trip to Helen Parkhurst’s Archives in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. The collection represents an eclectic combination of personal mementoes, awards, publications, mixed with personal writings and memorabilia such as diaries and scrapbooks.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There are copies of the </span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Education on the Dalton Plan,</span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> in several languages, as well as notebooks and manuscripts for future projects.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The archives found their way to Stevens Point as a gift of Parkhurst’s brother, Alden. Wisconsin was her birthplace and she taught in the Stevens Point Normal School from 1912 – 1915 before she left to go to California to work with Maria Montessori, where her gifts as an educator soon brought her to the position of Director of Maria Montessori’s schools in the United States. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In coming to the archives, I had hoped to discover communications between Parkhurst and some of the early art faculty that would help shed light on the role she wanted the arts to play within the Dalton program. However, nothing I found shed new light on this specific subject.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What did became clear, was a view of Helen Parkhurst herself. Here was a woman who completely committed her life and energy to exploring the way children learn, evolving educational practices to encourage developmental, intellectual and cultural growth in young people and the dissemination of her ideas. Her independent travels around the world were striking for a woman in those early years of the 20</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Century. She was the first woman educator to be welcomed to China in 1924 and throughout the world, spoke publicly to learned groups of academics and politicians, met with government ministers, royalty, and leading educators in an array of countries. The archives give evidence through newspaper clippings, letters, awards, and translated publications that the world was excited by her ideas and that she was honored as a thinker and an educational activist. There were personal sacrifices in evidence as well. In one letter she expresses her decision not to have her own children in order to serve the greater cause of education, and in another, is revealed the deeply upsetting rift with her mentor, when Montessori openly rejects her Dalton Plan as divergent from Montessori’s own vision, after receiving a review copy, unable to give support for Parkhurst’s vision. In all of this, Helen’s boldness, even to the firm style of her handwriting, and her intensity, come to life.</span></span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi704F9Z5F4I2tVt1J91cL_M1i7emi0ZKFMNgozh8pCZJdQD8TBM4IHhHvYKscg2vPN4FuijbcwtXn138kIdQhWUx8cfehx5tzFrMRABWiAiTPIylIXXw7AGzc7IPPWKPjAKA2QzFUKdwI7/s1600/Japanese-version-of-Dalton-Plan-sm.jpg"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi704F9Z5F4I2tVt1J91cL_M1i7emi0ZKFMNgozh8pCZJdQD8TBM4IHhHvYKscg2vPN4FuijbcwtXn138kIdQhWUx8cfehx5tzFrMRABWiAiTPIylIXXw7AGzc7IPPWKPjAKA2QzFUKdwI7/s320/Japanese-version-of-Dalton-Plan-sm.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484190962811060514" style="cursor: pointer; width: 226px; height: 320px; " /></a><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi704F9Z5F4I2tVt1J91cL_M1i7emi0ZKFMNgozh8pCZJdQD8TBM4IHhHvYKscg2vPN4FuijbcwtXn138kIdQhWUx8cfehx5tzFrMRABWiAiTPIylIXXw7AGzc7IPPWKPjAKA2QzFUKdwI7/s1600/Japanese-version-of-Dalton-Plan-sm.jpg"> </a><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi704F9Z5F4I2tVt1J91cL_M1i7emi0ZKFMNgozh8pCZJdQD8TBM4IHhHvYKscg2vPN4FuijbcwtXn138kIdQhWUx8cfehx5tzFrMRABWiAiTPIylIXXw7AGzc7IPPWKPjAKA2QzFUKdwI7/s1600/Japanese-version-of-Dalton-Plan-sm.jpg"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></a></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi704F9Z5F4I2tVt1J91cL_M1i7emi0ZKFMNgozh8pCZJdQD8TBM4IHhHvYKscg2vPN4FuijbcwtXn138kIdQhWUx8cfehx5tzFrMRABWiAiTPIylIXXw7AGzc7IPPWKPjAKA2QzFUKdwI7/s1600/Japanese-version-of-Dalton-Plan-sm.jpg"> </a></span></span> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio6Vi_tXDLp34zZJgIN8QDTOUqfc0Mb7s2Zw9J8VFN9yfTFSJChp57JS298ubYGs3dk5NL3c5_SzwHJYPQGWVedeNH3tNJqUsRwhyphenhyphenGf1_OEshUzPQU3mze_N4nXaapWmqTZfr-BGbL9VTx/s1600/Parkhurst-japan-journal.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio6Vi_tXDLp34zZJgIN8QDTOUqfc0Mb7s2Zw9J8VFN9yfTFSJChp57JS298ubYGs3dk5NL3c5_SzwHJYPQGWVedeNH3tNJqUsRwhyphenhyphenGf1_OEshUzPQU3mze_N4nXaapWmqTZfr-BGbL9VTx/s320/Parkhurst-japan-journal.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484190948214288418" style="cursor: pointer; width: 238px; height: 320px; " /></a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; ">Right :<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Helen Parkhurst's Japanese Journal, July 1924</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>Left:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Education on the Dalton Plan</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> by Helen Parkhurst, Japanese edition</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>From the Helen Parkhurst Papers, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point</span></span></p><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There were a few personal papers, and journals along with a trove of various awards that Parkhurst collected during her lifetime.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">These included a Radio – Television Critics Award for her 1948-49 ABC radio show </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Child’s World</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> where Parkhurst began her broadcast career. In each program she took on a different topic, discussing pertinent subjects with a small group of middle school aged students. Parkhurst desire was to investigate how children view and process information.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Each week she would select a different theme for her program and the subjects ranged from the serious such things as lying, jealousy, and death, to more typically age appropriate concerns like imaginary friends, heroes, and ambitions. Her direct and frank questions to these children gives the impression that she always treated them with respect, putting each child at ease while masterfully drawing out their personal thoughts and ideas. The show was quite popular, and it aired on 215 ABC affiliate stations.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Parkhurst managed to do quite well in the ratings too, and pulled a 4.5 in the Hooper Ratings opposite her competition, Jack Benny. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><!--StartFragment--></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There are medals from various countries; especially notable among them is the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Orange - Nassau bestowed upon Parkhurst by the Queen of the Netherlands in January of 1957 for her contributions to education.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Dutch appreciated the Dalton Laboratory plan early on, and it is still widely practiced there today.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQjby3Akn9TuFoF-HzV7wFelBgKPK1sAx0it9fZ0As_h_DPpVapJPxFd6xiM_wyFHm-5RYFZcD20u6f5D2-dGvyzuX6OBFeajQ3uq5x4fD1tDFdCKBSGAEaTVtU_d8bUMYNQO74XvCyjLU/s1600/Oranje-Nassau-paper.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQjby3Akn9TuFoF-HzV7wFelBgKPK1sAx0it9fZ0As_h_DPpVapJPxFd6xiM_wyFHm-5RYFZcD20u6f5D2-dGvyzuX6OBFeajQ3uq5x4fD1tDFdCKBSGAEaTVtU_d8bUMYNQO74XvCyjLU/s320/Oranje-Nassau-paper.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484167265643799826" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 226px; height: 320px; " /></a>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbiSq_0pJyY4TubVeGvQYKmK6kMo7YGHA-NcHos2dB63eSdTI2OKiGx2zQVlzXKLPhpauEzjNceL-V8VyMCp12kW7R_VQWLTmSOzQ6qVh8SVxQ0AkGYNFim6mKYlqVV3DReWoW-3FBpgAT/s1600/oranje-nassau+medal+sm.jpg"></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhszbMVFkxn8v5O-yNEyqYm9Lo78RenjUILqEzvyKVOCUROiK6MEW47d-7VSNgiKeyYw6-SUpd5uXPaDPPOCFkhv7z1yyMLz_-39LrdrBYRtoAT4Ep2kbFLE1VFVNxOnggXlS4h9Y3b2YAi/s1600/oranje-nassau+medal+sm.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhszbMVFkxn8v5O-yNEyqYm9Lo78RenjUILqEzvyKVOCUROiK6MEW47d-7VSNgiKeyYw6-SUpd5uXPaDPPOCFkhv7z1yyMLz_-39LrdrBYRtoAT4Ep2kbFLE1VFVNxOnggXlS4h9Y3b2YAi/s320/oranje-nassau+medal+sm.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484168169047947170" style="cursor: pointer; width: 269px; height: 320px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;color:#0000EE;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Oranje - Nassau Medal and Proclamation awarded to Helen Parkhurst, May 14th, 1957, <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Helen Parkhurst Papers, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span></span><!--StartFragment--></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;color:#0000EE;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">Perhaps one of the most fascinating discoveries found in the archives was an unpublished manuscript Parkhurst had written in 1937 titled </span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">The Children’s Japan</span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">. This long abandoned project was in poor shape with brittle, crumbling pages and missing photographs. The staff of the archives agreed to scan the fragile pages and digitally preserved the book, so that there would be a more stable record of this unusual document. It reflects Parkhurst’s love of the Japanese land, culture and people and the work is profusely illustrated with extraordinary black and white photographs of the places she traveled while exploring the daily life of children. A photographer, she identified only as “Mr. Hamilton,” accompanied her, and produced illustrative images to tell her story. The project never progressed past this hand typed and picture pasted volume. One can only speculate on why it was never published, but as world events began to grow more sinister and Japan’s aggression continued to escalate, it seemed the wrong time to publish such a book. What is evident was Helen’s passion and commitment for this project, for learning about the impact of cultural contexts on children. It also expresses Parkhurst’s sensitivity and character as the teacher, always wanting to share and educate. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgML6GsB-n9TEuqpuLXM-Bi8LCUEFB1ohLBCNGQtOpNsxP84DPQIM5nB6QoTd9PoKkZ_aI-VS0i3DsLNGr6vXxCDsrj2mpuQ8ur0DOZCwSkt83o_ecn1yoTGxcDVilubwgDL7eGUlS4z2so/s1600/%E2%80%A2+Dalton+facade+retouch+1941.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgML6GsB-n9TEuqpuLXM-Bi8LCUEFB1ohLBCNGQtOpNsxP84DPQIM5nB6QoTd9PoKkZ_aI-VS0i3DsLNGr6vXxCDsrj2mpuQ8ur0DOZCwSkt83o_ecn1yoTGxcDVilubwgDL7eGUlS4z2so/s320/%E2%80%A2+Dalton+facade+retouch+1941.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484171731716593186" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 220px; height: 320px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">From Helen’s illustrated work </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Children’s Japan</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, she certainly saw the importance of the photographic image as a teaching tool. To her the picture could be worth a thousand words. This concept once again becomes evident in another photographic document produced for Dalton in 1941. It is a photo essay on the school itself, containing a few carefully chosen words to accompany over 50 images of the students, teachers, classrooms, and activities found on a daily basis when Dalton was a school of 545 students with 85 teachers housed in 10 floors of the brick building at 108 East 89</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">th</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Street. It is an accurate portrait of a progressive school at the height of Parkhurst’s career. Photographer Barbara Morgan captures the range of activities happening in this small community with crystal clarity. Morgan was a gifted photographer, who was producing some of her most important photographic work with dance pioneer, Martha Graham and her company. In the Dalton essay, Morgan captures children in their daily activities from playtime on the roof to dissecting frogs in the science lab. One is struck by the active quality of the school and the energy and excitement of children in action. Many images represent the arts - dance, theatre, music, painting and sculpture. They help shed light on what was to be a hallmark of a Dalton education, the integration and appreciation of the arts. In one of the Morgan photographs taken in the art studio we find Dalton senior Constance (Heiman) Feinson, class of 1941, posed with her sculpture of a flamingo with it’s long neck looped around to rest on the birds right wing. Behind her stands her sculpture teacher, Alexander Archipenko. Though only at the school for this brief time, we can see the Archipenko influence on this young woman’s work. The bird is a series of sympathetic arcs from the small details of its feather to the neck’s curve and finally to the sculpture’s curvilinear wings revealing the bird’s torso. The bird is a composite of realism and abstraction that contains both solid and void, color and detail. Though the more junior artist doesn’t yet command the medium, she has learned and processed much from her artist teacher. Vividly this one picture captures the influence of Archipenko as teacher, and Dalton as learning environment.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmy8I-aRb6ahW207n3oR8rbzfE_nEodCJoUmy3onP6RRNn8ipt5A_9kw3wHn8xUDqbCCFB38YVIR02UcdWSh0I559ooGTJ-Epat7xH1kzJ-3nA54CnZhfQGqHd0-QxC0A6sggxyHif6fEk/s1600/Archipenko+at+Dalton+w.+Constance+Heiman+%2741s.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmy8I-aRb6ahW207n3oR8rbzfE_nEodCJoUmy3onP6RRNn8ipt5A_9kw3wHn8xUDqbCCFB38YVIR02UcdWSh0I559ooGTJ-Epat7xH1kzJ-3nA54CnZhfQGqHd0-QxC0A6sggxyHif6fEk/s320/Archipenko+at+Dalton+w.+Constance+Heiman+%2741s.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484172665886352450" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 256px; height: 320px; " /></a></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Photographs of The Dalton School Facade (cover) and Archipeko with his student were taken by Barbara Morgan </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">for the 1941 photo essay on the Dalton School</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">This publication is part of the Helen Parkhurst Papers at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">
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</span></a></div>Rob Meredith • Sabbaticalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660249766884548862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9084715753573974035.post-12351548494201518262010-05-27T14:27:00.000-07:002010-05-27T14:42:26.601-07:00A Conversation with Frances Archipenko Gray<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">In late March, I visited the Archipenko Foundation in Bearsville, New York, a two mile drive due west of Woodstock center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Archipenko maintained a studio, home and school on this 13 acre wooded site for most of his career.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He summered there, maintained his studio, and conducted classes in painting and sculpture for students looking to advance their artistic understanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As you come through the main door of the Foundation you enter a clean white contemporary work place with computers on desks, lateral file cabinets and busy archivists performing a range of activities.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But soon you realize that you are standing in the converted atelier for his school. A diagonal wall with a patchwork of large windows offers a view of a vertical moss covered rock wall of the former quarry that once occupied the site.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In this well illuminated and irregular space, made by the hands of Archipenko, it is easy to imagine the former school filled with modeling stands, bags of clay and interested young students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A black and white photograph on the wall attests to the studio’s former life and its jumble of activities, accretion of materials and student work. Archipenko stands surrounded by young men and women and one sees the space as it once was, filled with a different energy and excitement.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">I have come to meet Alexandra Keiser, Research Curator of the Archipenko Foundation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We have an appointment to go over the few details she might reveal about the artist’s teaching experience at Dalton in the early 1940s, or perhaps details of two gifted students, Lu Duble and Rhys Caparn, who subsequently taught sculpture at Dalton in Archipenko’s wake. Alexandra greets me, apologizes for not having very much information about Dalton and introduces me to Frances Archipenko Gray, the artist’s widow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Both Frances and Alexandra seem curious about my research as it offers them a small window into a history with which they are less familiar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We stand and talk and I fill them in on how Parkhurst brought all these interesting artists to her progressive school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As I continue to share my findings and ask questions, Frances invites me up the stairs to the connected living space, renovated since Archipenko’s time, to sit and conduct an impromptu interview.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Without tape recorder, video or much preparation, I asked her a few questions to learn more about Archipenko the artist and teacher. My only distraction is Frances’ standard poodle Lucy who desires much petting and attention. Here are some of my recollections of our conversation. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">Frances spent her youth in New York City, growing up in Washington Heights<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and attended The Calhoun School. She tells me that private schools were very different then, much simpler affairs, but that Dalton already had a reputation of its own of being more progressive and prestigious then her Calhoun. When she graduated high school she attended Bennington, already knowing that she wanted to make art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Frances began to study with the painter, Paul Feeley</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:8.0pt;">1</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">, <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>but she tells me that she didn’t want to commit to his formal class. She just wanted to work. She proposed to him that she paint in her dorm room throughout the semester, and invite him to critique her work at the end of the semester.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She seemed surprised when he accepted, and even more surprised when he gave her a favorable review, admitting to me that she didn’t think her work at that time was very good. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">As our conversation continues I am developing an impression of Frances as an independent and artistic young woman, ready and willing to engage in something real, tactile and tangible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Feeley offered just the right support to this independent mind, and when she was to apply to graduate school at Yale, Feeley would write her letter of recommendation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Frances would be accepted to the art program and enter in the fall, but she did something that summer that would change the path of her artistic explorations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She wished to continue working over that summer and her sculpture professor, Simon Moselsio, suggested that she might work either with Hans Hofmann or Alexander Archipenko.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Archipenko, she was warned, did not always get along with some of his students and could be a bit gruff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But for whatever reason, Frances joined his summer session in the very Bearsville studio that she would eventually call home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">The summer group was small, and she remembered considering many of the students less committed to their art then she. She began studying painting and sculpture with Archipenko and her enthusiasm garnered attention from the master.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I was curious as to the nature of his assignments, as they may have had similar themes to his teaching at Dalton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Frances gave me a few examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Archipenko stressed line in much of his drawing and painting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Students used large sheets of paper and filled them with line drawings as preliminary ideas for sculptures. Archipenko would place emphasis on the lines and proportions, and at times he would alter one linear element in a student’s work. Frances said that this would cause you to rework the piece until eventually you would end up changing the whole composition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">She described another assignment where she would compose a three dimensional still life on a table surface, and then, with her back to the subject, paint the arrangement of objects from memory, not facing the composition she had just constructed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“He was big on memory,” she says. She loosens the severity of the assignment by telling me that you could look at your still life again, but not directly while you were painting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This exercise touches on the essential skill an artist must acquire to be able to “see,” then retain, and finally express.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">From these drawing and painting exercises Frances was introduced to Archipenko’s sculptural domain. She had studied sculpture with Moselsio at Bennington modeling in plastiline and casting sculpture in plaster. Her first carvings were done under Archipenko’s tutelage, but first Frances had to construct her own worktable in the studio, using only hand tools to make her first piece of furniture. He was very “hands on” she tells me, and technically proficient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>From here she was on her way to falling in love with sculpture.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">By summer’s end Frances was ready to leave Archipenko’s Bearsville school and take on Yale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That fall, she found herself surrounded by a prestigious art program in this acclaimed university. The experience was completely different than that of Archipenko’s studio school. Instead of small classes, individual attention, and an emphasis on hands on experience, Frances found herself in a large and impersonal lecture class learning about the color theory of the famous Bauhaus master, Josef Albers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Her course was not even conducted by Albers, but instead by one of his teaching assistants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Each class began with a conceptual centering, and the students were made to raise their arms and trace the air, in unison, to describe both a horizontal and a vertical line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>After a few weeks of this prescribed ritual, Frances approached the teaching assistant and asked what was the relevance of the exercise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The assistant did not offer a reason, but instead suggested that she bring her question to Master Albers himself. She was more than happy to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">When Frances met Albers face to face, she applied the same question, hoping to discover the meaning behind the gesture.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Albers responded with a curt reply, “Perhaps this is not the right school for you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was clear that this was not the place for Frances to continue her studies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So within the first few months of her Yale education the young student packed her bags and returned to her home in New York. Softly, she tells me, “My parents were not pleased.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">It wasn’t long before Frances was to return to Archipenko’s studio to complete her education. Even today nearly 50 years after their marriage, Frances Archipenko Gray speaks with of her husband with tenderness and respect. He was a man of many talents and gifts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She speaks of his extensive knowledge of materials and processes, his love of travel and his deep connections to female friends and ex-lovers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He always remained a vital force and was always “truly alive.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">As far as Archipenko’s connection to Dalton, there is little information regarding his time at the school. In the late 1930s and early part of 1940 he was busy making inquiries at colleges and universities around the country, asking about possible teaching positions and opportunities to exhibit his work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In an undated letter from this time, his first wife, Angelica, writes to the artist from Mexico about a conversation she had with Rufino Tamayo about the possibility of a teaching position at Dalton and passed along Helen Parkhurst’s name as headmistress of the school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Tamayo was already teaching at the school and found the experience rewarding and thought Archipenko might find the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">In one brief moment during our conversation Frances alludes to the fact that Archipenko probably didn’t enjoy his teaching experience at Dalton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In part it was not the right match.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The students were younger than he was accustomed to teaching and the degree of dedication was most likely less committed. Frances also mentioned that Archipenko could feel distanced by his command of the English language that might also account for his short stay at Dalton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However Archipenko brought something of his genius and artistry to our institution as well as influenced two future sculpture teachers who were his protégés, Rhys Caparn<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(Dalton teacher from 1947-72) and Lu Duble (Dalton teacher until 1947).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Both Rhys and Lu carried on the Archipenko tradition in sculpture with great success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They were connected to their students and loved teaching.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">Frances Archipenko Gray was only married to Alexander Archipenko for a few short years at the end of his life, yet she has dedicated her life’s work to the stewardship of the Archipenko Foundation. She is the driving force behind the perpetuation of his legacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Our discussion on a cool spring afternoon shed light on this master of Modernism and insight into his creative drive and powers as an innovative mind and teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Dalton was fortunate to have him in it’s midst, even for the brief time he was at the school. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"> <!--StartFragment--> </span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 22pt; "><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">1. This was the same artistic route that Helen Frankenthaler would follow a few years before Gray. After spending her senior year at Dalton and studying initially with Rufino Tamayo, she would continue her artistic career at Bennington, studying with Paul Feeley. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span><p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Rob Meredith • Sabbaticalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660249766884548862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9084715753573974035.post-65066428981172186962010-04-19T07:30:00.000-07:002010-05-27T07:11:25.103-07:00Alexander Archipenko<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhow4vf3km3T86yz5Prq3q43p2EGWqx8tVKkoOQBi3KsZgIYZKGR2FB-53AC7IX1awNJygHag1yB4_GpGpDzrzecIH9lk71_N9wz7Fv_DGDwuTHgE4RgqVi7bE62bzJsdtXo5-ciKHj4EXE/s1600/Picture+1.png"></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">Alexander Archipenko is arguably one of the most important sculptors of the first half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. He is often categorized as a Cubist and lumped in a group with Picasso and Braque as if a three-dimensional counterpart to the Parisian based painters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But Archipenko was more accurately part of a defiant offshoot of painters and sculptors who sought something different than Cubism.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They met in the Paris suburb of Puteaux and called themselves la Section d’Or (the Golden Section).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As their name suggests they were compelled to bring more structure and order to their artistic ventures then the Cubists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Douglas Cooper describes this faction in his seminal book <i>The Cubist Epoch</i></span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><!--StartFragment--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:-4.5pt;text-align:justify">
</p> <!--EndFragment--> <p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.75in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">A serious division of opinion developed in the Cubist group in the summer of 1912 over the question of whether realism or abstraction was the real goal of the Cubist painting.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The principal champions of abstraction gathered in the suburban studios at Puteaux of a mathematically and scientifically minded trio of brothers: Jacques Villon, Marcel Duchamp, and Raymond Duchamp Vilion. The three brothers gave a scientific twist to Cubism and drew into their circle a few kindred spirits such as Gleizes, Leger, Picabia, Lhote, Krupka, and Gris. </span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:8.0pt;">1</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">Archipenko joined the Section d’Or group in October of 1912, announcing a few months later that he had severed his association with the Cubist group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>While the work of Archipenko largely remains figurative, portraying mostly female forms, there are two major points where his sculpture departs from his contemporaries.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>First, Archipenko explores his figures by excavating the traditional volume, offering internal concavities as a contrast to the convex. He pierces his figures with silhouette apertures that offer formal relationships and new sculptural descriptions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In this way Archipenko is the first sculptor to explore this subdermal terrain to define internal form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Again Cooper articulated this point. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.75in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">In 1912 Archipenko suddenly turned from making conventional figurative sculpture to working in a very modern sculptural idiom of his very own invention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>His first piece <i>Walking Figure</i></span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> (1912), already displays many of the stylistic elements which from then on were to characterize his work: formal abstraction, the use of forceful rhythms, the replacement of solid volumes by voids, and the reversal of roles between concavities and convexities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The result is an object of highly stylized abstract forms, which has little power to evoke a figurative image, although by the way the planes are slanted and the rhythms are set up, the displacement of a mass through space is suggested.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There is of course nothing Cubist about such a piece of sculpture. </span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">1</span></span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.75in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify">
</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:-4.5pt"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> </span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.75in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, Times, serif;color:#252525;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 30px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal; font-family:Helvetica, serif;"></span></span></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, Times, serif;color:#252525;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 22pt; text-align: justify; ">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 22pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:Georgia, serif;"> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7MrSbQQcrzr9YJZdkGAZqXwH0hxsTCjqWhhApdGyAXQnx6t34lbhbip_mWrEJ7wJH25YPzI6Wcea_It6DldStPAiUOM3n7LcJ-IarEdISuS4vzV8gDl9lWuAZDkcye06yk7jhd0TVx4_A/s1600/48.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7MrSbQQcrzr9YJZdkGAZqXwH0hxsTCjqWhhApdGyAXQnx6t34lbhbip_mWrEJ7wJH25YPzI6Wcea_It6DldStPAiUOM3n7LcJ-IarEdISuS4vzV8gDl9lWuAZDkcye06yk7jhd0TVx4_A/s400/48.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461868931133846402" style="cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 352px; " /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfjpOIXN4Zu9DZCp90iQI_baLUeNMlz_n2aXeotVoypmTz7IKv7eeT4uHsyKRIjyuuUX6LTpQtkv00vKW__ETXaLmOA2q7MXcFNkTyCsXxZa5KOuwEzSnHG8S64IwdTfyO_iFsRB8-fffB/s1600/Archipenko+bather.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfjpOIXN4Zu9DZCp90iQI_baLUeNMlz_n2aXeotVoypmTz7IKv7eeT4uHsyKRIjyuuUX6LTpQtkv00vKW__ETXaLmOA2q7MXcFNkTyCsXxZa5KOuwEzSnHG8S64IwdTfyO_iFsRB8-fffB/s400/Archipenko+bather.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461871856859456178" style="cursor: pointer; width: 227px; height: 400px; " /></a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 22pt; "><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(45, 45, 45); line-height: 30px; font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><i> <a href="http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/cubism/archipenko/48.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/archipenko1.html&usg=__GnR4bwFtEeZw61QyRb4n6GSrfrU=&h=352&w=280&sz=14&hl=en&start=9&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Ze2QnQkSVjirWM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=95&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwalking%2Bwoman%2Barchipenko%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1" style="text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Walking Woman</span></a></i></span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><a href="http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/cubism/archipenko/48.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/archipenko1.html&usg=__GnR4bwFtEeZw61QyRb4n6GSrfrU=&h=352&w=280&sz=14&hl=en&start=9&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Ze2QnQkSVjirWM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=95&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwalking%2Bwoman%2Barchipenko%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">, 1912, Denver Museum of Art</span></a><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><a href="http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/cubism/archipenko/48.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/archipenko1.html&usg=__GnR4bwFtEeZw61QyRb4n6GSrfrU=&h=352&w=280&sz=14&hl=en&start=9&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Ze2QnQkSVjirWM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=95&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwalking%2Bwoman%2Barchipenko%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span></a><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;color:#252525;"><i><a href="http://www.staedelmuseum.de/sm/index.php?StoryID=21&ArtistID=663&b=A"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Female Bather,</span></a></i></span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;color:#252525;"><a href="http://www.staedelmuseum.de/sm/index.php?StoryID=21&ArtistID=663&b=A"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">1915, Städel Museum Frankfurt</span></a></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 22pt; text-align: justify; "><!--StartFragment--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:-4.5pt"><!--StartFragment--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:-4.5pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">In his final sentence Douglas Cooper, an established authority on Cubism, pejoratively drops Archipenko from the roster of true Cubists, but Archipenko’s vision was intentionally different from his contemporaries, and while he sustained this type of criticism his whole life, he saw himself striving for something more.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Archipenko was the consummate innovator, working with unyielding dedication to bring his particular vision to the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:-4.5pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:-4.5pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">The second element that Archipenko brings to the sculptural arena is his employment of color as an integral component to the sculptural form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>One cannot find a contemporary who is able to articulate the physical object as chromatically as Archipenko.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>His self titled “Sculpto-paintings” where vivid expressions in three-dimensional space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not since the Greeks, with their highly polychromed architectural sculpture, had there been this vibrant combination of figurative form and color.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Many of these polychrome works by Archipenko still shock us today. The best of the sculptor’s works, were fresh expressions that boldly represented the adventurous spirit of the early 20<sup>th</sup> Century. </span><o:p></o:p></p> <!--EndFragment--> <p></p> <!--EndFragment--> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 22pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(37, 37, 37); line-height: 30px; font-family:Helvetica, Times, serif;font-size:96px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">1. </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">The Cubist Epoch</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> by Douglas Cooper, Phaidon Press, 1970</span></span></span></p></span><p></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:11px;"><h1 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(45, 45, 45); line-height: 30px; font-weight: normal; font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size:22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, Times, serif;color:#252525;"> <!--EndFragment--> </span><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> </h1></span></span><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> </div>Rob Meredith • Sabbaticalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660249766884548862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9084715753573974035.post-71061243121065528092010-04-19T04:49:00.000-07:002010-06-07T12:45:22.580-07:00Dalton's 1941 Yearbook<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Two pages from Dalton's 1941 yearbook show three prominent art faculty teaching at the school at the same moment, Alexander Archipenko, Vaclav Vytlacil and Rufino Tamayo. Archipenko was only at the school for a brief time. His biographers offer a date of 1944 as the single year he taught at Dalton, but he appears here in this 1941 yearbook.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQt91Ol3x_tfGoJbYjdalGIggeDjBcpdQKyJfupkghJD0gD2btGoivXobA8kgIz1fW_4U_6O6Yg3CD4VV3Yis9yR61tZNHsa3df40vMAHtc6p2QCqP7MeucPNQ4W9n_EYBb1XWi3DiLQmq/s1600/1941---Faculty-(Archipenko-%26-Vytlacil)2.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQt91Ol3x_tfGoJbYjdalGIggeDjBcpdQKyJfupkghJD0gD2btGoivXobA8kgIz1fW_4U_6O6Yg3CD4VV3Yis9yR61tZNHsa3df40vMAHtc6p2QCqP7MeucPNQ4W9n_EYBb1XWi3DiLQmq/s320/1941---Faculty-(Archipenko-%26-Vytlacil)2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461887650217271266" style="cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 320px; " /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjTn0_TPbCNx-UqMXIlpz8KfD_ZOKvwYDW3KmzjZYLaUtcMXxgqtwL2p_jVcoUTanEXWqAKdlqiqaYFA_DB1jum4ytPOWhlW23Fqs2ltWG-pfVUMjdO8RLRCv4qxYYbDXaOxxmXGKebYKK/s1600/1941---Faculty-(Tamayo)2.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjTn0_TPbCNx-UqMXIlpz8KfD_ZOKvwYDW3KmzjZYLaUtcMXxgqtwL2p_jVcoUTanEXWqAKdlqiqaYFA_DB1jum4ytPOWhlW23Fqs2ltWG-pfVUMjdO8RLRCv4qxYYbDXaOxxmXGKebYKK/s320/1941---Faculty-(Tamayo)2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461887654374284466" style="cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> 1941 Dalton Yearbook, Collection of The Dalton School</span></div></div>Rob Meredith • Sabbaticalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660249766884548862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9084715753573974035.post-8131028141448024592010-03-01T05:10:00.000-08:002010-06-07T15:03:54.219-07:00Franz Cizek: Liberating the Child Artist<div style="text-align: center;">
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTRUHqLRGYR_7PkfnbR5o6rQm74SeXIZsrDraTaE0BSw999h4GdCi6qXKORHPX5zZgI9UUrJGGrgZVFUEKR-s0AsWyZVIKwXlh9TsYN0K_wF81t9FkItUM3HOjZa8Yzjn88QWvQEWV5ANW/s1600-h/embroidery-cizek-blog-.jpg"></a><div style="text-align: center;">
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgil65ZfmAW2ab2SUbl8MFZ9M9FQhfiD5BzwKuvpkSNMHNGBv-kRCJJf07FsRnecePVMNu4shqc7-ymckCWGgR-psBiyg5DSiu9A_qmsWcH0GOmoQW8EUkhyphenhyphenLarrabOQRqm7tyHlYPye3qZ/s1600-h/Gretl-Hanus-blog.jpg"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghtGoyn9q3yBucCUIDiTZero5NbcFpVK-zcT2R9Q5aTRKT2kXUbrZy6H36UxnSU-ECsCZLhqa3UOMiTzS-XRp1-lyBXf23wwu6h1_xp0gE59Wt50ewQ0zik8rbpwIhZH8Hzx-XFTEGYqED/s1600-h/Cizek-with-class-blog.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 287px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghtGoyn9q3yBucCUIDiTZero5NbcFpVK-zcT2R9Q5aTRKT2kXUbrZy6H36UxnSU-ECsCZLhqa3UOMiTzS-XRp1-lyBXf23wwu6h1_xp0gE59Wt50ewQ0zik8rbpwIhZH8Hzx-XFTEGYqED/s400/Cizek-with-class-blog.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443657031012132146" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Franz Cizek's working with his children in the </span></span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Juvenile Art Class</span></span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Wilhelm Viola (1938) </span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Child Art and Franz Cizek</span></span></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">©</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">1936, Austrian Junior Red Cross, Vienna</span></span></span></p><p></p></div><div style="text-align: center;">
</div><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">At the beginning of the 20</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> Century, Dr. Franz Cizek was one of Vienna’s best known pedagogues of progressive art education. His moniker as, “the ‘father’ of creative art teaching,”<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">1</span> was not immediately bestowed on the artist, teacher, and child psychologist, since it took years of diligent study and practice to give credence to his methods as a legitimate way to foster self-expression in children. His approach to teaching was minimal, and strikingly different than the rigid and skill based programs of copying and tracing that were offered in primary schools at the time. In his Juvenile Art Class, a two hour Saturday Program for students ages 5 -14, Cizek approached art making by creating a child friendly environment where formal instruction was non existent and the work was based on nurturing the creative tendencies inherent in all children, allowing them to freely explore their own ideas through a range of materials. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Cizek also expressed a profound admiration and respect for children’s artwork, considering their expressions to be of the purest nature. In short, Franz Cizek’s life work was to provide a free (both financially and psychologically) studio environment where children could revel in self-discovery. He was not making future artists, but allowing children access to their personal creativity. Ruth Kalmar Wilson, who was a young student of Cizek’s, went on to become a textile designer, recalling, ‘Cizek’s class was not directed at all to creating artists but, rather, to unfolding of the artistic personality of each individual.”<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">2</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">It is worth noting the premise of what made Cizek’s methodology so remarkable and how he came to devote his life work to the study of children and the way they learn. Cizek was born in 1865 in the town of Leitmeritz on the Elbe River in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic). When he was 19 he moved to Vienna and studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1885 Cizek rented a room with a carpenter’s family with many children. The young children loved to visit Cizek’s room, where he would give them drawing materials and encourage them to express their ideas. Without instruction and in this friendly atmosphere, Cizek witnessed a joyful self-discovery as these youngsters loved to make art. Cizek was truly impressed with the directness and purity found in these drawings and upon further study he learned that children, the world over, drew in very similar ways when they work in an unrestrained atmosphere working from their imagination.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial, serif;font-size:small;">During his own university study, Vienna was a hotbed of artistic activity. He was friends with many of the Vienna Secessionist artists and architects of the day; Otto Wagner, J. M. Olbrick, Koloman Moser, and Gustav Klimt were fellow artists. He shared with them his research and the work of his young students, and they were fascinated by the authentic expression found in these untrained illustrations. They encouraged Cizek to start his own school, and as a result of this encouragement, he soon applied to the educational authorities to begin his own practice. In his application he had stated a most simple mandate, “Let children grow, develop and mature.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">3</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial, serif;font-size:small;"> The authorities did not immediately accept such a simplistic mandate, but with time and further development of his program, Cizek was allowed to open the Juvenile Art Class in 1897. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><!--StartFragment--></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">The doors to the Juvenile Art Class were open without charge to the children of Vienna, to work at their own free will. Children were interviewed and selected by Cizek, but not for their artistic promise or social standing. It was a place where children were respected as fellow artists. There were about 50 students in attendance each Saturday. Cizek had teaching assistants from his university classes at the </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">School of Applied Art (Wein Kunstgewerbeschule), of which Erika Giovanna Klien was one. These younger artist/educators acted as </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">assistants. Some would specialize in a specific media, be it embroidery or printmaking. Children were encouraged to explore a variety of materials: drawing with chalk, or pencils, cutting paper collages and silhouette cutting, wood and plaster carving, modeling with clay, embroidery, crocheting, etching and wood block printing and tempera painting. As Cizek would tell the children, “From every material, something creative can be made.”<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">4 </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTRUHqLRGYR_7PkfnbR5o6rQm74SeXIZsrDraTaE0BSw999h4GdCi6qXKORHPX5zZgI9UUrJGGrgZVFUEKR-s0AsWyZVIKwXlh9TsYN0K_wF81t9FkItUM3HOjZa8Yzjn88QWvQEWV5ANW/s400/embroidery-cizek-blog-.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443667243326525746" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 386px; " /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Wool Embroidery from Cizek's Juvenile Art Class</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">designed by a 10 year old boy, sewn by a 14 year old girl</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"></span></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Wilhelm Viola (1938) </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Child Art and Franz Cizek</span></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">©</span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">1936, Austrian Junior Red Cross, Vienna</span></span></p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgil65ZfmAW2ab2SUbl8MFZ9M9FQhfiD5BzwKuvpkSNMHNGBv-kRCJJf07FsRnecePVMNu4shqc7-ymckCWGgR-psBiyg5DSiu9A_qmsWcH0GOmoQW8EUkhyphenhyphenLarrabOQRqm7tyHlYPye3qZ/s400/Gretl-Hanus-blog.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443657355647122082" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 399px; " /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Gretl Hanus age 14, from Cizek's Juvenile Art Class</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Cizek also discovered the process of linoleum block print, commonly referred to as the linocut. Linoleum was a fairly new material used for floor covering made of linseed oil, cork and wood dust and attached to a fabric backing. This was a highly affective material for young children to carve, making it easier to cut into the pliable surface than the traditional wood block. As a result of Cizek’s experimentation with the children, the success of the Linocut as an art form. Embraced by the Secessionist printmakers, the method expanded and traveled to Germany and France as the newest printmaking vogue of the day.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><!--StartFragment--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF0CqY3rSpXhNovcFvZCm9VWk5KoQQb1VZZijaa_ry9GTqZAjg20Kkz36AaWqfkvMPtVU2LuC-E4sNDKD06NU4-4SCe9nhOiSHIqR7AoGmWnsgYfT5vU9TwQSEJLIox8WSK6XoNOXmW9c6/s1600-h/Cisek-Probst-for-blog.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF0CqY3rSpXhNovcFvZCm9VWk5KoQQb1VZZijaa_ry9GTqZAjg20Kkz36AaWqfkvMPtVU2LuC-E4sNDKD06NU4-4SCe9nhOiSHIqR7AoGmWnsgYfT5vU9TwQSEJLIox8WSK6XoNOXmW9c6/s400/Cisek-Probst-for-blog.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443657219259412002" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 332px; height: 400px; " /></a></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><div style="text-align: center;"><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ine Probst age 14, Linocut from Cizek's Juvenile Art Class</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal;font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial, serif;font-size:16px;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Wilhelm Viola (1938) </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Child Art and Franz Cizek</span></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">©</span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">1936, Austrian Junior Red Cross, Vienna</span></span></p><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghtGoyn9q3yBucCUIDiTZero5NbcFpVK-zcT2R9Q5aTRKT2kXUbrZy6H36UxnSU-ECsCZLhqa3UOMiTzS-XRp1-lyBXf23wwu6h1_xp0gE59Wt50ewQ0zik8rbpwIhZH8Hzx-XFTEGYqED/s1600-h/Cizek-with-class-blog.jpg"></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghtGoyn9q3yBucCUIDiTZero5NbcFpVK-zcT2R9Q5aTRKT2kXUbrZy6H36UxnSU-ECsCZLhqa3UOMiTzS-XRp1-lyBXf23wwu6h1_xp0gE59Wt50ewQ0zik8rbpwIhZH8Hzx-XFTEGYqED/s1600-h/Cizek-with-class-blog.jpg"></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghtGoyn9q3yBucCUIDiTZero5NbcFpVK-zcT2R9Q5aTRKT2kXUbrZy6H36UxnSU-ECsCZLhqa3UOMiTzS-XRp1-lyBXf23wwu6h1_xp0gE59Wt50ewQ0zik8rbpwIhZH8Hzx-XFTEGYqED/s1600-h/Cizek-with-class-blog.jpg"></a></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">The details surrounding the first meeting between Klien and Parkhurst are yet to be uncovered, but there must have been an immediate understanding between the two, as Klien’s belief in Cizek’s teaching philosophy was startlingly parallel to what Parkhurst espoused in her educational practice. They each placed emphasis on freedom in the classroom, nurturing a healthy degree of self-direction in students, and allowing the child to be guided by his or her own pace and process; all were fundamental to both methods of teaching and learning. This common foundation may have been the reason Parkhurst brought Klien to Dalton seeing the promise of augmenting the breadth and depth of the Dalton Plan through the arts. Both women recognized the importance of fostering creative thought and imagination in children. </span></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> <p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:small;">One can imagine the young Erika Klien as a promising yet malleable artist in search of her own artistic voice. Soon after she began her studies at the Vienna School of Applied Art, she gravitated to the excitement and wisdom of Franz Cizek. She entered his course on the Theory of Ornamental Form where she was introduced to Cizek’s second great artistic contribution to the art world, the development of the short lived, but compelling, movement known as Viennese Kinetism. The term Kinetism was derived from the Greek root </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"kinesis" meaning movement, but artistically the roots were certainly connected to French Cubism, Italian Futurism, and Russian Constructivism. Kinetism represented the dynamic and bustling flow of a modern world.</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> Klien was one of the young artists captivated by this new spirit. She quickly became one of Cizek’s most gifted students and incorporated his theories of Kinetism into her own drawing, illustrations and paintings. Klien also discovered her professor’s enthusiasm for working with children and became equally devoted to teaching young children, assisting Cizek in the Saturday Juvenile Art class. She became Cizek’s trusted protégé representing his methods in numerous schools and conferences throughout Europe. For Klien the love of teaching and art making were inseparable, and she engaged in both throughout her career. In 1929 Erika Giovanna Klien sails for New York, carrying with her the hope and promise of artistic recognition and fervent optimism of bringing the Cizek teaching method to new territory. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> <!--StartFragment--> </span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">1. J.P. Anderson (1969). Franz Cizek, Art education’s man for all seasons. Art Education, Volume 22 Number 7. pp. 27 – 30.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">
</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">2. Peter Smith (March 1985) Franz Cizek: The Patriarch. Art Education, Volume 38 Number 2. pp. 28 - 31</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">
</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">3. Wilhelm Viola (1938) </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Child Art and Franz Cizek</span></u></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">©</span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">1936, Austrian Junior Red Cross, Vienna</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Printed in Austria by Fredrich Jasper</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">
</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">4. ibid</span></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span><p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Rob Meredith • Sabbaticalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660249766884548862noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9084715753573974035.post-31656453165280919222010-02-14T17:45:00.000-08:002010-06-07T15:00:17.484-07:00Erika Giovanna Klien Brings Cizek Method to Dalton<div style="text-align: center;">
</div><div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5EcEhyphenhyphenHl-lxRDwkIlyk6O-BRkV7xHIRQPkyXAgc478AxpwZBofNaIp_x1MftpziT5AJBMDt7Ab-6JScFuRPWsvkdGVfbbgKrG2-gubduimnxSH9DNBkZ8FyhR4yv9Yq9Mvw5lSJSWWXIa/s1600-h/Klien-web.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5EcEhyphenhyphenHl-lxRDwkIlyk6O-BRkV7xHIRQPkyXAgc478AxpwZBofNaIp_x1MftpziT5AJBMDt7Ab-6JScFuRPWsvkdGVfbbgKrG2-gubduimnxSH9DNBkZ8FyhR4yv9Yq9Mvw5lSJSWWXIa/s400/Klien-web.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438285177788251202" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Erika Giovanna Klien</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Photograph Frontispiece: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Erika Giovanna Klien, Wein 1900 - 1957 New York</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">by Marietta Mautner Markof (Vienna: Gemaldegalerie/Michael Kovacek, 2001)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Erika Giovanna Klien only taught art at Dalton for three years, from 1932 - 1935, but she brings an important pedagogical piece to the foundation of the school’s robust art program. Her background and teaching also helped shape Parkhurst’s own philosophy towards cultivating the creative nature of young children.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Klien studied with the revolutionary art educator, Franz Cizek, a figure not commonly remembered today, but who is considered "the father of modern art education."</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">1</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> In the early decades of the 20</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> century, Cizek developed an important program at the Vienna School of Applied Art (Wein Kunstgewerbeschule).</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It was in his seminal course “Theory of Ornamental Form” that Klien first encountered Cizek’s teaching.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The educator’s dynamic personality was an important influence over the young group of artist / educators.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He, like Friedrich Froebel a generation before, fervently believed in early childhood education. He established free Saturday art classes for local school children that became a laboratory of learning for himself and for his elder students.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Children encountered art making in an unstructured environment where personal expression was encouraged through various materials and processes. Cizek’s dictum “let it grow from its own roots”</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">2</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> was a key to allowing students the freedom to find their own method of personal expression.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Cizek’s Saturday class was a training ground for his academy students and Klien became his most ardent follower.</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Cizek was also father to a short-lived artistic movement known as Kinetism. It was based in Vienna and centered on the students of the Kunstgewerbeschule.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the winter of 1919 and 1920, Cizek proposed the idea of Kinetism through his lecture</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> The Renewal of the Spiritual Foundations of Rhythmical Creation </span></span></i></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">2</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This extraordinary modern movement represented a conglomerate of German Expressionism, French Cubism and Italian Futurism.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sculpture, painting, graphic design and drawings exemplified in the works of Erika Giovanna Klien, Elisabeth Karlinsky and Otto Eric Wagner represent a dynamic form of modernism, which, despite artistic promise, never received the recognition warranted by the quality of the work produced.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#000000;">
</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6511Rc2gUViDXeFP1-SD5tPINwHgSM9TB_YJUlWLzmGF7c-lDpw-JoakBnqZTz-zUZindLD9PMwXUHEaI0Z4b_zqAkJE5gwhQ8_M9oHHzCWJ2Win_tHf70lEqp-etAAtRbrWOMc6PKWU3/s400/Klien-Locomotive-1926-(web).jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438481936211712146" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 243px; " /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Erika Giovanna Klien, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Locomotive</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, 1926</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">gouche on Linen, 24 x 40"</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Collection Michael Pabst Gallery, Munich</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Erika Giovanna Klien was Franz Cizek’s exemplary and most gifted student.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She represented not only the promise of Kinetism through her taut synthesis of kinetic movement found in her paintings, but as a teacher she was most dedicated to Cizek’s pedagogy.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As such the professor employed her to implement the Cizek method of teaching in a number of venues.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In 1926 Dr. Cizek received a request from the educator, Elizabeth Duncan in Klessheim, Austria, to use his approach in adding an art program to her school.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Elizabeth was the sister of renowned dancer Isadora Duncan, the founder of the modern dance movement.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Elizabeth’s pedagogical leanings brought her to design a program to engage the whole child and the Cizek method seemed an appropriate way to incorporate art into her concept of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Body and Mind Education</span></span></i></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Klien spent two years developing the program before being asked by Cizek to again represent their work in a traveling exhibition in Vienna, Stuttgart, and Basel prior to her presentation addressing the International Congress of Art Teachers in Prague.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">
</span></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihX_wz99fzGMxrduen1wH7M14qF4uWvmWfRUt2tpv3MiWP2yWlXk0QNyivtB0fDFPJQbjB4g2WBcHA95X8p-dwPZhFt7AqljfgmcysoEn3WnNoxQVYXwCZTJmf8u8sHM1KMvkyNHXsW2zS/s1600-h/Societe_Anonyme_catalog-(web).jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihX_wz99fzGMxrduen1wH7M14qF4uWvmWfRUt2tpv3MiWP2yWlXk0QNyivtB0fDFPJQbjB4g2WBcHA95X8p-dwPZhFt7AqljfgmcysoEn3WnNoxQVYXwCZTJmf8u8sHM1KMvkyNHXsW2zS/s400/Societe_Anonyme_catalog-(web).jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438309222790077634" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 272px; height: 360px; " /></a>
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</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_vpqMfJvjGWKVpPqmYmFrodtv0Xk-QDNbYwTF8SP2vhiqTUUKSorVTbTAFFLS4kxQaTcn9I5mdorMM0vyZcCgwk68dwYaAZbi7wxp-GRWCL9AODEJpi1wmHeVc9FVNY0QZqBONKV5Mr_/s1600-h/Klien-Stokowski-mural-study-(web).jpg"></a><div style="text-align: center; ">
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5EcEhyphenhyphenHl-lxRDwkIlyk6O-BRkV7xHIRQPkyXAgc478AxpwZBofNaIp_x1MftpziT5AJBMDt7Ab-6JScFuRPWsvkdGVfbbgKrG2-gubduimnxSH9DNBkZ8FyhR4yv9Yq9Mvw5lSJSWWXIa/s1600-h/Klien-web.jpg"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5EcEhyphenhyphenHl-lxRDwkIlyk6O-BRkV7xHIRQPkyXAgc478AxpwZBofNaIp_x1MftpziT5AJBMDt7Ab-6JScFuRPWsvkdGVfbbgKrG2-gubduimnxSH9DNBkZ8FyhR4yv9Yq9Mvw5lSJSWWXIa/s1600-h/Klien-web.jpg"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5EcEhyphenhyphenHl-lxRDwkIlyk6O-BRkV7xHIRQPkyXAgc478AxpwZBofNaIp_x1MftpziT5AJBMDt7Ab-6JScFuRPWsvkdGVfbbgKrG2-gubduimnxSH9DNBkZ8FyhR4yv9Yq9Mvw5lSJSWWXIa/s1600-h/Klien-web.jpg"></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">During 1926, Klien received substantial recognition for her work in America through the support of the </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Société Anonyme.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Katherine Drier, the Brooklyn born painter turned patron of the arts, in conjunction with Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, founded the </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://artgallery.yale.edu/socanon/"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Société Anonyme</span></span></b></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> in April 1920</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This organization promoted modern art by bringing new work to the public through lectures, concerts, publications and exhibitions.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">One of the </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Société’s most </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">celebrated collaborations involved the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Together they sponsored the </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">International Exhibition of Modern Art.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dreier and Duchamp curated this show with works that represented the first large-scale exhibition of modern art since the 1913 Armory Exhibition.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It was truly international in scope including artists from 22 countries. Many of the artists in this show proved to be the seminal pioneers of 20</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> century Modernism: Marcel Duchamp. Picabia, Gris, Miro, Brancusi, Leger, Mondrian, Klee, Schwitters, Marc, Man Ray, O’Keeffe, Stieglitz, Archipenko, Naum Gabo, Kandinsky, Lissitsky, and Malevich were all represented in the exhibition.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The sole artist representing Austria was Erika Giovanna Klien.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dreier had personally visited Cizek and Klien at the </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Kunstgewerbeschule</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> in Vienna in 1926.</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">3</span></span></span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She sought out Cizek as the decisive leader of Kinetism in search of work that would represent this independent vein of Austrian art.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dreier was impressed with Klien's work and purchased many drawings and paintings to use as part of the Brooklyn show.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Klien maintained a long-term friendship with Dreier and gave her subsequent gifts of her work.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Encouraged by the success brought on by Dreier’s support and the influential International Exhibition in America, Klien decided to move to America in 1929 to seek her future and explore the potential of her artistic career.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This was not the easiest move however, as Klien had given birth in 1928 to a son out of wedlock.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She had also lost her father, and despite requests to return to the Duncan School she found Klessheim remote and inhospitable.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It was also a hardship for her to be so far away from her mentor, Cizek.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She decided to chart a course for the place that seemed to offer her a promising future, and in September, 1929 Erika Klien left her son in the hands of foster parents and sailed for New York City.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Soon after her arrival in New York, using her experience as a Cizek protégée, Klien soon secured positions at Stuyvesant School (Stuyvesant Neighborhood House) on St. Marks Place and then in 1930 at the Spence School.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She received an invitation to exhibit her works at the New School for Social Research and later taught adult classes at the New School.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In September of 1932 Klien would bring her knowledge of the Cizek method to Dalton.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And there is a photograph of her teaching young students in her classroom from the school’s archives.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Cut paper collages in black and white, typical of Cizek's methodology, can be seen on the bulletin boards as well as clay figures of animals.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Judging from the children’s enthusiasm, Klien must have been a dynamic and popular teacher.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Despite her successes, New York life was strenuous for Klien as she juggled multiple part time teaching positions while producing and promoting her work as an artist.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(85, 26, 139); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiojapC2AvBnF6VZFN0mrZE3VIZASWdK70NUuSWeFwp6WInoD6Yly7nHj0CTJznwea5DmL4L06Au-tfjHmjPBgJZDSTbn3xJhYp6lpkcQqIFPvXE3FQ5WvU5RPMvYrJeDDC5gmfcm0Cplg2/s400/Erika-Giovanna-Klien-teaching-1930s-(web).jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438296201174836994" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 283px; " /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Erika Giovanna Klien in her Classroom at Dalton mid 1930s </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">© The Dalton School Archives</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Cizek’s method of teaching art was gaining world recognition through his Saturday classes and dissemination of exhibitions and reproductions of his students’ work in England and America.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">His combination of careful observation with a child’s artistic development was unparalleled in with art education of the time.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Cizek’s disciples, such as Klien, were distributing his ideas worldwide.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He was written up in </span><a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,751039,00.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">1923 article in Time Magazine</span></b></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> with helped inform the American public about his teachings. Helen Parkhurst was compelled by his methodology and was intrigued by Klien.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So much so that she traveled to Vienna to witness Cizek’s classes first hand.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We are not sure what she thought, but her collaborator and patron, Josephine Boardman Crane, was knowledgeable of Cizek’s methods. She had clipped and saved a lengthy article from the New York Times Magazine section from November 1923, which spoke at length about the success of Cizek’s Saturday school.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So the master was well known to both Parkhurst and Crane well before they were introduced to Erika Klien.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She was just what the school needed to integrate the arts with the Dalton plan.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Success came to Erika Klien through another patron of the arts, Evangeline Stokowski, the second wife of conductor, Leopold Stokowski.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Evangeline Brewster Johnson Stokowski was the daughter of Robert Wood Johnson, cofounder of Johnson & Johnson.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She had lost much of her fortune in the 1929 stock market crash, but still retained enough to support a few philanthropic and artistic causes including The Dalton School and Erika Giovanna Klien.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Evangeline had recently married Stokowski and settled into a top floor apartment across from Central Park.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Evangeline was good friends with Helen Parkhurst and she not only supported the school financially, but she so believed in the curriculum to the point that she wanted her own one year old child, Andrea, to be included as one of the first Dalton babies to be cared for by high school students in the school’s nursery program.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_vpqMfJvjGWKVpPqmYmFrodtv0Xk-QDNbYwTF8SP2vhiqTUUKSorVTbTAFFLS4kxQaTcn9I5mdorMM0vyZcCgwk68dwYaAZbi7wxp-GRWCL9AODEJpi1wmHeVc9FVNY0QZqBONKV5Mr_/s400/Klien-Stokowski-mural-study-(web).jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438306195094497522" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 276px; " /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Erika Giovanna Klien's study for the Stolowski Mural</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As far as support for Klien, Ms. Stokowski commissioned the artist to paint a mural from their apartment on the top floor to the rooftop garden.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What remains today is Klien’s study for the project, a clever mechanical composition revealing the staircase and mechanical structures that lie beneath.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Her approach to the mural is not kinetic but more closely aligned to Leger’s Purism which she had favored at a previous time.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Klien mural does not measure up to her mature work of either her Kinetic style while in school or her fractured interpretations of New York City scenes as represented in her delicate watercolor ”New York, St. Marks Place” of 1930 or the black and white drawing "Times Square Subway Station" of 1931. In these works Klien seems to have taken the Kinetism and made it a part of the staccato experience of New York.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">These works are at once both hauntingly beautiful but also strangely lonely.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In both images the viewer is apart from the scene as</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">voyeur and observer.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Klien the immigrant from Austria was looking at this strange landscape with an astute eye and she managed to capture something about New York that few other artists could relay about that time and place.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The ever present hustle and bustle, the despair, the haunting beauty are all there in Klien’s depictions of these New York scenes.</span></span></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnYhMXQYUI0a01munZvmrcPlRoAk3cxYIEcsDrjTeZUk5AHt6UCFwLer26h8Q07YIpjggkjyAeXk326amWlsVSIs_ewsfDi9byd_8B3em1D67FgF4_zAdYurn1lmPmDqosfs3jp6w-X4rF/s1600-h/Klien-NY-74-St.-Marks-Place(web).jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnYhMXQYUI0a01munZvmrcPlRoAk3cxYIEcsDrjTeZUk5AHt6UCFwLer26h8Q07YIpjggkjyAeXk326amWlsVSIs_ewsfDi9byd_8B3em1D67FgF4_zAdYurn1lmPmDqosfs3jp6w-X4rF/s400/Klien-NY-74-St.-Marks-Place(web).jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438444484281309858" style="cursor: pointer; width: 227px; height: 400px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCCCCC;">........</span> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0u3pfIdpRdTaKBQsppnOACjFlMaX3qOj6_A7oAswDRtm_q6pwRFcl3jyfmZhKhs02QXSwp2KVYgssv56BH8ps_bbaOP8_9gbVNWkUtFc2d-Kmo431_MbBTXBzV8bpGiOipeVbIqAIsKDN/s1600-h/Klien-Time-Sq.-Subwat-Station-'31(web).jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0u3pfIdpRdTaKBQsppnOACjFlMaX3qOj6_A7oAswDRtm_q6pwRFcl3jyfmZhKhs02QXSwp2KVYgssv56BH8ps_bbaOP8_9gbVNWkUtFc2d-Kmo431_MbBTXBzV8bpGiOipeVbIqAIsKDN/s400/Klien-Time-Sq.-Subwat-Station-'31(web).jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438444610981922530" style="cursor: pointer; width: 278px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCCCCC;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCCCCC;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> .....</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Erika Giovanna Klien <i>New York St. Marks Place</i>, 1930</span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCCCCC;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> .....</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Erika Giovanna Klien <i>Times Square Subway Station</i>, 1931</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCCCCC;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCCCCC;">.................</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">watercolor on paper, 9" x 15.5"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCCCCC;">................................................</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">pencil and charcoal on paper, 14" x 20"</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCCCCC;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCCCCC;">.........................</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">private collection<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(204, 204, 204); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">...........................................................................</span></span>private collection, Cologne</span></span>
</span></span></span><div></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">1. Erika Giovanna Klien by Marietta Mautner Markhof, (English translation by Dr. John Matthew Mitchell),</span></span><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> ©</span></span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> 2001 Gemaldegalerie Michale Kovacek, page 10</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">2. Jahresberichte der Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule 1919-1920 “Erneuer der geistigen Grundlagen des rhythmischen Gestaltens” a lecture held in the winter of 1919 -1920. The Life and Work of Erika Giovanna Klien, </span></span><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">©</span></span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">1989 Rachel Adler Gallery</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">3. The Societe Anonyme and the Dreier Bequest at Yale University: a Catalogue Raisonne, Robert L. Herbert, </span></span><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">© 1984 Yale University Press.</span></span></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span><p></p> <!--EndFragment--></div></div>Rob Meredith • Sabbaticalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660249766884548862noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9084715753573974035.post-64695692650941796842010-01-26T13:16:00.000-08:002010-06-07T14:37:45.500-07:00Konrad Cramer and Mr. Stieglitz<div style="text-align: center;">
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmKihWwSilYKw2941LeLHnA8mC-3aanoTnX2X0XI58o0x7c00VqyKMD-x0t_4QkGkB_cHEw9icJ4mSyziqi4tSvF2arn42BiLkcLKu5yod2hLrxY4kOwJfXXWofVDyGyIReKFMpqN7XhAW/s1600-h/Konrad+Cramer+(Stieglitz+photo).jpg"></a><div style="text-align: center;">
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9W1IwYCfSOMloBuxk40rJwoefrf8XEVgiNw3l8U4ok4H89elrieCN6VJ45PsUZcL1fZ_p9mYv-7R9Zr-dheP4BvG0PBYmYl5rBDSxWGzBCqaCXLOs0V0GCkpiKUFv333g1Jy6Y0DT3aTW/s1600-h/Konrad+Cramer+(Steglitz+photo)+2.jpg"></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">In the first two decades of the 20<sup>th</sup> century there were few “Modernists” among the painters and sculptors in America.<span> </span>This country was behind the times compared to an expanding avant-garde in Europe with special attention given to the recent developments in Cubism taking place in France.<span> </span>Picasso’s notorious <a href="http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=79766"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">Les Demoiselles d'Avignon</span></a>, arguably the first “Cubist" painting, had been completed in 1907 but was not seen by the public until 1916.<span> </span>Picasso had shown his novel canvas to friends and had received mixed reviews.<span> </span>Braque and his dealer, Daniel Henry Kahnweiler were supportive of the new work, but his friend and life long rival, Matisse was not.<span></span>The more lyrical Matisse considered Picasso’s sharp angles and masked whores “hideous” and the work an assault on the efforts of other modern painters.<span> </span>Picasso would roll up the painting and keep it out of site for years and his direction took a tamer route before arriving at Analytical Cubism.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">At about the same time Picasso was experimenting with Les Demoiselles, Alfred Stieglitz, along with Edward Steichen, were working in New York City to elevate the craft of photography to the same heights as painting and sculpture. They were pioneers in the Photo-Secession movement and began a gallery on 5<sup>th</sup> Avenue to showcase the work of early photographers. In 1908 the gallery shifted across the street and took up the name 291, that of its address on Fifth Ave.<span></span>Stieglitz broadened the venue and began showing works by the European Modernists.<span> </span>Auguste Rodin exhibited a series of watercolors and Matisse exhibited his first works in America at 291.<span></span>Stieglitz had established a beachhead of modern art in America. He envisioned the gallery as a place where dialogue between artists and patrons could exist and where new ideas about art could be available to the public.<span> </span>Alfred Stieglitz would persistently and slowly change the way America felt about Modern Art and provided one of the only places in New York for young American artists to see modern European art.<span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;">
</span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNCdpiLDZQQcO6r7rvGEV7whqiUZE24TuocMCuql4FN-amyco724p6yFjo3NKtJy6_Io_XuQjwN1NkScBUyAfjIjWusG3K9tyRBqfbM2izrWo_yzJ1wySZS1HBt0OqdsbmEOVry5t_WcHE/s1600-h/291-Bancusi-1014.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 292px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNCdpiLDZQQcO6r7rvGEV7whqiUZE24TuocMCuql4FN-amyco724p6yFjo3NKtJy6_Io_XuQjwN1NkScBUyAfjIjWusG3K9tyRBqfbM2izrWo_yzJ1wySZS1HBt0OqdsbmEOVry5t_WcHE/s400/291-Bancusi-1014.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431161387347466178" /></a> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Brancusi Exhibition at “291” in 1916</span></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">photograph by Alfred Stieglitz, published in </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Camera Work</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"> <!--StartFragment--> </span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">The Young Konrad Cramer came to New York as a German immigrant. He had recently married a young American art student, Florence Ballin, in 1911 and settled in New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He soon became an acquaintance and friend of Alfred Stieglitz, as he was most likely drawn to 291.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The two shared a common history. Stieglitz who was a first generation American of German-Jewish parents had moved back to Karlsruhe, Germany with his family in 1881 when he was a teen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Kramer had studied at Karlsruhe Academy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Their common background and love on modern art must have generated many interesting conversations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Cramer also enjoyed photography and over the course of his career he devoted more and more time to this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At one point he felt his pursuit of painting was exhausted, but he was invigorated by the photographic medium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Much of his passion for photography could have been derived from his association with Stieglitz. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">Konrad often came to “291” and in 1913 he visited the gallery to see an impressive collection of watercolors by the French painter Francis Picabia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Picabia was in New York City, for the important 1913 Armory Exhibition. He was the only Cubist to attend the exhibition and was able to witness his works hanging alongside those by Kandinsky, Picasso, Matisse and the controversial Marcel Duchamp with his painting <i>Nude Descending a Staircase</i>. The public furor surrounding the exhibition was considerable, but Stieglitz was impressed with the work. He purchased Kandinsky's <i><a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">The Garden of Love</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;"> (</span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">Improvisation No. 27</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#006600;">)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; "> and offered Picabia a one man show at "291."Three days after the close of the Armory Exhibition Picabia's show opened at "291." The works were completed during his stay and represent the artist's interpretations of New York. The show was influential to Cramer and he immediately wrote his wife to suggest that she see the exhibition. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">1.</span></span></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">Stieglitz was helpful to Cramer’s career. Although he never offered Konrad an exhibition at 291, he did place him in a number of group exhibitions he curated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Cramer was expanding his own photographic career, experimenting with the possibilities within the photographic medium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He was a proponent of the new 35mm Leica camera and started the “School of Miniature Photography” in Woodstock (miniature because of the “small” 35mm negative size). Cramer also started one of first photography courses offered in a college program at Bard College.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Stieglitz wrote his letter of recommendation for the position. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">Perhaps the most endearing connection between these two artists exists in a series of portraits taken by Stieglitz in the gallery at 291.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>After the session Cramer writes about the experience and demystifies the process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He makes Stieglitz seem to be a magician with the medium, using the simplest of tools and adjusting light from an overhead skylight with the simplest of techniques.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Here is Konrad’s observation of Stieglitz’s photographic method.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> <div style="text-align: center;"><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:27.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"></span></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">The Equipment was extremely simple, almost primitive. He used an 8 x 10-inch view camera, its sagging bellows held up by pieces of string and adhesive tape. The lens was a Steinheil, no shutter. The portraits were made in the smaller of the two rooms at 291 beneath a small skylight.<span> </span>He used Hammer plates with about three second exposures. During the exposure, Stieglitz manipulated a large, white reflector to balance the overhead light. He made about nine such exposures, and then we retired to the washroom which doubled as a darkroom. The plates were developed in a single tray. From the two best negatives he made four platinum contact prints, exposing the frame on the fire escape.<span> </span>He would tend to his prints, with more care than a cook does her biscuits.<span> </span>The finished print finally received a coat of wax for added gloss and protection.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">2.</span></span></blockquote><!--StartFragment--><!--EndFragment--> <o:p></o:p><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;">
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmKihWwSilYKw2941LeLHnA8mC-3aanoTnX2X0XI58o0x7c00VqyKMD-x0t_4QkGkB_cHEw9icJ4mSyziqi4tSvF2arn42BiLkcLKu5yod2hLrxY4kOwJfXXWofVDyGyIReKFMpqN7XhAW/s1600-h/Konrad+Cramer+(Stieglitz+photo).jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmKihWwSilYKw2941LeLHnA8mC-3aanoTnX2X0XI58o0x7c00VqyKMD-x0t_4QkGkB_cHEw9icJ4mSyziqi4tSvF2arn42BiLkcLKu5yod2hLrxY4kOwJfXXWofVDyGyIReKFMpqN7XhAW/s400/Konrad+Cramer+(Stieglitz+photo).jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431162593986991874" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 353px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"291"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Alfred Stieglitz © George Eastman House</span></span>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqDKEkLsuk8F4cMiVpzSuAukz81S3OdUfy5ZIOKp2ihSeORd0CSNdznv3JoASpxuw28RkhmovZ7YMbMFBQPGkG2g7gRmEB03Bwi5U43bm9Bb9YSlj4NynzGLiJ41lPzAdej8LMZCLYzS4L/s1600-h/Konrad+Cramer+(Steglitz+photo)+retouched.jpg"></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqDKEkLsuk8F4cMiVpzSuAukz81S3OdUfy5ZIOKp2ihSeORd0CSNdznv3JoASpxuw28RkhmovZ7YMbMFBQPGkG2g7gRmEB03Bwi5U43bm9Bb9YSlj4NynzGLiJ41lPzAdej8LMZCLYzS4L/s1600-h/Konrad+Cramer+(Steglitz+photo)+retouched.jpg" style="text-decoration: none;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqDKEkLsuk8F4cMiVpzSuAukz81S3OdUfy5ZIOKp2ihSeORd0CSNdznv3JoASpxuw28RkhmovZ7YMbMFBQPGkG2g7gRmEB03Bwi5U43bm9Bb9YSlj4NynzGLiJ41lPzAdej8LMZCLYzS4L/s400/Konrad+Cramer+(Steglitz+photo)+retouched.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431162321313726802" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 306px; height: 384px; " /></a> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Konrad Cramer at "291" 1914 </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> Alfred Stieglitz © George Eastman House</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"></span></span></p><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><div style="text-align: justify;">What is interesting in these two photographs is how Stieglitz poses the painter in front of different framed pictures in the gallery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He carefully aligns the picture frame with the edge of the photograph, making them appear as two parallel rectangles that hold the figure in suspension in a shallow three-dimensional space. Cramer is positioned diagonally in each picture resting his elbow on the shelf that ran the perimeter of the room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This helps to stabilize the sitter during the long three-second pose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Konrad also seems to have a fixed view as if told by Stieglitz to look at a specific point on the opposite wall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The overall effect shows the power behind a Stieglitz portrait; posed, framed and contemplative it allows us to look into the subject and find meaning in the soul of this particular artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Both Stieglitz and Cramer seem to have reached an understanding at this moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The photographer capturing the essence of the painter as the painter relays the simple method of the photographer in his description of the process.</div><o:p></o:p></span><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">Postscript:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">It is surprising to note how few individuals there were in New York City in the first decades of the 20<sup>th</sup> century involved with progressive ideas with a commitment to shaping the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Parkhurst, Cramer, and Stieglitz were certainly three such individuals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Their lives intersected because of their visions for a more open, accepting, and to them, natural society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Parkhurst was life long friends with the artist, Georgia O’Keefe, Alfred Stieglitz’s wife. Parkhurst remained involved in the small world of modernist art in New York City through these and other friendships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">In my research I am still searching for more answers to questions about individual story lines that keep crossing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A case in point is a recent discovery in the Dalton Archives from the December 1933 issue of the Daltonian, Volume 1 Number II.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The school was preparing for the annual Christmas Pageant, an important event at the school from that time, and I was caught by one of the news items: “Along with the pageant comes the Christmas card contest, from which is chosen the official school card. This year the judges were Dorothy Brett and Mr. Alfred Steiglitz [sic].<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The two cards chosen, one to be used for the cover of the pageant program, were two exceptionally beautiful ones by Mariam Rous.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">So Stieglitz, the champion of modern art in this country and one of the world masters of modern photography helped select the student card for the Christmas pageant at Dalton in 1933 - how about that.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">1. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> Tom Wolf, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Konrad Cramer: His Art and His Context</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> (1985 New York University Institute of Fine Arts Ph.D. dissertation)</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">2. Katherine Hoffman, <span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Stieglitz A Beginning Light</span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">© </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> 2004 Yale University Press, page 276</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> <!--EndFragment--> </div> <!--EndFragment-->Rob Meredith • Sabbaticalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660249766884548862noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9084715753573974035.post-91215389759443004102010-01-10T16:09:00.000-08:002010-10-15T05:49:26.922-07:00Konrad Cramer Heads the Art Program at Parkhurst’s School<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;">Konrad Cramer and his wife, Florence Ballin had settled into the life of country artists as they moved to Woodstock, established studios and continued painting. The rural environment provided a rich experience for the young couple.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;">Konrad began teaching at The Woodstock School of Painting and Applied Arts and the Cramers began remodeling a pre-revolutionary house in nearby Bearsville.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;">Florence had established a shop, selling art books, prints, jewelry and antiques to supplement the couple’s income.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;">It was a productive and energetic time for them.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;">Life was simple, money sometimes scarce, but in comparison to their previous life in New York City, the rural setting allowed time to paint and provided an active social community.</span></span></div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">Some time before moving to Woodstock, Konrad had met Helen Parkhurst.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The two shared conversations regarding education, and Cramer may have spoken of his experiences while visiting Europe in the spring of 1920. While abroad, the artist had studied the educational methods used in the training of craftsmen and designers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Parkhurst must have been impressed with Cramer, as she asked him to join the faculty of her Children’s University School in its new quarters on Manhattan’s West 72<sup>nd</sup> Street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Cramer at first refused, preferring to continue his studio activities and Woodstock teaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But finally money became scarce, as Florence wrote in her diary at the time,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“we are damn broke.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Konrad acquiesced and accepted Parkhurst’s offer to teach in Manhattan. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">In the fall of 1927, Konrad Cramer became the head of the Children’s University School’s art department, framing the art program and becoming the first active artist to teach at the school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is not know how many classes or teachers were working at the school, but there are a few surviving photographs of the art room from 72<sup>nd</sup> street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They show multiple activities. While students in these photos are most likely posed, the picture does reveal the range of art activities that were offered at the school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Weaving and embroidery (sewing), drawing and painting, sculpture, and ceramics, and printmaking seem to be offered to the children.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSWk5RJzY0ZgmdVqmQW5tN5t4W2meRropIVJ-WH2YiFo0mgKTfK2hU75kYx_eaXw0lryAZYgxR9vTsXsGIsDMl3hkOlXOWl0HN2RVbCTduhoPrF8oWsRiUH2rt5WYY-5xfsbHy45VJqUVC/s400/Children's+University+art+room2+(B.L.).jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425271000082290322" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 194px; " /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Arts Students from the Children's University School</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Josephine Boardman Crane Papers Relating to the Dalton School. </span></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library</span></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><!--StartFragment--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">Cramer dedicated himself to developing art curriculum. He spent his weekdays in New York City and traveled north to relax and enjoy weekends in Woodstock. Because of the busy schedule, he was unable to produce any new art while teaching. Florence laments the fact that her busy husband has not done any painting for a long time. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">Konrad managed to stay at The Children’s University School for two years. At times his wife Florence also came to New York and conducted classes at the school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Cramer finally decided not to return to teaching at Parkhurst’s school for the fall semester of 1928.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The artist must have parted on good terms for when Parkhurst decides to expand school facilities and move to a new location on East 89<sup>th</sup> Street, building a new building there, Konrad Cramer is commissioned to paint murals for the classrooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is at this point that The Children’s University School is transformed into The Dalton School, taking the name from the “Dalton Plan” which was the foundation for Parkhurst’s educational model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The name “Dalton” comes from Mrs. Josephine Boardman Crane’s home in Dalton, Massachusetts where Parkhurst first formulated her educational philosophy, with Crane’s encouragement, as she privately educated Crane’s three children. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">When Cramer begins to work on the Dalton murals he returns to cubism, yet retains much of the dynamism of New York City.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Despite the fact that we only have documentation of one mural constructed for one of the 5th floor mathematics classrooms, there is evidence there were two. In Florence Cramer’s diary there is a reference to multiple murals at the school, </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;">“</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;">For a time he was head of the Art Department of the Children’s University School in New York, and later did mural abstractions, in oils, for two mathematics rooms in this school.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;">This mural was paid for by Mrs. Victor Harris, and Cramer was assisted by Woodstock artist, Lorenzo D. “Tode” Brower.”</span></span></span></blockquote><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;">Though the mural does not survive today, we do have Cramer’s preparatory study, an unfinished drawing, showing the geometric composition and beginning to hint at his color choices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The final painting was estimated to be 3’ x 9.5’ and has the top of a doorway cut into the bottom edge of the mural, just to the left of the center.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Cramer builds a dynamic composition of carefully scribed lines, concentric marks and architectural details. His imagery represents a modern Manhattan at the beginning of its jazz age – skyscraping towers, an airplane ready for take off, the luxury of a fine Ruxton motor car with it’s spare tire resting on the front fender as it speeds uptown, all displayed in a cinematic flux. The discernable elements of airplane and automobile erode to the geometries of engineer’s drawings showing the draftsman and mathematician’s craft behind these modern forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Cramer provides inspiration for the daydreaming student showing the beauty and potential behind mere number study.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This work is unquestionably the most avant guard mural to be commissioned in New York at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The works of famous Mexican Muralists and those by Thomas Hart Benton and others would embellish the next generation of skyscrapers, yet would come a decade or two after Cramer’s work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The significance of Cramer’s modernist approach to imagery, a cross between the pulse of the city and the mechanics that lies underneath were surprising. A momentous, though largely unrecognized chapter in modern art, known only to the children who took their classes in this mathematics classroom for three and a half decades. A later head of school, Donald Barr, removed the mural in the 1960s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is the only work like it in Cramer’s oeuvre and seems his only attempt at mural painting.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3vx9tEOVlnyE4H36YKABW_adK9IrGJ_H4D4IURPYp0A43rzhP3CNaSkju5OV4iS01lj4w8M3jUkrkrKFXT97EiD5a4ILb68Ew5NziEQkDg4fUvh3VxohNk_tNJscXfuuotSSVEXtQFOSB/s400/Cramer+Dalton+Math+Mural.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425273493759664658" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 126px; " /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"><b>Konrad Cramer</b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"><b>Study for the Dalton School Mathematics Classroom</b></span></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"><b>mixed media on paper</b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"><b>Courtesy of Franklin Riehlman Fine Art</b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZHq2VG02MhswCuaA9TQGa-8mZBCX0uHcHN6U6kJc6Bk7pGa_pPCScLZGcOQ1Cq1qnYwgalzYb8P8_JrKMuVdk1Vqg_zQ9YfoWRe86tqn5p2GGyJVHbSWsie95dnGxx83wmhEwgL1eMlaY/s400/Cramer+Dalton+Mural+detail+1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425276275490697074" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 300px; " /></span></span></p></span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXwESmhLt7wz0uclC7IVQNom9KGBSak-qEbeHMkTcxTpr20fLkUWqXeNiTwDXpLuxYbeqaZ8Gemp4NXB7qRW0iLwTd_y0UnZRXdF1MmCkOKv1oplXz72fhDmZF-f8yr0D0q1Ul_wVpRY1h/s1600-h/1929+Ruxton+add.jpg" style="text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><b>Study for the Dalton School Mathematics Classroom</b></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><b> (detail showing Ruxton Automobile)</b></span></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9YK9529ouy62Pm9Dw4QWV4OJYR58NVMZWFEro4oQNNXpu90E4vYEtXyDyyZ-q_JyPAG5g7j5gybRRC63uhPq9bTOEoiI4MixY4EEW4y5b43H7snkJK-rRm1nCp6QLGzOiUa4bxR7xHcZ0/s1600-h/Cramer+Dalton+Mural+detail+1.jpg"></a></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">
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</span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyO721y8x6BqUYdghWhdnZ_ZhMTbP6lqbtEdgiIB2U4bckExLpf6NkOyJkUreQtQCuGtnsRZAKiy7arkAnx5kw4vWHdwNSCW13AsjdHQVl6wXrX2-cb15eiE5FniTFOZwel3tJDcCy-zTU/s400/1929+Ruxton+add.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425276665754527314" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 300px; " /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><b>Advertisement for Ruxton Automobile</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:16px;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJF5J9TE5h9Nfz1wDAQ60RAKGiirttaje11l_jVQL3Sj-RgrD-VGC1_Z6GJGz_DAQ2xS35jYgSXwmwbCvsxetvXlErqj1HT9xz3YIbou3qP9iCvYLRywXqXczaZennSn13iao-p4aXMegZ/s1600-h/Cramer+Dalton+Mural+detail+2.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJF5J9TE5h9Nfz1wDAQ60RAKGiirttaje11l_jVQL3Sj-RgrD-VGC1_Z6GJGz_DAQ2xS35jYgSXwmwbCvsxetvXlErqj1HT9xz3YIbou3qP9iCvYLRywXqXczaZennSn13iao-p4aXMegZ/s400/Cramer+Dalton+Mural+detail+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425276864210164962" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 300px; " /></a><b><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyO721y8x6BqUYdghWhdnZ_ZhMTbP6lqbtEdgiIB2U4bckExLpf6NkOyJkUreQtQCuGtnsRZAKiy7arkAnx5kw4vWHdwNSCW13AsjdHQVl6wXrX2-cb15eiE5FniTFOZwel3tJDcCy-zTU/s1600-h/1929+Ruxton+add.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; "></a></b></span><b><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyO721y8x6BqUYdghWhdnZ_ZhMTbP6lqbtEdgiIB2U4bckExLpf6NkOyJkUreQtQCuGtnsRZAKiy7arkAnx5kw4vWHdwNSCW13AsjdHQVl6wXrX2-cb15eiE5FniTFOZwel3tJDcCy-zTU/s1600-h/1929+Ruxton+add.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; "></a></b><b><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyO721y8x6BqUYdghWhdnZ_ZhMTbP6lqbtEdgiIB2U4bckExLpf6NkOyJkUreQtQCuGtnsRZAKiy7arkAnx5kw4vWHdwNSCW13AsjdHQVl6wXrX2-cb15eiE5FniTFOZwel3tJDcCy-zTU/s1600-h/1929+Ruxton+add.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; "></a></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 238); font-family:arial, serif;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXwESmhLt7wz0uclC7IVQNom9KGBSak-qEbeHMkTcxTpr20fLkUWqXeNiTwDXpLuxYbeqaZ8Gemp4NXB7qRW0iLwTd_y0UnZRXdF1MmCkOKv1oplXz72fhDmZF-f8yr0D0q1Ul_wVpRY1h/s1600-h/1929+Ruxton+add.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><b>Study for the Dalton School Mathematics Classroom</b></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><b> (detail showing airplane)</b></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCCCCC;">•</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Though Konrad Cramer’s time at Dalton was short, his influence set the groundwork for the importance of including art as part of every child’s education. Parkhurst continued the program and as she did with Cramer, she looked for individuals who represented a new wave of thinking and teaching to influence her school and the young minds of her students.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4HYaqVPh7g1xbB5J77preb4c6B3RhCIBdE66jgPpVZmNDcbClIRubikRaDp7H74UCjik_FX6RwHDNFSOVHmNcJgOCoaUXPJ8V2AtjeKUA9L50V1AKWJa_b5YdcLr1z3Gpj-pITDiPdfaH/s400/Cramer+Dalton+Mural+IFA.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425300310829423570" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 262px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><b>Dalton School 5th Floor Mathematics Classroom</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><b>A corner of Konrad Cramer's mural can be seen in the upper right of the photograph.</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#330033;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><b>© The Dalton School Archives</b></span></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcFgNVCXMPu0cY8bzCe9F4TXulcTElLA6Amvvlrfr7NHxJZQciTATAqqeH6P921lXeITcY0Ghk-FL4vxyzGn_K-1KcAs8Yhi0Sw_LllUk925ALlvUlouhjaYyduwnof9zKxC7goZ_9i170/s1600-h/Children's+University+School+Art+room+10W72(B.L.).jpg"></a></span><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> <p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Rob Meredith • Sabbaticalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660249766884548862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9084715753573974035.post-76556116926737998572010-01-03T10:57:00.000-08:002010-01-15T19:45:23.691-08:00Konrad Cramer (1888 Wurtzburg, Germany - 1963 Woodstock, NY)<div style="text-align: center;">
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHIPzk1vTd7mVoTb_VKRMIo7lZIaUxaeBt9VFS842vDjTFpD_sMvT8-axyM4CE4OTCC4ybwumjG1DaRcJUaCwFHRgtHEauhjw2cZcPDkELp2W7M391EiBAYZpdVT79SSHxeF4htvivWe5/s1600-h/d1874159x.jpg"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.michaelrosenfeldart.com/images/image.php?i=7636"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 352px; height: 450px;" src="http://www.michaelrosenfeldart.com/images/image.php?i=7636" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;">Konrad Cramer</span></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;">Self Protrait, 1925</span></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;">Oil on Masonite</span></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;">20" x 16"</span></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#330033;">Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery</span></span></b></span></div><div><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Konrad Cramer was born in 1888, in Wurtzburg Germany.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">He studied at </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Karlsruhe Kunstakademie in Munich from 1906 -08</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Kramer found his interactions with fellow students to be much more stimulating than many of the art classes at the Academy.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">He did, however, study with </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Ludwig Schid-Reutte who most likely introduced him to cubism, an approach that would remain central to Cramer’s work throughout his life.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">In 1909 and 1910 he had the opportunity to see two exhibitions of French artists in Munich, among them Picasso and Braque, along with post-impressionist paintings by Cezanne, Seurat and others.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">He was part of the bourgeoning Blaue Reiter group where artists were beginning to exhibit a new form of Expressionist art. Kramer was particularly influenced by the spiritual and improvisational nature of Wassily Kandinsky’s paintings of the period.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Cramer visited Franz Marc’s studio, bringing along his young American fiancé Florence Ballin before they married in London and moved to New York.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">In New York City he befriended the photographer and gallery owner, Alfred Stieglitz, who studied at the Karlsruhe, Realgymnasium in Munich in 1881.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Stieglitz’s gallery 291 was the only place New Yorkers could find the contemporary art from Europe and later its counterparts in America. It was 291 that established what we now consider to be the model of a private contemporary art gallery. Cramer maintained a close lifelong friendship with Stieglitz. He contributed to the periodical Camera Work and had his portrait taken by the photographer, offering an insightful description of the simple techniques employed by Stieglitz to make a photographic portrait.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">In America, on the heels of the controversial </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/~museum/armory/entrance.html">Armory exhibition of 1913</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/~museum/armory/entrance.html">,</a> Cramer became an important early figure of abstract modern painting, developing a style closely related to the works of Kandinsky. In November of 1913 he held his first exhibition of 6 non-objective paintings at the M</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">acDowell Club at 108 West 55</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">th</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> Street.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">This 10 day exhibition represented some of the most radical paintings shown at MacDowell at the time.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">A number of paintings are titled “Improvisation” a reference to the work being generated by Kandinsky in Munich around same time.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHIPzk1vTd7mVoTb_VKRMIo7lZIaUxaeBt9VFS842vDjTFpD_sMvT8-axyM4CE4OTCC4ybwumjG1DaRcJUaCwFHRgtHEauhjw2cZcPDkELp2W7M391EiBAYZpdVT79SSHxeF4htvivWe5/s400/d1874159x.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425295111387944674" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 334px; " /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><b>Konrad Cramer</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><b>Improvisation, circa 1911 - 1913</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><b>Oil on Board, 16" x 18 3/4"</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><b><a href="http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID=1874159&sid=57a9d48b-2858-4a2d-8aad-f149a7f0c36e"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">Christie's Sale October 4th, 2000</span></a></b></span></span></p></span><p></p></div>Rob Meredith • Sabbaticalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660249766884548862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9084715753573974035.post-73544471702224791222010-01-03T09:08:00.000-08:002010-02-15T07:35:09.201-08:00Discovering Early Artists at Dalton<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial, serif;">During my research I have focused on 5 avant guard artists who contributed to the early development of the art program at Dalton. These individuals evolved highly personal styles rooted in the cubist and post cubist experiments of early modernism. They approached art making with a fervor and commitment to the new vocabulary of abstraction, moving away from the stagnancy of the 19th century art academies. These 5 Dalton artist / teachers from the 1920s-1940s represent a diversified group, bringing various permutations of modernism to New York City from art centers in Munich, Vienna, Kiev (by way of Paris), and Mexico City. When they arrived in New York they were part of a small group of contemporary artists striving to bring new ideas to a rather provincial American art world.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Helen Parkhurst must have been attracted to these individuals and their dedication to a progressive modernist spirit. Like her, they were ready to bring new ideas to the discussion and to reevaluate the status quo. Parkhurst deliberately wanted a global approach to learning, with many opinions and experiences to help broaden the learning base.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dalton’s ties to modern art may have come from Helen Parkhurst’s close association with Mrs. Josephine Boardman Crane who was Parkhurst’s unflagging supporter, confidante, and spokesperson for the Dalton Plan. Crane had employed Parkhurst to educate her own three children in Dalton, Massachusetts and so believed in her theories of progressive education that she provided the financial underpinnings for The Children’s University School that opened on West 72nd Street in New York City. Crane moved to New York in 1922 after the death of her husband, U.S. senator and governor of Massachusetts, W. Murray Crane. Mrs. Crane would become one of the founding members of the Museum of Modern Art and was elected to the Board of Trustees in October 1929. As well as amassing a personal art collection, she also opened her home on Park Avenue for a weekly literary salon, which attracted writers and poets of the time (Marianne Moore and Gertrude Stein to name two).</div><div style="text-align: justify;">
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I would like to believe it was in the bond between Parkhurst, the educator, and Crane, the New York philanthropist, and their collaboration on the founding of the school, which eventually became Dalton, that included a fundamental component in the arts. Their determination was that this way for children to explore and express personal creativity is so important in the education of the whole child and as a citizen of the world.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Parkhurst definitely saw the values of the arts in education. She personally hired all the early art teachers and even recruited Konrad Cramer to be one of the first department heads in 1926 (he was eventually commissioned to paint mural(s) for the new building on 89th Street in 1929). The five art teachers were:</div></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCCCCC;">•</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Konran Cramer</b> studied in Munich and taught at Dalton from 1926 – 1928. He was also commissioned to painted a mural for the mathematics classroom in 1929 for the newly constructed building at 108 East 89th Street.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCCCCC;">.</span></div></span><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Erika Giovanna Klien</b> studied with Franz Cizek, the "Father of modern art education" in Vienna. She taught at Dalton between 1932 – 1935.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCCCCC;">.</span></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Vaclav Vytlacil</b> was born New York. He was one of the first Americans to study with Hans Hofmann in Munich. Vytlacil taught at Dalton from 1937 – 1943. He was also part of the faculty from 1947 -1954.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204); ">.</span></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Alexander Archipenkpo</b> studied in Kiev, Ukraine before moving to Paris and then Berlin. In 1923 he emigrated to the United States. Archipenko taught at Dalton in the early 1940s.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204); ">.</span></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Rufino Tamayo</b> was born in in 1899 in Oxaca de Juarez, Mexico. He moved to Mexico City in 1911 and then to New York City in 1926. Tamayo taught at Dalton from 1940 - 1947.</div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
</div></div>Rob Meredith • Sabbaticalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660249766884548862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9084715753573974035.post-52193568665119054992009-12-20T18:24:00.000-08:002010-01-26T17:25:11.041-08:00Introduction<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhik6kcEaRhamn3F2IqMFeG-Y0NYc-2FtjZlvpLrhixAJsypfc78ZHEdUMtXeEOLO_H7EKDNfrfGAiRvzJgikZcXW6Cf0YdYD90F9OMbTYfkHNF48ntIioPw5z7gsgv7YiYWnyKWFApxayj/s1600-h/dad1+-+cropped+small.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhik6kcEaRhamn3F2IqMFeG-Y0NYc-2FtjZlvpLrhixAJsypfc78ZHEdUMtXeEOLO_H7EKDNfrfGAiRvzJgikZcXW6Cf0YdYD90F9OMbTYfkHNF48ntIioPw5z7gsgv7YiYWnyKWFApxayj/s400/dad1+-+cropped+small.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431222350747984722" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">I have been a faculty member at The Dalton School since 1978. Over these three decades I have been involved with the art department as well as participated in numerous independent programs and initiatives. Our school was first established in 1919 by progressive educator Helen </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Parkhurst. It was first known as The Children’s University School located at 10 West 72</span></span></span><sup><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">nd </span></span></span></sup><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Street in New York before expanding, changing its name to The Dalton School and moving in 1929 to its permanent residence at 108 East 89</span></span></span><sup><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">th</span></span></span></sup><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> Street (currently with two additional nearby locations). </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Parkhurst established The Dalton Laboratory Plan, building on the progressive foundations of her mentor, Maria Montessori. The Plan championed freedom and child centric learning and included emphasis on language and the arts. Today, The Dalton Plan is represented around the world and is still a model for an evolving progressive pedagogy.</span></span></span></div></span><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">As my own history with Dalton has grown, so has my curiosity with regards to my predecessors, those early artist / teachers who gave shape to the art program and school, while struggling to make a meaningful contribution to the art world. I have been granted a sabbatical leave from teaching for the academic year of 2009 -2010 with a purpose of investigating those early individuals and to give voice and recognition to their early contributions. </span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">It is my aim to use this blog to be part of my research process, a place to chart progress, and organize information. I am also excited to share what I find about those first art pioneers who, like Parkhurst represent new thinking for a new time in America. Many names are forgotten, but their contributions were substantial.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Rob Meredith</span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div>Rob Meredith • Sabbaticalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660249766884548862noreply@blogger.com0