Prep School Art

Randy suggested I check out the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover.  "Those prep schools have a lot of money, you know."  Tom and I visited before he dropped me off in Boston for my return train to New York after celebrating Audrey's 70th birthday.   

Like many adolescents, expatriate American artist Peter Saul was a big fan of Mad magazine stocked by Shakespeare of Company in Paris.  It, Rocky & Bullwinkle and Woody Allen probably were the earliest influences on my sense of humor.

"Man in Electric Chair" (1964)

Although an exhibit called "Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946–1962" had wet my appetite (perhaps because I was confusing it with an MGM musical),  it featured mostly abstract art, not my favorite thing.  I I did enjoy a sculpture by Shinkichi Tajiri.

"White Line" by Sam Francis (1958) &
"Lament for Lady (for Billie Holiday) by Shinkichi Tajiri (1953)

"Uranus" by Paul Jenkins (1956)

Apparently the Addison has enough clout in the art world to borrow items from other institutions for its exhibitions.  This work by Leon Golub belongs to MoMA.

"Torso, III"  (1960)

Several years ago, I learned about the centrality of the barbershop in Black male politics at the Greenwood Rising Museum in Tulsa, where visitors can sit in one thanks to virtual reality.

"Barbershop" by Haywood "Bill" Rivers (1950)

Emil Cadoo used multiple exposures in his photography.

Untitled  (ca 1960)

Boris Lurie spent time in Buchenwald before emigrating to the United States in 1946.  Much of his work, often controversial, refracted his Holocaust experience through a contemporary pop culture lens including a collage that juxtaposed concentration camp bodies with a pin-up girl.

"Rocks Is Legs Is Breasts" (1951-52)

Herbert Gentry resided at New York City's Chelsea Hotel for 30 years after returning from Europe.

"Chez Honey" (1949)

Another exhibit paired paintings by Kay WalkingStick, a contemporary Cherokee artist, with works from the Hudson River School on loan from the New York Historical Society.  I much preferred the latter.  If I were an art critic, that opinion probably would get me cancelled.

"Four Portraits of North American Indians" by Albert Bierstadt (1859)

Walt Whitman was a big fan of Jesse Talbot.

"Indian on a Cliff"  (ca 1840s)

I wondered if recent retrospectives of Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper in New York City museums influenced the Addison's choice of works to display from its permanent collection.

"The West Wind" by Winslow Homer (1891)

"Manhattan Bridge Loop" by Edward Hopper (1928)

Charles Prendergast did not ring a bell but his work reminds me of Florine Stettheimer's. His brother Maurice painted, too.

"Hill Town" by Charles Prendergast (1928)

I recently discovered "America Today" an incredible room of murals by Thomas Hart Benton at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The painting below reminded me of the time I spent driving on the Great Cattle Highway near Amarillo during my Seattle road trip.

"Cattle Loading, West Texas" (1928-29)