Sunday, February 22, 2009

Annual Exhibit: 1930

Karl Ouren



Digging through a Cowbell from 1930,
I've come across the list of exhibitors
from the Palette and Chisel
Annual Members' Show.

Could our current newsletter dare to claim:

"Beside the Art Institute and one or two kindred organizations in the east, no other art organizations in America can boast of a series of annual exhibitions approaching either in number or quality those of the Palette and Chisel Club."


It's also interesting to note how many paintings depict either New Orleans or Brown County.





No attempt has been made to find images
of the exact paintings that were shown,
but
I have tried to show something
from each of the painters involved.



Oskar Gross




Oscar B. Erickson




Othmar Hoffler




Arnold Turtle







Karl Brandner




James Topping




Stark Davis


Charles Kellner




Oscar Soellner






Edward T. Grigware



J. Jeffrey Grant





C. Curry Bohm









Anthony Buchta


Andrew Dobos




Roy Keister



Robert Kilbert





Louis J. Kaep






N. P. Steinberg




Holger W. Jensen



Maurice Greenberg






Our Thirty-sixth Annual Exhibition


Contains many Important Paintings

Beside the Art Institute and one or two kindred organizations in the east, no other art organizations in America can boast of a series of annual exhibitions approaching either in number or quality those of the Palette and Chisel Club. It’s annual exhibition was one of the earliest functions of the Club, and while the number and merit of the works shown has, of course, varied as years went by, we can look back to each occasion not only as showing individual examples of sterling quality but for highly creditable ensembles.

Our current exhibition, the Thirty-sixth, contains fewer pictures than usual and no sculpture, but there are works of outstanding importance. The hanging is excellent, thre being no crowding, and the appearance of our newly decorated rooms is extremely pleasing. Roy H. Collins, Charles J. Kilgore Jr., and Francis Chapin kindly acted as jury of selection.

Instead of confining our review to a mention of a few names we have seen in a newspaper, we will now follow our usual custom of giving a “gallery tour” for the benefit of friends and members who may be away from the city and unable to see for themselves.

Hanging against the front window is the full length self portrait of N. P. Steinberg, which he calls “Autobiography” and in which the artist portrays himself standing before an easel.

Then, on the south wall, come Louis J. Kaep’s “Street in the Old Town, Tunis,” strong, simple and with an oriental flavor; Louis Weiner’s “San Domingo Corn Dance.” A ceremony of a tribe of Indians of the southwest, and Arnold Turtle’s small but richly colored landscape, “Summer.”

West of the door are a still life of dried leaves and seed pods shown against shelves of books, called “Winter Bouquet,” by C. H. Cooke; a half length “Portrait of Leo Marzolo” by Fred G. Gray which he has been much commended; a rural landscape called “Village Church” by Karl C. Brandner, in which the white meeting house and diminutive “God’s Acre” are at the left of a country road and the village homes and stores at the right and beyond; Othmar Hoffler’s figure composition “Mimi” in which a beautiful Breton girl stands behind a table with two fishes; “Along the Bank”, an autumn scene bright with turning foliage by Oscar B. Erickson, and a well considered “portrait of Mrs. Henry L. Engle” by Oskar Gross

At the west end of the room are one of Karl Ouren’s Norwegian scenes, “From Lofoten”, a little harbor with red buildings on the wharves and at the back a steep hill with sun-reddened peaks; then a view of “Royal Street, New Orleans”, in which Walter J. Bucholz has given a fine rendering of this picturesque thoroughfare. Over the mantel is the fine landscape “With the Summer Breeze” by James Topping, with its moving clouds casting shadows on a stretch of rolling country dotted with farm houses; at the right are an “Old Landmark”, a dilapidated barn and fence shown against a grey hill, by Karl C. Brandner, and a western scene , “The Narrows, Zion National Park” by Martin Lundgren, in which the pink and crimson walls of the canyon contrast with the green foliage along the creek bed.

On the north wall are a “Siamese Cat”, with bluish eyes, by Stark Davis and a view of old red buildings with green shutters in “The French Quarter”, New Orleans, by Walter J. Bucholz; a view across a brilliant red hill-country with rugged trees in the foreground, called “Just Hills” by Fred Larson; a faithful study of a man in a blue work-shirt seated by a bench with a saw in his hand, called “The Old Carpenter”, by Charles H. Kellner; a group of “Hungarian peasants” under a tree with a white farm house in the distance by Miklos Gaspar; another New Orleans street scene, “Pirate’s Alley” by Walter J. Bucholz; a side view of a nude seated on a dais, called “Study” by Arnold Turtle; a group of old farm buildings and men plowing on a hillside in the distance, typifying “March” by Oscar D. Soellner; “After the Rain”, a fall scene of a valley with stripped trees and farm buildings in the foreground by Edward T. Grigware; “Industry” a scene in a stone quarry with loaded cars at the foot of an incline and a derrick with steam up, by J. Jeffrey Grant; “Wet April,” in which C. Curry Bohm shows a farmer in an old-time buggy driving along a mud road past a group of farm buildings; “Dunes and Clouds”, by Anthony Buchta, a “Cloud Picture” with a low hill in the left foreground and a long, wide beach curving from the right toward the center, a pleasing arrangement for this style of landscape. The last painting on this wall is called “The Rising Storm” by Andrew Dobos, and shows a gleam of light falling through a rift in a cloud filled sky upon a brown field.

In the small gallery, “reading from left to right.” Are the “Wet Road,” by C. Curry Bohm, in which the village Main Street with its ruts and puddles leads toward hills in the background; “Cathedral Alley,” a New Orleans scene with whitish buildings and painted balconies, by Walter J. Bucholz; a “Still Live” with a green bottle, a brown, two handled jug and a dish of red apples for a theme , and a figure painting “The Day before the Holiday” showing a woman about to prepare food for the coming feast, both by Sam Byer; “The Hillside” in which Roy C. Keister shows a typical Midwest farm in summer, with a group of trees in the foreground and buildings and straw stack across a field; Robert Kilbert’s “Vistas of the Sea,” a view over vari-colored tree tops of an expanse of blue water; a “Still life” by Louis J. Kaep, in which is an arrangement of fruit in a stem dish with a green goblet and some pomegranates on the side, a landscape of the Brown County variety showing a farm house nestled beside a hill by Oscar B. Erickson , called “Early October”.

Over the mantel in this room is a large painting by Maurice Greenburg called “Reverie” , in wich a youg woman in negligee is sewing. At the right are a “Winter Scene” , a man in red shoveling show by Sam Byer; a summer village corner, “Peacdful SDunday” by John McDonnell; “Over the Hill”, a scene in the Forest Preserve on a bright spring day, by C. H. Cooke; “Hills of Brown County,” with farm shacksin the foreground and a rolling country beyond by Frank Raymond; “The Last Mooring,” in which Holger W. Jensen shows a stranded house boat under a group of trees in autumn foliage; “Barnyard in Winter”, with two large trees in the foreground and farm buildings on the other side of a snow covered lot, by Samuel Avery; “April”, an early spring picture with an old shack and a broken fence on the brow of a hill by Oscar D. Soellner and “Meditation”, a portrait study of a young woman reading, by N. P. Steinberg.

Three prizes are given at this exhibition, the Lydia Bontoux Purchase Prize , which was divided by the jury between Stark Davis and Oscar D. Soellner, the Municipal Art League Prize which was given to Arnold E. Turtle, also by a jury, and the Palette and Chisel Gold Medal which was awarded by a vote of the club members at a special meeting to Othmar Hoffler.






Louis Kaep
Louis Weiner
Arnold Turtle
C.H. Cooke
Fred G. Gray
Karl Brandner
Othmar Hoffler
Oscar B. Erickson
Oskar Gross
Karl Ouren
Walter J. Bucholz
James Topping
Martin Lundgren
Stark Davis
Fred Larson*
Charles Kellner
Mikos Gaspar
Oscar D. Soellner
Edward T. Grigware
J.Jeffrey Grant
C. Curry Bohm
Anthony Buchta
Andrew Dobos
Sam Byer
Roy C. Keister
Robert Kilbert
Louis J. Kaep
Maurice Greenburg
John McDonnell
Frank Raymond
Holger W.Jensen
Samuel Avery
N. P Steinberg

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Gold Medal Show: 2009




Note:

Alan Artner may have been the first art critic
in modern times
to review an exhibit at the Palette and Chisel,
but I have been the first to publish a review
of our Gold Medal Show



Larry Paulsen
(Gold Medal Award)





Judith McCabe Renner
(Second Place)




Val Yachik








Walter Monastyzetsky



William A. Gram



Daniel Coonfield




Clayton Beck (Honorable Mention)





Michael Van Zeyl







Stephen Giannini
("The Unattended Package")







Sheila Wolfson







Misha Livshulz







Mary Qian








Barbara Lockhart







Lenin Del Sol




















Joseph Gruber





James Kujaca







Helen Oh












Errol Jacobson








Diane Rath








George Clark







Chris Miller







Antonio Bedolla