The Recording of America
A 30-year-old art collection captures true America
Lauren Loeb
Issue date: 3/13/09 Section: Fine Arts and Culture
Moving across the art gallery floor, and slowing down near the cheese table, Halpern stops at a Joseph Pennell piece titled "Caissons on Vesey Street." "Pennell was friends with Whistler," Halpern said pointing to the 1924 etching of a skyscraper peaking through fog. Printing in the same time period as one of the first great American artists, James Whistler, Pennell is a barely known influence.
Mable Dwight's "Derelict Banana Men, New Orleans" shows New Orleans in an unflattering light during the Great Depression. Dark faced men by the truck load squish together in a tight line, making their way toward the Mississippi River docks. Dwight saw that these men were not unique to New Orleans, but they were the same men all over the country struggling to make ends meet.
Catching a glimpse into the past in Halpern's gallery reveals history repeating itself. From depression to recession, the rise of industry to the new wave of green energy, and new sexual freedoms, our society continues to take from the old to make a new.
In Wanda Gag's lithograph, "Progress," a skewed rural town is shown in the wake a city taking over the country. The buildings look tilted and narrow, only one tree surrounded by a fur-coated woman on a billboard with the phrase "Use Gory Brand," sits in the town center. Gag saw cities slipping into the pocket towns, and the charm of country becoming only a dim memory.
The most racially controversial artist in Halpern's collection is John McCrady. His etching "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was one of the first woodblock etchings used for purposes other than book illustrations, as it had been up to that point. He used this technique to show detailed images of people in rural Mississippi and Louisiana. "Swing Low," which also hangs in the St. Louis Museum, shows a black family inside a farm house comforting a sick relative. The clouds separate from a beam of light shining down from the heavens and with it, a chariot of angels float down to the rooftop. McCrady shows the spiritual and human dimensions of African-American culture.
In the south this was met with a heap of hostility. White southerners felt threatened by McCrady's in-your-face spirituals and his outright support of the black community. His works unfortunately led to his murder in 1968.
These American artists were the most accomplished "in the world" Halpern inserted, and then swiftly added that critics would die if they heard him say that. And as five o'clock rolled on, the exhibit became more and more crowded with student and teacher admirers. Halpern believes these prints should be shared due to the people's common interest in the mobile culture of America. From the down slope of the depression to the new optimism of "the industry," "The Recording of America" opens modern eyes to the personal trials and triumphs Americans have faced throughout history.
Mable Dwight's "Derelict Banana Men, New Orleans" shows New Orleans in an unflattering light during the Great Depression. Dark faced men by the truck load squish together in a tight line, making their way toward the Mississippi River docks. Dwight saw that these men were not unique to New Orleans, but they were the same men all over the country struggling to make ends meet.
Catching a glimpse into the past in Halpern's gallery reveals history repeating itself. From depression to recession, the rise of industry to the new wave of green energy, and new sexual freedoms, our society continues to take from the old to make a new.
In Wanda Gag's lithograph, "Progress," a skewed rural town is shown in the wake a city taking over the country. The buildings look tilted and narrow, only one tree surrounded by a fur-coated woman on a billboard with the phrase "Use Gory Brand," sits in the town center. Gag saw cities slipping into the pocket towns, and the charm of country becoming only a dim memory.
The most racially controversial artist in Halpern's collection is John McCrady. His etching "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was one of the first woodblock etchings used for purposes other than book illustrations, as it had been up to that point. He used this technique to show detailed images of people in rural Mississippi and Louisiana. "Swing Low," which also hangs in the St. Louis Museum, shows a black family inside a farm house comforting a sick relative. The clouds separate from a beam of light shining down from the heavens and with it, a chariot of angels float down to the rooftop. McCrady shows the spiritual and human dimensions of African-American culture.
In the south this was met with a heap of hostility. White southerners felt threatened by McCrady's in-your-face spirituals and his outright support of the black community. His works unfortunately led to his murder in 1968.
These American artists were the most accomplished "in the world" Halpern inserted, and then swiftly added that critics would die if they heard him say that. And as five o'clock rolled on, the exhibit became more and more crowded with student and teacher admirers. Halpern believes these prints should be shared due to the people's common interest in the mobile culture of America. From the down slope of the depression to the new optimism of "the industry," "The Recording of America" opens modern eyes to the personal trials and triumphs Americans have faced throughout history.
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