The Skimmseum: Georgia

OKeeffe on my Mind
POSTED ON MARCH 13, 2015

Welcome to theSkimmseum. Weve skimmed the news around the museum, and
want to share the highlights with you.
Skimmd while trying to figure out how to transfer a call (apologies to whoever I
just put on hold for eternity).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
One cannot be an American by going about saying that one is an American. It is
necessary to feel America, like America, love America and then work. Georgia
OKeeffe

YOUR FACE IS UN-AMERICAN

THE STORY
I know exactly what you were thinking while reading the past couple blog posts.
This is amazing and hilarious, the writer is a genius. Okay, true. But you were
also thinking, Wow, my favorite part is where she talks about the collections at
the end. I really wish she would do an entire post about a collection instead of
just a little blurb. Here at the FJJMA, we want all of your wildest (not too wild,
okay, you cant climb on the Mustang, calm down) dreams to come true. So, for
your delight and enjoyment, were going to give you all the information you could
ever possibly want about our incredible U.S. State Department Collection.

WHERED IT COME FROM?

Here in the United States, there are few things we love more than freedom. The
U.S. State Department collection was created to gather art that represented our
uniquely American freedom of expression. Freedom of expression does not mean
that we are free to make whatever faces we want while looking at modern art
(this is allowed but it is frowned upon. Get it? Never mind). The collection was
assembled in 1946, and featured modernist paintings created by contemporary
American artists. J. LeRoy Davidson was the visual art specialist who developed
the exhibition. His task was to compile works that demonstrated diversity of
American modern art, and showed the power of democracy to nourish freedom of
expression. The exhibition,Advancing American Art, was supposed to combat
communism. It consisted of 79 oil paintings, and a bunch of other smaller
collections made with other media. It didnt stick around, however, because the
U.S. Congress and President Harry S. Truman deemed it to be un-American.

WHAT WAS UN-AMERICAN ABOUT IT?

There are a lot of great things in Advancing American Art, but like unusual
ingredients in food, it wasnt for everyone. The exhibition went swimmingly for a
while. Then this guy named William decided to run images of some of the artwork
in The New York-Journal American with, believe it or not, sarcastic captions. I

know. The gall. I just hate sarcasm. In a shocking turn of events, some
Conservative artists groups were unhappy that more traditional art was excluded
from the collection, and started writing letters. Congressmen started
investigating the backgrounds of the artists, and found that (oh the horror) many
of them were immigrants or had left-wing leanings. As if all of that werent
enough, President Harry Truman expressed his disdain for modern art in public.
Some unverifiable sources have suggested that he is quoted saying, I could do
that myself in about five seconds. Its probably true, man. Get it? Say it out loud
to yourself. Never mind.

SOHOW DID WE GET IT?

After a bunch of people whined Advancing American Art into extinction, Congress
nixed its funding, and the art was left to be auctioned off by the War Assets
Administration. This meant that J. LeRoy Davidson lost his job collecting modern
art for the egregious crime of collecting modern art. All of this turned out really
well for the FJJMA, because the OU Museum of Art got to the auction sooner
(yeah??) rather than later, and snatched up 36 fantastic paintings that are still in
our present-day permanent collection.

SO WHOS IN THE COLLECTION?

Its sad to think that there was a time when the prized works in our U.S. State
Department Collection were completely unappreciated by the general public. But
its not that sad, because we got our awesome Georgia OKeeffe for lets just
say it was too good a deal to pass up. Its not for sale, but hypothetically, in a
parallel universe, one MIGHT expect to get a pretty penny for it. It also gave us
the opportunity to get our hands (FIGURATIVELY) on works by other important
artists, like Romare Bearden, Ben Shahn, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, Loren
MacIver, Jacob Lawrence, Marsden Hartley and Arthur Dove.

SHORT VERSION?
Davidson collected incredible American artand even though his original plan for
its use didnt pan out, the works ended up scattering across the county. (Didja
know we helped reunite most of the original exhibition for a recent traveling
family reunion of sorts?) This means that countless Americans are now able to
enjoy and appreciate the artwork for generations to come. Also, were going to
start calling people who dislike modern art Harrys. Pass it on.

REPEAT AFTER ME
HOW TO ANSWER WHAT DO I LOOK AT? AND WHEN DO
I LOOK AT IT? WITH ONE RESPONSE
At five in the afternoon. Or, rather, At Five in the Afternoon. This is a work in the
U.S. State Department collection that was created by Romare Bearden. Beardens
inspiration for the painting was a dramatic poemabout a Bullfighter. Bearden
purportedly chose the title to signify the climax of a bullfight. He also created
other drawings to illustrate the same poem. Beardens style was similar to
Synthetic Cubism, which was invented by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso.

Today, the piece would likely be referred to as collage, because his solid shapes
appear to have been cut out of construction paper. Some would speculate
that the style could also be called excuses for not getting your assignment in on
time, since its a bunch of bull.

WHAT TO SAY IF YOU WANT A TATTOO

House at Provincetown, 1930. This is a painting by Edward Hopper that also
appears in the U.S. State Department Collection. The house that the painting is
based on is (surprisingly) in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The funny thing is, its
now being used as a tattoo studio. Nothing on their website suggests that they
know the significance behind their location, but those of us who manage the blog
are considering taking a road trip to let them knowand who knows, maybe well
get matching tattoos.

THINGS TO KNOW
Gouache: This isnt gnocchi. Thats different. Gouache is a method of painting
that uses opaque pigments ground in water and thickened. Several of the pieces
in the original Advancing American Art exhibition were created using this style.
Refregier: Not the word refrigerator texted to your friend while driving. Anton
Refregier was a painter and muralist, whose works appeared in Advancing
American Art. Although he considered himself an American, he was also one of
those immigrants who made the exhibition so unpalatable to Trumans
administration. He went on to have a prolific career, and in 1945 served
as Fortune magazines artist correspondent for a conference held in San
Francisco. The conference brought world leaders together to write the Charter for
the United Nations. End of the Conference, a Refregier in the FJJMA permanent
collection, relates to his assignment with Fortune.