Quarterly NewsletterISSUE/AUGUST 2009VOLUME 27, No. 1

In This Issue

Recent Acquisition

Demuth's DestinationsOn View

Luigi Rist Preview

Twenty-Sixth AnnualDemuth Garden Tour Wrap-Up

Mark Your Calendar

Demuth's DestinationsJuly 5 - August 30, 2009

Luigi RistSeptember 5 - November 29, 2009First Friday Reception: September 4, 5 - 7 pm

Art in a Box ExhibitionDecember 8 - 31, 2009Sunday Reception: December 6, 1 - 3 pm

Museum ClosedLabor Day, September 7thThanksgiving Day, November 26thMondays

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enthusiasm for vaudeville and circus acts, which were a vital part of the early 20th-century emerging sectors of popular culture and mass entertainment. He took in such live performances in Lancaster at the Colonial Theater. The pencil drawing of Acrobats from circa 1916 is one of eight known sketches Demuth made in preparation for watercolors inspired by such performances. In these works, Demuth explores the human figure through the creation of semi-abstract, fluid forms. The watercolor works that followed can also be noted for their sophisticated and highly expressive use of color. Acrobats, however, has a feeling of completion in its own right due to sections of hard overdrawing and the strength of its contours.

Acrobats was recently bequeathed to the Demuth Museum by the late Dr. John B. Montana. Dr. Montana, an infectious disease expert, graduated from New York Medical College and was a pioneer in the identification and treatment of AIDS. Dr. Montana purchased this drawing, originally in the collection of renowned New York gallerist Antoinette Kraushaar, at a Sotheby’s sale in 1993. Of a collection of over five hundred pieces, only two works were designated as gifts to museums, with the remainder passing to Dr. Montana’s heirs. This drawing had hung proudly in the living room of Dr. Montana’s New York apartment prior to its donation to the Demuth Museum’s permanent collection.

This drawing is a particularly important acquisition because it supports the Museum’s collection of Demuth’s vaudevillian work. Demuth had an

Image: Charles Demuth, Acrobats, c. 1916, graphite on paper, 13 x 8 in, Collection of the Demuth Museum, Gift of Dr. John B. Montana.

New Acquisition: Acrobats

Our newest exhibition, Luigi Rist, will explore the artwork of the artist (1888-1959). A master of traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking, he produced subtle, yet complicated and painterly works, each consuming roughly a year of his life. While historically Japanese printmaking was a collaborative effort between artist, block cutter, and printer, Rist performed each element himself, drawing, carving, and printing each of his own works. He spent more than ten years perfecting his methodology and inventing variations on the tools and processes, making his printing method unique. He kept meticulous notations of weights and

Luigi Rist: September Debutmeasurements of the amounts of pigment, water and rice paste to mix together for each impression. It was in the executing of the printing phase where Rist achieved his stated goal of “painting through printing…” Therefore, by unlocking this aspect of his artwork, we will be able to appreciate how each of his prints reflect his own unique artistic expression. While Rist’s subject matter could be considered conservative, his mastery of color technique gained him awards and renown in his own time.

This exhibit will explore Rist’s printmaking techniques and innovations by looking at flow sheets and draft prints juxtaposed with final images. The works on view celebrate his innovations in the tools

Demuth Museum Corporate Membership

Left: Grant Heilman, Photograph of Luigi Rist, c. 1946. Collection of Grant Heilman; Above Left: Luigi Rist, Nude 1, 1937, color woodblock print, 9-5/8 x 12-5/8 in., Private Collection; Above Right: Luigi Rist, Nude 2, 1937, color woodblock print, 12-1/4 x 9 in., Private Collection. This exhibition marks the first time Nude 1 and Nude 2 have been exhibited together.

The Demuth would like to gratefully acknowledge all of the corporations and foundations who have contributed in 2009. Corporate support is essential to the continuation of our exhibitions, educational programs, and curatorial work to preserve and spread the artistic legacy of Charles Demuth, and to invest in the cultural heritage of Lancaster.

CORPORATIONSArborist Enterprises, Inc.Benchmark Construction CompanyCertified CarpetCaldwell, Heckles and Egan, Inc.

Ephrata National BankErb Brothers Landscaping, Inc.Evans Eagle Burial Vault CompanyGenesys Controls CorporationHigh Companiesj. a. Sharp Custom JewelerJames M. Hook & Co.Lancaster HondaLand Transfer Company, Inc.MM Architects, Inc.PappagalloPatio at Penn StonePlum Street GourmetShank's Extracts, Inc.Showcase of Fashions

August 2009Stoudt AdvisorsTippetts/Weaver Architects, Inc.Wohlsen Construction Company

FOUNDATIONSJames Hale Steinman FoundationJohn Frederick Steinman FoundationThe Raub FoundationThe Richard C. von Hess Foundation The Willis and Elsie Shenk Foundation

For more information about corporate or foundation membership, please contact the Demuth Museum at 717-299-9940. All corporate and foundation members are current as of August 1st, 2009.

he used and how his printing methodology allowed him great precision in achieving subtle variations in color and texture. Keeping to his desired subject matter of fruits, vegetables and flowers, Rist stayed true to his own inspirations which enabled him to take these simple subjects and create complex compositions.

An opening reception will be held First Friday, September 4 from 5-8 p.m. The exhibition is on view September 5 – November 29, during museum hours, Tuesday – Saturday, 10-4 & Sunday, 1-4.

Raffle WinnersNew to the Demuth Garden Tour

weekend this year was the Garden Tour Raffle. This unique raffle vignette featured house and garden items contributed by Patio at Penn Stone and the Shops at Lititz including Archaeologie, Bravado Imports of Lititz, Café Chocolate of Lititz, Cherry Acres, Clemintine’s, A Colorful Past, Creativity, Day’s Gone By Creations, Destination Jewelry, Heavenly Soaps and Scents, Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery, Lilypad Beyond the Pond, Lititz House Bed & Breakfast, Madison B, The Main Street Peddler, The Moravian House Antiques & County Treasures, The North Star of Lititz, Pots by dePerrot, The Savory

Gourmet, Sue’s Back Porch, Think Silk, Tracee’s Framery, and Zest!. Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to the Shops at Lititz and Patio at Penn Stone for their volunteer time and help to make the Demuth Garden Tour raffle a great success!

This year’s 26th annual garden tour was as successful as the beautiful weather that accompanied it. The Garden Party on Friday June 11th was very well-attended, with over 150 people celebrating at this festive event. This year’s tour, held on June 12 and 13, 2009, featured distinctive residential gardens as well as home interiors in Lancaster City and Manor Township.

Attendance continued to flourish over the weekend, with more than 2,000 people participating in the tour this year. Tour visitors included many local attendees as well as a noticeable increase in visitors from out of the area, including bus tour participants from both northern Pennsylvania and New York. A new raffle event this year was added to make the weekend even more enjoyable for our visitors.

We wish to thank most sincerely all those who contributed to the Demuth Museum’s largest annual fundraiser, including Tour Chairperson Stephanie Crisara, Volunteer Chairperson Leslie Kulis, the committee members, garden sitters and other enthusiastic tour volunteers, and especially our gracious host gardeners. This event would not be possible without support from: Arborist Enterprises, tour sponsor; Patio at Penn Stone, booklet sponsor; and Mrs. Caroline S. Nunan. We would also like to thank the staff and gardeners at Conestoga House. The Demuth Garden continues to thrive this summer under the care of Wayne

Garden Tour Wrap-Up

Garden Tour 2009 (clockwise from top right): Visitors at the Sweeney Residence; Volunteers Charlie Maser and Sue Sigman assist visitors in the Demuth Museum garden; Jean Gromoll and Phyllis Burkholder at the Steinman Residence; Shane Moser, Terry Buda and Ben Tresselt at the Garden Party; A view of the Garden Party at Conestoga House.

Our 2009 Garden Tour Raffle winners (clockwise from top): Peggy Neff with her gourmet gift basket from The Savory Gourmet, Lael Moynihan with her wine tasting prize from Domaine Napa Wine Company and Robert L. Schroeder with a Quay Vodka prize from Bravado Imports of Lititz.

Rowe and Margaret Thompson – we hope you will have the opportunity to enjoy it during your next museum visit.

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Quarterly NewsletterISSUE/AUGUST 2009VOLUME 27, No. 1

Demuth’s many travels profoundly influenced his art. From Philadelphia to New York to Paris and beyond, Demuth’s destinations all contributed to the discovery of his mature artistic expression, which resulted in the first truly unique American modernist style. This exhibit, showing at the Demuth Museum until August 31, focuses on the major destinations that Demuth traveled to repeatedly and which most influenced his artistic output.

Philadelphia exposed Demuth to many different influences and opened his eyes to new art forms. Demuth originally went to Philadelphia to attend classes at Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry but later enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He stayed at Miss Chain’s boarding house on Locust Street and it was here that he met his lifelong friend, poet William Carlos Williams. In these early days he also met Dr. Albert Barnes. Not yet the collector whose reputation we know today, Barnes was still amassing his fortune and beginning his collection of art. The two knew each other as early as 1904 and Barnes would often purchase watercolors that were left on his stoop

Images (clockwise from left): Charles Demuth, At Marshall’s, 1915, watercolor and graphite on paper, 8 x 10-1/2 in., Collection of the Demuth Museum; Berenice Abbott, Hotel Brevoort, 1935, Collection of the Museum of the City of New York; Carl Van Vechten, Portrait of Charles Demuth and Georgia O’Keeffe, 1932, gelatin silver print, Collection of the Beinecke Library, Yale University.

from Demuth. Philadelphia also allowed Demuth to experience the artistic life. While at the Academy, he participated in the masque balls that the students put on and in many of the intellectual and artistic salons of the day.

Demuth travelled repeatedly to New York during his student years to view the most cutting edge artistic works of his time. When in New York, he frequently stayed at the Brevoort Hotel, where, in the basement café, artists met for drinks and conversation. During the winter season of 1915, Demuth took an apartment at 45 Washington Square South, next to Robert Coady’s Washington Square Gallery. Coady published Soil, where he declared in an article on American art that “it is not a refined granulation nor a delicate disease – it is not an ism. It is not an illustration or a theory, it is an expression of life – a complicated life – American life.”

When in New York, Demuth was often found in many Village haunts, gatherings and dinners. He was also part of the elite salons uptown such as at the Aresnberg’s, who paid to bring over Marcel Duchamp from France and supported the publication of The Others to which William Carlos Williams contributed. On the Upper West Side, Demuth was always welcome at the home of the Stettheimer sisters, whose cellophane decorated apartment was as cutting-edge as existed anywhere in New York. He also frequented

Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery, 291, and became exceedingly good friends with his second wife, Georgia O’Keeffe.

Demuth soaked up all that New York had to offer and it soaked him up as well. Demuth was the first of Stieglitz’s stable of artists to be acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1923. Before they acquired a John Marin, who critics and Stieglitz often place above Demuth, the museum purchased his work, Flowers and Pine Cones, 1918.

Demuth sought adventure beyond the cities of Philadelphia and New York and in 1907 he took his first tip to Europe. Upon his arrival in Antwerp, he immediately made his way to Paris and shared rented rooms with artist Lawrence Fellows in the heart of the Latin quarter on the Left Bank of Seine. He visited galleries, met Leo and Gertrude Stein, and attended the memorial Cézanne exhibit held at the Salon d’Automne. This exhibit deeply affected a whole generation of artists by raising their consciousness about the portrayal of recession in a picture. After a short five months, Demuth traveled back to the States, but knew he would return.

In the fall of 1912, Demuth left Lancaster on a steamer for his longest sojourn in Europe. He resided in the midst of the Left Bank and what was now the artistic and cultural hub of the city. The artists of Monmartre had relocated and café life was in full-swing in this part of the city. Demuth frequented the Café du Dome, and farther down the Boulevard Raspail he met his friend and fellow artist, Marsden Hartley. In addition, he corresponded with Albert Barnes in America regarding possible purchases for his collection. Demuth loved live performances and, while in Paris, went to the opera and attended the premier of the Rite of Spring. This production, with music by Stravinsky and performance by Nijinsky, outraged Parisians. Demuth also called on Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, soaking up all that was forbidden at home in Lancaster.

It was not until this second trip to Europe that Demuth visited London on one of his painting excursions. This trip with fellow artist Eddie Fisk began with a month of painting at Étretat, near Le

Havre, where Marcel Duchamp’s family summered. From there, according to biographer Emily Farnham, he went to Cornwall in southwest England to paint. Demuth also went to soak up the cultural milieu in London, which at this time was a gathering place for poets and writers.

Demuth’s final trip to Europe was in 1921. He sailed over on the S.S. Pacquebot, which docked in Southampton, England. Among his fellow passengers was Miss Sand of Lancaster, whom he met during the summer on 1912 in Étretat. Demuth also met a Mr. Mercer, who was the brother-in-law of John W. Eshelman, the owner of the feed mills that were the focus of his painting My Egypt.

He spent his first week in Paris with Marsden Hartley and Marcel Duchamp and subsequently was admitted to the American Hospital. He stayed there twelve days in order to recover and then found lodgings in the Hotel Lutetia. Within the first two weeks of his arrival, Demuth sold two watercolors to the dealer Leonce Rosenberg. Yet by November, Demuth was back in Lancaster, never to return to Europe again.

In between trips to Europe, Demuth would summer in Provincetown, Massachusetts, traditionally a sleepy little fishing village. When Demuth spent his first summer there in 1914, Provincetown was beginning to garner its reputation as a haven for bohemian artists. Writers, leftists, painters and performers gathered together in an environment that allowed them to create individually by day and create together by night.

As the summers transpired, more artists joined the summer repast in Provincetown. The summer of 1916, dubbed “The Great Provincetown Summer,” was particularly important to the future of theater in America as well as painting. The summer was focused on questions of living an authentic life. The daily schedule was to work individually on one’s own art form during the day while the evenings would be spent hard at play. Play meant big business such as talking, drinking, reading poetry and acts from plays and general merriments, which lasted long into the night. During these nightly

revels, the artists decided to start a small theater. Thus, the Provincetown Players were founded. Here Demuth enjoyed his first part in a play and helped to create the scenery and sets. The Provincetown Players would continue during winter in their playhouse on MacDougal Street in New York City.

In the winter of 1917, Demuth and Hartley agreed to meet up in Bermuda after the holidays, which they decided upon rather than travel back to war-torn Europe. The two artists stayed on St. Georges Island, where they found inexpensive lodgings. They began a daily routine of sunbathing in the mornings, painting in the afternoons and relaxing in the evenings.

They were joined by the French ex-patriot artist Albert Gleizes and his family. Gleizes had come to New York during the war, and along with fellow Frenchman Jean Metzinger, published the influential book Du Cubisme (1912). While Du Cubisme focused on the dynamism of cubist expression, Demuth was interested in the analytic possibilities. Utilizing the restrained palette of Picasso in his depiction of the trees and rooftops of Bermuda, Demuth was able to create greater richness and complexity of form and composition in his own works. It was here with the encouragement of Hartley that Demuth first began to experiment with tempera paints and sowed the seeds of his mature style.

Of course, Lancaster was Demuth’s ultimate destination. Seeing the mod-ernization of Lancaster first-hand pro-foundly affected Demuth’s sensibilities about the shift from an agrarian society to a world of streetcars, factories and moving pictures. This change in pace of his daily living became a fundamental cornerstone of his artistic commentary on the chang-ing world. – it has been noted by many Lancastrians that they would see Demuth on his front stoop “watching the world go by” which epitomized his detachment from this modern era that he was coolly critiquing in his works.

The exhibition Demuth's Destinations is on view at the Demuth Museum through August 30, 2009.

DEMUTH'S DESTINATIONS, CTD

• Arborist Enterprises, Inc. for being the lead sponsor of the 2009 Demuth Garden Tour Weekend.

• Mrs. Caroline S. Nunan and the gardeners of the Conestoga House for their continuing dedication to the Demuth Garden Tour Weekend.

• Patio at Penn Stone for their sponsorship of the Garden Tour Booklet as well as the 2009 Demuth Garden Tour Raffle.

• The Shops at Lititz for their sponsorship of the 2009 Demuth Garden Tour Raffle.

• Betty Herr of Madison on Marietta for donating the Garden Weekend Door Prize.

• The Demuth Garden Weekend participating gardeners, without whom the tour would not be possible.

• The Garden Tour Committee, for their year-long dedication, as well as the more than 150 volunteers who make

MUSEUMSTUDIOGARDENS

Tuesday - Saturday 10 - 4Sunday 1 - 4

120 East King Street, Lancaster PA 17602-2832

Publication of the 2009 Demuth Dialogue is made possible in part by the Gilbert Endowment.

Many Thanks To:

every Garden Tour Weekend possible.

• Demuth Gardeners Wayne Rowe and Margaret Thompson for their continual dedication to making the gardens at the museum beautiful for visitors throughout the year.

• The McCaskey High School Life Skills students for assisting the museum with invitation assembly.

• Thomas Hills Cook for sponsoring the reframing of the museum's new acquisition, Acrobats, c. 1916

All Demuth Museum programs and exhibitions are sponsored in part by grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Wish List:The Demuth Museum is in need of the following items:

• 2-drawer filing cabinets, letter size

• Assistance with moving a refrigerator with use of a truck and dolly

• Metal shelves for storage

• Bookshelves

• Office desk chairs

For more information about donation, please call the museum staff at (717) 299-9940.