COMPARE AND CONTRAST39 American Artists

COMPARE AND CONTRAST39 American ArtistsJanuary 22-May 8, 2015

Roger Brown Study Collection, School of the Art Institute Chicago1926 N. Halsted St., Chicago

Compare and Contrast is curated by Oliva Junell and RBSC staff.

The Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios Program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation is supported by a generous grant from the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.

The Roger Brown Study Collection is pleased to present the exhibition Compare & Contrast, an expansion of a traveling show from the Historic Artists’ Homes & Studios, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, showcasing 39 American artists. The show was co-curated at the Roger Brown Study Collection (RBSC) by Olivia Junell with Lisa Stone and James Connolly.

In 2000 the RBSC was invited to join the Historic Artists’ In 2000 the RBSC was invited to join the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios (HAHS), a consortium of 39 member sites from across the United States committed to the conservation, interpretation, and accessibility of spaces where American artists lived and worked. HAHS member sites include iconic artists such as Winslow Homer’s rustic cottage perched on the Maine coast, the paint-splattered barn used by Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner in East Hampton, Long Island, the Pollock and Lee Krasner in East Hampton, Long Island, the carriage house in which Grant Wood painted his iconic American Gothic in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and 101 Spring Street, New York City, the home, studio, and collection environment of Donald Judd.

HAHS organized a traveling exhibition of 39 black and white photographs of artists in their studios, which has traveled tosix sites since 2012. The timeframe the HAHS artists span

begins with Thomas Cole, born in 1801, and ends with Roger Brown, born 140 years later. Representing a diverse range of painters, sculptors, photographers, furniture makers, and other artists, the HAHS artists are associated by the circumstance that their sites are preserved and open to the public, providing visitors with the opportunity to experience the intimate spaces where artists lived and worked. RBSC stastaff revamped the exhibition to explore this random cross-section of American art history through the lens of Roger Brown’s ideas, critiques, and related works, and through the thoughts, ideas, and rigorous comparing and contrasting of/by SAIC’s faculty, students, and staff, and our guests. The order of artists in this booklet follows the somewhat-random arrangement in the installation, inviting a kaleidoscopic, rather than chkaleidoscopic, rather than chronological or regional view of the art histories the artists represent.

Compare and Contrast includes a robust painting by Clementine Hunter (Melrose Plantation, Melrose, Louisiana, from the collection of Jim Zanzi), to represent Roger Brown’s fervent commitment to the work of artists who worked outside of the academic mainstream. Also on view, Brown’s Ring of Fire (Buffalo Bill in Hell) directs attention to representations of the American West and historical attitudes toward Native

Americans that are critiqued and debated today. Ever the observer and critic of the art world and its history, Brown made paintings referencing artists or histories in the HAHS consortium: Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Georgia O’Keeffe, Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Pollock, and painters of the American landscape; color reproductions of these paintings are mixed in with the black and white portraits. BrBrown collected Russel Wright American Modern dinnerware, and a coral dinner plate punctuates the installation. Compare and Contrast includes a slideshow of works by HAHS artists in the Art Institute’s collection, with a guide leading to works of art currently on view, and information about HAHS artists who studied or taught at SAIC.

The Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios Program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation is supported by a generous grant from the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. We hope Compare and Contrast will inspire our guests to experience these sites in person, and to support HAHS’s mission of preserving these special places that are vital to the nation’s cultural heritage.

WWe welcome you to explore the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios online at artistshomes.org.

THOMAS COLE

1801-1948

I often look at our house and think how wonderful that so much of happiness should be comprised in that little spot.

-Thomas Cole in an undated letter to his wife, Maria

Works on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:New England Scenery, Gallery 172Distant View of Niagara Falls, Gallery 171

Left page: Matthew B. Brady, Thomas Cole, half-plate daguerreotype on silver-coated copper plate, c. 1845. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Edith Cole Silberstein, NPG.76.11. Quote courtesy of The Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, NY.

Thomas Cole National Historic SiteCatskill, New York

Roger BrownCouple Progressing Towards Mount Rincon1997, oil on canvas, 48 x 72 in.Roger Brown Estate, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Brown intentionally placed himself in the grand arc of American art history and he explored the American landscape in many works, for nearly thirty years. Couple Progressing Towards Mount Rincon is situated between the photos of Thomas Cole and Frederic Church, to connect him with two nineteenth century giants of American landscape painting, although stylistically it might might relate more closely to works by Georgia O’Keeffe.

FREDERIC E. CHURCH

1826-1900

I am appalled when I look at the magnificent scenery which encircles my clumsy studio, and then glance at the painted oil-cloth on my easel.

-Frederic Church, 1867

Work on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:View of Cotopaxi, Gallery 171

Left page: Attributed to Felix Bonfils, Frederic Edwin Church and His Sons, Frederic Joseph in Beirut, 1868, cart-de-visite, 4 7/8 x 3 3/8 in., OL.1984.446, Collection Olana State Historic Site, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Quote courtesy of Collection Somerville College Library, Oxford, England.

Olana State Historic SiteHudson, New York

Frederic Church’s portrait atop a camel reflects the significance of artists’ travels to distant lands, particularly for nineteenth century American artists. Supported by the Edward L. Ryerson Traveling Fellowship when he received his Master of Fine Art in 1970, Brown explored Europe before making the pilgrimage to Egypt, whethe pilgrimage to Egypt, where he, too, was photographed riding a camel.

Untitled (Roger Brown riding a camel at the great pyramid of Giza)1970, photographer unknownRoger Brown Study Collection Archive, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

GRACE HUDSON

1865-1937

I understand the Indians. I have been among them always. I know them and they know me.

-Grace Carpenter Hudson

Left page: A.O. Carpenter, Grace Carpenter Hudson, c. 1884. Courtesy of Grace Hudson Museum and Sun House, Ukiah, CA.

Grace Hudson Museum and Sun House

Ukiah, California

CHARLES BURCHFIELD

1893-1967

Left page: courtesy of Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY. Quote [above] excerpted from Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, Volume 39, November 17, 1933, p. 3.

Let my studio be hallowed by large adventurous thought; and a feeling of security and isolation from the banalities of life; by dreams, and bold imaginings.

-Charles E. Burchfield, 1933

Burchfield Homestead MuseumSalem, Ohio

WHARTON ESHERICK

1887-1970

I am particularly interested in the many kinds of wood, and an especially fine-grained piece of wood often had a strong influence on how I shape it. I don’t seek exotic or rare woods. I always say that if I can’t make something beautiful out of what I find in my backyard, I had better not make anything.

-Wharton Esherick

Work on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:Bench (from the Helene Koerting Fischer home), Gallery 162

Left page: Wharton Esherick in his studio with Oblivion, photography by Emil Luks, ca. 1934. Courtesy of Wharton Esherick Studio, Valley Forge, PA.

The Wharton Esherick StudioValley Forge, Pennsylvania

ELISABET NEY

1833-1907

Shall not our surroundings thereby become transformed into scenes beautiful to behold and ennobling to move among? Shall not our dwellings, our public buildings, our factories, our gardens, our parks, reflect in reality the loveliness of our artistic dreams? ...It remains with us to bring about this higher, this truly vital renaissance.

-Elisabet Ney, 1895

Left page: Elisabet Ney working on the clay bust of William Jennings Bryan at her Austin studio, Formosa, 1900. PF-Gen C-15. Courtesy of the Elisabet Ney Museum, Austin, Texas. Quote excerpted from “Art for Humanity’s Sake” by Elisabeth Ney, Austin, Texas, 1895.

Elisabet Ney MuseumAustin, Texas

DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH

1850-1931

I hope you will come to ‘Chesterwood’ and rest. It is as beautiful as fairy-land here now, the hemlocks are decorating themselves with their light-green tassels and the laurel is beginning to blossom and the peonies are a glory in the garden. I go about in an ecstasy of delight over the loveliness of things.

-Daniel Chester French in a letter to Newton Mackintosh, 1911

Works on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:Abraham Lincoln, Gallery 171Bust of Mary Harris Thompson, M.D., Gallery 161Truth, Gallery 161Abraham Lincoln, Gallery 161

Left page: Courtesy of the Chapin Library, Williams College, Gift of the National Trust for Historic Preservation/Chesterwood, A National Trust Historic Site, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

ChesterwoodStockbridge, Massechusetts

WINSLOW HOMER

1836-1910

I am so very thankful for all ‘His mercies,’ that I now write you. There is certainly some strange power that has some overlook on me and directing my life. That I am in the right place at present there is no doubt about, as I have found something interesting to work at, in my own field, and time and place and material in which to do it.

-Winslow Homer to his b-Winslow Homer to his brother Charles Savage Homer, Jr., November 25, 1899

Works on view at The Art Institute of Chicago, all in Gallery 171:Peach BlossomsCroquet SceneMount Washington

Left page: Courtesy of the Winslow Homer Studio, Portland Museum of Art

Winslow Homer StudioScarborough, Maine

AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS

1848-1907

Works on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:Jules Bastien-Lepage, Gallery 161Violet Sargent, Gallery 161Amor Caritas, Gallery 161Bust from Adams Memorial, Gallery 179The Puritan, Gallery 161

Left page: Saint-Gaudens with the finished clay Abraham Lincoln, the Man, monument, 1886. Courtesy of Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, NH

Saint Gaudens National Historic SiteCornish, New Hampshire

Roger BrownLost America1989, oil on canvas, 85 1/2 x 49 3/4 in.Chicago History Museum, gift of Phyllis Kind Gallery

The photo of Augustus Saint-Gaudens with the finished clay model for Abraham Lincoln, the Man shows the President in a profoundly thoughtful and humble, rather than heroic stance. The sculpture is located in Lincoln Park, just east of the Chicago History Museum. Brown’s ambiguously titled Lost America also depicts Lincoln standing, looking slightly downward, deep in thought. The painting, in the collection of the Chicago History The painting, in the collection of the Chicago History Museum, was on view for many years, on the first floor east gallery, seemingly positioned in relationship with Saint Gaudens’ sculpture outside.

CLEMENTINE HUNTER

1887-1988

I can’t look at something and paint it. It has come into my head. I have lived my whole life around here so I paint what I know.

-Clementine Hunter

Left page: Tom Whitehead. Courtesy of Melrose Plantation Historic Home, Natchitoches, LA.

Melrose Plantation Historic HomeNatchitoches, Louisiana

This original painting by Clementine Hunter is included to represent Roger Brown’s passionate and adamant commitment to works by artists who worked, as he described, “outside the mainstream hierarchy.” (“Setting the Stage,” intro to The Artworks of William Dawson. Chicago Cultural Center, 1990.)

Clementine HunterUntitled (Flowers in pitcher)c. 1965, oil on canvas, 23 x 18 1/2 in.Collection of Jim Zanzi

SAM MALOOF

1916-2009

Once you have breathed, smelled, and tasted the tanginess of wood and have handled it in the process of giving it form, there is nothing, I believe, that can replace the complete satisfaction gained. Working a rough piece of wood into a complete, useful object is the welding of man and material.

-Sam Maloof

Left page: Sam Maloof in his workshop with horn-backed chairs, c. 1960. Photo © Maloof Foundation

Sam Maloof Historic Residence and Woodworking StudioAlta Loma, California

Roger BrownPrick and Dribble1988, oil on canvas, 24 x 16 in.Private collection

Brown made this work as a sincere homage to Georgia O’Keeffe, whom he greatly admired. Prick And Dribble not-so-subtly references O’Keeffe’s flower paintings, interpreted by many to reflect female fertility.

GEORGIA O’KEEFFE

1887-1986

Laura Gilpin (1891-1979), Georgia O’Keefe, 1953, Gelatin silver print, Bequest of the artist, P1979.130.6 © 1979 Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX.

I’ve done over an old house in Abiquiu - Have a huge studio - white - with a dirt floor - it is so large it is like being outdoors...

-Georgia O’Keeffe to Russell Vernon Hunter, 1948Quote courtesy of Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM.

Works on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:Black Cross, New Mexico, Gallery 265Red and Pink Rocks and Teeth, Gallery 265Sky Above Clouds IV, Gallery 249The Black Place, Gallery 265Red Hills with Flowers, Gallery 265Abiquiu Sand Hills and MesaAbiquiu Sand Hills and Mesa, Gallery 265Peru - Machu Picchu, Morning Light, Gallery 265Road - Mesa with Mist, Gallery 265Spring (1923/24), Gallery 265The White Place in Sun, Gallery 265Blue and Green Music, Gallery 271Ballet Skirt or Electric Light, Gallery 271CowCow’s Skull with Calico Roses, Gallery 265Yellow Hickory Leaves with Daisy, Gallery 265The Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y., Gallery 271

Georgia O’Keeffe Home and StudioAbiquiu, New Mexico

ELMER MACRAE

1875-1953

Today Elmer was painting the beautiful snow storm while I was getting to rights in the studio.

-Constant MacRae, wife of Elmer MacRaein a letter to her mother, 1902

Courtesy of Busy-Holley Historic site, Cos Cob, CT

Bush-Holley Historic SiteCos Cob, Connecticut

JULIUS GARI MELCHERS

1860-1932

On my return to Fredericksburg, I walked through the house and opening the back door, looked down the hill across the fileds and river. The beauty of Virginia made me wonder how I could ever have left it even for a winter.

-Gari Melchers

Left page: Gari Melchers, ca. 1900 / Frank Scott Clark, photographer. Macbeth Gallery records, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Gari Melchers Home and StudioFredericksburg, Virginia

CHILDE HASSAM

1859-1935

You should see mine here, just the place for high thinking and low living.

-Childe Hassam to J. Alden Weir, 1905

Left page: The American Impressionist Childe Hassam painting on the grounds of the Florence Griswold House in Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1904. Florence Griswold Museum Archives.

Works on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:Bailey’s Beach, Newport, R.I., Gallery 171View of a Southern French City, Gallery 171The Little Pond, Appledore, Gallery 171

Florence Griswold MuseumLyme, Connecticut

ALBIN POLASEK

1879-1965

I have made sculptures for the future...if now and then some wanderer comes along who understands their message, I shall rest content.

-Albin Polasek

Works on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:Howard Shaw, Library Reading RoomCharles Lawrence Hutchinson, Library Reading RoomFrank G. Logan, Library Reading RoomCharles W. Hawthorne, Library Reading Room

Polasek taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1916-1950.

Left page: Courtesy of Albin Polasek Archives, Winter Park, FL.

Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture GardensWinter Park, Florida

LEE KRASNER

1908-1984

One thing Jackson and I had in common was experience on the same level - feeling the same things about the landscape, for instance, or about the moon...I had my own way of using that material. Very often I would get up at two or three and come out on the porch and just sit in the light here.

-Lee Krasner

Left page: Lee Krasner at work on Portrait in Green, 1969. Photograph by Mark Patiky. Courtesy of Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, East Hampton,

Pollock-Krasner House and Study CenterEast Hampton, New York

SUZY FRELINGHUYSEN

1911-1988

Left page: Photo courtesy of Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio, Lenox, MA.

It is possible that Modern art is simply a record of humanity trying to find its way...

-Suzy Frelinghuysen

Frelinghuysen Morris House & StudioLenox, Massachusetts

JULIAN ALDEN WEIR

1852-1919

Really I know not what I am best at. I believe I am a fisherman, dreamer, and lover of nature and like Hokusai if I lived to 120 I might become an artist.

-Julian Alden Weir

Left page: Courtesy of Weir Farm National Historic Site, Wilton, CT.

Weir Farm National Historic SiteWilton, Connecticut

EANGER IRVING COUSE

1866-1936

My interest has always been the domestic side of the Indian rather than the usual conception of the Indian always on the warpath and I have tried to depict their picturesque life from the standpoint of one who enjoys their dances, ceremonies, and daily life...The Indian is just as human as the white man and has many qualities which to my mind may well be imitated.

-Eanger Irving Couse, 1920-Eanger Irving Couse, 1920

Couse-Sharp Historic SiteTaos, New Mexico

Left page: Courtesy of Couse-Sharp Historic Site, Taos, NM. Quoted by Forrest Fenn in The Beat of the Drum and the Whoop of the Dance, p. 240.

GRANT WOOD

1891-1942

After I realized the material around me was paintable, and started painting out of my own experience, my work had an emotional quality that was totally lacking before. I had to go to France to appreciate Iowa.

-Grant Wood

Work on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:American Gothic, Gallery 263

Left page: Courtesy of Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA.

Grant Wood Studio Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Roger BrownThe Great American Farmer1990, oil on canvas, 72 x 72 in.Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Iowa

Positioned next to the portrait of Grant Wood, The Great American Farmer presents an updated view of the idealized American farm. With its unmistakably Grant Wood-inspired field, Brown presents the farm and farmer as an angst-filled sideshow, posing opaque, perhaps ironic questions about state of contemporary agriculture.

JOSEPH HENRY SHARP

1859-1953

I was first attracted to the human side of the Indian; the character of the old warriors I found particularly interesting. Their romance and idealism are the most beautiful symbols brought down in the annals of time; their religion, their legends and superstitions are all unique. Not these alone, however, brought the greatest influence to bear on my work. It was more the humanity of the pthe present, the aspect we can see, know and feel that was my greatest inspiration.

-Joseph Henry Sharp

The Couse-Sharp Historic SiteTaos, New Mexico

Left page: Courtesy of Couse-Sharp Historic Site, Taos, NM. Quoted by Forrest Fenn in The Beat of the Drum and the Whoop of the Dance, p. 240

VANCE KIRKLAND

1904-1981

It was possible to come to this studio on Saturdays and Sundays with no telephone and put in two ten-hour days; with twenty hours that was the equivalent of at least half a week of work. So I lived my life that way and it was possible to experiment here in my own studio. If I hadn’t had the studio and hadn’t been able to get away and paint, I do believe I would have gone crazy.

--Vance Kirkland

Left page: Vance Kirkland (1904-1981), April 1981, in his painting studio in Denver, Colorado, now preserved as part of Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art. Courtesy of Kirland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, Denver, CO.

Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative ArtDenver, Colorado

DONALD JUDD

1928-1994

I thought the building should be repaired and basically not changed...My requirements were that the building be useful for living and working and more importantly, more definitely, be a space in which to install work of mine and of others...Everything from the first was intended to be thoroughly considered and to be permanent.

-Donald Judd, 1977

Work on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:Untitled, Gallery 297B

Left page: Judd Art © Judd Foundation. Licensed by VAGA, NYC. Photo by Jaime Dearling, 1982. Courtesy of the Judd Foundation Archive.

101 Spring StreetNew York, New York

JACKSON POLLOCK

1912-1956

I don’t look at the view, I watch it. The land is alive, tells you things when you let it.

-Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock at work on Alchemy, 1969. Photograph by Herbert Matter. Courtesy of Pollock- Krasner House and Study Center, East Hampton, NY.

Works on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:The Key, Gallery 289AUntitled, Gallery 267Greyed Rainbow, Gallery 289B

Pollock-Krasner House and Study CenterEast Hampton, New York

Roger BrownMuseum of What’s Happening Now1990, oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in.Private collection

Brown was a fierce apologist for Chicago artists whose works didn’t align with the New York School of abstract expressionism (or minimalism) and their then-centrality in the art world. Presented in the format of a freak show banner, Museum of What’s Happening Now appears to comment on the diluted imitations of the extraordinary action paintings of Jackson Pollock.

GEORGE L.K. MORRIS

1905-1975

Abstract pictures do not spring from pure invention but are often linked, however remotely, with the artist’s visual surroundings.

-George L.K. Morris, 1941

Left page: Courtesy of Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio, Lenox, MA.

Frelinghuysen Morris House & StudioLenox, Massachusetts

N.C WYETH

1882-1945

Left page: N.C. Wyeth in his Chadds Ford, PA studio at work on The Elizabethan Galleons, mural for the First National Bank of Boston, circa 1924. Photo by Chester H. Thomas. Courtesy of the Wyeth Family Archives and the Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, PA.

The sound of the rain on the [studio] roof, so like the subdued long roll of drums, is at once relaxing and stimulating to the spirit. The roof is one of the many features of this building which I have come to love very deeply...so sensitive and eloquent of so much that happens outside.

-N.C. Wyeth to Caroline Pyle Wyeth, 1943

N.C. Wyeth House and StudioChadds Ford, PA

EDWARD V. VALENTINE

1838-1930

Some of the saddest, and yet sweetest, moments of my life have been spent there, and I love the old place. I have worked conscientiously; and you’ll remember what I told you years ago, ‘Work conscientiously and you’ll succeed; it will all come back to you.’

-Edward V. Valentine, 1889

Left page: Edward Valentine modeling Blind Girl in his studio, 1889. Cyanotype. Valentine Richmond Center, Richmond, VA.

Edward V. Valentine Sculpture StudioRichmond, Virginia

RUSSEL WRIGHT

1904-1976

In a corner of this aging quarry, I would like to create a shelter in which I can live comfortably and still enjoy the beauty of this land...I love it so much that I wish this shelter to blend with the landscape.

-Russel Wright

Works on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:“Oceana” Box, Gallery 267Sauceboat and underplate (“American Modern” Dinnerware), Gallery 267

Left page: Courtesy of Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center, Garrison, NY.

Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center

Garrison, New York

HENRY MERCER

1856-1930

Castles! Castles! Castles! Where do their stories begin or end?

-Henry Mercer

Left page: Henry C. Mercer in front of the fireplace in Fonthill’s Saloon. Courtesy of Fonthill Castle, Doylestown, PA.

Fonthill CastleDoylestown, Pennsylvania

ARTHUR DOVE & HELEN TORR

1886-1867

1880-1846

I should like to take wind and water and sand as a motif and work with them, but it has to be simplified in most cases to color and force lines and substances, just as music has done with sound.

-Arthur Dove, 1927

Arthur Dove works on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:Cross and Weather Vane, Gallery 265A Reasonable Facsimile, Gallery 265From a Wasp, Gallery 271Telegraph Pole, Gallery 265Lantern, Gallery 271Swing Music (Louis ArmstSwing Music (Louis Armstrong), Gallery 265Monkey Fur, Gallery 271Silver Sun, Gallery 265

Left page: Courtesy of Dove/Torr Cottage, Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY. Quote excerpted from Arthur Dove, Arthur G. Dove Painting, 1927, Exhibition Brochure, The Intimate Gallery, December 12, 1927-January 11, 1928.

Dove/Torr CottageCenterport, New York

THEODORE CLEMENT STEELE

1847-1926

But artists, above all people, ought to have and do have, if fortune allows, homes of the greatest individuality and beauty...my life work, that thing that interests me most, and that I am persuaded I am most successful in is under the blue dome of heaven when the bugle notes of color are sounding and the world seems big and mysterious —a vision, half from the realism before my eyes, half from the drdream of my heart.

-T.C. Steele in a letter to Selma Neubacher (the future Mrs. Steele),1906

Left page: From the collection of the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, Indianapolis, IN. Quote courtesy of T.C. Steele State Historic Site, Nashville, IN.

T.C. Steele State Historic SiteNashville, Indiana

CHARLES MARION RUSSELL

1864-1926

The West is dead...you may lose a sweetheart but you won’t forget her.

-Charles Marion Russell

Left page: Unidentified photographer, C.M. Russell, black and white photographic print, ca. 1900, Charles Scribner’s Sons Art Reference Department Records, c. 1865-1957, Smithsonian Instiution.

C.M. Russell MuseumGreat Falls, Montana

THOMAS HART BENTON

1889-1975

You can’t retire from art like - I suppose - a man could retire from business or a job. It is life to me. What the hell would I do.

-Thomas Benton, 1948

Work on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:Cotton Pickers, Gallery 263

Left page: Thomas Benton, 1948. Courtesy of Thomas Hart Benton Home & Studio State Historic Site, Kansas City, MO.

Thomas Hart Benton Home & Studio State Historic Site Kansas City, Missouri

Positioned next to the photo of Thomas Hart Benton, Americana includes portraits of Benton and Georgia O’Keeffe, whose homes and studios are in the HAHS consortium.

Roger BrownAmericana, (Thomas Hart Benton, Georgia O’Keeffe, Diego Rivera, Marsden Hartley)1988, oil on canvas, 83 x 96 in.Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Michigan

ANDREW WYETH

1917-2009

My father’s studio is the nearest one can get to physically entering into his world.

-Jamie Wyeth

Work on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:The Cloisters, Gallery 262

Left page: Andy in the Studio, 1981 © Peter Ralston, 2012 - courtesy of Ralston Gallery. Quote courtesy of the Wyeth Family Archives and the Brandywine River Museum, Chadd Ford, PA.

Andrew Wyeth House and StudioChadds Ford, Pennsylvania

MAHONRI YOUNG

1877-1957

To me the problem has always been to animate the inert and lifeless material, whether bronze, stone, or wood, and to make it function like one of nature’s own creations.

-Mahonri Young from “Mahonri Young: His Life and Art”

Left page: Courtesy of Weir Farm National Historic Site, Wilton, CT.

Weir Farm National Historic SiteWilton, Connecticut

CHARLES DEMUTH

1883-1935

I am back in the Province in the garden of my own Chateau.

-Charles Demuth in a letter to Eugene and Agnes O’Neill, 1919

Works on view at The Art Institute of Chicago:Spring, Gallery 271...And the Home of the Brave, Gallery 265Business, Gallery 271

Left page: Studio of Charles Demuth including his Self Portrait, 1907, oil on canvas, 26 1/16 x 18 in., Collection of the Demuth Museum, Lancaster, PA. © 2012.

Demuth MuseumLancaster, Pennsylvania

ALICE AUSTEN

1866-1952

Photo courtesy of Alice Austen House Museum, Staten Island, NY.

I am happy that what was once so much pleasure for me turns out now to be a pleasure for other people.

-Alice Austen, 1951

Alice Austen House MuseumStaten Island, New York

ROGER BROWN

1941-1997

I feel the things in the collection are of universal appeal to all artists and people with a sense for the spiritual and mystical nature that material things can evoke.

-Roger Brown in a letter to Lisa Stone, 1997

Roger Brown Study CollectionChicago, Illinois

Left page: Roger Brown in living room. Photo: William H. Bengtson, c.1976. Courtesy of the Roger Brown Study Collection of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Roger BrownRing of Fire (Buffalo Bill in Hell)1988, oil on canvas, carved/painted wood, 74 x 54 x 4 in.Roger Brown Estate, the School of the Art Institute Chicago

Compare and Contrast presents a random cross-section of American art history through portraits of 39 artists, whose works express a diverse range of attitudes and ideas. Brown’s Ring of Fire (Buffalo Bill in Hell) invites examination of the history of the American West and historical attitudes toward Native Americans, expressed by some of the artists in the show. Brown presents the contentious character of Bucontentious character of Buffalo Bill (known for slaughtering buffalo and exploiting Native Americans, among other things), in Hell, but passively reflective and strangely unscathed by the flames.

Book design by Olivia Junell