Julio de Diego, River Patterns (platter), 1950. private collection
The Syracuse University Art Galleries has announced a special six-week lecture series beginning Thursday, Feb. 9, at 6 p.m. at the Syracuse University Art Galleries in Shaffer Art Building. The weekly lecture series will highlight the research interests of important print, painting and textile scholars and curators, alongside original artwork on display in the galleries. Organized by Domenic Iacono, director of the Syracuse University Art Galleries, the lecture series is presented in conjunction with the current exhibition “Art For Every Home: Associated American Artists, 1934-2000,” on view through March 19. Iacono will present the first lecture in the series on Thursday, Feb. 9, examining the graphic work on view in his presentation, “The Great Depression and the Rise of the American Print Sales Gallery.”
Other speakers scheduled to appear as part of the series are:
Feb. 16, 6 p.m.:
“The Persistence of Representation: American Paintings in the 1930s and ’40s”
David Prince, Associate Director/Curator of Collections, SUArt Galleries
Feb. 23, 6 p.m.:
“Costume, Fashion and Fabric: Associated American Artists Gallery”
Jeffrey Mayer
Associate Professor, School of Design, College of Visual and Performing Arts, and curator, Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection
March 2, 6 p.m.:
Gallery tour and talk: “Art for Every Home: Associated American Artists, 1934-2000”
Elizabeth G. Seaton,
Curator, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University
March 9, 6 p.m.:
“Thomas Hart Benton and Associated American Artists”
Sascha Scott
Associate Professor and director of Graduate Studies, Department of Art & Music Histories, College of Arts and Sciences
These events are free and open to the public. Parking for the event is available in the Quad 4 parking lot on a first come first serve basis. Please visit parking.syr.edu for further details. The SUArt Galleries will be open for visitors to view the related exhibition until 8 p.m. Complete information and related programming are available by visiting the website at http://suart.syr.edu/.
About the Exhibition
“Art For Every Home: Associated American Artists, 1934-2000” and its accompanying publications provide the first comprehensive overview of Associated American Artists (1934-2000), the commercial enterprise best known as the publisher of prints—sold via mail-order catalogue—by Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood, among others.
The exhibition addresses not only AAA’s storied involvement in the popularization of American prints in the 1930s, but also its ongoing promotion of American art over six decades. Through aggressive marketing of studio prints, ceramics and textiles, and associations with corporate advertisers, AAA sought to bring “original” American art over the threshold of every American home. “From Studio to Doorstep — Wherever You Are,” the company promised in a 1945 mail-order brochure. “No longer would the would-be possessor of a beautiful picture have to go to town and visit an art dealer; or still harder, hire somebody to do it for him. Quite the contrary! Every American post office [is] to be like a branch agency for the creations of the pick of American artists.”
The exhibition’s co-curators are Liz Seaton of the Beach Museum of Art and Jane Myers, former curator at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas. Scholar Gail Windisch, Los Angeles, is a third important contributor to the exhibition. Her original research served as the base for the project. Art for Every Home: has been organized by the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University. Major funding for the exhibition has been provided by The Henry Luce Foundation, Edward and Karen Seaton through the R.M. Seaton Endowment for Exhibitions, and The Ross and Marianna Kistler Beach Endowment for the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art. Additional support has come from the International Fine Print Dealers Association, Russell Clay Harvey and Patricia McGivern, and Candyce Russell.
