The American Scene on Paper: Prints and Drawings from the Schoen Collection

The museum may have closed its galleries to the public in preparation for the Phase II renovation and expansion (breaking ground on March 3), but the staff has been busy organizing exhibitions and lending out works of art elsewhere. The American Scene on Paper: Prints and Drawings from the Schoen Collection is an example of these exhibitions organized for other institutions, some of which will eventually be shown here, after the reopening in 2011. Designed as a parallel exhibition to Coming Home: American Paintings, 1930-1950, from the Schoen Collection, which the museum organized with the Mobile Museum of Art in 2003, it features many of the same artists and much of the same subject matter, from portrayals of the plight of the farm laborer to depictions of industry and the growing urban environment. The prints, drawings and watercolors featured in the exhibition represent various manifestations of realism, whether magical, fantastic, social or romantic. Several of the artists moved from abstraction to realism as they searched for a distinctive, national voice. Currently on display at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, S.C., in a version of the exhibition that comprises about one-third of the works represented in the exhibition catalogue, it shows the diversity of styles and techniques utilized by artists in the United States during the Great Depression and World War II. These artists illustrates the economic realities and social concerns of everyday life and both document a shared past and provided assurance during a difficult present. Artists featured in this exhibition include Paul Cadmus, William Gropper, Joe Jones, Rockwell Kent, Martin Lewis, Millard Sheets and John Sloan.

The American Scene on Paper will be at the Gibbes through March 22, then move to the Columbus Museum, Columbus, Ga., this summer, where it will expand to 101 works of art. The exhibition catalogue, which is now available for purchase from the museum shop or for resale at wholesale prices from the Department of Publications includes all 153 works, each reproduced full page and in color, and is a landmark publication for the museum, a truly important piece of scholarship and documentation. Please check back here for updates on the exhibition and catalogue.

Image: Albert Gold (American, 1916-2006), Lunchbreak at the World's Fair, 1939. Watercolor on paper, 22 1/2 x 30 1/4 inches. Schoen Collection, Miami, Florida.