The Woodstock Artists Association and Museum (WAAM) will present the exhibition: “American Scenes: Leisure and Entertainment” from February 10 through June 3 at the Phoebe and Belmont Towbin Wing. The exhibition is the second in a series highlighting early Twentieth Century American art portraying everyday life. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, February 10, from 4 to 6 pm in the Towbin Wing.
Paintings, prints and drawings from the WAAM Permanent Collection and select loans portraying activities such as dance, music, theater and the circus are included in the exhibition. Adolf Dehn’s “At the Savoy I and II” are a lively pair of images executed in gouache and charcoal, showing dancers and musicians at the famous night club. The eerier side of an amusement park sideshow is suggested in Pele DeLappe’s “Coney Island.”
Other works on display will show the more relaxed side of life, portraying families at the beach, playing chess and engaging in other leisurely activities. Julia Leaycraft’s “Village in Winter” portrays the center of Woodstock covered in snow, with playful inhabitants skiing across the green and children pulling sleds.
Most works are from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. Other artists include Peggy Bacon, Alexander Brook, John Carroll, Edward Chavez, Konrad Cramer, Julio de Diego, Peggy Dodds, John Fenton, Eugenie Gershoy, Margaret Lowengrund, Fletcher Martin, John McClellan, Austin Mecklem, Andree Ruellan, Miron Sokole, Bernard Steffen, James Turnbull and Theodore Wassmer.
The style portrayed by these artists has become known by the broad term “American Scene.” It developed in the early to mid Twentieth Century with the works of a group of painters known as the Ashcan School. The Ashcan School included Robert Henri, John Sloan and George Bellows (the latter settling in Woodstock in 1920) and was recognized for lively images of everyday life.
Last year’s exhibition “American Scenes: Images of Labor and Entertainment” was the first in the WAAM American Scenes series which addressed wide-ranging subjects that were popular among these and other important artists, including topics like urban views, the changing countryside and more intimate portrayals of individual heroes and heroines of day-to-day American life.
The Woodstock Artists Association is at 28 Tinker Street in the center of Woodstock and is open Friday and Saturday, noon to 6 pm and Sunday, Monday and Thursday, noon to 5 pm. For information, www.woodstockart.org or 845-679-2940.
