On February 16, nearly 100 paintings, watercolors and prints generated by a diverse group of creative individuals known as the Fort Worth Circle will be on view at the Amon Carter Museum in the special exhibition “Intimate Modernism: Fort Worth Circle Artists in the 1940s.” The exhibition presents a visual narrative of Texas’ first colony of artists to practice an advanced aesthetic. More than 20 years have passed since a major body of work by the Fort Worth Circle has been on view in one place.
The origin of the Fort Worth Circle can be defined as a nucleus of four locals in their mid-20s who met as art students at the Fort Worth School of Fine Arts: Lia Cuilty, Veronica Helfensteller, Marjorie Johnson and Bror Utter. Just prior to America’s involvement in World War II, Dickson Reeder, a high school classmate of Utter’s, assumed leadership of the group. Reeder and his New York-born wife, Flora Blanc, provided the social glue that bonded the group together. Also in the sphere were Sara Shannon and William P. “Bill” Bomar Jr.
Reeder, Bomar and Helfensteller all received private art instruction as teenagers from the same teacher. Kelly Fearing was assimilated into the group after moving to Fort Worth during the war. In 1945, Cynthia Brants became the youngest female member of the circle, and the following year George Grammer, the youngest of the artists, was the last to join when Fearing and the Reeders, who had followed his work, looped him into their network.
Drawn together by a shared interest in art, dance, music, theater and myth, the artists of the Fort Worth Circle sought new avenues of artistic expression to counter the prevailing preference for regionalism and other more conservative artistic styles. They also shared a fascination for the fantastic, often employing enigmatic imagery. Members of the circle responded to Modern art by creating a unique aesthetic based on contemporary surrealism and abstraction, and they did so by drawing from their own fertile imaginations.
“Intimate Modernism: Fort Worth Circle Artists in the 1940s” is accompanied by a catalog of the same name. With more than 140 full color reproductions, it chronicles the circle’s distinctive output during the 1940s and includes succinct biographies, accompanied by photographs, of each of the 11 artists.
Public programs include a lecture on Saturday, February 16, at 11 am. Scott Grant Barker, cultural historian, and Jane Myers, senior curator of prints and drawings, Amon Carter Museum, will speak on “Continuity and Change: Collecting the Fort Worth Circle.” On Saturday, March 8, at 11 am, Quentin McGown, Fort Worth historian, will speak on “Architectural History Preserved Through the Artist’s Eye: A Study of Bror Utter’s 1957 Fort Worth Landmarks Suite.”
And on Saturday, March 29, at 11 am, Dave Hickey, Schaeffer professor of modern letters, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, will speak on “Fort Worth: How Cowtown Became a Center for Art in the West.”
Amon Carter Museum is at 3501 Camp Bowie Boulevard. For information, 817-738-1933 or www.cartermuseum.org .
