Celebrating the Centennial: Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Woodstock Artists Association, Part 1

November 13, 2020 – March 28, 2021

PHOEBE & BELMONT TOWBIN WING

Curated by Tom Wolf.

To honor the 100^th anniversary of the Association this exhibition puts on view selected works from the WAAM’s Permanent Collection.  The Permanent Collection was started in 1973 by volunteers.  It consists mostly of works that were donated, and today it includes more than 2,000 objects made by artists associated with Woodstock.

The current exhibition focuses on the early years of the Association, including works by its five founders: Carl Eric Lindin (who served as President for twenty years), Frank Swift Chase, John Carlson, Andrew Dasburg, and Henry Lee McFee.  Their pieces are flanked by works by women who also played important roles in the early years of the Association, Eva Watson-Schütze and Zulma Steele, as well as Birge Harrison, the Tonalist painter and teacher who inspired many Woodstock artists.

The founders were elected to represent both the conservative and the progressive tendencies in early Twentieth Century Woodstock art, and the tensions between the two groups are displayed on the East wall of the show, specifically with the scenes of the same subject, local barns, by Orville Peets and Konrad Cramer.

Woodstock has always been a nurturing place for women artists, and this is evident with works by Abastenia St. Leger Eberle and Zulma Steele, who were active in the Suffrage movement in the 1910s.  Prints by Peggy Bacon and Eugenie Gershoy that show artists working or playing together make clear that Woodstock was a social as well as professional community of artists, as do the portraits of members of the art community by fellow Woodstock artists.  The inspiring variety and beauty of the Woodstock landscape is also evident here, as is the creativity of artists who specialized in sculpture.  Several impressive recent acquisitions, such as the Girl with Grapes by Eberle and the irresistible Hippo by Carl Walters make clear that the Collection is a dynamic one, rich in holdings but steadily growing as well.

This exhibition will be followed by Part 2, featuring more recent works from the Collection.