Celebrating the Centennial: Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Woodstock Artists Association, Part 2

April 9 – September 12, 2021

PHOEBE & BELMONT TOWBIN WING

Curated by Tom Wolf.

Culminating a celebration which began in 2019, honoring the establishment of the Woodstock Artists Association and now concluding in 2021, one hundred years after the first exhibition took place in the gallery building at 28 Tinker Street, this exhibition reflects the cultural traumas of World War II and its impact on hippie values and culture of the sixties and seventies. The exhibition begins with somber work by Yasuo Kuniyoshi, a Japanese artist and a central figure in the history of the Woodstock colony and follows with work by Julio de Diego, Milton Avery and Karl Fortess, all dark, somber and atmospheric.

After the War there was a move to large-scale abstraction, and both the gestural painting and the hard-edged geometric style that followed it are represented by work created by Ernest Frazier, Rollin Crampton and Rosemarie Beck. Intimate works by Philip Guston and small but bold still lifes by Bradley Walker Tomlin center the large gallery wall.  Doris Lee’s luminous painting The Pond, c. 1960s, is included in this section of Abstract Expressionists as an example of Lee’s later abstract style of landscape painting.

A large gallery wall pays tribute to the 1960s era of peace and music in Woodstock, with Milton Glaser’s iconic Bob Dylan poster, photographs of Dylan and the Band by Elliott Landy, plus other works featuring flowing garments and long hair, including Bruce Dorfman’s original Woodstock Poster and colorful work by Anton Refregier and Lucile Blanch. Additional works in the exhibition by Manuel Komroff and Anton Otto Fischer reflect the timeless landscape of the Catskill Mountains. Remaining faithful to WAAM’s history of championing women artists who lived and worked in Woodstock, this exhibition includes significant paintings and sculptures by Rosemarie Beck, Lucile Blanch, Doris Lee, Mary Frank and Ethel Magafan, plus Harriet Tannin’s portrait photos of many Woodstock artists who are in the show.

Celebrating the Centennial: Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Woodstock Artists Association, Part 2 is a comprehensive exhibition highlighting some of the very best artwork created by Woodstock-based artists in the second half of the century who made long-lasting contributions to the art, culture and community of this small but vital American town.