Visions from Home: Surrealism in Connecticut July 3 – Oct. 18, 2015 Wall Text & Extended Labels

This exhibition examines the international artistic community that flourished from the 1930s to the 1950s in rural towns such as Roxbury, Sherman, and Woodbury, in Litchfield County. With its rolling hills and farmhouses, the countryside provided a retreat from the congestion and noise of city living. Following the outbreak of World War II, a wave of European artists—many proponents of Surrealism—relocated to this area, where they found physical and intellectual refuge. For many, the landscape of Connecticut inspired their imagery and choice of subject.

The Wadsworth Atheneum was a center for vanguard exhibitions and performances in the 1930s and 1940s, including the first display of Surrealist painting in America. This current exhibition looks back to this defining moment in the museum’s history and celebrates the artists and tastemakers that helped define Connecticut’s cultural landscape as modern and innovative.

Unless otherwise stated, all objects are from the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Supported in part by a gift of the Jean and Julien Levy Foundation for the Arts, Inc.

Support for the Wadsworth Atheneum is provided in part by the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign and the Department of Economic and Community Development, which also receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

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Alexander Calder American, 1898–1976 Little Blue Panel, 1934 Wood, metal, motor, wire, and paint Purchased through the gift of Henry and Walter Keney, 1935.63 In 1930, Calder visited the studio of Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian, and described the experience as “a shock.” Mondrian had placed paper rectangles on the wall of his studio to help visualize his starkly geometric paintings. Calder was inspired to make similar abstract designs integrating shape and color using metal, wood, and wire. Little Blue Panel is one of his early experiments with kinetic art or art in motion. Behind the blue background, a small motor rotates the black and red forms, like performers dancing across a stage. Calder compared their patterned movements to “good choreography.”

Alexander Calder American, 1898–1976 The Praying Mantis, 1936 Painted and gessoed wood, iron rods, wire, and string Purchased through the gift of Henry and Walter Keney, 1938.275 Calder’s innovative creations included static sculptures called stabiles, kinetic sculptures called mobiles, toys, jewelry, and textiles. Many of his designs feature biomorphic forms inspired by plant and animal life. As its title suggests, this sculpture evokes the long-legged praying mantis, known for its prayer-like pose and predatory habits. Calder made the tiny bug comically oversized, bordering on the absurd. The practice of making the ordinary appear strange or illogical had affinities with Surrealism, the avant-garde movement Calder first encountered in Paris and later in Connecticut. One critic praised this piece as “a quintessential surrealist subject.”

Alexander Calder American, 1898–1976 The Spider and the Fly, c. 1938 Brass wire, thread, and wood Bequest of Eleanor H. Bunce, 1999.29.15 Calder was a highly versatile artist who regularly transitioned between creating small sculptures and massive outdoor work made from sheets of metal. This whimsical wire construction attests to his reputation as a playful artist. Calder likely made this sculpture for his friend Eleanor “Nellie” Howland, on the occasion of her marriage to James Thrall Soby. The title and imagery recalls a nineteenth-century poem of the same name. In it, the spider pursues a fly and by tricking it with flattery, the fly falls victim to its suitor. In the sculpture, however, the plot is more open-ended.

Herbert Matter American, born Switzerland, 1907–1984 Louisa and Sandy Calder, 1938 Black and white photograph Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Bunce, 1980.73 Herbert Matter was a close friend of the Calders and photographed them at their home in Roxbury on numerous occasions. Here, the couple relaxes outdoors on a grassy hillside punctuated by bare trees. Their eighteen-acre property included an old farmhouse, an ice house, and burned-out dairy barn overlooking a small pond. Matter was so inspired by the setting that he composed the following poem in 1942: In our days the aviary of all Light and the nocturnal refuge Of all tinkling. The Studio of Alexander Calder, Roxbury, Conn. The time of enchantment and the art of living. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art Page 2 of 6 Wall Text & Extended Labels, Visions from Home: Surrealism in Connecticut 7-1-15-ay

Calder Jewelry The first jewelry Calder ever made was as a child, to adorn his sister’s dolls. He pursued the craft more seriously in his twenties. He created rings, necklaces, pins, and belt buckles, making most pieces as gifts for friends and relatives. Each design was unique and never mass-produced.

Although Calder used basic techniques to produce jewelry, his designs appeared visually sophisticated. Nearly every piece consisted of hammered, bent, or twisted wire. He rarely used the more common method of soldering, in which wire parts are joined by an alloy and melted using a small hand torch. His vocabulary of shapes included serpentine lines, spirals, and circles, inspired by a wide range of sources such as African masks and statues, Celtic artifacts, and Pre-Colombian objects.

Eleanor “Nellie” Howland, (Mrs. James Thrall Soby, Mrs. John Lee Bunce) 1905–1999 Eleanor “Nellie” Howland Bunce had a long association with the art world that began at the Wadsworth Atheneum in 1933 when she became the executive assistant to the director, A. Everett “Chick” Austin, Jr. Through him, she met James Thrall Soby, an author, critic, and collector, who served as an artistic advisor to Austin. She married Soby in 1938 and they moved to New York City, where they worked in different capacities at the Museum of Modern Art. She then became the assistant to Julien Levy at his gallery.

After almost a decade in New York, Nellie returned to Hartford. She and Soby divorced in 1952 and she married John Lee Bunce two years later. As Mrs. Bunce, she was involved with numerous cultural organizations throughout the city and became a major benefactor of the Wadsworth Atheneum. She donated a remarkable trove of works of art, personal letters, and period photographs that helps bring to life these dynamic decades in the museum’s modern history.

Pavel Tchelitchew American, born Russia, 1898–1957 Mrs. James Thrall Soby (neé Eleanor “Nellie” Howland, later Mrs. John Lee Bunce), c. 1942 Pencil on paper Bequest of Eleanor H. Bunce, 1999.29.35 From 1938 to 1940, Tchelitchew maintained a studio in Weston, CT, in the southern portion of the state. He lived on the property of Alice DeLamar, a wealthy heiress, who devoted her energies to volunteering and supporting the arts.

Tchelitchew’s network of supporters also included the Wadsworth Atheneum, under the directorship of Chick Austin. Pictured here is Eleanor “Nellie” Soby, Austin’s former executive assistant, a central figure in the artistic circle surrounding the museum. Her delicately rendered head floats as if it were an apparition. The drawing bears a personal inscription: “to Nelly [sic]/to believe and never doubt.”

Kay Sage American, 1898–1963 Les Rouleaux (The Rollers), 1937 Oil on canvas From the collection of Cheryl A. Chase and Stuart Bear From 1920 to 1938 the American artist Kay Sage lived in Europe where she encountered the latest examples of Surrealist art. This painting, one of her earliest works, reveals the influence of Giorgio de Chirico, considered an important precursor to Surrealism. Sage’s stacked architectural forms, mysteriously suspended in space, echo the disquieting mood of his work.

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Giorgio de Chirico (Italian, born Greece, 1888–1978). The Endless Voyage, 1914. Oil on canvas. The Philip L. Goodwin Collection, Gift of James L. Goodwin, Henry Sage Goodwin, and Richmond L. Brown, 1958.221. This painting is on view in Avery Court, on the first floor.

Kay Sage American, 1898–1963 Quote-Unquote, 1958 Oil on canvas Bequest of Kay Sage Tanguy, 1963.198 In the late 1940s, Sage first introduced scaffolding imagery in her paintings and this soon became her signature motif. These wooden ladders and lattices were often draped with plain fabric, as if to suggest a human presence or absence. Sage’s architectonic forms were quite distinct, especially compared to paintings by fellow Surrealists who employed automatism or spontaneous drawing, such as Yves Tanguy and André Masson (whose works hang nearby). Irving Blomstrann, Yves Tanguy and Kay Sage, 1954. Archives, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Yves Tanguy French, active in United States, 1900–1955 Les Cinq Etrangers (The Five Strangers), 1941 Oil on canvas The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1943.220 Tanguy, a self-taught artist, painted quintessentially surreal dreamscapes. His rounded, biomorphic forms belong to a distant, imaginary realm yet suggest recognizable objects, such as melting bodies or bones. Surrealism began as a literary movement that sought to articulate dreamlike states of mind. It also inspired art magazines. This painting may have influenced the 1943 issue of the magazine VVV, which featured an article by the Surrealist poet Charles Duits. His text defined les cinq etrangers with four words: rencontre (meeting), amour (love), fin du monde (end of the world), and seuil (floor/base).

Yves Tanguy French, active in United States, 1900–1955 La Rose des Quatres Vents (The Rose of the Four Winds), 1950 Oil on canvas Bequest of Kay Sage Tanguy, 1963.196 When Tanguy left France in 1939— with his future wife Kay Sage—they first traveled to the western United States. In his work, he observed an “intensification of color” possibly “due to the light.” After settling in Connecticut in 1941, he painted greater expanses of sky and enlarged totemic forms. Tanguy developed an obsession with the landscape of his property, dredging the pond to alter the contours of the surrounding hills. He later commented to his friend and dealer Julien Levy, “It amuses me to imagine what is beyond a hill. I am very desirous to represent those things behind the hill that I will never see.”

André Masson French, 1896–1987 Germination, 1942 Oil, wax, and sand on canvas The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 2011.15.1 When Germany invaded France in 1940, Masson and his family fled Europe and moved to New Preston, Connecticut, to join other exiled Surrealists living in the area. The peaceful setting and stable lifestyle were beneficial to Masson’s art. He painted new subjects inspired by the rural landscape and vegetation. In this body of work, abstract, embryonic forms rendered in vibrant, saturated colors explore themes of growth and regeneration.

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Here, a single, oversized seed is rendered in a cacophony of line and color. Like the artist himself, the form is filled with an abundant internal energy, on the cusp of germinating.

Arshile Gorky American, born Armenia, 1904–1948 Untitled, c. 1942 Pencil, ink, and gouache on paper Anonymous gift, 2005.36.2 This drawing was owned by Julien Levy, whose New York gallery was an important site for avant-garde exhibitions of Surrealism in the 1930s and ’40s. Levy held successive exhibitions of Gorky’s work from 1945 until the artist’s early death in 1948. The artist and dealer also lived close to one another in Connecticut and developed a friendship over time. Gorky once explained to Levy that as he drew, the path of the line often triggered memories of his past. He translated these personal and poetic impulses into abstract forms such as those pictured here.

Arshile Gorky American, born Armenia, 1904–1948 Untitled, 1943 Colored crayon with graphite on wove paper The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1955.275 The last years of Gorky’s life, spent in the Connecticut countryside, were perhaps his most productive and creative. As his wife observed upon their arrival to Roxbury, “Gorky is eager to work. And never do we want to live in the city again.”

These stylistic changes may have also been initiated by his interactions with neighboring artists such as André Masson and Yves Tanguy (whose works are hanging nearby). Like Masson, Gorky produced interwoven shapes and lines that resemble landscape elements such as plants and flowers, while simultaneously evoking a distant dream world.

Arshile Gorky American, born Armenia, 1904–1948 Christmas Card, c. 1943 Pen and black ink with crayon on wove paper Bequest of Eleanor Howland Bunce, 2002.24.1 Gorky made this card for his friend Eleanor “Nellie” Howland Soby. Inside is a handwritten greeting from the artist, his wife, and their daughter: “MERRY Christmas/+/Happy New Year/from/ Arshile, Mougouch + Maro/Gorky.”

Pavel Tchelitchew American, born Russia, 1898–1957 Constance Askew, 1938 Oil on canvas Gift of Mrs. Kirk Askew, 1976.78 Constance Askew was the wife of the New York City dealer Kirk Askew. In the 1930s, the couple hosted lively Sunday gatherings for the avant-garde, including Tchelitchew and his dealer Julien Levy. At these events, Levy later recalled, “There [was] a colorful variety of conversations many fruitful contacts…and a little matchmaking.”

Tchelitchew completed numerous portraits of friends who attended the Askew Salon. Many featured double images in which the sitter’s face was repeated. Here the three likenesses of Constance Askew suggest different stages of life: youth, old age, and death. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art Page 5 of 6 Wall Text & Extended Labels, Visions from Home: Surrealism in Connecticut 7-1-15-ay

Muriel Streeter American, 1913–1995 The Chess Queens, 1944 Oil on canvas Gift of David E. Austin, 1995.16.30 Chess was a favorite pastime of the Surrealists, who identified the themes of war and rivalry as metaphors for contemporary life. The objective of chess is to capture the opponent’s king, yet the queens dominate this scene, perhaps standing in for Streeter and fellow artist Dorothea Tanning. Their poses define them not as rivals but rather as partners, possibly conspiring against the kings.

Streeter was married to Julien Levy and they lived in Bridgewater, Connecticut. Unidentified photographer. Dorothea Tanning and Muriel Streeter, 1944. Courtesy of the Dorothea Tanning Archive.

Alexander Calder American, 1898–1976 Untitled (Latch-Hooked Rug), 1965 Orange, yellow, blue, and black wool Gift of Leslie and Rufus Stillman, 2002.29.1 Calder’s many talents included textile design, which he began in the 1950s. In 1965, his neighbors Leslie and Rufus Stillman asked him to design a hooked rug for their new home. In Calder’s celestial vision, nocturnal animals comingle with the moon and stars, themes in keeping with the Surrealists’ interest in mysteries of the night and dreamlike states of mind. The Stillmans constructed the rug together, using small latch hooks to pull loops of yarn through a stiff woven base. Their collaboration is indicated by the conjoined initials in the upper right corner.

Julien Levy Julien Levy was a pioneering New York art dealer. He opened the Julien Levy Gallery in 1931, which quickly became a cultural hub in the 1930s and ’40s. He was a major champion of Surrealism and exhibited the work of many of the artists featured in this exhibition.

Levy attended Harvard University in the 1920s—he dropped out his senior year—where he became affiliated with the “Harvard modernists.” This group of dynamic individuals emphasized the role of the arts in modern American culture and became active in the worlds of art and architecture, theater, and dance. One of the notable figures in this group was A. Everett “Chick” Austin, Jr., who became director of the Wadsworth Atheneum from 1927 to 1944. Levy and Austin went on to become ambassadors of the new and innovative and worked closely to introduce Surrealism to the American public.

Archival materials from the Julien Levy Gallery Courtesy of the Jean and Julien Levy Foundation for the Arts

Archival materials Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

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