The American Abstract Artists: a Documentary History 1936-1941

Home , Burgoyne Diller, Harry Holtzman, Royal Cortissoz

The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936-1941

Susan C. Larsen

Archives of American Art Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1. (1974), pp. 2-7.

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http://www.jstor.org Sun Jan 13 12:04:25 2008 seen in Mondrian's Paris studio. The American Abstract Artists: Holtzman invited all the abstract artists he knew to a general meeting in November, 1936. He introduced a new A Documentary History 1936-1941 concept at the beginning of this meeting -his idea for an artists' cooperative and workshop school to be jointly financed and devoted to the advancement of ab- Susan C.Larsen stract art in the United States. Many The early history of the American Ab- more artists attended this meeting than stract Artists closely parallels the growth had been coming to those held in Las- of abstract painting and sculpture in New saw's studio. Josef Albers, Ilya Bolotow- York City during the later 1930s and sky, Mercedes Carles, Giorgio Cavallon, vividly illustrates the situation of the A. N. Christie, Werner Drewes, Arshile abstract artist in the United States dur- Gorky, Carl Holty, Ray Kaiser, Paul ing this period. The Archives of Ameri- Kelpe, Willem de Kooning, Leo Lances, can Art has assembled a comprehensive Alice Mason, George L. K. Morris, John collection of primary documents related Opper, Esphyr Slobodkina, Richard to the American Abstract, Artists, in- Taylor, R. D. Turnbull, Vaclav Vytlacil, cluding the original minutes of meetings, and Wilfrid Zogbaum joined the original group of nine which had been meeting a complete collection of A.A.A. publica- during the early months of 1936. They tions, the personal papers of A.A.A. voted to reject Holtzman's concept, and members, and an extensive group of in- Arshile Gorky walked out of the meet- terviews. This collection is an essential ing, following a dispute over the group's resource about the American Abstract Artists, as well as a lively source of leadership, but the nucleus of an exhib- human insight into the lives and careers iting organization of abstract artists had of its members. been achieved. The American Abstract Artists The meeting place now moved to group was created in November, 1936, Albert Swinden's studio at 13 West 13th when young New York painters and Street, where Balcomb and Gertrude sculptors decided to form a cooperative Greene had adjoining studios. Here the exhibiting society to represent and ex- artists, minus Gorky and de Kooning, hibit the work of the growing comrnu- settled down to the task of creating a nity of abstract artists in New York City. formal organization during the early When its formal meetings began in 1937, months of 1937. Friday night, January the character of the American Abstract 8, 1937, they began holding weekly ses- Artists as an organization had, to some sions, trying first of all to find a name extent, been shaped by the individuals which would suggest the broad spectrum who contributed to its creation. During of abstract styles of its members, while the mid-1930s) abstract artists working clearly separating this abstract artists' in New York came to know each other organization from the other artists' through the W.P.A./F.A.P., the Art Stu- groups in New York City. It was finally dents League, the National Academy of agreed that the word abstract should be Design, and the Artists' Union, and part of any name finally adopted; they began to meet informally to discuss decided upon American Abstract Artists their work and the problems facing as the official name during the meeting young abstract artists in America. The Fig. 1. American Abstract Artists, General of January 15, 1937. Although some members objected, the majority agreed idea of forming an exhibiting organiza- Prospectus, 1937.Archives of American Art. tion entered these discussions with upon this title because it was open ended greater frequency and seriousness. enough to include a wide range of ab- In 1935, four friends, Rosalind Ben- stract styles. Geometric, expressionist, gelsdorf, Byron Browne, Albert Swinden, Harry Holtzman then took a deci- and biomorphic elements existed side and Ibram Lassaw, met in Rosalind sive step which led directly to the forma- by side at American Abstract Artists Bengelsdorf's studio at 230 Wooster tion of the American Abstract Artists. exhibitions, often appearing together in Street to discuss the possibility of ex- Having attended the meeting in Lassaw's the work of a single artist. Some early hibiting together. They resolved to con- studio, Holtzman decided independently members of the A.A.A., notably Diller tact other artists in their circle and begin to recruit as many abstract artists as and Holtzman, had already moved from serious efforts toward exhibiting the possible and to assemble a group exhibi- biomorphic and late synthetic cubist work of young abstract artists in New tion. As assistant director of the W.P.A.1 styles toward Neoplasticism. Holty, York. Early in 1936, they called a larger F.A.P. Mural Division in New York Schanker, Lances, Ralph M. Rosenborg, meeting in Ibram Lassaw's studio at 232 under Burgoyne Diller, Holtzman made Robert J. Wolff, and others retained an Wooster Street. The group now included use of his wide range of acquaintances expressionist emphasis and painterly Burgoyne Diller, Balcomb Greene, Ger- among the abstract artists of New York. methods of working. Lassaw's sculpture trude Greene, Harry Holtzman, and In the autumn of 1936, Harry Holtzman carried on a dialogue between the geo- George McNeil. Following an unsuccess- rented a studio with the intention of metric and the biomorphic. Bolotowsky ful attempt to interest the Brooklyn establishing an artists' cooperative work- and Mason worked with free-flowing Museum in a group show, they began to shop and a school of abstract art; he biomorphic images in open space. explore the possibility of exhibiting at outfitted his studio with white easels, Browne, Zogbaum, and Vytlacil empha- the Municipal Gallery in New York. recalling the white easel he had recently sized the necessity for sensuality of form and surface in their painting and sculpture. On January 29, 1937, the American Abstract Artists issued its General Pro- spectus, outlining the purpose and struc- ture of the organization. It emphasized the role of exhibitions as a way of making the artists' work known to the art community of New York City and promoting the growth and acceptance of abstract art in the United States. The first paragraph of this A.A.A. General Prospectus was related to exhibitions: 'We have agreed that the most direct approach to our objective is the exhibition of our work. We shall show together at least once a year, making it constantly our effort to have our annual, or more frequent exhibitions, present in a dignified and competent way all the sidcant 'abstract' work done in America."* The first American Abstract Artists exhibition opened on April 2, 1937, at the Squibb Gallery at 745 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Thirty-nine members took part in the show. This 1937 A.A.A. annual was the largest, most comprehensive, and best-attended show of American abstract painting and sculpture to be staged outside the sponsorship of a major museum during the 1930s. The exhibitors strenuously edited the work they brought to the Squibb Gallery for this first show. Most of them had been critical of the work shown in a 1935 Whitney Museum exhibition, "Ab- stract Art in America," where abstraction frequently meant no more than stylization. The members wanted this first group show to make a strong state- ment, to contain only the uncompro- misin y abstract work the A.A.A. had been f'ormed to encourage and exhibit. Instead of printing an explanatory catalogue with a list of exhibitors and Fig. 2. Squibb Gallery Exhibition Portfolio, 1937. Archives of American Art. titles of individual works, the group painting by Ingres, pointing out its ab- others. The exhibition elicited com- accepted Vaclav Vytlacil's offer to work stract qualities and comparing it to the ments from many segments of the New as technical advisor to A.A.A. members work of the A.A.A. members. Gorky York art community regarding the via- on a portfolio of zinc plate lithographs objected to the hard-edged, rectilinear bility of abstract art in America. It also printed by the Cane Press in New York. character of many works in the Squibb made the public aware of the existence This ortfolio contained individual show, and was trying to illustrate his of a broadly-based, diverse, and growlng prints gy most of the thirty-nine exhibi- contention that abstraction and sen- abstract movement among the younger tors. Thus, the catalogue contained a suality need not be mutually exclusive painters and sculptors in New York City. group of original works supplementing, in a work of art. During the group's first season, from rather than documenting, the exhibition. The first A.A.A. exhibition gen- 1937 to 1938, several new members Five hundred copies were printed and erated a great deal of publicity, criticism, joined the American Abstract Artists, sold for fifty cents at the Squibb Gallery. and controversy. Some reviewers reacted among them were Suzy Frelinghuysen, Only a few are known to be extant; a negatively, expressing the view that A.E. Gallatin, Fritz Glarner, and David complete portfolio is on file with the abstract art was of European origin and Smith. Archives of American Art. American efforts in this idiom were The second American Abstract Art- The opening night of the 1937 doomed to imitation and failure. They ists annual exhibition opened February American Abstract Artists exhibition dismissed the A.A.A. show much as they 14, 1938, at the American Fine Arts was a successful, exciting affair, well had rejected the important 1936 Mu- Society at 215 West 57th Street, where it attended by artists, critics, and the pub- seum of Modem Art retrospective of ran until February 28. The A.A.A. public. The exhibitors were so delighted to European abstract art, "Cubism and lished an ambitious yearbook entitled see their long-awaited group show take Abstract Art." A few critics writing for American Abstract Artists 1938. Bal- place that they watched a spontaneous New York newspapers and art publica- comb Greene, chief editor of the 1938 opening-night performance by Arshile tions were enthusiastic, but most were yearbook, was assisted by Carl Holty, Gorky with good-humored amusement. selective, expressing approval of some Harry Holtzman, Ibram Lassaw, Charles Gorky carried about a reproduction of a works, pointing out deficiencies in Shaw, and Warren Wheelock, serving on the editorial committee. The cover of the yearbook was a Neoplastic typo- graphcal design in red, black, and white. Inside the eighty-page paperbound booklet were eleven essays and forty-six illustrations of current work by A.A.A. members. The 1938 yearbook marked the beginning of an effort to answer many of the criticisms leveled at the A.A.A. by the public and the press. Although the booklet described the group's purpose as educational, individual members like Greene and Bolotowsky frankly admitted it was counterpropaganda aimed at spe- cific segments of the New York art community. The agressive tone of this 1938 earb book was apparent in the opening essay by Charles Shaw entitled, "A Word to the Objector." Shaw addressed himself to six of the most popular criticisms of abstract art-that it was merely decorative, unpicturesque, frivolous, nonrepresentational, meanmgless, and cold. Countering the favorite arguments of his hypothetical objector, Shaw blended wit and narrative in his essay: '' 'More like a game than a painting,' is another favorite critique. And not, in truth, because the geometric pattern is bad in design or laclung in movement or negative in value or possessing neither cohesion nor solidity or crude in color or without depth or a score of other con- ceivable attributes. Such objections are never advanced." A successful writer of fiction, Shaw gave a sarcastic edge to hs pointed and clearly drawn illustrations: 'I3ecause the yellow disc in the left hand comer is not a summer moon caressing a tropic sea but merely an un- disguised yellow disc, it fails to evoke that necessary something that summer moons and tropical seas invariably evoke in such picture lovers. . . . All of which would indicate that such observers have not merely failed to see abstract art but indeed any art. For honest painting, regardless of its repre- sentational or nonrepresentational mer- its, embraces certain patent fundamen- tals. One seeks, for example, rhythm, Fig. 3.1938 Yearbook. Archives of American Art. composition, spacial organization, design, progression of color, and many, many other qualities in any aesthetic public rather than to fellow artists. With introduction of individual members and work. . . .Ir the 1938 yearbook and the previous their work. The text of this volume was Ten other essays in the 1938 A.A.A. portfolio of lithographs, American Ab- a one-page prospectus and a six-page yearbook focused upon various issues stract Artists had begun a modest pro- history of the group written by George related to the principles and practice of gram of publications whch would L.K. Moms. It accompanied the thlrd abstract art: for example, Albert Swin- continue intermittently for several years. A.A.A. annual held at the Riverside den's essay "On Simplificati~n"~Alice In 1939, a second yearbook was pub Museum, March 7-28, 1939. This exhlbi- Mason's "Concerning Plastic Sigmfi- lished that focused upon the individual tion, one of the largest ever staged by cance"; Ibram Lassaw's "On Inventing members of the American Abstract Art- the American Abstract Artists, came at Our Own ArtUjand an article by George ists, and contained brief biographies of a time when the organization was gain- L.K. Moms entitled 'The Quest for an members accompanied by a full-page ing strength and momentum, attracting Abstract Tradition," whch also appeared reproduction of work by each exhibitor several members whose energy and as his monthly column in The Partisan in the 1939 annual. It was a black-and- imagination would contribute to the Review. Some of these articles defended white paperbound volume with perfo- group's activities within the next few the growth of abstract art in the United rated pages held by a spiral binder. For years. New exhibitors included John States and seemed to be addressed to the the first time the emphasis was on the Ferren, Dumel Grant, Gerome mow-. 5 During the early months of 1940, the American Abstract Artists' frustra- "N. mn.m $...d.qrmly hamdl. mmd.rn .rl e dl. Ihu. ..." 8 A" EROC~to S.cur. lI.250MO April. IPII I% WU1IYM 01 IODLII III tion with the policies and the performance of the Museum of Modem Art reached its climax in the form of a sidewalk demonstration and a broadside en- How MODERN is titled, "How Modem Is The Museum of Modem Art?" In 1939, the museum had 91ftg MUSEUM {~@D%@sART presented "Art In Our Time," which, if interpreted literally, might have led the Lets look a1 the record 3 public to anticipate amorecontemporary the Muleurn prol.a..d to show ART IN OUR TIME- Whow lim. I.,q.nf. Horn.,. L. Farqe and H.rtnatt1 display than the canvases by Hamett, 01Piulro. Bnqu. Lepu and Mondrianl Whioh tima1 II d.u.nd.n; 04 sarqent and nomar ma1 about the dexend.nts 04 Pic.s- Homer, LaFarge, Sargent, and other 19th- md M0ndri.n) What .bout Ameriun abstract art7 If ha had b..n in Am.ric. what din" cucc.$sas lor Re in7 hen for Me8ssanierl Or J. L b.roms?bh.1 about Toma and ~~~%-~~itishrattr painfer- and early 20thcenturyAmerican~~shown tvrnd loo#. on a Millovri farm? A ~ ~ qr.in ~ ~p.intsd ~by ~ d . Darblpn 7 Il.lloxr"Sl.g at Ihark~y', dm. by Hanri Ragnaultl Th* N8br.h together with works by Picasso, Braque, a.ld~(.l lrbwne Boudinl The 80~8~by Lugan* Cardaral Leger, and other modem European masters. This exhibition was disappoint- ing to many young American artists,

ITALIAN MASTERS{- ~~~~~~~i~ ~ ~ ~ion~,~~l~ ~odh such ~e~.mpla%l~ l especially to the young New York ab- no* to ius+i~;a ~~.~ii~~~~,howl nor rera~u+ian.q the Egyptiansl And an dghfsenlh Century JAPANESE! stractionists in the American Abstract Doas if maan ALL THE GREAT ART OF ALL TIME7 Artists who continued to regard the Mu- Then why +ha old mdrIen7 D.88 it maan METROPOLITAN PLUS WHITNEY MUSEUM? seum of Modem Art as their natural and Then why a Mu%.um d Mdem Art7 logical forum among the major art in- and now the art of the three alarm iire ! stitutions of New York City. "Art In Our rs the Artist cl Reporter 7 Time" and other recent Museum of Modem Art shows seemed to indicate MUSEU* a BUSINESS? 1s & . that the museum trustees and its director, Alfred Barr, regarded the term "modem" as an historical period and VAy end Ann do., I (nodarn museum dspari Irom preulntinq ,+he ~ri01 laday, +a prsmaling the ad of y.rlard.y7 Why not d. Mora-y.~Ierdav? Why not Ra~urrcctions,Adoraiionc and Madann.11 that the museum's acceptanceof abstract Why not buFd Pyramid.? Why not tear down the ~use~rnand build'. pyramid! A* blg n Radie Cihl W+h 1W.WO dave%lThink of the publlci*l artextended itself no further than to 20th- century European abstraction. Early in 1940, when the Museum of Modem Art displayed a collection of Italian Renaissance paintings on loan from Europe under the title "Italian How ab~tIBy (Aqu.cadsJ Ron- lha nr.1 frugtadl Masters," it simultaneously exhibited

Shouldn't ''fitdam'' oonaaivably inrluds tho "AV~I ~~~da''7 a show of late 19th-century American Why not show el +ha Engli~hAbstncfon~fll Ha- about the yeunq., Europsanexpsriman+ert and Europeanpaintings entitled 'Modem Hartunp. Garin Maqnalli, Halion. Egpal#ng.Taaub$,.A(p. RI.~.,, Sauphoc. Srhwab, Nabal Sima. Mar Bill, S+.ianii. Emi. Tufundiian,Prinn.,? Masters." This show renewed the ques- What about Ih. huodrad~ili~~rall$01 nodorn and non.ebierliro .dis+s ,n Amorlc*l tion of the museum's role and the extent of its commitment to recent develop- PIORENCC swln A E OlLLLTln ~NCSLYALL ments, particularly to those which were miT2 CILARHCR CEOROC UIHill ALBERT SWiHDiN BlLCOUB CRlEHE ALlCB MASON I: 0 SCHUiiWLHD closely related to and issued from the DUITAUDE CRCEHC OCOROP I I MORRIS R D IURHBUU. HANAHIAH HlRARl L MOHOLI "ICY YACLIV VYiLlClL major European movements represented HARRY HOLFMAH I RICE PCRiilA RUDOLPH WEISENBORN ClRL ii0LTI LIAROARCT PITERSOH WlRRPN WHZCLOCX in the collection of the Museum of DOROTHY IORALEMOH AllpH *I ROICUllllli FRCDCAlCX WHlTCMlN Modem Art. RAY XllSER A D 7 REiNHIlll, HARRY WlLDPHBrRti ?RCDCRICI( P KAHH LOUIS SClhllHXLR ROALRI !A" WOLir PAUL KLlPt CHI"LIS 0 BHLW BCCXPORD YOUNO An exchange of letters between LEO LANCE6 LIPHIR SLOBODllHl IAHLI "OUWD Alfred Barr and American Abstract M ZO(IUUY ,l"*M LlSSAW DAYID SMITH W Artists secretary, Carl Holty, in Novem- ber, 1937, had begun with a request that the Museum of Modem Art exhibit the Fig. 4. "How Modem is the Museum of Modem Art!" 1940.Archives of American Art. 1938 A.A.A. annual. Holty was opti- mistic about the possibility of mutual support between the A.A.A. and the ski, I. Rice Pereira, and Ad Reinhardt. hibitions when many abstract styles Museum of Modem Art: "American The 1939annual was also a difficult mingled freely and the attitude of the Abstract Artists is the only group of its group revealed greater breadth and more kind in the United States and is represen- turning point in the history of the Ameri- tative of the most active painters and can Abstract Artists; expressionistdirec- lively growth in multiple directions. sculptors in this direction. It is natural tions in abstract painting and sculpture With the 1939 annual, several founding were virtually eliminated by the exhibi- members, includingBengelsdorf,Browne, that the group looks upon the Museum Carles, Lances, McNeil, Rosenborg, of Modem Art as the authentic place tion committee during the selection and where contemporary thought and effort hanging of the annual show. As a result, Schanker, Vytlacil, and Zogbaum began is clearly defined."5 the A.A.A. became even more identified to feel that the A.A.A. was losing its in the public mind with the plastic original character; they became con- Alfred Barr did not respond to the directions outlined in Morris' catalogue cemed that their continued activity main thrust of Holty's letter: the role essay: Cubism, Neoplasticism, Con- within the organization would imply of the museum and its possible relation- structivism, and hard-edged abstraction. their consent to the esthetic direction it ship with the American Abstract Artists This had been less true of previous ex- appeared to be taking. aswell as other young Americanabstract Balcomb Greene, and several of the other militant members of the A.A.A. searched Fig. 5. "TheArt Critics-!" Archives of American Art. through their files of newspaper and magazine clippings and selected twenty- five of the least distinguished, least prophetic opinions of the major New York critics writing since 1930. The painters and sculptors. Ban declined to exhibition of drawings and cartoons twelve-page A.A.A. pamphlet was en- sponsor the 1938 annual on the grounds originally produced for the afternoon titled "The Art Critics- ! How Do They that the museum did not presently have tabloid newspaper P.M. The drawings Serve The Public? What Do They Say? room on its schedule for such an under- had been entered in a contest sponsored How Much Do They Know? Let's Look taking and that in any case it required by the paper. Hearing of the P.M. open- At The Record." Critics quoted at length jury privileges over all exhibitions. Dur- ing, several angry A.A.A. members col- included: Royal Cortissoz, Thomas ing the next two years, subsequent in- laborated on a broadside in the form of a Craven, Edward Alden Jewell, Howard quiries from the A.A.A. were also tumed long narrow scrollentitled, "How Modem Devree, Jerome Klein, Emily Genauer, aside. Is The Museum of Modem Art?" and R. M. Coates, and Peyton Boswell. On April 15, 1940, the Museum of designed by Ad Remhardt, a professional Selections focused upon the re- Modem Art scheduled the opening of an typographer. Its banner headline featured actions of New York art critics to the 1936 Museum of Modem Art retrospective, "Cubism and Abstract Art," Artists As Militant subsequent Museum of Modem Art exhibitions, American Abstract Artists annuals, and other occasions which had prompted denunciations and smug Trade Union Workers During dismissals. Except for several paragraph headings, an introduction and a conclu- sion, writers of the A.A.A. pamphlet did a minimum of editorializing, allow- The Great Depression ing the critics to speak for themselves, although the selection of excerpts was calculated to embarrass and to highlight Gerald M. Monroe misstatements and contradictions. It was an irreverent document, created to The artist of modem times has generally tions, she ignored the entreaties of the put forth the opinion that major critics functioned in alienation from the main- UAG, informing them that there were writing for New York newspapers and stream of prevailing society. During the relief agencies to whlch they might art publications often had little know- period of the Great Depression of the apply. The angry artists held mass pro- ledge of 20th-century developments in 19301s, however, artists rushed forward tests, mounted picket lines on the nar- European art and held fixed opinions in large numbers to respond to the devas- row sidewalk in front of the Whitney, about the national character of American tating economic and political crisis. then located on 8th Street, and sent painting and sculpture. After a period of stunned inaction, art- numerous delegations to her office.The "The Art Critics- !" was the last ists gradually realized that their eco- pressure was overwhelming and Force American Abstract Artists publication nomic and professional needs could only gradually made concessions. She also to project this aggressive tone toward be obtained through massive govem- closed the museum on March 27-six New York museums, the press, and the ment patronage. Influenced by socialist weeks early-presumably out of a fear of public. Abstract artists, by their num- ideology and inspired by the growing vandalism! bers, their energy, and the solid ac- labor movement, artists organized them- In February 1934, the name of the complishment of their work, were at selves as "cultural workers," and turned organization was changed to the Artists last playing a significant role inAmerican to militant trade union tactics to effect Union; it became a trade union of paint- painting and sculpture. By 1941, abstrac- their goals. ers, sculptors, printrnakers, and allied tion ceased to be treated as an issue and In the summer of 1933, a small artists. Although the union professed to the content of individual artists'work be- group of artists began to meet informally be nonpolitical, many of the leaders came the primary focus of artistic and at the John Reed Club, an organization were Communists or fellow travelers. critical attention. The AmericanAbstract of radical artists and writers, to discuss Control of the leadership by members of Artists exhibitions and publications had the possibility of promoting government the Communist Party was maintained helped to stimulate, provoke, and educate support. About twenty-five of them primarily because they were eager to do the art public during the later 1930s in jointly issued a manifesto declaring the (unpaid)work. However, the union significant ways, helping the abstract "The State can eliminate once and for was run on generally democratic lines, artist to discover his identity and his all the unfortunate dependence of Amer- and non-Communists who were active public in the United States. ican artists upon the caprice of private became officers and were Influential in patronage." The New York artists re- the union's affairs. During that time of ferred to themselves as the Unemployed pressing humanitarian issues and polit- Artists Group; among its early leaders ical idealism, liberals and radicals were Notes were Max Spivak, Phil Bard, Boris Gore- often able to work effectively together. lk, Bemarda Bryson, Ibram Lassaw, The union's first president was 1. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian In- stitution, "American Abstract Artists," microfilm Balcomb and Gertrude Greene, Michael Balcomb Greene, a former English in- NY59-11. This file contains the minutes of early Loew, Joseph Vogel, and James Guy. structor at Dartmouth who had become meetings of the American Abstract Artists, c. 1937- Frequent demonstrations by the UAG a painter. When he resigned, his term 1940. attracted hundreds of followers and were was completed by Michael Loew, who in 2. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, American Abstract Artists, General effective in securing a variety of city, tum was succeeded by Phil Bard, surely Prospectus, 1937, microfilm NY59-11, frame #00184. state, and federal programs that supplied the most popular of the union's leaders. 3. Charles Shaw, "A Word to the Objector," the artists with occasional work. During He was a dedicated Communist who American Abstract Artists 1938, unpaged. the winter of 1933-1934, the federal always seemed anxious to demonstrate 4. Ibid. government initiated the Public Works 5. Carl Holty, "A Letter to Alfred Ban," Nov- that he was more radical than anyone ember 22, 1937, Archives of American Art, Smith- of Art Project, a large-scale patronage else, but he was not so dogmatic as to be sonian Institution, microfilm NY59-11. program that was intended to last only unable to work closely with those with 6. Ilya Bolotowsky, "An Interview With Ilya three months but actually remained in whom he dlsagreed ideologically. Bard Bolotowsky," interview with Susan C. Larsen, New effect about six months. Juliana Force, was also much admired as a draftsman; York City, January 29, 1973. the patrician director of the Whitney The author wishes to express appreciation to mem- he had published political cartoons in bers of the American Abstract Artists who have Museum, was appointed head of the New Masses when he was nineteen and generously provided information, reminiscences, New York region with a budget provid- was a regular contributor to the Daily and documentation regarding the A.A.A. ing work for approxirnately 600 artists. Worker and Freiheit, the Communist After requesting a list of needy artists English and Yiddish daily papers. Bard from the major professional organiza- was followed as president by Murray Hantman, former member of the Los Angeles John Reed Club and exhibitor of Susan C. Larsen received her degree from North- Gerald M. Monroe teaches [raintlng and drawing at a painting of the Scottsboro boys in court. westem University in 1974 and now teaches at Glassboro State College and has made a study of Right wing "critics" broke into the ex- Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota. polltical activities in the visiial arts in the 1930s. hibit and shot bullet holes into the heads