The Samstag Legacy: an Artist's Bequest
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THE SAMSTAG LEGACY AN ARTIST’S BEQUEST LEGACY THE SAMSTAG THE SAMSTAG LEGACY AN ARTIST’S BEQUEST 394 395 THE SAMSTAG LEGACY AN ARTIST’S BEQUEST 396 397 THE SAMSTAG LEGACY AN ARTIST’S BEQUEST EDITOR ROSS WOLFE ESSAYS BY LEA ROSSON DELONG AND ROSS WOLFE 2 3 CONTENTS 7 PREFACE Professor David Lloyd 9 FOREWORD Erica Green 12 INTRODUCTION Ross Wolfe SAMSTAG THE ARTIST Lea Rosson DeLong 21 Ambition and Apprenticeship 1923-29 39 Art and Labour in the Depression 1930-35 59 Academics and Modernists 1936-41 85 The New Deal Murals 1936-40 119 A Changed World: War and Art 1941-61 146 Notes for Samstag the Artist THE SIREN CALL OF THE SOUTHERN SEA: ANNE AND GORDON SAMSTAG IN AUSTRALIA Ross Wolfe 175 Prelude to a Journey 201 Strangers in a Strange Land 237 Advance and Retreat 275 On the Formation of an Artist’s Bequest 293 The Samstag Legacy 302 Notes for The Siren Call of the Southern Sea 325 THE SAMSTAG ALUMNI 355 Chronology: Gordon and Anne Samstag 361 Gordon Samstag: Chronological Exhibition List 366 Bibliography 376 Gordon Samstag Address to Students 378 Index 389 Acknowledgments 4 5 PREFACE PROFESSOR DAVID LLOYD This book pays tribute to two exceptional American philanthropists, Anne and Gordon Samstag, and their magnificent cultural bequest, the Fine Arts Trust, whose primary object is to award international study scholarships to Australian artists. To facilitate the Samstags’ grand vision, Gordon Samstag set out detailed instructions in his will of 1989. These effectively required that a cooperative partnership be formed between his American trustee – the Citizens and Southern Trust Company (now Bank of America, NA), of Naples, Florida – and the University of South Australia (UniSA), whose role under the will was to award and administer the scholarships. That productive partnership between the trustee and the UniSA was formally agreed in 1991. In the years since, the UniSA has awarded 136 Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarships, with a combined value of more than ten million Australian dollars. The Samstag Scholarships are justifiably known in Australia as golden passports to rapid success in the professional visual arts. They are generous, enabling Australian artists to study at a place of their choice, anywhere in the world, for periods of twelve months or more. It is a matter of pride that the UniSA is so closely associated with such visionary philanthropy. The relationship is all the more special because the UniSA shares a common birthday with the Samstag benefaction: this year, in 2016, we together celebrate our twenty- fifth anniversaries. Among many initiatives being taken to suitably register that milestone is this scholarly publication, The Samstag Legacy: An artist’s bequest. Produced with characteristic excellence by the UniSA’s Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, the book presents a comprehensive biographical account of Anne and Gordon Samstag. It has been many years in the making. The Samstags, famously, were private people, and although Gordon Samstag worked for nearly a decade in the 1960s at the South Australian School of Art (now part of the UniSA), very little was known about them. It has only gradually emerged, through this project, that they both came from distinguished family backgrounds and, moreover, that Gordon had enjoyed an artistic career of some significance before coming to Australia. With the passage of time, his achievements had largely been lost from view in his country of birth. An objective of the book, therefore, is to inspire further research and discoveries regarding Gordon Samstag’s art, particularly among American scholars. Simon TERRILL (b. 1969) Swarm, 2005 (detail) Type C print 180.0 x 220.0 cm (70⅞ x 86⅝ in) University of South Australia Art Collection 2008 Samstag Scholar 6 7 An ambitious, high-quality fine-art publishing project, such as this carefully researched FOREWORD ERICA GREEN book, necessarily involves the contributions of a great many individuals. The UniSA is especially indebted to the rigour and commitment of the book’s authors, Dr Lea Rosson DeLong and Ross Wolfe. They have each produced thorough (and fascinating) accounts of the Samstags, albeit from different viewpoints, that will serve history well. I warmly acknowledge the valued support of our colleagues at Bank of America, Florida, Had Anne and Gordon Samstag not come to Australia from America in 1961, and thence and their associates at Bond, Schoeneck & King, of Naples, Florida, the trustee’s attorneys. to live in Adelaide’s quiet suburbs for more than a decade, while Gordon worked professionally Our successful and rewarding partnership has ensured that Gordon Samstag’s matchless vision at the South Australian School of Art (SASA), then a remarkable story of American ancestry has not only been fulfilled, but will endure. Indeed, it has been said that ‘the Samstag opportunity’ and culture would have been lost to posterity. To begin with, there would have been no historic will do more to put emerging Australian artists on the world stage than any other. The very bequest to Australian artists: that generosity came from Gordon’s affection for his students accomplished Samstag Scholars – many of whom have their work celebrated in the book – are at the SASA – now part of the University of South Australia (UniSA) – where he claimed now a mighty cohort, a force for culture and the future. to have enjoyed the happiest years of his life. Nor, without Gordon’s benefaction (in a scheme I am delighted that the UniSA has been the creative agent enabling this handsome willingly supported by Anne), would any agency – such as the UniSA, for example – have had book’s production. It speaks to our own cultural values and educational vision to have played the motivation or cause to invest research into his artistic achievements in the period before a leadership role in bringing the lives of two wonderful, generous and intriguing benefactors he and Anne came to Australia. What’s more, the intriguing personal biographies of two major to light. benefactors to Australian visual artists, which this book seeks to illuminate, would never have seen the light of day. The Samstags left few clues for history’s gaze, and certainly negligible correspondence PROFESSOR DAVID LLOYD of a personal kind. In Australia they effectively concealed themselves, conducting their lives, Vice Chancellor and President, University of South Australia both privately and professionally, with such social reserve and ordinariness that few friends or colleagues gleaned much, if anything, about their surprisingly rich family histories. It was as if they had come without a past, not wanting to be known. If it hadn’t been for the determined commitment to researching their lives begun by Ross Wolfe in 1992, when he was appointed director of the newly created Samstag Program at the UniSA, then our knowledge of Anne and Gordon Samstag as people, and of their stories and motivations as generous and exemplary benefactors, would have remained spare and insufficient. Instead, what has been discovered over the twenty-five years since the Samstag bequest was first publicly announced has proven revelatory. Crucially, in 1999, American art historian Dr Lea Rosson DeLong accepted a commission from the Samstag Program to write what was initially conceived as a modest text on the art of Gordon Samstag. A specialist in American art of the Great Depression, Dr DeLong thereupon began a study of the artist’s career, and her research soon confirmed Gordon Samstag to have been an artist of significant achievement. The challenge, and her text, kept growing. In the ensuing years, Lea and Ross acted as investigative companions, together researching the elusive Samstags with commendable patience. The Samstag Museum of Art, which has been responsible for producing this publication, has appreciated their acumen and dedication; they have each produced substantial, scholarly essays, that comprehensively demystify the Samstags. The Samstag Legacy: An artist’s bequest is designed with two audiences in mind; Australian and American. The book not only reveals the fascinating biographical discoveries that have been made about the Samstags but also seeks to restore Gordon Samstag, the artist, to a deserved place of recognition in the history of American art. In that respect, Dr DeLong 8 9 has produced a searching study into Gordon Samstag’s artistic career, covering the period It is especially hoped, therefore, that this publication will encourage increased scholarly before his emigration to Australia in 1961. She has illuminated his accomplishments as interest in Gordon Samstag, the artist, and lead to the recovery of more of his works in America ‘a sharp-eyed realist who … embraced the pictorial philosophy of his own day’, and whose and a heightened appreciation of his art-historically significant achievements. That goal is distinguishing contribution was ‘his sober depiction of labour through his pictures of workers doubly important, given – by contrast – the clear decline in the quality of Samstag’s work from and workplaces’. Her thoroughness is exemplary, and her extensive supporting notes are when he arrived in Australia, and later, after returning to America. designed to aid those future scholars who will, we hope, continue the work she has started The production of this book has benefited greatly from the work of a number of in rehabilitating Gordon Samstag, the artist. individuals, but I particularly acknowledge our text editors, Ariana Klepac and Scott Forbes, A consideration of the larger framework of Australian art and society has informed with gratitude. Their knowledge and impressively rigorous approach to their role, and sustained Ross Wolfe’s approach to examining the Samstags’ life in Australia. Gordon’s professional life commitment to our project, have ensured the high standard to which we aspired. We are in Adelaide overlapped with significant developments in contemporary Australian art, and similarly indebted to our designer, Sandra Elms, whose exceptional skills, experience and he himself intersected with key individuals and events.