Music, Culture, Art & More at OMA

Our Friday ended at the Oceanside Museum of Art for a special summer night where they're "creating connections between our diverse community members through art, culture, and food at Street Level Vol. 1.2 Melodía Bohemia—the fusing of ancient and modern influences to tell the story of those who live within the art and the evolving cultures of the Americas."

Before all the music and dance began, we were invited to explore the museum's current exhibits. Our goal was to be outside in the glorious summer air but I really wanted to see Art for the People: WPA-Era Paintings from the Dijkstra Collection.

This extensive (and amazing) exhibition features a series of works created during the years between the American stock market crash of 1929 and World War II and offers an expansive view of work from often-overlooked artists with a diverse range of backgrounds, locales, and worldviews.

During this era, which led to and included the government sponsored WPA (Works Progress Administration) of the 1930s and 1940s, many American artists created scenes that represented the state of the country and sought to produce art that expressed fundamental human concerns and basic democratic principles. The scale of these state-run programs was unprecedented, and many artists produced works that explored the hardships of the era and the government's response. Given the relevance of these themes to the present day, this collection of artwork holds particular significance.

Known as people's art, these works were created with the intention of being accessible and meaningful to the general public. They feature imagery related to the period, including depictions of laborers, the poor, and the disenfranchised going about their activities in both urban and rural environments. This encompassing look at WPA-era art features 45 paintings from the East, Midwest, and West, with a strong representation of work by Californians, who have often been omitted from the narrative. Some paintings capture simple pleasures or quiet moments of the Great Depression era, while the majority convey the struggles and hardships of the time.

Art for the People: WPA-Era Paintings from the Dijkstra Collection encourages viewers to see works from this time in a more expansive way and to celebrate artists from varied backgrounds and locales. The artwork offers a historical lens, celebrating the artists and their accomplishments.

Though artist Helen Appleton Read lived an affluent life, her Portrait of a Midwest Farmer (1940) is a simple, moving portrayal of a working man. Here, she rendered a farmer with the same care and effort traditionally accorded wealthy capitalists and their families. The result was not a cry against injustice, nor a statement of despair, but a declaration of the anxiety of a farmer's life, in which a few years of bad weather could lead to the loss of a farm and livelihood.

I was surprised at how many of the artists were American, yet born in other countries. Nils Gren, from Sweden, painted Silent Men in 1938. This painting shows two working-class men sitting at a restaurant table. One, wearing a derby, is drained of life and sits slumped against the table, a cup of coffee and a pipe in front of him. His burly companion appears to be reading or is otherwise occupied, his face betraying a toughness and anxious strain.

And of course, there had to be a Disney tie-in. "As artists searched for a sense of self and place amid a difficult time, California painters presented the West as distinct in geography and culture-sometimes with a sense of nostalgia or loss. Phil Dike's Back Country Conversation (1941), for instance, conjures a passing era, as two men in cowboy hats interact in front of a well-lit gas station on the outskirts of the California desert. Here, barren trees, a dilapidated picket fence, and weathered buildings connote the passage of time, just as automobiles needing gas will soon displace horses.

Born in Auburn, California, Dike studied and then taught at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. He was also a top artist at Walt Disney Studios, working on animated classics such as Fantasia and Snow White. Disney and Chouinard had a reciprocal relationship during the Depression, as Disney sent animators to train at the school, and Chouinard instructors taught at Disney. During the Depression, artists like Dike, who were skilled at characterization and conveying action, could also make ends meet by working at Disney." Both Steve and I saw the Disney influence in this piece. Wild.

Philip Evergood's New Death demanded some observation. In the mid-1930s, Evergood painted murals under WPA sponsorship. He also taught music and art. His own paintings are characterized by deliberately awkward drawing, spontaneous lines, and dark humor. This painting addresses the destructive new power of the atomic bomb, the spidery, inhuman evil of which is being celebrated by war-mongering businessmen, even as one of them has already been engulfed like a fly in its web. Hmmm.

There was something about Slow Turn (1945) by Edward Biberman. The story that accompanied it, was interesting, too. Edward Biberman's brother Herbert was one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of motion-picture producers, directors, and screenwriters who appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 and was jailed for refusing to answer questions regarding his possible communist affiliations. Edward endured similar, though less public, political harassment and went underground for many years. Though he made his reputation painting overt social commentaries, he increasingly turned to the abstract qualities of architecture and the California skyline to make his political statements.

Slow Turn obliquely suggests current events and seems to hint at the Cold War to come. Here, a curved street disappears into the blue void of the sky at the peak of Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. A single plane flies overhead. The painting reads both as a cloaked response to the American B-29 bomber that dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, as well as to the military industrial complex centered in Southern California.

One of the WPA pieces that has been contemporarily interpreted (below) is Julio de Diego's Beauty and the Beasts. In 1924, de Diego moved to the United States, making art and supporting himself by designing stage sets, producing fashion illustrations, and making jewelry. During World War II, his art took a political turn after he joined the American Artists Congress, a leftist organization formed to oppose fascism.

Beauty and the Beasts epitomizes de Diego's irreverent, Surreal approach. A nude woman, holding a proclamation and standing among bedsheets and ruins, faces a castle. Parachutes descend from the sky. The work may depict dancer Gypsy Rose Lee, whom de Diego knew and would later marry. He presents her almost as an ancient goddess, proudly defying and standing apart from the chaos of the world around her.

The partnering exhibit "WPA: Contemporary Interpretations presents artwork by five contemporary artists whose works carry the weight of hardship beside the hope that propels us forward while gazing toward unknown futures. The works presented in this exhibition respond visually and thematically to specific historic paintings from the adjacent exhibition, wooden sculptures further investigate the relationship between human and machine, photographs honor the ones whose perseverance gazes intently upon potential, and carry the legacy of family history and tradition. These works reflect on the labor required, and the sacrifices made, in the search for survival and fulfillment."

I loved Things Hidden by Trinh Mai. "During migration and escape from war, people from all parts of earth have sewn valuable objects into the hems of garments to safeguard from pirates, thieves, and the unforgiving environments through which they navigate in search for safety, new opportunities, and home."

"As the lives of our vulnerable populations balance precariously upon the actions of the courts, Things Hidden speaks on the things we hide and reveal, and the wisdom to discern to whom, at what time, and how to reveal, if it is wise to do so at all. The garments, some made from patterns inherited from her grandmother, both conceal and reveal family photos and inherited items. Transcribed onto the delicate fabric are firsthand and inherited memories, and scripture that speaks on the love for the stranger, the admonishment of oppressors, and the petition for freedom from oppression."

Hugo Gellert's Worker and Machine (1928), was the subject of two very different interpretations. When I think of a WPA art style, this is what I envision. "The simple rendition of a factory worker with basic colors, geometric forms, and an uncluttered composition shows Gellert's talent as a Modernist artist. But this picture is deceptively simple, contrasting with Gellert's complex life as a painter, lithographer, and political activist."

Machine Man, by Scott Bruckner was definitely different. According to Mr. Bruckner, "In today's world of highly sophisticated manufactured materials and objects created through artificial intelligence, we recognize hand crafting as an invaluable skill. Gellert's Worker and the Machine addresses these values. The strong back of the worker is pronounced by the deep wood grain and harkens back to a different time in our nation's history. And yet, here we are today, still facing the crumbling of our infrastructure. For Machine Man, I carved the hand while observing how Gellert had chosen to depict the hand gripping onto the wrench. In this response piece, his hand extends below the edge to create a dynamic sense of motion."

Margaret Chiaro's The Man, pays homage to her grandfather: his strength, work ethic, resilience, and integrity. Hugo Gellert's Worker and the Machine evoked a memory of her grandfather that inspired her to excavate his life. Born in America in 1922, his first job away from home was in 1939-1940, when he worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps, an organization that was part of the WPA project. He spent the following years working long days at a steel mill in the mornings and as a union carpenter in the evenings. He also served in the US Navy as Master of Arms and drove a landing craft onto Omaha Beach during the Normandy Invasion. Embedded beneath the painting is a collage of photographs, a tapestry of Margaret's grandfather's life.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the WPA exhibit, it was a tad depressing and it was time to find the beat of our own drum and who better to do that with than Brady!

Beginning with a performance by Ballet Folklorico Tapatio de Oceanside, we knew a fiesta was about to take place.

Music was provided by flamenco-fusion guitarist Jason Jenkins... wow, what a night.

I can't think of a better summer evening than hanging out at the Oceanside Museum of Art (and all this for only $10 a person). We loved OMA’s biggest social event of the month! I highly recommend, if you're anywhere near, that you not miss the Street Level 1.3: Nuevo Pacifico.

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1 comments:

Four Points Bulletin said...: I am bummed I missed some of the art but am so glad to see the music! The flamenco guitarrista was really fun to watch! Until next time!; July 17, 2023 at 8:47 AM

HAERR TRIPPIN'

Music, Culture, Art & More at OMA

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