Graphic Masters III: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Media - 1999.80 - SAAM-1999.80_1 - 52092

Wayne Thiebaud, Neapolitan Meringue, 1986/1999, pastel over trial proof lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Warren Unna, Terry and Margaret Stent, and the Thiebaud Family, and museum purchase in honor of Nan Tucker McEvoy, 1999.80, © 1999, Paul Le Baron Thiebaud

Graphic Masters III: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the third in a series of special installations, celebrates the extraordinary variety and accomplishment of American artists’ works on paper. These twenty-eight exceptional watercolors, charcoals, and drawings from the 1960s to the 1990s reveal the central importance of works on paper for American artists, both as studies for creations in other media and as finished works of art. Traditionally a more intimate form of expression than painting or sculpture, drawings often reveal greater spontaneity and experimentation. Even as works on paper become larger and more finished, competing in scale with easel paintings, they retain a sense of the artist’s hand, the immediacy of a thought made visible.

Description

Rarely seen works from the museum's permanent collection by artists such as Robert Arneson, Jennifer Bartlett, Will Barnet, Carolyn Brady, Paul Cadmus, Patricia Tobacco Forrester, Philip Guston, Luis Jiménez, Claes Oldenburg, and Wayne Thiebaud, are featured. Joann Moser, senior curator, selected the artworks in the exhibition.

Visiting Information

January 15, 2010 August 7, 2010
Open Daily, 11:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m
Free Admission

Online Gallery

Robert Arneson, Feeling Pushed, 1977, chalk, pencil, and crayon on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Kurt Olden, 1985.81
Feeling Pushed
Date1977
chalk, pencil, and crayon on paper
Not on view
Will Barnet, Study for Self-Portrait, 1982-1983, charcoal on vellum with traces of colored pencil, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1994.42.11
Study for Self-Portrait
Date1982-1983
charcoal on vellum with traces of colored pencil
Not on view
Jennifer Bartlett, Study for Swimmers Atlanta: Seaweed, 1979, watercolor, enamel, pen and ink, and pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the General Services Administration, Art-in-Architecture Program, 1979.159.59
Study for Swimmers Atlanta: Seaweed
Date1979
watercolor, enamel, pen and ink, and pencil on paper
Not on view
Carolyn Brady, August Breakfast/Maine, 1997, watercolor on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Nancy Hoffman, Rebecca Hoffman-Greenwald and Peter Greenwald, 1997.111, © 1997, Carolyn Brady
August Breakfast/​Maine
Date1997
watercolor on paper
Not on view
Paul Cadmus, Preliminary sketch for Subway Symphony, 1973, pencil, casein, crayon, and chalk on paper mounted on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.88
Preliminary sketch for Subway Symphony
Date1973
pencil, casein, crayon, and chalk on paper mounted on paperboard
Not on view
April Gornik, Storm and Fires, 1990, charcoal and pastel on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the friends of Philip Desind, 1990.84
Storm and Fires
Date1990
charcoal and pastel on paper
Not on view
John Himmelfarb, October Meeting, 1984, brush and ink on paper on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Jay R. Scanlon, 1991.20
October Meeting
Date1984
brush and ink on paper on paper
Not on view
Luis Jiménez, "Patty Ann" Rodeo Queen, 1971, colored pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Patricia Wilder Croce, 2008.8
Patty Ann” Rodeo Queen
Date1971
colored pencil on paper
Not on view
G. Daniel Massad, Night Piece, 1987, pastel on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1988.3
Night Piece
Date1987
pastel on paper
Not on view
Jill Moser, 4/1/86, 1986, graphite and oil on mylar, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of an anonymous donor, 1989.64
4/1/86
Date1986
graphite and oil on mylar
Not on view
Gladys Nilsson, Arytystic Pairanoiya, 1978, watercolor and pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the S. W. and B. M. Koffler Foundation, 1979.53.23
Arytystic Pairanoiya
Date1978
watercolor and pencil on paper
Not on view
Claes Oldenburg, Inverted Letter Q, 1973, charcoal and watercolor on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Edith S. and Arthur J. Levin, 2005.5.52, © 1973, Claes Oldenburg
Inverted Letter Q
Date1973
charcoal and watercolor on paper
Not on view
Peter Saul, Untitled (Bathroom), 1961, pastel crayon and collage on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Gene Davis Memorial Fund, 2009.19, © 1961, Peter Saul
Untitled (Bathroom)
Date1961
pastel crayon and collage on paper
Not on view
Saul Steinberg, Still Life with Cat, 1966, pen and ink, ink wash, colored pencil, pencil and paper collage on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1967.102.1
Still Life with Cat
Date1966
pen and ink, ink wash, colored pencil, pencil and paper collage on paper
Not on view
Masami Teraoka, Oiran and Mirror, from the AIDS Series, 1988, watercolor on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Mrs. Eugene Vail, Martha L. Loomis, Mrs. William Rhinelander Stewart and Mrs. E. N. Vanderpoel, 1990.28, © 1988, Masami Teraoka
Oiran and Mirror, from the AIDS Series
Date1988
watercolor on paper
Not on view
Wayne Thiebaud, Neapolitan Meringue, 1986/1999, pastel over trial proof lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Warren Unna, Terry and Margaret Stent, and the Thiebaud Family, and museum purchase in honor of Nan Tucker McEvoy, 1999.80, © 1999, Paul Le Baron Thiebaud
Neapolitan Meringue
Date1986/1999
pastel over trial proof lithograph on paper
Not on view
John Wilde, Hats #2, 1988, silverpoint on prepared paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Elizabeth Stevens and Mrs. E. N. Vanderpoel, 1996.45
Hats #2
Date1988
silverpoint on prepared paper
Not on view
Nancy Wolf, Expulsion, 1980, pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift from the collection of Eric Green and Jock Truman, 1996.20
Expulsion
Date1980
pencil on paper
Not on view

Artists

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Robert Arneson
born Benicia, CA 1930-died Benicia, CA 1992

Feeling Pushed captures Robert Arneson at an especially stressful moment in his life. Two years earlier, he had been diagnosed with cancer, possibly caused by the chemicals contained in his art materials.

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Will Barnet
born Beverly, MA 1911-died New York City 2012

Painter and printmaker, teacher at the Art Students League. Barnet's images of women and domestic scenes, distinctive in their emphasis on flat painting surfaces, are meditative in tone.

Jennifer Bartlett
born Long Beach, CA 1941 - died Amagansett, NY 2022

Jennifer Bartlett is the daughter of a pipeline engineer and a fashion illustrator. In the late 1950s she attended Mills College, an unconventional school in Oakland, California, that encouraged experimentation and discouraged textbooks.

Carolyn Brady
born Chickasha, OK 1937-died Rochester, MN 2005
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Paul Cadmus
born New York City 1904-died Weston, CT 1999

Cadmus entered the school of the National Academy of Design at fifteen with the encouragement of his parents, both of whom were artists.

Patricia Tobacco Forrester
born Northampton, MA 1940-died Washington, DC 2011
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Philip Guston
born Montreal, Quebec, Canada 1913-died Woodstock, NY 1980

Philip Guston was born Philip Goldstein in Montreal, Canada, in 1913 to Russian emigrés from Odessa. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1919. In 1925, he took a correspondence course in cartooning.

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Luis Jiménez
born El Paso, TX 1940-died Hondo, NM 2006

Born in Texas, lives in New Mexico. Sculptor, teacher whose large fiberglass figures capture the color and vigor of Hispanic-American women and men.

Charles Sullivan, ed American Beauties: Women in Art and Literature (New York: Henry N.

Claes Oldenburg
born Stockholm, Sweden 1929-died New York City 2022
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Wayne Thiebaud
born Mesa, AZ 1920-died Sacramento, CA 2021

Born in Mesa, Arizona, Wayne Thiebaud became one of the most well-known Pop artists in America. His iconic images of food may have stemmed from his beginnings as a freelance cartoonist in 1939.