IN THIS ISSUE
Forbidden Firsts: Jazz at
Marshall's In Review
5th Annual Art in a Box
Exhibition In Review
Bernard "Jack" Heineman,
Jr., Loved Art, Particularly
Demuth
Mary G. L. Hood Exhibition
Preview
Upcoming Lectures
MARK YOUR
CALENDAR
Forbidden Firsts: Jazz at
Marshall's
February 2 - March 30, 2007
First Friday Reception: February 2,
5-8pm
Mary G. L. Hood
April 6 - June 30, 2007
First Friday Reception: April 6, 5-8pm
24th Annual Demuth
Garden Tour and Gala
June 9 - 10, 2007
Garden Tour Gala: June 8, 2007
Museum Closed
Presidents Day, Monday, February 19
Easter Sunday, Sunday, April 8
Memorial Day, Monday, May 28
Mondays and the month of January
Quarterly Newsletter
ISSUE/JANUARY 2007
VOLUME 24, No. 2
Image: Charles Demuth, At Marshall’s, 1915, Collection Demuth Museum, Lancaster, PA
FORBIDDEN FIRSTS:
JAZZ AT MARSHALL'S
The Demuth Museum’s 2007
exhibition schedule kicks off with its
annual Invitational exhibition, Forbidden
Firsts: Jazz at Marshall’s, on view from
February 2 – March 30, 2007. The
exhibition features twenty-six local
artists who were asked to contribute a
work of art which took as its inspiration
the theme of the early jazz culture and
bohemian artistic community of New
York City nightclubs in the first decades
of the twentieth century.
Charles Demuth’s primary home
and inspiration may have been the city of
Lancaster, but New York City provided an
essential counterpoint to his hometown
throughout the artist’s adult life. It was
in New York that Demuth exhibited and
sold his work, first at the Daniel Gallery
and later in the galleries of Alfred Stieglitz.
Through his friendship with the latter, he
became part of an elite circle of American
(continued on reverse)
FORBIDDEN FIRSTS: JAZZ AT MARSHALL'S, ctd.
Modernists, including Marsden Hartley,
John Marin, and Georgia O’Keeffe,
who were hungry for exposure to the
work of their European contemporaries
and driven to create their own uniquely
American art. Demuth also befriended
Marcel Duchamp and Edward Fisk,
and together they frequented the early
ragtime and jazz clubs in New York City,
including the jazz club at the Marshall
Hotel, which became the heart of “Black
Bohemia” at the turn of the twentieth
century. The Marshall Hotel, named
after its illustrious owner, had one of the
first jazz clubs in New York. Here they
Save the Date
24TH ANNUAL
DEMUTH
GARDEN TOUR
AND GALA
Conestoga House
JUNE 9TH & 10TH,
2007
GARDEN TOUR
GALA
JUNE 8TH, 2007
took in cutting edge jazz performances,
witnessing this innovative musical form
in its infancy.
During an extended stay on
Washington Square South during the
winter of 1915-16, Demuth depicted the
Marshall Hotel in five watercolor works
including At Marshall’s, 1915 from the
Demuth Museum’s permanent collection.
At the Marshall Hotel, located on West
53rd street and 6th Avenue, Demuth
found an alluring world in which black
and white artists shared their interest in
and creation of early jazz innovations.
Black jazz musicians performed for
unsegregated audiences in at least a half
dozen such clubs during this time, and
Demuth’s images of these clubs were
among the first to capture this emerging
milieu.
Like Demuth, the artists featured in
Forbidden Firsts: Jazz at Marshall's found a
rich connection between visual art and
music, and in particular the creative
energy of early jazz culture. We hope
you will join us at the museum for the
Invitational exhibition. Forty percent of
art sales from Forbidden Firsts supports
Demuth Museum exhibitions and
programs.
MARY G. L. HOOD EXHIBITION
The Demuth Museum is pleased to
have the opportunity to exhibit the work
of Mary G. L. Hood. One of a group
of women painters in the early part of
the twentieth century, Hood became an
exponent of the American Modernist
movement. Hood studied painting
at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
Arts, in Philadelphia in 1903. She left
school to begin a family and returned to
the Academy in 1929. Hood found the
antiquated academic training still being
proffered at the Academy too confining
for her idea of the modern painting. She
went on to study privately with Henry
McCarter and Arthur B. Carles.
Carles, whose fame as a renegade
Modernist was already established by
his dismissal from the Academy in
1925, began to offer private lessons
in his Philadelphia studio.
Hood,
who intuitively knew the value of this
opportunity, signed up for his private
tutoring right away. Here she soaked
up the exposure to Cézanne, Matisse,
Bonnard and Chagall and prospered
under Carles modernist oriented tutelage.
Hood became a member of the Modern
Club of Philadelphia.
In 1930 she and her husband
Albert and their four children moved to
Springdale Farm in New Hope, PA. Here,
she and her husband were “gentleman
farmers” and Hood found a receptive
artists community in which to work. In
New Hope, her work is much like other
artists working in the area: masses of
bright colors, flattened and simplified
shapes. However, Hood incorporates
the lessons learned from Carles. Hood
continues to exhibit in Philadelphia and
fellow artist, Fern Coppedge corresponds
with notes of congratulations.
Top: Mary G. L. Hood, Marigolds, n.d., oil on
canvas, Private Collection
Bottom: Mary G. L. Hood, Floral Study (Forsythia),
n.d., oil on canvas, Private Collection
5TH ANNUAL ART IN A BOX EXHIBITION IN REVIEW
The Demuth Museum welcomed
more than 100
visitors, including
teachers, student participants, their family
and friends on Sunday, December 3rd,
for the fifth-annual Art in a Box Exhibition
opening. The museum received much
positive feedback from all who attended,
especially students who were delighted
to see their artworks on display at the
Museum. The exhibition was on view
from December 3rd through December
31st, 2006, and featured the artworks
of 86 local students, who have been
learning about the life and art of Charles
Demuth in their classrooms by using the
Museum’s Art in a Box Program. The
student artworks highlighted in the
exhibition were inspired by the themes
and styles Demuth used in his artworks,
as well as the architecture and culture of
the City of Lancaster. The exhibition
was very successful in both content and
attendance, as we also welcomed more
than 450 visitors throughout the month
to view the excellent diversity of student
artwork displayed.
Highlighted in the Art in a Box
exhibition this year were six local school
groups, including: Buchanan Elementary
School, Warwick Middle School, Lititz
Area Mennonite School, Lancaster
Country Day School, Penn Manor High
School, and the AME Bethel Church
School group. Participating students
for their curriculum and incorporated
the resources available in each kit into
their classroom materials, including:
reproductions of Demuth images, a
thematic PowerPoint presentation,
additional research materials, and project
plans. Teachers both new and veteran to
the Art in a Box program participated in
the exhibition this year and many were
eager to use the resource in coming years
with greater incorporation into their
curriculums.
The Art in a Box program provides
Above: Warwick Middle School student
Hannah Reedy and her family.
Right: Buchanan Elementary School
student Skyler Gibbon with her family.
Bottom Right: Buchanan Elementary
School student Luis Cortes and his family.
Bottom Left: Educators Karen Labiak,
Buchanan Elementary School, and Kara
Henke, Warwick Middle School.
Left: Lancaster Country
Day School student Mary
Frances Gallagher with
her mother.
ranged in age from five to
seventeen years in age, providing
a diverse and exciting collection
of artworks in this year’s show.
Student artworks exhibited this
year were created using three of
the available five Art in a Box
Program themes, including:
Architecture, Portraiture and
Art from Poetry. Participating
educators chose themes best suited
educators with a unique opportunity to
incorporate not only the learning of local
and national history into their student’s
learning palettes, but also English and math
learning through reading comprehension,
measurement and geometry. Many of
the participating teachers said that they
now include teachers of other disciplines
in their Demuth lessons. The Demuth
has received a wealth of knowledge
from participating educators about the
opportunities available within the recently
renovated Art in a Box materials, and
would like to thank the Lancaster County
Community Foundation, for its support
in the renovation of the existing program
to include two additional themed kits
and many additional resources.
The Demuth would like to thank
the educators who participated in this
year’s Art in a Box exhibition: Karen
Gingerich, Kara Henke, Karen Labiak,
Judith Rempel Smucker, Mimi Shaprio
and Diane Wilikofsky, who through
their effort made the exhibition possible.
The Demuth would also like to thank
Thomas A. and Georgina T. Russo for
their exhibition sponsorship.
Figure 1
BERNARD ‘JACK’ HEINEMAN, JR.,
Loved Art, Particularly Demuth
Quarterly Newsletter
ISSUE/JANUARY 2007
VOLUME 24, No. 2
Bernard “Jack” Heineman, Jr., a
longtime Demuth Foundation member,
who parlayed love of art, strong family
ties, community activism, extensive
travel, anecdotal skills and a mischievous
sense of humor into what he called
“an absolutely wonderful life,” died on
November 5th at his longtime home on
Bank Street at the age of 82.
His mother, a member of the
Morgenthau family, was responsible for
calling him Jack; she named him in honor
of her younger brother who had died. Jack
served with distinction in World War II
in the Sixth Armored Division, part of
Patton’s Third Army, and was awarded
two bronze stars and two silver stars.
His activities were eclectic, to say
the least. Thanks to Heineman’s father,
Bernard Sr., known as Barney, Heineman
Jr. did a lot of traveling to help build
his father’s collection as a lepidopterist
— a person who studies butterflies and
moths. The family collected more than
7,000 specimens, which subsequently
were donated to a museum. But Jack
had been bitten by the collecting bug and
applied his passion to collecting art.
While in school at Williams College,
Jack studied with Lane Faison. Faison
is well known for developing several
generations of art lovers, appreciators
and museum professionals. While at
Williams, Jack developed an affection
for the Ashcan School of artists, who
depicted daily urban life in its various
nuances, essentially unromantic. Jack
said, “I sublimated my desire to teach art
by getting to know artists and collect art.
I visited galleries every Saturday.”
Always an independent thinker,
he continued to tout the art he loved,
including works by some of the top
painters, such as Maurice Prendergast,
Arthur Dove, Charles Sheeler, Elsie
Driggs, Jacob Lawrence and, of course,
Charles Demuth.
Charles Demuth was a particular
favorite of Jack’s and he was committed
to his work. In 1949 he poured all of his
savings into a Demuth painting, Rue du
Singe Qui Peche (the Street of the Monkey
Who Fishes) a tempera on board from
1921. The work cost him $1,545.00 in
1949 and he “…had to borrow the last
$45.00 from his father.” After owning
and loving the work for 37 years, Jack was
tempted to part with it. He said in many
ways he regretted the sale of the piece. He
missed the work, but the offer from the
Terra Museum in 1986 for $1.2 million
(a record price for a Demuth work) was
too much to turn down. He said, “after
all, I had a family to consider and by that
time insurance on art was outrageous.”
The sale price of that work stood as a
record for a Demuth until 1990.
Jack sold only two works from
his collection during his life, the
aforementioned Demuth and a Charles
Sheeler, which he also sold to the Terra
collection. Jack recounted, “I kept
buying art in the 1950’s. My father was
not sympathetic. He wanted me to buy
AT&T stock.” Even after marrying in
1955, he and his wife continued to buy
art because they loved the paintings and
work was affordable then.
Speaking at the Demuth Foundation
and Museum Annual Meeting in 1990,
Jack spoke of his collecting philosophy,
Figure 2
“Buy what you love and can afford” and
he extolled the virtues of the subtler works
available. As a lover of Charles Demuth’s
works, which are truly connoisseurs’
pictures, Jack said of pictures, “as you
get older, you will find the understated
painting means much more than the
flashy.”
During this same talk, Jack
fondly recalled how he visited
Lancaster three times between
1950 and 1953 to meet with
Robert Locher and Richard
Weyand at the former Demuth
home. Speaking with him more
recently he included that his
entre to Locher and Weyand
was that he drove Susan Street
down to visit with her friends.
Susan Street, who was known
as Miss Street, struck up an
enduring
friendship
with
Demuth during the summer of
Figure 3
1914 in Provincetown. After that
summer, Demuth was a frequent
visitor to Miss Street’s home in
New York, as well as planned his
1921 visit to Paris to coincide
with Miss Street’s visit to that
same city.
While visiting the Demuth
family home, Jack honed his
knowledge of Demuth works.
Locher would allow him
intimate study of the works in
the house and the archive he was
accumulating. Jack recounted
“I would go to bed with a folio
Figure 4 of drawings and commune with
the work. I would stay up all night.” And
there were certainly enough works in the
home to keep a young art appreciator up
for hours.
Along with his support of Charles
Demuth’s art, Jack was a supporter of the
Demuth Foundation and Museum from
its inception. Becoming an upper level
member and checking-in with friends
here in Lancaster to see how things were
going, he kept tabs on the happenings
in Lancaster. Willing to lend two of
his Demuth’s to the 25th Anniversary
exhibition, Jack called once a week to
“check-in” on his pictures and chat about
Demuth. Each call was filled with a
new remembrance and everyone looked
forward to talking with him. Also, Jack was
excited about how the Foundation and
Museum is moving forward, particularly
that the permanent collection was going
on tour with an accompanying catalogue.
Jack was central to the living legacy of
Demuth’s art, contributing much to its
meaning for over half a century and he
will be greatly missed.
Figure 1: Charles Demuth, Rue du Singe Qui Peche,
1921, tempera on academy board, 20 9/16" x 16
1/8", Terra Collection at the Musée Américain,
Giverny
Figure 2: Charles Demuth, Kiss Me Over the Fence,
1929, watercolor and pencil on paper, 11 5/8" x
17 1/2", Private Collection
Figures 3 and 4: Charles Demuth, Two Pears and
Three Apples, 1929, watercolor and pencil on
paper, 10" x 14", Private Collection
UPCOMING
LECTURES
MANY
THANKS TO:
Demuth Foundation and Museum
Executive Director, Anne M. Lampe
will be speaking at the following
engagements:
February 14th, 7pm
Woodmere Art Museum, 9201
Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia,
PA, 19118, Telephone 215-247-0476.
Executive Director Lampe will be
speaking on Charles Demuth and the
Demuth Museum in Lancaster.
February 6th, 13th, and 20th, 10am
Willow
Valley
Retirement
Community, Lakes Manor Thomas
Auditorium, 300 Willow Valley Drive,
Willow Street, PA, 17584. Executive
Director Lampe will be giving a three
part lecture as part of Willow Valley’s
continuing education program entitled
Charles Demuth: An Artist Travels. These
lectures will be open to Willow Valley
residents only.
• The James Hale Steinman Foundation
and the John Frederick Steinman
Foundation for their sponsorship of the
25th Anniversary Exhibition, 25 Years of
the Demuth: Homage and Hurrah!.
• Thomas A. and Georgina T. Russo for
their sponsorship of the 5th annual Art
in a Box Exhibition.
• The educators who participated in this
year’s Art in a Box Exhibition: Karen
Gingerich, Kara Henke, Karen Labiak,
Judith Rempel Smucker, Mimi Shaprio
and Diane Wilikofsky.
• David and Marie Zubatsky for their
continuing generosity in donating books
to the Library.
• Michael Tait of Tait Towers for providing
lighting and the third floor bar and stage
for the Cheers to Charlie Gala.
• Claudia Himes of Special Occasions
for linens for the Cheers to Charlie
Gala.
• Ruth Benns Suter and the Ruth Benns
Suter Trio for providing their wonderful
music at the Cheers to Charlie Gala.
• Robert Fenninger, Joe Hess and
Log Cabin Catering who provided the
wonderful food selection at the Cheers
to Charlie Gala.
• KMK Petal Company for the beautiful
floral decorations at the Cheers to Charlie
Gala.
• Ian Paden, who donated his photography
skills, and all of our Solanco High School
volunteers for their assistance at the
Cheers to Charlie Gala.
• Susan Stoudt, Charlie Maser and Jon
Johnson for their donation of a 1923
Demuth Tobacco Shop sales invoice to
the Museum Archives.
Reminder to all our members: as we begin
to grow our Library and Archives we are
looking for donations of books, clippings
and anything to do with Charles Demuth,
the Collection and the Foundation.
Publication of the 2007 Demuth Dialogue is made possible in part by the Gilbert Endowment.
Tuesday - Saturday 10 - 4
Sunday 1 - 4
120 East King Street, Lancaster PA 17602-2832
MUSEUM
STUDIO
GARDENS