When Artists Paint the Hard Times
By Traci M. Fieldsted
A man sits on a curb, dejected and alone. Pedestrians hurry by, oblivious to his plight. He’s a castaway in an inhospitable world mired in economic turmoil. Forgotten Man was painted by Maynard Dixon (1875 -1946) in 1934, yet this icon of an era still speaks powerfully to us 75 years later.
There is now a portentous stillness hanging over the United Sates; the affluence we thought would last forever has been replaced with apprehension and anxiety, at least temporarily. Dr. Vern G. Swanson, director of Utah’s Springville Museum of Art, notes that “Impending doom has cast an encroaching shadow upon the economic landscape and appears to be a harbinger for future want and depression.” As suddenly as a thief in the night, the Great American Enterprise’s good times have become hard times.
In light of these developments, I have curated the exhibition Hard Times, which shows how 16 American realists have responded to our country’s worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression. For participating artist Mario Andres Robinson (b. 1970), “Hard Times reflects the sensitivity and courage of a highly skilled group of artists who have chosen a road less traveled.” Indeed, these are painters who had already ignored or broken away from the expectations of the contemporary art establishment – and in some cases from the promise of commercial success – in order to pursue greater truth, significance, and meaning.
The works on view reflect their makers’ uncompromising dedication to both virtuosic technique and social realism. Max Ginsburg (b. 1931) highlights the class and racial divides visible in our inner cities; he notes that “for much of the 20th century, when most galleries, schools, and critics condemned traditional realism, they not only denied students the freedom to study and develop their skills, but they also denied the public opportunities to view and identify with art in a visceral and emotional way.” Included here are poignant and indelible images by Burton Silverman and Harvey Dinnerstein (featured in Fine Art Connoisseur in April 2007 and December 2008, respectively); Warren Chang’s genre scenes of migrant field workers in California; Gary Ernest Smith’s rural workers; Trevor Southey’s portrayals of interior struggles and the human condition; and the compositions of Steven Assael and Jeffrey Hein, who use realism to look hard at our materialist culture. The works of such younger artists as Garin Baker, Sean Diediker, and David Jon Kassan, David Linn, Mary Beth McKenzie, Denis Peterson, Mario Andres Robinson, and Justin Taylor confirm that the revival of American realism is well under way, fully informed by earlier generations’ achievements and lessons.
A Long Tradition in American Fine Art
Although they are never derivative, all of these men and woman are the inheritors of the American Scene artists of the 1920s and 1930s, including the painters Thomas Hart Benton, Grant wood, John Steuart Curry, and Maynard Dixon, and the photographer Dorothea Lange. These masters offered first-hand accounts of the Great Depression that became universally recognized icons of social realism, revered for both their stark candor and their ability to inspire.
Lange’s memorable scenes of impoverished families, migrant workers, and the homeless remain both timeless and highly pertinent to socially conscious viewers today. Dixon was no stranger to poverty, and many of his paintings uncannily anticipate today’s problems, including massive layoffs in the auto industry, foreclosures on homes and businesses, and challenges facing the working class.
Born in 1928, Harvey Dinnerstein and Burton Silverman have weathered their own hard times. Together they ventured to Montgomery, Alabama to record Rosa Parks and other participants in the bus boycott of 1956. The social awareness of that era relates closely to something Maynard Dixon wrote, as true today as it was in the thirties” “The Depression woke me up to the fact that I had a part in all of this, as an artist… Painting is a means to an end. It is my way of saying what I want you to comprehend. It is my testimony in regard to life and therefore I cannot lie in paint.” Dixon allowed his contemporaries to view the world thru his eyes, a service that clearly lives on today.
The vision of hard times put forward by Jeffrey Hein (b.1974) comes from an entirely different place. Although his background is hardly grand, Hein is part of a generation that has grown up in generally good, even indulgent, times. Like Steven Assael (b. 1957), Hein painstakingly paints his complex compositions directly from life, without consulting photographs. In Consumed, Hein assembles a montage of consumer goods, with human figures almost entirely engulfed by the symbols of their tragic addiction to “having it all.” Here Hein offers a highly personal commentary on accountability and our shared responsibility to live within our means.
In various ways, all of the Hard Times exhibitors address the malaise gripping our society, providing viewers with opportunities for contemplation, awakened sensitivity, and personal response. For artist Denis Peterson (b. 1944), “The defining silence of Hard Times reflects the painter’s moral imperative to controvert society’s acquiescence.” Somewhere in each work is the artist’s underlying meaning, one that conveys more than the spoken word, creating a silent connection between artist and viewer.
Hard Times challenges us to confront our era’s uncertainties and issues, to look directly at the here-and-now. Its images unveil some unpleasant realities, as well as the doubt and vulnerability many people are feeling today. Through this experience, we may well gain a new recognition of our shared humanity, and of the burdens borne by our fellow citizens.
