Sterling
Strauser
A Modernist Revisited
November
27, 1999 through February 28, 2000
The
Reading Public Museum seeks to stimulate
interest in American painters, sculptors
and photographers whose work is of the highest
quality but lacks wide recognition. To that
end the Museum will present a retrospective
of the art of Pennsylvania artist Sterling
Strauser from November 27, 1999 to February
28, 2000. Sterling Strauser: Modernism Revisited
is the first of its kind since the artist's
death in 1995. A symposium on Strauser the
man, the artist, his work and significance
will be conducted on Saturday, December
4, 1999 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Following
the symposium will be a silent auction of
a number of selected works by the artist.
An opening reception for the retrospective
from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. will end the December
4 festivities. Admission to the all the
events on December 4 is free to the public.
A 96-page retrospective color catalog will
be available for sale for $25 in the Museum
Shop.
Born
in Bloomsburg, PA in 1907, Sterling Strauser
came of age during America's boom and bust
years of the 1920's and 1930's along with
this age's early modernist masters. A frequent
visitor to New York City he was part of
a circle which included such well known
artists as Milton Avery and Louise Nevelson.
His work was seen as radical even while
grounded in figuration and in the use of
drawing as the springboard for his forms.
With no formal training, Strauser's vision
assays portraiture, still life, genre, and
landscape with a highly diversified technique
and style that reveals a keenly observant
eye.
Strauser
started painting in 1922 at age 15. Early
on, he established himself as a tenacious
realist in the tradition of the Ashcan School,
Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins. Strauser
firmly believed an artist should work from
life as it was lived in the "real"
America -rural, small town- and stay away
from pretentious symbolism. Strauser's response
to the European avant-garde -which was supplanting
and even repudiating realism- was to become
interested in the theory and to adapt it.
This places him squarely among 20th century
modernist painters. However, such adaptation
was not at the expense of the immediacy
and visual character of his best work. Warm
and sheltering by nature, he did not fall
victim to provinciality. He was an artist
immersed in a particular place and time.
An old-fashioned modernist, Strauser found
himself in the situation where the need
for theoretical justification was no longer
on the avant-garde. Instead, it was upon
those painters like Strauser who upheld
the conservative values of realism.
Museum
Education Curator Francis R. Ricci adds,
"Strauser's pioneering interest in
Americana led to his friendship with and
active promotion of a number of Pennsylvania's
20th century folk artists such as Victor
Joseph Gatto, Justin McCarthy and Jack Savitsky."
Mr. Ricci goes on to say that Strauser forewent
promoting his own work to further the careers
of his friends.
It
is in that selfless spirit of promotion
that the Sterling Strauser retrospective
begins what Museum Director Dr. Robert Metzger
believes will be a yearlong celebration
of the under appreciated artist. "Sterling
Strauser is the least known, under appreciated
artist of significance of the 20th century
in America." says Dr. Metzger, "The
Reading Public Museum is proud to make such
a bold effort to champion the cause of lesser
known artists." Future exhibitions
will include Robert Pepper and Matthew Daub.
Robert
P. Metzger, Ph.D.
Director, CEO, Chief Curator Reading Public
Museum
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