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Grandma Moses:
Grandmother to the Nation
"If I didn't start painting, I would have raised chickens," proclaimed Grandma Moses.
Title: Over The River to Grandma's house on Thanksgiving Day, 1947
Artist: Anna Mary Robertson Moses (American 1860-1961)
Medium: Oil and Glitter on Masonite Acc. No.: HMAA.18.2003
Collection of Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee,
Promised gift of Karen G. and Paul John Kruesi III in honor of Ruth S. and A. William Holmberg.
Image Courtesy: New York State Historical Association
Grandma Moses:
Grandmother to the Nation
Fenimore Art Museum
May 27 - December 31, 2006
The author of Designs on the Heart: The Homemade Art of Grandma Moses, Karal
Ann Marling curated a retrospective of the extraordinary career of Anna Mary Robertson Moses.
Biography
At the young age of 77 Grandma Moses was discovered as the American answer to primitive or naive painting. The first artist to receive any acclaim for this style was Henri Rousseau. The style describes artists
who live in a sophisticated or developed society that lack conventional expertise with perception and light more commonly associated with artistic abilities. Grandma Moses
unique turn of phrase to describe this phenomenon is "primitive is what they call amateur art that sells".
Title: The Old Oaken Bucket, 1943,
Artist: Anna Mary Robertson (Grandma) Moses (18601961)
Collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY.
Copyright Grandma Moses Properties Co., New York.
Image Courtesy: New York State Historical Association
In 1887 Moses married Thomas Salmon Moses at age twenty-seven. The couple settled in Shenandoah Valley in the state of Virginia. They had ten children,
five of whom survived into adulthood. In the early years of the twentieth Century Grandma Moses and her family returned to her roots in Washington County, purchasing a farm known as Mt. Nebo, near Eagle Bridge in New York. Her husband passed away in 1927 and her youngest son took over responsibility for running the farm. Anna Mary Robinson Moses began to 'paint' though not in a traditional medium she used worsted wool. She was known to win blue ribbons at county fairs for her textile arts.
The onset of arthritis caused her to switch mediums to traditional painting methods.
Title: Dividing of the Ways
Artist: Anna Mary Robertson Grandma Moses (18601961)
Eagle Bridge, Washington County, New York; 1947
Medium: Oil and Tempera on Masonite
Dimensions: 16 x 20"
Collection American Folk Art Museum, New York
Gift of Galerie St. Etienne, New York, in memory of Otto Kallir 1983.10.1
Photo by John Parnell, New York
Copyright © 1969 (renewed 1997), Grandma Moses Properties Co., New York
Image Courtesy: New York State Historical Association
Louis Calder, a New York art dealer, saw some of Grandma Moses's paintings it the window of a Hoosick Falls drug store. The following year, 1940, Grandma Moses had her first solo show called "What a Farmer's Wife Painted".
Title: Home of Hezekiah King, 1776, 1943
Artist: Anna Mary Robertson Moses (American 1860-1961)
Medium: Casein on Masonite
Dimensions: 27 in x 31 1/4 in Acc. No.: 162.139
Collection of the Phoenix Art Museum,
Gift of Mrs. N.A. Bogdan, New York, in memory of Mr. Louis Cates
Image Courtesy: New York State Historical Association
Her medium included creating her scenes on pieces of old wood she painted white. Her works are simple in texture, but complex in content. Often there were happy scenes from real life, notably Over The River to Grandma's house on Thanksgiving Day or from her own history, Home of Hezekiah King, 1776. King was her great-grandfather and her vision of his home was created five separate times. The house was built in 1778 and burned down in 1800, Moses wasn't painting what she remembered but likely her interpretations of oral family history.
Title: Sugaring Off, 1945,
Artist: Anna Mary Robertson (Grandma) Moses (18601961),
Medium: Mixed Media on Board, N-415.67.
Collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY.
Copyright Grandma Moses Properties Co., New York.
Image Courtesy: New York State Historical Association
Grandma Moses self-proclaimed that she painted from the sky down. The sky was always the first image on her canvas then
the landscape and finally she added the people often doing things she'd done, such as in Sugaring
Off.
The exhibit was developed chronologically which fits naturally with the century in which Grandma Moses lived. They connect the artist's work to her country's transition from such notable eras as the Great Depression and World War II. Included with the artwork will be photographs, artifacts, and film of Moses at work.
Grandma Moses:
Grandmother to a Nation
Fenimore Art Museum:
May 27 - December 31, 2006
Reynolda House, Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC:
January 27, 2007 April 22, 2007
Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, Tenn:
May 19 August 12, 2007
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento:
September 8 2007 January 6, 2008
John and Mable Ringling Museum, Sarasota:
January 25, 2008 April 18, 2008
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