Lectures

Art for the People: Associated American Artists and Melville Wire

Thursday, June 5th, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, hundreds of artists found employment through federal government programs referred to as the WPA.  Much less well known is Associated American Artists, a private publishing venture by Reese Lowenthal, that provided work to dozens of artists.   Lowenthal’s vision was to make fine art affordable to the American middle class for $5 per “etching,” generally lithographs.  AAA printed up to 250 copies of each etching, all signed and titled by hand by the artist, and sold through a mail order catalog.  The most famous AAA artists were Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood.  The only Northwest artist to publish multiple prints through AAA was Melvllle T. Wire, an Oregon Impressionist.  My presentation will describe the AAA operation in more detail, with images by Benton, Wood, and others, giving special attention to the 8 AAA etchings by Melville Wire, as well as other examples of his art.

John Impert

John was one of the founding directors of the Cascadia Art Museum.  After a career in international law, with long term assignments in Brussels and Paris, in 2005 John sought a PhD in art history at the University of Washington, his degree being awarded in 2012.  John’s dissertation described Northwest Impressionist artists, 1900-1930, the first time any art historian had addressed this subject.  Subsequently, in 2018, the University of Oklahoma Press published John’s book, “Painters of the Northwest: Impressionism to Modernism, 1900-1930,” a broader look at this era.  In 2019, the Cascadia Art Museum devoted its principal exhibition to John’s book and art collection, augmented by other pieces from the period.