The works of painter and printmaker Walter Hook, a Montana native, have been described as“ whimsical,” and a 1979 publication from the Cheney Cowles Gallery [ sic ] quotes him as saying,“ Humor and whimsy are absolutely essential for an adequately balanced outlook on life and the production of art.” This happy sentiment may have infused his 1956 cubist watercolor rendition of Washington State’ s iconic landmark, Mt. Rainier, long after Cubism had gone out of style— a bit of zaniness for the sheer fun of it?
Walter Hook( American, 1919 – 1989) Mt. Rainier, 1956
Watercolor on paper, 13 ¼ x 20 ¾ inches Jundt Art Museum, Gonzaga University;
Museum purchase with funds provided by the College of Arts & Sciences.
2015.12
Two photographs( photogravures from the original photographs, to be technical) depict the impact of the Great Depression on westward movement. Arthur Rothstein’ s unforgettable image of a dust storm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, epitomizes the Dust Bowl, and why resident farming families largely had no better option but to leave. Here one gets a pictorial background to John Steinbeck’ s Grapes of Wrath. Dorothea Lange is rightly one of the most celebrated photographer-chroniclers of the poignant human cost of the Depression period. Here, though, there is an inkling of hope: get to California, especially L. A.
Arthur Rothstein( American, 1915 – 1985) Dust Storm, Cimarron County, OK, 1936 Photogravure on paper, 8 x 10 ½ inches Jundt Art Museum, Gonzaga University; Museum purchase with funds provided by the Fredrick & Genevieve Schlatter Endowed Print Fund. 2015.29
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