‘Made in Woodstock’ in Vassar’s Lehman Loeb Art Center, July 5-September 15, 2002

In 1977, the Vassar College Art Gallery presented a landmark exhibition on the art of Woodstock, New York, a well-known art colony long before it gained notoriety in connection with the festival that bore its name.

This earlier exhibition, in what is now known as the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, focused on paintings by many well-known American artists of the first half of the twentieth century. Not only was Woodstock an important center for painting, but it was also a haven for printmaking. Building upon research in archives and visits to numerous public and private collections, "Made in Woodstock: Printmaking from 1903 to 1945″ traces the richness and diversity of original prints made in Woodstock and its environs. At the same time, it celebrates the centennial anniversary of the founding of the arts and crafts colony of Byrdcliffe, the earliest of Woodstock's artist communities, founded in 1902.

The exhibition, sponsored by the Smart Family Foundation, Inc., will open at Vassar College's Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center on July 5 and run through September 15, 2002. A film screening and reception are planned for the exhibition on Friday, July 12, 2002 beginning at 6:30 p.m. with the showing of "Woodstock: From Plough to Easel" in Taylor Hall, room 203. The film, directed by Cambiz Khosravi, includes rare documentary footage and revealing interviews with some of the artists represented in the exhibition, including Eugenie Gershoy, Petra Cabot, Karl Fortess, and Harry Gottlieb. A reception follows.

Arranged chronologically, the exhibition begins with prints by members of Byrdcliffe, including painter and teacher Birge Harrison and designer Zulma Steele. It continues with prints of the 1920s and early 1930s where the Old World fine print tradition of Byrdcliffe co-founder Bolton Brown, Alfred Hutty, R. W. Woiceske, and others is paired with the modernist aesthetics of Konrad Cramer, Paul Rohland, Emil Ganso, Albert Heckman, Ernest Fiene, and John Flannagan. The modern woodcuts and linoleum cuts found in the Woodstock magazines The Plowshare, begun by another Byrdcliffe co-founder Hervey White, Hue and Cry, established by Peggy Bacon and her husband Alexander Brook, and Woodstock Almanac are surveyed.

"Made in Woodstock: Printmaking from 1903 to 1945," which includes prints by these artists and many others, contains 53 works and a number of magazines and is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with an essay and checklist. Organized by Patricia Phagan, the Philip and Lynn Straus Curator of Prints and Drawings, the exhibition comprises works drawn from the collections of the Woodstock Artists Association, the Woodstock Guild, the Winterthur Library, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and other institutions, as well as numerous private collections.

Admission to the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is free. It is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The Lehman Loeb Art Center is wheelchair accessible. For more information, call (845) 437-5632 or visit http://fllac.vassar.edu/.

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in1861.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations or information on accessibility should contact Campus Activities Office at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available.

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.

This article was posted on Friday, July 5th, 2002.