Multisite exhibit explores artists’ communities of Central Jersey
Much of America’s creative activity took root in small but important enclaves all across the country. Beginning in the mid-20th century, central New Jersey became one such hotbed, and played an important role in American cultural life of the last century. The accomplishments of the artists who lived and worked here are documented in the paintings, drawings and sculpture they produced.
”Concentric Circles of Influence: The Birth of Artists’ Communities in Central New Jersey” is a series of art exhibits, film, gallery talks and panel discussions that focus on notable art communities that developed in central New Jersey beginning in the late 1930s. The exhibitions are being offered in venues across the region and explore the role New Jersey has had as a creative cauldron since the mid-20th century.
Among the groups being explored are the original Queenston Press artists; the artists of Roosevelt; Princeton Artists Alliance; the Trenton Artists Workshop Association (TAWA); and the Princeton Art Association (now ARTWORKS in Trenton).
Original artwork and portfolios, featuring both historical and contemporary works, will be displayed in participating venues in Mercer County and its environs now through spring 2015. Sites include the Arts Council of Princeton, the Gallery at Mercer County Community College, the Historical Society of Princeton, the New Jersey State Museum, and the Princeton Public Library. (Concentric Circles coincides with New Jersey as Non-Site, an independent exhibition organized by the Princeton University Art Museum that focuses on experimental artists of the postwar era, another group of artists in central New Jersey.)
Concentric Circles organizers Ilene Dube and Kate Somers originally set out to celebrate a group of women artists who came together in Princeton in the 1960s to learn printmaking from Judith K. Brodsky. From this small group, along with other artists who established the Princeton Art Association during the same period, many other art groups eventually formed. Just as interests during this period began to overlap as artists joined multiple groups and influenced one another’s work, the original project grew to encompass more of these “Concentric Circles.”
”We discovered that not only had the women artists’ group come together at this time, but other important artists in the area were taking classes with each other, interacting and influencing each other,” says Dube. “Although the artists of Roosevelt had formed in the 1930s, many were still active in the 1960s and ‘70s, and knew the artists of the Queenston Press. In addition, there were connections to artists who had taught at Mercer County Community College, as well as the artists who formed the Trenton Artists Workshop Association.”
”Today our region continues to flourish in the arts with artist groups such as the Princeton Artists Alliance and MOVIS,” says Somers, who has curated exhibitions of most of these artists.
Exhibitions will take place at the following venues. Please visit individual websites for programming at each site.
”Concentric Circles of Influence: the Queenston Press, The Woman Portfolio” at Princeton Public Library, January 8 – April 15, 2014. www.princetonlibrary.orgReception Saturday, January 18, 3 to 6 p.m.
The United Nations named 1975 International Women’s Year and the 10 years that followed were United Nations Decade for Women. TIME Magazine celebrated the achievements of women on its January 5, 1976 cover, and in 1976, a group of Princeton artists produced The Woman Portfolio, published by Judith K. Brodsky and the late Zelda Laschever. Brodsky and Laschever state in the foreword to the catalog that accompanied the portfolio, “The prints themselves are not propaganda for a movement. They represent deep responses to the word ‘woman.’” Although The Woman Portfolio was produced more than a quarter century ago, the prints are still as timely and vital as they were, and as varied as the group of women who made them.
”Concentric Circles of Influence: The Queenston Press Bicentennial Portfolio” at Historical Society of Princeton, Bainbridge House, January 18 – July 13, 2014. www.princetonhistory.org
Reception Saturday, January 18, 3 to 6 p.m.
The Historical Society of Princeton is pleased to announce two exhibitions devoted to the work of the Queenston Press, organized around portfolios created as part of Princeton’s 1976 celebration of the American Bicentennial. At Bainbridge House, the Historical Society’s headquarters at 158 Nassau Street, visitors can view The Queenston Press: The Bicentennial Portfolio which charts the town’s growth and place in the nation’s history through prints of such sites as the Delaware-Raritan Canal, Princeton University’s Nassau Hall, Morven and Princeton Cemetery.
”Concentric Circles of Influence: The Queenston Press Ten Crucial Days Portfolio” at Historical Society of Princeton, Updike Farmstead, January 18 – July 13, 2014. www.princetonhistory.org. Reception Saturday, January 18, 3 to 6 p.m.
The Historical Society’s six-acre Updike Farmstead, which lies along the route followed by Continental troops on their way to engage British soldiers at the neighboring farm, is the setting for The Queenston Press: The Ten Crucial Days Portfolio. Prints in this portfolio interpret the dramatic events that unfolded between the time George Washington’s crossed the Delaware on Christmas Day, 1776, and the surrender of British troops in Princeton 10 days later. Both of the exhibitions will contextualize these important and significant prints and their makers through video, interactive elements, and images of the artists at work.
”Concentric Circles of Influence: The Queenston Press Contemporary Works” at Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, Taplin Gallery, January 18 – March 8, 2014. www.artscouncilofprinceton.org. Reception Saturday, January 18, 3 to 6 p.m.
The Arts Council of Princeton is itself at the center of influence as it has encouraged the work of artists in ever widening circles of art-making in the Princeton area for almost 50 years. As such it is pleased to present the recent work of the remarkable women of Queenston Press who were at center of the early communities of local artists. Judy Brodsky, Yvonne Burk, Trudy Glucksberg, Lonnie Sue Johnson, Margaret Johnson, Joan Needham, Helen Schwartz, Marie Sturken, and Linda White will show work that includes printmaking, handmade paper, drawing, painting, multi-media basketry, and collage.
”Left of Central: TAWA, Artworks and Art in the Capital Region” at The Gallery at Mercer County Community College, Jan. 21 through Feb. 20; www.mccc.edu/gallerywww.statemuseum.nj.gov
”Artists of Roosevelt” looks at the community of visual artists that developed and still thrives in Roosevelt (formerly Jersey Homesteads), New Jersey. The exhibition will explore the development of Roosevelt as an art community and allow visitors to discover the impact these important artists had, and continue to have, on American art. Historic works drawn from the NJ State Museum’s collections include artists Jacob Landau, Sol Libsohn, Stefan Martin, Gregorio Prestopino and Ben Shahn. Contemporary artists to be included are Bill Leech, Ani Rosskam and Jonathan Shahn, among others.
”America: Through Artists’ Eyes” at New Jersey State Museum, October 25, 2014 – April 5, 2015. www.statemuseum.nj.gov