AFA Summer 2018

2018 Antiques & Fine Art 103 Horace Pippin (1888 – 1946) The Getaway, 1939 Oil on canvas, 24⅝ x 36 inches Philadelphia Museum of Art; Bequest of Daniel W. Dietrich II (2016-3-3) While serving in World War I, Horace Pippin sustained a serious injury to his right arm. Several years later, despite his disability, he taught himself to paint. He went on to become one of the most successful and respected African American artists of his day. In The Getaway , Pippin painted a solitary red fox running with a bird in its mouth. A golden moon hovers on the horizon. Its yellow light reflects onto the clouds, illuminating them against the dark, night sky. Looking at the back of the painting reveals that Pippin began the composition as a daytime scene with blue skies, red barns, and fox standing still in the snow. Art historian Anne Monahan suggests that Pippin may have seen Winslow Homer’s Fox Hunt at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, after which Pippin perhaps altered his own composition, inspired by Homer’s scene. However, there are key differences between the two. In Homer’s painting, the fox is under attack by crows and faring badly; in Pippin’s composition, the predator wins the day. While the museum has hosted many exhibitions that have included modern American art, this is the first major display to focus on this aspect of its own collection. At the heart of the project are paintings from the estate of the famous gallerist and photographer Alfred Stieglitz given to the Museum of Georgia O’Keeffe in 1949. The conversation is broadened with work by African American artists, women in addition to O’Keeffe, artists from Philadelphia, and modernists working in a variety of media that help show the breadth of the collection, the diversity of the movement, and the beautiful chaos of innovation that made this period so dynamic and influential. This framing provides an opportunity to see the collection from the perspective of the twenty-first century, because seeing takes time.  Modern Times: American Art 1910–1950 is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from April 12– September 3, 2018. For information, call 215.235.0050 or visit www.philamuseum.org. Jessica Smith is curator of American Art and Manager for the Center of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art. She is curator for Modern Times: American Art 1910–1950 . 1. “Georgia O’Keeffe: Exhibition of Oils and Pastels,” January 22–March 17, 1939, (np). Catalogue from Stieglitz’s gallery, An American Place.