An Italian-American Painter from Rhode Island
Essay by Catherine Little Bert

Antonio Cirino was born in Italy in 1888, immigrated to Providence at age two and was raised among the bustle of Atwells Ave, the center of business and culture for Providence’s Italian population in the early 20th century. A colorful and confident personality, he amused many and enraged others in his lifetime. In 2008 it is his iconic repertoire of paintings, be it the woods of Lincoln, Rhode Island, the little church spire in East Providence or the fisherman in their picturesque old wooden boats in Rockport, that solidify his legacy as a painter.

Cirino integrated readily into the Rhode Island community. In a 1980 article he remarked, “Nota Bene! Though I am a native of Serino, Italy, Province of Avellino, I bear the tradmark, ‘Made in the U.S.A.’, because of the influence that public education had on me, kneading me for the life to come.”

The artist attended Providence Technical School, graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1909 and received a Bachelor’s of Science Degree from Columbia Teachers College in 1912. Then the young man went directly to the Rhode Island School of Design to teach jewelry design commencing a thirty-five year teaching career. He co-authored a significant textbook, Jewelry Making and Design with A.F. Rose. While the number of Italian Americans swelled in Providence from 18,014 in 1894 to 42,044 in 1920, Cirino selected an uncommon path compared to fellow immigrants from his generation. He distinguished himself with a college degree and teaching position in higher education.

Cirino, however, always had a driving passion for painting and in the 1920’s began to summer in Rockport where he became one of the founding members of the Rockport Art Association. Rockport became not only an important summer refuge for the artist but a location where he would produce his most important canvases. Critical acclaim would follow along with acceptance into the Salmagundi Club in New York City in 1926 and the Providence Art Club.

His fluid painting technique showed a keen understanding of composition and skillful craftsmanship in manipulating oil pigments, especially in the fluttering and lively effects of light reflecting off water. A keen student of nature, Cirino painted outdoors for his entire artistic career. He was a kindred spirit to the Impressionists and focused on his personal interpretation of the subject. In 1949 the New York Times wrote of one of his paintings, Mooring Place “one of the more honest and sensitive examples of this genre.”

Throughout his life Cirino not only refined his painting craft but also understood that to insure his legacy he needed to actively promote his work and document his achievements. He did this by winning prizes in juried exhibitions, earning favorable critical reviews and placing his work in important collections. He dedicated much of his energy to achieving these goals and received over seventy- nine prizes for his paintings including the gold Medal of Honor by the Rockport Art Association and the Hope Show prize from the Butler Institute of Art in Youngstown, Ohio. His work is included in numerous collections such as the RISD Museum of Art, Dayton Art Institute and National Academy of Design. As if these accolades were not enough, he assembled his own account of his successful art career in three detailed volumes, giving great insight into his perceptions as a painter. In the opening pages of his third and final volume of 1981 he reflected,

“When painting with a lion’s heart and in deep fervor, I wandered through the labyrinths of life, the country side, yea the wood interiors, mountain passes and the shores of the rivers and ocean and running streams conjuring up new worlds of beauty, ideas without ancestors, fact and fancies that stirred complacency and composure all this while in a world of facts or hard realities…”

This diminutive figure, with his imposing personality started off in the Federal Hill neighborhood teeming with vendors selling their goods in push carts and the sounds of live chickens and rabbits in wooden cages and went on to achieve great success in the world of art. Upon his death he left the majority of his paintings to the Salmagundi Club in New York City and the Rockport Art Association, two institutions he felt critical to his growth and success as an artist. In addition, he established the Antonio Cirino Memorial Fund at The Rhode Island Foundation to provide scholarships for those pursuing graduate degrees to teach art.

Three paintings by Antonio Cirino are included in the Bert Gallery exhibition Struggle, Strength and Dignity. The artist is a fine example of how Italian Americans from Rhode Island journeyed beyond the societal mores of the day establishing successful painting careers in the 20th century.

An essay by Catherine Little Bert

The legacy of African American artists has become an interest of scholars in the last forty years. Prior to this time there is a scarcity of documentation and research. Rhode Island has four significant late 19th and early 20th century African Americans who spent time in the state and achieved national recognition, Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828 – 1901), Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890 – 1960), Wilmer Jennings (1910 – 1990) and Frank Alston (1913 – 1978). In the current Bert Gallery exhibit, Strength, Struggle and Dignity, examples of Jennings and Alston are on view through March.

The Rhode Island College has been one of the important educational institutions to highlight the achievements of African American artists. First with dedication of the Rhode Island College Art Center as the Edward M. Bannister Gallery in 1978 and then with the opening of the exhibit Four from Providence: Black Artists in the Rhode Island Social Landscape. The college has partnered with the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society to organize exhibits and stimulate research in this most important area. A pod cast will be posted soon with the Director of the Bannister Gallery, James Montford on the Bert Gallery website discussing African American artists from Rhode Island.

As an African American artist it must have been a particular challenge to reside and build a career in the former slave trade of Rhode Island. Edward Bannister succeeded and one of his major triumphs came when he received the bronze painting medal at the 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia. He became the first African- American artist to receive a national award in 19th century America and he promptly sold his painting “Under the Oaks” for $1,500 to an enthusiastic Boston buyer. Bannister then joined fellow artists Stetson and Whitaker to found the Providence Art Club in 1880, the second oldest art club still in existence. Examples of Bannister’s work are in the collections of the Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island College, Rhode Island Historical Society and the Providence Art Club. Bannister has been included in major exhibitions with catalogues such as David Driskell’s Two Centuries of Black American Art; Linda Hartigan of the National Museum of American Art’s Sharing Traditions: Five Black Artists in 19th Century America, 1985; Corrine Jennings’ Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1992 and Juanita Holland’s Edward Bannister, 1993.

Nancy Prophet stands out as remarkable woman artist, the first African American woman to secure a Rhode Island School of Design degree in 1918 and then onto Paris study at the Ecole des Beaux- Arts from 1922 – 1932. While in Paris she exhibited in five highly competitive Salon exhibits only to return home to secure many stateside exhibitions including being among the sculptors exhibited in the Whitney Sculpture Biennial and Harmon Foundation Exhibition. From 1933 to 1944 Prophet headed the Sculpture Department of Spelman College. Currently, an important exhibition of her work is on view at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Hale Woodruff, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and the Academy. Locally, the sculpture of Nancy Prophet is in the collection of the Rhode Island School of Design and the Black Heritage Society. Blossom Kirshenbaum and Jane Lancaster, both scholars living in Rhode Island, have published in depth articles on Nancy Prophet.

Wilmer Jennings

Wilmer Jennings was a talented printmaker who moved to Rhode Island after graduating from Moore-house College in 1933 where he studied with Hale Woodruff and Nancy Prophet. He also studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design with John Frazier. In the mid 30’s, he worked for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) both in Atlanta and Providence where he became most famous for his black and white wood engravings. Jennings was widely exhibited between 1933 -1942. Jewelry design became his focus in the mid 40’s and he settled into a 45-year career as a designer and innovator in the Rhode Island jewelry industry.

Jennings prints are in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Newark Museum, and Atlanta University, Rhode Island School of Design, National Center of African American Art, Smithsonian Institution and the Rhode Island College. Wilmer Jennings’s daughter, Corrine Jennings, is a prominent art dealer who is the Director of the Kenkeleba House in New York City. On exhibit at the Bert Gallery are two engravings by Wilmer
Jennings “Fisherman” courtesy of Kenkeleba House and “Blind Alley” on loan from the Bannister Gallery, Rhode Island College.

Frank Alston

Frank Alston, Jr was born in Providence and attended the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 1937. He was known as a painter, lithographer and etcher. He exhibited widely in the 1940’s at Atlanta University, National Gallery, New York World’s Fair, San Francisco Golden Gate Expositions, Corcoran Art Gallery and the New York Historical Society. He worked for many years as a designer in the Army’s Institute of Heraldry. Upon retirement from the army he worked for the Howard University Art Gallery.

In the current Bert Gallery exhibit is an example of a woodcut that Alston executed in his early career while at Rhode Island School of Design. He came under the instruction of the innovative print maker Eliza Gardiner. A tough taskmaster, Gardiner kept in her own collection works by prized students. Alston’s image of a thoughtful young woman was a “keeper” for the teacher’s collection.

For more information on these artists visit the Rhode Island College Archives.

Struggle, Strength and Dignity: Opportunities for 19th and 20th century artists in Providence is an exhibit that explores the assimilation of artists from varying backgrounds into the cultural community. Of particular interest are Women, African American, Italian American and Irish American artists. The first essay on the current exhibit takes a look at a highly successful woman artist in Providence, Emma Swan.

by Catherine Little Bert

May she stand by her colors. In the realm of art woman’s works have spoken for her to show that it is her legitimate domain… In the future artwork will be judged by its intrinsic merit, irrespective of the artist’s sex.
-Sara Eddy, 1884, Rhode Island Woman’s Club papers, Rhode Island Historical Society

ECONOMIC SUCCESS
Overcoming societal barriers, women artists were able to secure a place in the art market by the pursuance of sales and commissions for their work. Emma Swan achieved economic independence through the acceptance of her art by regional patrons. In the late nineteenth century, Swan’s studio in the Wood’s Building was abuzz with activity. Such was her reputation that her studio neighbor, the noted painter E.C. Leavitt, was also her rival for critical acclaim in the area of still life. When not teaching aspiring artists, Swan was busy developing her portfolio for her “eagerly awaited” annual studio exhibits. Many a collector and art enthusiast purchased works from these shows, thus gaining entry into one of the most charming studios in the city. An aesthetic milieu for art, it was noted for being crammed with “old draperies, brick-a-brac and studio furnishings.” Though largely self-taught, Swan spent some time studying with Abbott Thayer. Most of her knowledge, however, was gleaned from the careful observation of the natural world. A large body of work, based on this subject matter, was produced for entry into numerous exhibitions from the 1880’s to the early years of the twentieth century.

During this time, Swan also had a substantial career as a commission portrait painter. Collectors, artists and critical reviewers similarly admired Swan’s painting technique. Whether it be an “exceedingly pleasing painting of a dog,” exquisite morning glories,” or “a rich and harmonious portrait of a golden hair boy,” the artist always received high praise for her work. She was capable of microscopic finish in the age of realism, but as her art matured, color became the dominant factor in her work. In a letter dated 1923, the artist noted, “I feel, more and more that it (color) is a bigger thing in painting than form.” After a long and successful career, Emma Swan was honored by the art establishment with the epithet,” Dean of Rhode Island Women Artist.” Upon her death in 1927, this respected artist and “leading flower painter” left many a female colleague following in her artistic path.

Excerpts from Sketches An Art Journal on the Providence Art Colony 1850 – 1920, Number Two, July of 1991

“Myth of the Dilettante” was one of two pilot issues made possible by a grant from the
Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities, Written by Catherine Little Bert and L.J. McElroy

(left) Cameo Portrait, The Parlor, 1903, Oil on Canvas, 8″ x 6″
(middle) Fall Landscape, Oil on Canvas, 9″ x 9″
(right) Girl in Bonnet, Oil on Board, 20″ x 24″

BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH
Known as an artist of nature, Emma Swan was primarily a self-taught painter who went directly to nature for her knowledge and inspiration. She was born and raised in Providence and it was her father, a cameo cutter, who taught her in drawing. The young artist met with success almost immediately, becoming an early member of the Providence Art Club and receiving numerous commissions. It was in 1889 and 1890 that she decided to pursue art training beyond her father’s earlier tutelage. She received professional instruction under Abbott Thayer, one of the leading artists and teachers in the country. Many critics indicated that Swan’s “truth and purity of color” was the result of this instruction (Providence Journal 1990). Additional study followed in Europe where she sketched primarily in Germany and Holland.

Emma Swan is best known for her still life and flower paintings. The paintings she produced were thought to be along original lines. Particularly memorable were her paintings of white roses and violets. In an article in the Providence Journal the writer had this praise for her works, “she undoubtedly ranks first among the women artists in Rhode Island and holds an enviable position among leading artists of the country.”(Providence Journal 1900). Even though she enjoyed tremendous popularity painting still life, Swan later switched to primarily painting portraits. In these works she was known for integrating the figure into the background, be it a landscape or room decor.

Struggle, Strength and Dignity Exhibit Description:
When Roger Williams established the religiously tolerant state of Rhode Island, he imbued a progressive spirit into its legacy. How did the 19th century cultural world embrace this heritage? Afro-American artist Edward Bannister (1881 – 1901) earned a first place medal for painting at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition and went on to found the Providence Art Club in 1880, today the second oldest art club in the country. A woman, Mrs. Jesse Metcalf, founded the Rhode Island School of Design in 1878, training women in respectable art professions when there was few employment opportunities open to single woman. By the twentieth century, Italian and Irish immigrants flooded the state for jobs in the wake of the industrial revolution. Italian born artist, Antonio Cirino (1888 – 1983), is but one personality who entered the competitive academic arena at RISD and the local art scene. This exhibit explores the accomplishments of visual artists in Rhode Island who broke societal mores to achieve recognition.

Bert Gallery has worked with many talented art interns and assistants over the years. This semester, Brown University student, Katherine Stoeffel researched an essay to accompany the current exhibit - “I could Paint that. Oh really?!”

Enjoy the essay and if you are in the Rhode Island vicinity come visit the exhibit!

George Morrison, (1919-2000), Abstract- Green and Black, Gouache, 21.5″ x 33.5″

By Katherine Stoeffel
Bert Gallery Exhibition November 6 - December 22, 2007

It’s tempting to think, “I could paint that,” while meandering through the Modern Art wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mark Rothko’s blocks of colors and Jackson Pollock’s drips and splashes, while evocative and innovate, seem to taunt, “Why didn’t you think of this?” One reason is that the average viewer lacks the dynamic combination of instruction, inspiration and talent manifested in these masterpieces of Abstract Expressionism. These paintings and other non-objective works represent a centuries-old legacy of art education and theory, culminating in the thoughtful, sophisticated choices each painter has made. Every brushstroke is a product of hundreds of years of intellectual thought preceding it.

Western art education dates back to the earliest, religious painters of the Middle Ages, who formed guilds for legal purposes-to develop standards of production and rules for training apprentices, as well as name masters to enforce the rules. The guild instructed all young painters and printmakers in the traditional iconography of the Church, so they could to educate viewers with dogmatic and didactic images.

During the Italian Renaissance, the “academy” theory of art education emerged. Artists worked mostly on commissions by intellectual patrons, who, due to the humanist movement, favored the expressive figures of ancient Greece and Rome. In order to familiarize them with the subject matter requested by their patrons, artists were trained in classic writing, ancient psychology, the science of perspective, ancient history, religion and mythology, and art education became more cerebral than a simple tradesman guild.

Francis Hamabe, Sea Cucumbers, Mixed Media, 15″ x 20″

After the French Revolution, The Atelier of Jacques Louis-David changed the face of art education. He combined the formal training of the Royal Académie des Beaux-Arts with the master-apprentice relationship of the guild to create a more casual environment in which students could truly advance their skills. The freedom of The Atelier encouraged the emerging Impressionist movement.

Similarly, the Bauhaus of post-World War 1 Germany established a school of art and architecture that integrated technique and content. The Bauhaus curriculum stressed gradually increasing specialization, culminating in studio experience. The starting point for students of the Bauhaus was the “Vorlehre” or preliminary studies, which offered a broad introduction to materials and forms.

The legacy of the Bauhaus lives on in modern art education throughout Rhode Island. The Rhode Island School of Design assures that all its students are well versed in visual language through its rigorous Foundation Studies. All incoming freshman are required to complete the year-long program, which comprises drawing, two dimensional design, three dimensional design and art history. These courses cover what the school considers fundamental knowledge for every artist, skills they must master before even choosing a major.

Nancy Bockbrader, department chair of Fine Arts at Rhode Island College agrees that successful painters need a solid knowledge of art foundations. She specifies that painters are specifically trained in elements-line, shape, value, texture, color, and space, which may seem arbitrary to the untrained eye, especially in abstract works. The way these elements compose a finalized work reflect the use of the principles of organization, such as balance, movement, contrast, similarity, dominance, and proportion. The trained painter considers how each brush stroke affects these qualities in their work.

Gordon Peers, Provocation, Oil on Canvas, 25″ x 30″

Equally important to the education of an artist is the development of intellect. Bockbrader says that art students “must understand the difference between what is significant content or not.” She says that art history, prehistoric through present, helps artists comprehend how historical and societal issues impact art making.

The origins of Abstract Expressionism specifically demonstrate the importance of society in art. Abstract Expressionism emerged from the politically charged European movements of Expressionism, Cubism, and Dadaism, only becoming accessible to Americans in the cosmopolitan, Post-World War society. The influential works of European modernists like Otto Dix, Fernand Léger and Pablo Picasso, who used non-objective painting as a means to express the horrors of war, as well as domestic societal distress regarding the Great Depression, helped develop non-representational painting in America.

Regardless of history or societal influence, a painting must be visually powerful to warrant its viewing. For this reason, Bockbrader insists that art students “must understand the theories that lie in the in the study of aesthetics.” It is by no accident that painters move their audiences through non-objective art, but rather by their own thoughtful amalgamation of history, theory, and personal style and inspiration.
Perhaps I couldn’t paint that, after all.

Katherine Stoeffel, a student at Brown University, writes for Bert Gallery in Providence, RI. Katherine Stoeffel is an English major in her second year at Brown University. Though she plans on writing for a career, she enjoys studying art and architecture. She is lucky enough to enjoy both on a regular basis at the Milwaukee Art Museum in her hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She writes for The College Hill Independent and worked as an intern for Paper magazine in New York last summer.

Percy Albee, The Kiss, 6 1/2″ x 8 3/4″, Etching

Artists as couples pose one of the most complex of human psychological drama. They make Freud’s Oedipus complex seem like child’s play. Just think of international Abstract Expressionist artist couples such as Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner or Elaine and Willem de Kooning.
Bert Gallery is exhibiting two twentieth century artists couples in the September/October show “Artists Who Marry Artists”. For both Rhode Island artist couples, bridging two generations, there was a competitive yet successful pairing. Percy Albee (1883-1959) and Grace Albee (1890-1985) balanced early 20th century traditional marital pressures with their careers while Florence Leif (1913-1968) and Gordon Peers (1909-1988) enjoyed less rigid cultural expectations when it came to their marriage by the mid 20th century.

How did these artist couples negotiate home life and the world of art? Did they exhibit together or paint together? Does one artist dominate or influence the other?

Jim Lane in a 2001 essay on the Humanities Web points out that artist marriages are really a 20th century phenomenon mostly due to the fact that women were rarely professional artists prior to the 20th century and “few male artists would have had the nerve to marry one.”

Percy & Grace Albee

Albee family passport photo, 1933

In the case of Percy Albee and Grace Albee we see the unusual example of the woman artist achieving more notable acclaim than that of her husband. Grace Albee has been the subject of two recent museum shows, the Brooklyn Museum in 1976 and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in 1999. She is in over thirty-three museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, RISD Museum and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. By comparison Percy Albee is in few if any museum collections. Grace was voted unanimously into the National Academy of Design and Percy was never admitted to this prestigious institution. In the publication Who was Who in American Art 1564 – 1975, 400 years of artists in America – Grace has 42 lines dedicated to her accomplishments, Percy 18 lines.

Grace was a much more accomplished artist than her husband and with a legacy of five sons there is ample feedback about how this artist couple related. Grace herself spoke to the challenge of managing a career with family in 1946. In an excellent new article on “The Early Career of Grace Albee” by Christina Moisant Weyl in the Print Quarterly, xxiv, 2007, 2, Weyl cites an American Artist magazine article on the topic,

Grace Albee is not a “career woman” in the accepted connotation of the term. Unlike those who with singleness of purpose completely sacrifice domestic life to professional pursuits, Mrs. Percy F. Albee first distinguished herself as the mother of five sons. For about fifteen years of her marriage in 1913 to Percy F. Albee, mural painter and lithographer of Providence, her art had to take second place. That period was pretty much occupied with home and family duties.
Son P. Frederick Albee in a private publication, “Grace Albee: Anecdotes of her Search for the Renown She Achieved”, tells of his great admiration for his mother and the challenges she faced in the art arena with her husband Percy Albee. One of the areas of artistic contention was subject,

Mother told me that Percy told her she couldn’t handle figures. Figures, he said, were his strength, and she should stay away. To keep family peace, she obeyed.

Furthermore, there was evidence of tension over her success as an artist. Fred goes on to write of his father…
He was jealous of her success… he sought many times to be voted into the National Academy. Mother lobbied for him; did her best, but to no avail.

Despite the artistic tensions that existed for Grace and Percy, they both went on to have successful careers and a marriage of 54 years. Together they negotiated the traditional marital roles of the time and evolved as artists. A well trained and accomplished artist in his own right Percy Albee studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Rhode Island School of Design. Percy Albee during the first years of marriage supported his family through his mural commissions while Grace concentrated on the children. He became a prominent mural painter in Providence and a respected lithographer in a regional venue.

Florence Leif & Gordon Peers

Florence Leif and Gordon Peers married in 1941, without children their artistic careers melded together easily. While Peers had the more impressive resume, he never doubted that Florence was a “better” painter. Evidence of this acknowledgement came with his devoted promotion of her work following her early death of a brain tumor at the age of 55. Peers set up a painting scholarship at their alma mater, RISD, in her name as well and organized several exhibitions of Leif’s work during the remainder of his lifetime.

Florence was firmly dedicated to excelling in her painting profession after she graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1934. A quick succession of two one-woman exhibits at Pembroke Hall and the Providence Art Club caught the attention of colleagues and critics. Marriage was not part of her career plan as noted in a 1939 article, “she says she doesn’t expect to get married because she does not believe it is possible to paint for hour after hour, as she does now, if a house and family are clamoring for attention, too.” Providence Journal, 1939

Yet it appears she succumbed to the charms of Gordon Peers fourteen years her senior. He was a graduate and professor at Rhode Island School of Design and significant artist who studied further at the Beaux Arts Academy in NYC and with noted American scene painter, Thomas Hart Benton. Both exhibited together in group exhibitions in Rhode Island as well as national competitions. They fell into an artistic rhythm where summers were spent at their Cape Cod home in Truro intensively painting winters in the Providence studios. Leif followed Gordon on his travels when he became RISD Department Chair and Director of the European honors program. Italy, Spain and Portugal were among the many locations they painted expanding their subject matter and fine-tuning their craft. Subject matter and locations were similar, the evolution of their styles progressed in parallel but the difference lay in their painting technique – Leif more spontaneous and slashing with vivid color versus Gordon’s plodding heavy palette knife resulting in carefully orchestrated canvases.

There are distinct differences between the two artist couples. Unlike the Albees’ of a previous generation, Leif and Peers enjoyed a focused artist life and both husband and wife achieved similar artistic status in their community. Peer’s determination that Leif was a more accomplished painter than Gordon has yet to be validated beyond personal conviction in a wider artistic arena. Whereas, with Grace Albee it is clear that even her late entry into a full time artistic pursuit, she quickly superseded Percy’s career and her family came to terms with her significant accomplishments. Where both couples coalesce is that no matter what artistic tensions encountered during their careers they stayed married and productive. They remained artists married to artists.

Gordon Peers, Bottle of Wine, 1987
Oil on Canvas, 40″ x 50″
$10,000.

Noted RISD professor Gordon Peers began his career as a traditional realist American painter who after his RISD education went on to study with American scene painter Thomas Hart Benton. An independent and disciplined painter, Peers acquired technical and theoretical art sophistication early in his career. His tightly delineated still life compositions painted in the 1930’s and 1940’s were exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Corcoran Art Gallery, Carnegie Institute and the National Academy of Design.

But by the 1950’s the influence of Cezanne became evident in Peers’ work and the painter began a lifetime of experimentation that culminated in a body of brightly colored and thickly painted still life. One of these signature works, Bottle of Wine, 1987 is akin to stained glass with each object with a halo of color. Christopher Willard in a 1988 American Artist article wrote,

Peers actively explored complementary colors as a means of creating glowing colors in studies done directly from still-life setups… he seems to be using a group of paints with extremely luminous and varied colors.

In Bottle of Wine, the artist demonstrates his respect for paint - he uses it with reverence, integrity and skill. The wine bottle sits among the folded linen napkin, the red apples, the fruit compotes and other carefully chosen tabletop objects. Fruit and pottery radiate due to the painstaking adjustments of slowly adding darker and lighter tones as well as purer colors to heighten the intensity of colors by contrasting them with their complements (Willard, 1988).

Peers enjoyed a very long art career, married to artist Florence Leif his artistic journey over fifty-five years allowed time to assimilate new ideas and accommodate his painting style. At Rhode Island School of Design he advanced from instructor to Department Chair and became the Chief Critic of the school’s European Honors Program. An exacting and critical teacher he kept searching in his art for that little something extra. Providence Journal Art Critic Brad Swan wrote in 1960 of Peers painting exhibit at the Dattorro-Tonoff Gallery,

In a world obsessed with the mere manipulation of paint as the be-all and end-all of painting, it is intensely satisfying to find paint being manipulated from some deeply felt esthetic purpose…

Today the work of Gordon Peers is enjoying a new audience. In current critical review, Peers is acclaimed for his thoughtful composition, meticulous craftsmanship and great color sensibility.

He was a member of the Providence Art Club and Provincetown Art Association. His work is in the collection of the Rhode Island School of Design.
-Catherine Little Bert

Please contact Bert Gallery for any inquiries or for a high resolution image.

Bert Gallery
540 South Water Street, Providence, RI 02906
401-751-2628
www.bertgallery.com
bertgallery@conversent.net