Gordon F. Peers
1909-1988

Education:
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Art Student’s League, New York
Beaux Arts Academy, New York

Exhibitions:
1932
Providence Art Club, Providence, RI

1936
National Exhibiton of American Artists, New York, NY

1939
World’s Fair, New York, NY
Golden Gate Exhibition, New York, NY

1940
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA

1941
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA

1942
Worcester Museum, Worcester, MA

1943
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA

1946
National Gallery, Washington D.C.
Pepsi Cola Exhibition National Academy of Design
Providence Art Club, Providence, RI

1948
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, RIchmond, VA

1949
Rhode Island League of Artists

1952
Terry Arts Institute, FL

1954
Boston Arts Festival, Boston, MA - Awarded Second Prize

1955
Boston Arts Festival, Boston, MA
Providence Art Club, Providence, RI - Awarded First Prize

1956
Newport Art Association, Newport, RI - Awarded First Prize
Boston Arts Fesitval

1958
Newport Art Association, Newport, RI - Awarded First Prize
Boston Arts Festival, Boston, MA

1959
Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI

1960
Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI
Dattorro-Tonoff Gallery, Providence, RI

1962
Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI

1963
Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI

1964
Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI

1965
Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI

1974
Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI

1985
Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, RI

Click to Download Extended Chronology

Do you love art, but have a limited budget?
For you, is the hunt just as exciting as the acquisition?
Or, are you simply a bargain hunter?

Then check out the Bert Gallery Attic Sale,
where we’re offering great art at great prices!

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Gallery Night Providence: April 17, 2008
Third Thursday in April - A Free Visual Arts Event

Mark your calendars for the second Gallery Night of the 2008 season on April 17th. Visit the Gallery Night website to find directions, routes, and celebrity tours - and don’t forget to stop by Bert Gallery to view our new exhibit, Painter Gordon Peers (1909 - 1988): Transformation During the War Years.

PAINTER GORDON PEERS (1909 - 1988)
Transformation During the War Years
April 4th – June 27th

Gallery Nights: April 17, June 19, Closed May Gallery Night

Providence, RI. Bert Gallery, located along the Providence waterfront at Corliss Landing, 540 South Water Street, continues the Cultural Awakenings 2008 Exhibition Series with the show Gordon Peers (1909 – 1988): Transformation During the War Years from April 4th through to June 27th. Gallery Hours are Tuesday – Friday from 11 – 5pm, Saturdays 12 - 4pm or by appointment. Exhibits are free and open to the public.

WWII touched all facets of American life and challenged the careers of many Rhode Island artists. The structured and precise painting style of Gordon Peers (1909 - 1988) pre-war evolved to meet the new realities of a post-war art world. The artist did not paint war themes, but looked to the emerging art movements of Geometric Abstraction and Surrealism by the American vanguard artists to better understand his choices as a painter. Bert Gallery’s current exhibit looks at the evolution of painter, Gordon Peers, nurtured in a war free art world, transformed by the altered American culture of the 1950’s.

There are over twenty paintings on view dating from 1938 to 1984. Early works in the 30’s and 40’s show Peers as a strong realist painter, who was interested in tightly rendered images, exacting composition, and homage to nature. An independent and disciplined painter, Gordon Peers acquired technical and theoretical art sophistication early in his career. He graduated from RISD under the tutelage of John Frazier and went on to study at the Beaux Arts Academy in New York, eventually working for a time with American realist, Thomas Hart Benton.

On December 7, 1941 every American life changed with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into World War II. Gordon was a member of the faculty at Rhode Island School of Design and obtained a leave of absence to become an officer in an army camouflage unit. Like many Americans, Peers adjusted to the disruption in his career, but the war had irrevocably transformed the art world. He faced an art profession that was convulsing with new ideas and approaches to painting. The Bert Gallery exhibit juxtaposes the artwork by Peers from the 30’s and 40’s with later paintings from the 50’s to 80’s. The transformation in color, composition, and surface paint are significant. Peers will not be confused with the more radical and modern painters to emerge post-war in the United States. Rather, Peers’ paintings evolved slowly, paying particular homage to the work of Cezanne, and never relinquishing a respect for sound draftsmanship and the refined craft of painting. His subject matter ranges from still life, flowers and Cape Cod landscapes of Highland Beach and Truro, Massachusetts, actively avoiding war theme art. In the Rhode Island servicemen exhibits at the Providence Art Club in 1946, he showed imaginative paintings of objects and landscapes.

Gordon Peers achieved wide recognition in Rhode Island as a painter and instructor. He was the Chairman of the Painting Department at the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Head of the European Honors Program. A member of the Providence Art Club and Newport Art Association, he had several one man and group exhibitions to include such institutions as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Corcoran Art Gallery, Carnegie Institute and the National Academy of Design.

For more information contact Catherine Little Bert at 401.751.2628 or visit the website www.bertgallery.com.

Interview with Jason Stieber:
Director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts Library & Research Center

What better way to celebrate Women’s history month than listening to our latest Bert Gallery podcast on the Clara Database of Women Artists launched by the National Museum of Women in the Arts Museum (NMWA), located in Washington, DC. Celebrating their twentieth anniversary, NMWA (www.nmwa.org) has a remarkable archives dedicated to documenting the achievements of women artists. Recently, they were gifted an important collection of letters by Frida Kahlo.

Recently Catherine Bert interviewed Jason Stieber the Director of the NMWA Archives on the Clara Data base, a unique interactive database containing authoritative information on 18,000 women visual artists of all time periods and nationalities. The information in Clara is drawn from the materials in NMWA’s extensive Archives on Women Artists.

Both Clara and the Archives on Women Artists are works in progress. They are continually adding records for new artists and updating information on existing artists.

Click here to download the Clara Database Podcast.

Women on Exhibit at Bert Gallery

In the current exhibit Struggle, Strength and Dignity one theme explored is the accomplishments of women artists during the 19th century. Works by late 19th century artists Emma Swan (1853-1927), Angela O’Leary (1879 – 1921) and Gertrude Parmalee Cady (1875 – 1957) are on view along with other twentieth century Rhode Island women artists such as Helena Sturtevant (1877 – 1946), Edna Martin (1896 – 1996), Edna Lawrence (1898 – 1987) and Eliza Gardiner (1871 – 1955). If you can’t visit the gallery than check out the exhibit slide show at www.bertgallery.com.

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Gallery Night Providence 2008 Starts in March!
Third Thursday, March 20th – A Free Visual Arts Event

Mark your calendars for the first Gallery Night of the 2008 season – March 20th. Visit the Gallery Night website, gallerynight.info to find out the routes, celebrity tours and don’t forget to stop by Bert Gallery to view our exhibit Struggle, Strength and Dignity.

New Edna Martin “Westward Bound” Slide Show Just Posted!

Edna Martin (1896–1996) was a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design in 1918 and traveled summers from 1929 – 1931 to Wyoming. Living on the ranch, she explored the Western landscape and did an interesting body of watercolors and etchings. See her watercolors on a web site slideshow at www.bertgallery.com. Call or visit the gallery if you would like to see the etchings of her summer adventures.

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For Women’s History Month plan a visit to the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum (www.brooklynmuseum.org) is the location of the one-year anniversary celebration of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Details on the March programs follow and make sure to see Judy Chicago’s iconic “Dinner Party” installation.

In celebration of Women’s History Month and the first anniversary of the opening of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, the Brooklyn Museum presents a series of public programs, including discussions, music, and films focusing on women in the arts. Highlights include a panel discussion titled Funding a Revolution moderated by Carol Jenkins and featuring women who are making historic strides in philanthropy; a dialogue with artist Ghada Amer; and a film from Women Make Movies.

“We must measure the emancipation of women on a centuries old yardstick,” said Dr. Elizabeth A. Sackler, public historian, arts activist, and benefactor of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. “One hundred fifty years ago in this country, it was rare for women to receive any formal education and to own property, or to have basic rights within a marriage. One hundred years ago women had to fight, and fight hard, for the right to vote. Twenty-five years ago, even after all the successes of the women’s movement, the Equal Rights Amendment was left un-passed, in the dust. So, you see, the yardstick is alive and well.” “Yes,” she concedes, “the glass ceiling is higher but not shattered. It is necessary to pull out the bottom bricks of the patriarchal wall to move this country away from the male elitism that keeps prisoners of us all—men and women alike.”

ART EVENTS CALENDAR

Lecture: “Independent. Jewish. Frankly Feminist. Where Do We Go From Here?”
Saturday, March 8, 2–4 p.m.
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Forum, 4th Floor
Susan Weidman Schneider, founder and editor-in-chief of Lilith magazine, discusses the feminist movement over the last three decades as it relates to Jewish women.

Panel Discussion: “Feminisms: Race, Gender, and Generation”
Sunday, March 9, 2–4 p.m.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor
Artist, cultural historian, and MacArthur scholar Dr. Amalia Mesa-Bains leads a panel of women artists including Carrie Mae Weems, Magdalena Campos Pons, and Thenmozhi Soundaraji, in a discussion on the issue of historical and contemporary feminisms. Questions of both a cultural and political nature will be addressed: Where were women of color in the first wave of feminism? Why have many younger women found themselves at odds with the term? What definitions of feminism are shared and which are exclusive to race and class? What have been the driving concerns for women of color in feminist art?

Artist Dialogue: Ghada Amer and Maura Reilly
Saturday, March 15, 1–2:30 p.m.
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Forum, 4th Floor
Contemporary Egyptian artist Ghada Amer discusses her work and her new exhibition Love Has No End with Maura Reilly, Ph.D., curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

Panel Discussion: Funding a Revolution
Saturday, March 15, 3–5 p.m.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor
Dr. Elizabeth A. Sackler celebrates the first anniversary of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art with an invitation to a panel discussion by women who are making history in philanthropy. The afternoon event titled Funding a Revolution is presented with an eye on social agendas. Moderator Carol Jenkins, President of The Women’s Media Center and a Board Member of the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF), leads philanthropic activists Jennifer Buffett, NoVo Foundation, President and Co-chair; Barbara Dobkin, Women’s Funding Network, Board Member, Jewish Women’s Archive, Founding Chair; and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Women Moving Millions, Co-chair, The Sister Fund, President and Founder, as they discuss their methods and goals.

Film: These Girls from Women Make Movies
Sunday, March 16, 2–3:30 p.m.
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Forum, 4th Floor
Acclaimed feminist media organization Women Makes Movies presents the film These Girls (Tahani Rached, 2006, 68 min., NR) that follows the story of a band of teenage girls living on the streets of Cairo, by widely acclaimed Egyptian director Tahani Rached. A discussion follows the screening.

Music: Queen Esther
Sunday, March 16, 3–5 p.m.
Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion
Rooted in Texas but nurtured on the stages of New York, Queen Esther performs “proto-blues rock-and-roll filtered through 70s R&B.”

Lecture: “Harriet Tubman, Warrior for Freedom”
Saturday, March 29, 2–4 p.m.
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Forum, 4th Floor
Recipient of the 2007 Richard Wright Literary Excellence Award, author Beverly Lowry discusses her recent book, Harriet Tubman: Imagining a Life, about the only woman to lead an armed rebellion during wartime.

Panel Discussion: Beyond the Waves: Feminist Artists Talk Across the Generations
Sunday, March 30, 3–5 p.m.
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Forum, 4th Floor
Presented with feminist cooperative gallery A.I.R., this panel features feminist artists and critics Carolee Schneeman, Mira Shor, Brynna Tucker, Susan Bee, and Emma Bee-Bernstein, and explores connections between generations of feminist artists.

Gallery Talks: The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago and Ghada Amer: Love Has No End
Throughout March
Museum Guides and Student Guides give gallery talks in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Check the Museum’s What’s Happening publication or visit www.brooklynmuseum.org for talk times and topics.

Cultural Awakenings in Rhode Island 2008 by Catherine Little Bert

Interview with James Montford, Director, Bannister Gallery, Rhode Island College

Friday, February 1, 2008
James Montford of Bannister Gallery discusses the lives and work of African American artists Edward Bannister, Wilmer Jennings, Nancy Prophet, and Frank Alston with interview Catherine Little Bert. This interview complements the Bert Gallery Exhibition Struggle, Strength, and Dignity: Opportunities for 20th Century Artists in Providence and coincides with Black History Month.

Download the podcast here.

Visit the Bannister Gallery website here.

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.

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.

Click Here to View Selection from Thornton Inventory Online

Podcast Interview with Robert Thornton

A discussion of his work, his influences, and his time at Rhode Island School of Design.

Listen Here 

About Robert Thornton:

He gave up RISD lens to focus on his own canvas
By Bill VanSiclen, Providence Journal, 1999.

The artist: Robert Thornton, 74.

What he does: painter, photographer
Where he’s been: Born and lives in Providence.
Attended the Rhode Island School of Design.

Man of Mystery: Thornton is a perfect candidate for one of those “Do you know me?” commercials. Though he’s lived in Providence most of his life, and though he’s painted professionally since the mid-1950s, he hasn’t had a gallery show in more than a decade. At the same time, anyone who follows the Rhode Island art scene has probably seen his work.

Who is this mystery man? He’s the former staff photographer for the RISD Museum. “I just kind of fell into it,” Thornton says of the job he held from 1957 to 1992. “I was working as a research assistant when the job opened up. I took it thinking it was a good temporary job. I wound up staying 35 years.”

Painting at night: During the day, Thornton took pictures for posters, catalogs and other museum publications. Then, at night, he’d head back to his studio. “I was always painting,” he says.

But exhibiting was another matter. After winning several awards in the 1960s and ’70s, Thornton decided to stop showing his work. “I just ran out of steam,” he says. His brightly colored paintings pay their respects to many of Thornton’s heroes, including Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, as well as RISD painters such as Gordon Peers and John Frazier.

Artist’s Statement

My motivation has not so much been the study of the craft of painting, but rather exploring the phenomenon of composing. The challenge is not what to paint but, as always, how to paint it. There is no proscribed process- one invents and reinvents the process as new discoveries emerge. It’s a matter of composting and performing simultaneously. As the painter Milton Avery once said, “Painting is like turning corners. You don’t know what’s there until you get there.”