Exhibitions: Six American Artists: Brook, Du Bois, Flannagan, Kroll, Sheeler & Sloan

Date unknown, approximately 1936: Continuing at the Brooklyn Museum are several recently installed exhibitions of unusual interest. That of six American Artists - Alexander Brook, Guy Pene du Bois, Leon Kroll, Charles Sheeler and John Sloan (painters) and John Flanagan (sculptor) - occupies the larger portion of the Special Exhibition Galleries on the First Floor, while in an additional gallery held in reserve preparatory work is being pushed for the coming exhibition of the Rayon and Synthetic Yarn Industries scheduled for December 12. In the New Accessions Room, which forms the entrance to these galleries, recently purchased Egyptian antiquities include several very rare and beautiful pieces of sculpture. In the Print Galleries a large and carefully selected exhibition of Four Centuries of Portraiture in Prints offers both the amateur and the connoisseur an unusual opportunity to survey this subject and make comparisons. Adjoining the Main Entrance Hall is the American Federation of Arts travelling exhibition of the Art of the Dance in Photograph, assembled and sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum and shown there for the first time. The eighty six photographs represent dancers in action of all styles and are the work of twenty five photographers. Among the celebrated dancers depicted are Pavlowa, Mordkin, Nijinsky, Duncan, St. Denis, Wigman, Helm, Graham, Kreutzberg, Weidman, La Argentina, Escudoro, Haakon, Georgi, Shawn, Schoop, The Ballet Russo de Monte Carlo, The American Ballet of the Metropolitan Opera House and The Joos Ballet.

The silver of the Cruiser Brooklyn will be taken off exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum the end of this week.

The exhibitions mentioned above will close on the following dates: Six American Artists, November 29; Rayon and Synthetic Yarn Industries, January 25; recently purchased Egyptian antiquities, November 22; Four Centuries of Portraiture in Prints, December 6; The Art of the Dance in Photograph, November 29.

Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 07-09_1936, 138. View Original

October 25, 1936: On Friday, October 30th, the Brooklyn Museum will open an exhibition of SIX AMERICAN ARTISTS: Alexander Brook, Guy Pene du Bois, Leon Kroll, Charles Sheeler and John Sloan (painters) and John Flanagan (sculptor).

The exhibition will in a sense be a series of one man shows since a bay in the Special Exhibition Hall will be devoted entirely to the work of each man except in the case of Flanagan whose sculpture will be installed throughout the gallery. The purpose is to give a representative picture of the recent work of each man and thus to present fully a picture of six quite definite trends in American art. Although some of the paintings and sculpture have been seen before, there is also a large proportion of the work which has never boon exhibited in New York. Some of the most interesting or these pieces are mentioned below.

The exhibit includes some of Alexander Brook’s more famous canvases such as the very fine Bacchante which was reproduced in Esquire. A recently finished canvas which has never been seen before in New York is the large portrait of Hope and Nancy which he has just completed for Mrs. Charles Kaufmann.

Most of the work of Guy Pene du Bois has been seen only once in the Kraushaar Galleries, Most are figure pieces, among them some were impressive small heads. From his studio comes a new canvas, a large Reclining Nude which has never been exhibited.

The work of John Flanagan has not been shown as much as it deserves. He is an exponent of the modern method of direct carving. The Brooklyn Museum is showing some very interesting pieces which demonstrate the way in which he brings out the quality of various stones such as granite, blue stone and alabaster. His works vary from the large piece called Morning which will dominate the far end of the hall to such amusing small pieces as The Tired Ass and Baby Playing

The inclusion of Leon Kroll is particularly interesting since he has just won the Carnegie International. The Whitney Museum can was entitled The Willows which will be exhibited shows the same clump of trees which forms the background for his prize-winning picture at Pittsburg this year. The Museum is also showing several of his large and well-known figure pieces such as Summer, New York, and a pair of landscapes, The Abandoned Quarry and The Quarry Pool, which have not been seen before.

Charles Sheeler, who is perhaps tho outstanding exponent of highly polished, meticulously painted style in American art, works so slowly that the Museum necessarily includes many of his older canvases, covering roughly the last twenty years of his activity. Bassott Hall, Williamsburg, West Virginia, and The Governors’ Palace, Williamsburg, West Virginia, which wore painted for Mrs. Rockefeller and which have never been publicly shown, will be exhibited, also some canvases such as Provincetown Church from the collection of Mr. Leo Bing and Still Lift from the collection of Mrs. Frances M. Pollak.

The works of John Sloan to be exhibited are almost all recently painted canvases which have never before been out of the artist’s studio. The majority of those are nudes painted with the characteristic hatched limos which he has adopted in his late work, a style which has caused much controversy among critics. There are also some earlier nudes showing his former treatment of the subject, and some transitional ones. A few portraits and figure studies will also be shown.

Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 07-09_1936, 136-7. View Original 1 . View Original 2