Robert Gwathmey: The Life and Art of a Passionate Observer

By Michael Kammen

Book Overview

American artist Robert Gwathmey (1903-1988) was a leading member of the Social Realist movement that flourished from the 1930s through the 1950s. Like his fellow Social Realists, Gwathmey sought to use his art to expose privilege and pretense, demand social justice, and call for major changes in the prevailing socioeconomic system. Gwathmey was an eighth-generation Virginian of Welsh heritage, and throughout his life his main artistic themes were race relations and his native South. He is perhaps best remembered as the first white American painter to depict African Americans in an unromanticized, respectful manner. Using a unique style that combined a deliberate two-dimensional flatness with deep and vivid colors, Gwathmey illuminated the inherent dignity of the tenant farmers and sharecroppers who were his subjects. As a lifelong activist against injustice, Gwathmey was kept under surveillance by the FBI for nearly thirty years. Using Gwathmey's FBI file, along with numerous interviews and archival records, Michael Kammen crafts a compelling portrait of an engaging American painter in the midst of dramatic social and political change.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807847798
• ISBN13: 9780807847794
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Bob & Rosalie

If you type in Robert Gwathmey on Google ,you will find the first chapter of Kammen's book.You will also find a review by Robert Beardsley of Harvard.Gwathmey led an exemplary life dedicated to social justice.He was one of the few whites to paint blacks. Kathleen Blackshear had painted blacks in the 30's & 40's also,but thereafter painted in abstract styles. Gwathmey was dedicated to his subject and was lauded for it.Rosalie contributed to Bob's career in many ways: 1. she got money from her parents so that they could get married and Bob could concentrate on fine art. 2. she joined Gwathmey in his interest in racial and economic justice, her photos of the the depression era were recognized.3. she worked as a textile designer to help support the family (some of these patterns can be seen on costumes of some of the street scenes he did)Kammen talks mostly about Gwathmey's life and loves.The work is well illustrated but, is not analyzed and evaluated in any depth.But, then there are more readers for the era that Gwathmey is noted for rather than the group of painters he was allied with.I admire social realism,socially conscious work for the artist's conviction . His steadfast adherence to a debunct area of figurative art.He avoided the fashions so prevelant in New York City.He stuck to his guns.His alliances with Jacob Lawrence and Philip Evergood are worthy of further study. He kept on painting into old age and died of Parkinson's disease. Rosalie was to contact Lymes disease in the 80's and would survive Bob by a few years.For artists you will learn the advantage of a partner who shares your politics and interests. The importance allies in art in following a direction that is not paramount in the art world.