Retro Treasure

I found this prize at the artist Art J. Myers studio estate sale. The art catalogue for the 1955 Pittsburgh International artist competion is a fabulous collection of art plates from 126 of the 328 artists that were exhibited. The cover was designed by Afro, a member of the 1955 International Jury of Award. It was printed in Rome by the Instituto Grafico Tiberino. I have gone through the pages over and over again, and although the plates are in black and white, they leave me inspired to the brim! I love this era in modern painting. The collector of the exhibit Gordon B. Washburn says of these artists: " Whether he is a realist or abstractionist, he is first a dedicated person. He has known that he has something to reveal about the mysterious experience of human life as he views it, and that he must struggle to find the exact counterpart of this experience in images which contain it and are true to it. No other daily work, it is evident, demands a greater degree of independence, of humility, or of moral courage."

What is so fasinating to me is that so many world wide artists submitted work to this competition where the top prizes seem meager in today's standards. There are many artists whose names and work I an not familiar with, but there are many "icon"s as well: Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, Alberto Giacometti, Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollock among many others.

These are my favorites in no particular order, but it was hard to choose and I am still drooling over many pieces!

I'm posting this Pollock as I am unfamiliar with it, before his "spill & drizzle" days.

It is all so marvelous to me, the gathering of artists work, their early years, their eager and passionate leanings.

Remember

that just to have the eyes of an artist,

that can be enough,

the ear of a poet,

that can be enough.

The soul of a human

just pointed

in the direction of the divine,

that can be more than enough.

I tell you this to remind myself.

Every gesture is an act of creation.

Even empty spaces and silence

can be the wings and voice of angels.

Michelle Linfante