Synopses & Reviews
Every work of art has a story behind it. In 1886 the German American artist Robert Koehler painted a dramatic wide-angle depiction of an imagined confrontation between factory workers and their employer. He called this oil painting The Strike. It has had a long and tumultuous international history as a symbol of class struggle and the cause of workers’ rights. First exhibited just days before the tragic Chicago Haymarket riot, The Strike became an inspiration for the labor movement. In the midst of the campaign for an eight-hour workday, it gained international attention at expositions in Paris, Munich, and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Though the painting fell into obscurity for decades in the early twentieth century, The Strike lived on in wood-engraved reproductions in labor publications. Its purchase, restoration, and exhibition by New Left activist Lee Baxandall in the early 1970s launched it to international fame once more, and collectors and galleries around the world scrambled to acquire it. It is now housed in the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, Germany. Art historian James M. Dennis has crafted a compelling “biography” of Koehler’s painting: its exhibitions, acclaim, neglect, and rediscovery. He introduces its German-born creator and politically diverse audiences and traces the painting’s acceptance and rejection through the years, exploring how class and sociopolitical movements affected its reception. Dennis considers the significance of key figures in the painting, such as the woman asserting her presence in the center of action. He compellingly explains why The Strike has earned its identity as the iconic painting of the industrial labor movement.
Review
“Unquestionably, Ortel has captured Lowes intelligence and artistic ability. Lowes success in the art world and academia are well praised; he shed positive light as well as opened doors for artists with tribal ancestry. Ortel introduces Lowes family, Ho Chunk culture, education, and Lowes art so that he appears to be just an arms-length away.”—M. H. Wounded Head, Choice
Synopsis
Woodland Reflections: The Art of Truman Lowe explores the art and influences of Truman Lowe, a sculptor whose large abstract works in wood and metal are inspired by many elements of Lowes world, among them river eddies, willows, waterfalls, bluffs and dunes, and the architecture of the handmade canoe. An internationally acclaimed artist whose works are displayed in major museums, Lowe grew up on the banks of Wisconsins Black River, where his parents were skilled makers of splint-plait baskets and other crafts from their Ho-Chunk tradition.
There are relatively few books on contemporary fine art made by Native Americans, and many of these reproduce old stereotypes. This amply illustrated book is a specific and respectful treatment of a Native artist as an artist. It examines Lowes work in multiple contexts, including his personal history and the social, political, intellectual, and cultural spheres in which he lives and works. The artists voice throughout the book is clear and constant: the text is based on extensive interviews with Truman Lowe and on the recent history of the Wisconsin Ho-Chunk. Equally important, the book relates Lowes art both to mainstream modernist art theory and to contemporary cultural theories of Native critics and scholars.
Synopsis
An art “biography” that traces the tumultuous international history of Robert Koehler’s painting “The Strike”, which has become a symbol of class struggle and the cause of workers’ rights and the iconic painting of the industrial labor movement.
Synopsis
James M. Dennis is professor emeritus of art history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is author of Karl Bitter, Architectural Sculptor, 1867–1915; Grant Wood: A Study in American Art and Culture; and Renegade Regionalists: The Modern Independence of Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry as well as catalog essays for the traveling exhibitions Grant Wood: An American Master Revealed and Grant Wood’s Studio, Birthplace of American Gothic.
About the Author
Jo Ortel is Associate Professor of Art History at Beloit College. Her articles and reviews have appeared in such publications as
New Art Examiner and
SPOT. She is the 2003 recipient of the James R. Underkofler Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching.
Truman Lowe is a Professor in the Art Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and curator of contemporary art for the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of the American Indian, which will open in Washington, D.C. in 2004. He has exhibited at such venues as the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, the National Gallery of Art in Ottawa, Ontario, and the Wright Museum of Art at Beloit College in Wisconsin. One of his large outdoor sculptures was included in an exhibit at the White House in 1998.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Robert Koehler's Early Life, Artistic Apprenticeship, and Initial Worker Paintings
1. Koehler's Art Training: Milwaukee, Manhattan, and Munich, 1865–79
2. Images of Women: Munich, 1879–92
3. Koehler's First Worker Images and The Socialist: Munich, 1879–85
Part II: The Origin and Initial Reception of The Strike
4. Art Historical Background and the Railway Strike of 1877
5. Influences Shaping The Strike
6. Labor-History Context: An Era of Strife, 1877–86
7. A Strikebound Debut, a Conflicting Reception, a Paris Interlude: Early Exhibitions, 1886–89
Part III: Decades of Neglect
8. Milwaukee and the Chicago World's Fair: 1889–94
9. Transatlantic Progeny and a Minneapolis Refuge: 1893–1917
10. Ambiguous Purchase and Gradual Obscurity: 1900–1917
Part IV: Rediscovery and Belated Acclaim
11. Rescue, Restoration, and Return to New York City: 1917–72
12. Labor Union Patronage, Museum Exhibitions, and National Fame: 1972–82
13. Germany Reclaims a National Treasure: 1983 to the Present
Afterword
Notes
Index