Interested in American Art? Art history? Marketing? Beach Museum curator, Elizabeth Seaton, presents Art by Mail: Associated American Artists on Thursday, Oct. 1 at 5:30pm. Seaton’s presentation will discuss AAA’s storied involvement in the popularization of American prints in the 1930s, as well as its ongoing promotion of American art over six decades. This is the first in a series of presentations related to the exhibition Art for Every Home: Associated American Artists.
Art for Every Home: Associated American Artists,an exhibition organized by the Beach Museum of Art, provides the first comprehensive overview of the commercial gallery best known as the publisher of prints by regionalist artists Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood that were sold via mail-order catalog. More than 136 works in the exhibition provide an account of Associated American Artists’ storied involvement in the sale of American prints and its lesser-known promotion of paintings, ceramics and textiles for more than six decades. Through aggressive marketing, Associated American Artists sought to bring original American art over the threshold of every American home.
A speaker series related to the exhibition will take place throughout the fall at the museum and includes the following presentations, all at 5:30 p.m.:
• Elizabeth Seaton, Beach Museum of Art curator will present “Art by Mail: Associated American Artists” on Thursday, Oct. 1.
• Joan Stack, State Historical Society of Missouri curator, will present “Thomas Hart Benton: The Perils of War” on Thursday, Oct. 29.
• Kristina Wilson, Clark University professor of art history, will present “The American Home of the 1950s” on Thursday, Nov. 5.
• Erika Doss, Notre Dame University professor of American studies, will present “Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood” on Thursday, Nov. 19.
The reception and speaker series are free and the public is welcome.
“Art for Every Home: Associated American Artists” will be on view at the Beach Museum of Art through Jan. 31, 2016. It will then travel to three additional institutions: Grey Art Gallery at New York University in New York City, April 19 to July 9, 2016; American Textile History Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts, Sept. 16, 2016, to Jan. 2, 2017; and Syracuse University Art Galleries, New York, Jan. 26 to March 26, 2017.
The Beach Museum of Art is on the southeast corner of the Kansas State University campus at the corner of Anderson Avenue and 14th Street. Admission is free. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Free parking is available adjacent to the building. For more information, call 785-532-7718 or visit http://beach.k-state.edu.