Charles H. MacNider Museum
Mason City, IA
515-421-3666
People Watchers
An exhibit selected from the permanent collection of the Charles
H. MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, Iowa, titled People Watchers, will be
showing in the Museum's Weston Room April 13-May 21, 2000. It will include
original etchings, drawings, lithographs, and paintings produced by four
20th century American artists who became known for their poignant observations
of their fellow man engaged in ordinary, day-to-day activities. (left:
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954),Couple Seated in a Fun-Ride Car,1946,
egg tempera on paper)
The four artists represented in the exhibit are Isabel
Bishop (1902-1988), Adolf Dehn(1895-1968), Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), and
Grant Wood (1891-1942). Images will range from Bishop's Office Girls
and Ice Cream Cones, to Dehn's Grandmother Reading, to Marsh's
Couple Seated in a Fun-Ride Car, to Wood's Tree Planting.
"
The concept for the exhibit grew out of the notion that
everyone is " a people watcher," and that 
in this day and age it is done while sitting at the
mall; waiting in the airport; standing in line; sitting in an audience;
attending weddings, funerals, conventions, parties, graduations; walking
the beach, etc. A lot of life is experienced while looking around during
slack moments that many might regard as "down time." (right:
Grant Wood (1891-1942), Tree Planting, 1937, lithograph)
Some individuals turn such episodes of "people watching"
into a form of meaningful expression to be shared and communicated. Playwrights,
poets, novelists, musicians, and visual artists, to name a few, have done
this for centuries and the results of their creative efforts can tell a
lot about everyday existence from the past to the present.
Isabel
Bishop focused her attention on New York City subjects, particularly on
working girls and some of their more informal moments. Adolph Dehn, who
grew up on a farm in Minnesota, once said, "I am crazy about life and
want to have as much of it as I can." His work reflects his travels
and broad range of experiences. Paris-born Reginald Marsh often portrayed
what he saw on the streets and in the theaters of New York City as well
as in crowds of people engaged in recreational activities. Grant Wood, Iowa's
most famous artist, retained the flavor of the Midwest and rural settings
in most of his work. (left: Isabel Bishop (1902-1988), Snack Bar,
1959, etching)
Read more about the Charles
H. MacNider Museum in Resource
Library Magazine
For further biographical information on selected artists
cited above please see America's Distinguished
Artists, a national registry of historic artists.
Please click on thumbnail images bordered by a red line
to see enlargements.
rev. 1/15/11
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Library for thousands of articles and essays on American art.
Copyright 2011 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.
An exhibit selected from the permanent collection of the Charles
H. MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, Iowa, titled People Watchers, will be
showing in the Museum's Weston Room April 13-May 21, 2000. It will include
original etchings, drawings, lithographs, and paintings produced by four
20th century American artists who became known for their poignant observations
of their fellow man engaged in ordinary, day-to-day activities. (left:
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954),Couple Seated in a Fun-Ride Car,1946,
egg tempera on paper)
