Grand Rapids, MI
616-831-1000
Mathias Alten: Journey of an American Painter
The Grand Rapids Art Museum is presenting
a retrospective exhibition on the work of Mathias J. Alten (1871 - 1938),
an American painter well known in Michigan and the upper Midwest in the
early twentieth century. Alten arrived in the United States from Germany
in 1889 at the age of seventeen and began a working career as a painter
of portraits, still lifes, allegorical subjects, and landscapes. He received
both private and public commissions and was established as an artist of
the region by 1898, when he became a United States citizen. Later he applied
for a passport to travel to France where he enrolled at the Academie Julian,
followed by the Academie Colorossi. 
Like many American Impressionist and Realist painters of
his generation, Alten returned to Europe in the years 1910, 1912, 1922,
and 1928, to paint in the Netherlands and Spain. By the mid 1920's, his
palette lightened markedly. At this time he began to exhibit his work in
Chicago, Detroit, and New York. In 1927, he spent a summer painting in Taos,
New Mexico, and became acquainted with members of the Taos colony of artists.
His American paintings include rustic scenes of Old Lyme, Connecticut, the
sponge-fishing boats of Tarpon Springs, Florida, and the California missions
and coast. 
Alten's home and life-long career were in Grand Rapids
where he was known as a painter of the local scene. Drawn to water, he often
painted the Grand River, which flows through the city, and Reeds Lake near
his home. His Michigan landscapes render country farms and urban subjects
with an emphasis on the simplicity of life and changing seasons in the Midwest.
This exhibition is the first major exhibition and publication
on the life and work of Mathias Alten. It consists of ninety paintings spanning
his career and defines his artistic development and achievement in the context
of American art of his time. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated
catalogue published by the Grand Rapids Art Museum and Marquand Books of
Seattle.
The catalogue features contributions by three essayists. William Gerdts, distinguished scholar of American Art, is author of an essay placing Alten's career in the context of American Art. Elizabeth Boone, Assistant Professor of Art History at Humboldt State University, California, and a specialist on the Spanish influence on American Art, addresses the impact of Spain on Alten's work. And Chicago art historian Wendy Greenhouse, former Curator at the Chicago Historical Society, discusses the role of Midwestern art clubs and associations in the early twentieth century.
Above from top to bottom: Pintor, 1921, collection of George and Barbara Gordon; Sunset on the Farm, Saugatauk, MI,1913, private collection; Hollyhocks, 1897, collection of Blodgett Butterworth Health Care Foundation; Rancho de Taos, 1927, collection of George and Barbara Gordon; The Last Load, c. 1935, The Grand Rapids Art Museum, Museum Purchase with funds provided by John and Marilyn Drake
Above from left to right: Shell Fishers, 1910-11, collection of Aquinas College; Coming Ashore, 1922 or 1928, collection of Richard and Kate Wolters; Valencia, 1912, private collection; The Broken Mast, 1910-11, The Grand Rapids Art Museum, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Peter C. Cook; Idling Boats, 1935, collection of James and Lois Kahllo
The exhibition, presented from October 16, 1998, through January 24, 1999, and catalogue are made possible by NBD Bank with additional funding provided by the Drake Quinn Family Foundation and the Wege Foundation.
The Mathias Alten Archive, a complete documentation of Alten' s life and work, will be donated to the Archives of American Art.
Read more about the Grand
Rapids Art Museum in Resource
Library Magazine
rev. 9/20/10
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