Hillstrom Museum of Art, St. Peter,
Minnesota
September 9 through November 10.
Tweed Museum of Art - University of Minnesota Duluth
January, 2021
The Hillstrom Museum of Art presents Industry,
Work, Society, and Travails in the Depression Era: American Paintings
and Photographs from the Shogren-Meyer Collection, on view from September 9 through November 10.
Industry, Work, Society, and Travails in the Depression Era will
feature 95 works of art, mostly dating from the 1930s. Among the
photographers represented in the Shogren-Meyer collection and the
exhibit based on it are Berenice Abbott, Margaret Bourke-White, Walker
Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks. Among the painters included
are Marvin Cone, John Steuart Curry, Ernest Fiene, Thomas Nagai, and
Zoltan Sepeshy.
Collector Daniel Shogren and his wife Susan Meyer have always been
fascinated by the 1930s and its art, possibly related to both of them
having been interested in history since childhood. Of particular
interest to the passionate collectors are American Scene and Regionalist
artworks.
Shogren states, "In my career, I have traveled the Midwest
and worked in factories where I witnessed today's working men and women. I compare today,
where we have full employment and a booming stock market, to the
America of the 1920s and 1930s. Are we seeing warning signals, such as
climate change and income disparity, that portend a future
depression? Susan and I are deeply moved by art from the 30s and how
it reflects those times, which remain relevant in 2019.
This exhibition is a dream come true for us. We are delighted to share
these amazing works of art with the public."
Industry, Work, Society, and Travails in the Depression Era will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue with object texts written by collectors Susan Meyer and Daniel Shogren, Donald Myers (director and chief curator, Hillstrom Museum of Art), and Christian Peterson (independent scholar and former long-time photography curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Art).
The
Hillstrom Museum of Art is located in the Jackson Campus Center of
Gustavus Adolphus College, 800 West College Avenue, St. Peter,
Minnesota.
