Recent Acquisitions

Maudelle
Beulah Ecton Woodard

Woodard's Maudelle is a masterpiece of realistic portraiture achieved through incisive modeling and detailed description of the sitter’s features, braided hair, and colorful earrings. Her dramatic beauty combined with the medium of terracotta (unglazed brownish-red earthenware) gives the bust a potent presence. A fundamental medium of artistic expression, clay, even after firing, reveals traces of the artist’s touch. This sensation of the presence of the artist combined with the slight tilt of Maudelle’s head lends a forceful immediacy to the portrait, which was modeled without the use of drawings or sculptural models.

Beulah Ecton Woodard was an African-American artist who specialized in sculpture in a variety of media, including terracotta, bronze, wood, and papier-mâché. Born in Ohio, she moved with her family to Vernon, California, which was near Los Angeles. Her fascination with African culture began at the age of twelve, when a native African visited her family. This interest continued throughout her life as she explored the portrayal of Africans and African-Americans, often from an ethnographic and anthropologic perspective.

She showed an interest in drawing early on, and in high school she studied architectural drawing in preparation for a career as an architect. In 1926 she began experimenting in clay, but her family dissuaded her from pursuing it further. She soon returned to sculpture, however, after her marriage to Brady Woodard in 1928. While racism led to the withdrawal of support for study in Europe, she continued to study art at the Los Angeles Art School, Otis Art Institute, and the University of Southern California.

The primary purpose of art was to educate, according to Woodard. She wanted to teach African-Americans to take pride in their African heritage, as she worked to establish an independent African American identity for black Americans. She thus avoided abstraction as she sought to realistically portray her subjects. This bust of Maudelle shows her straightforward and easily understandable approach to art.

Woodard was the first African-American artist to show at the Los Angeles County Museum with her solo exhibition in 1935. With her increasing fame, important commissions for portrait busts of notable local figures arrived. She organized the Los Angeles Negro Art Association in 1937 and lectured at a variety of educational institutions. Despite her busy schedule, she continued to promote other artists and remained involved in the community. Thanks to artists like Woodard and the cultural diversity of California, museums like the San Francisco Museum of Art, Lowie Museum at the University of California, Berkeley, and Los Angeles County Museum began exhibiting art from African countries and the Pacific Rim. Sadly, Woodard died at the height of her career, before an exhibition of her work in Germany.

The model, Maudelle Bass Weston (1908-1989), was a well-known African-American concert dancer. Born in Early County, Georgia, she later moved to California and was the first black American to study with the choreographer Lester Horton. In 1940, she danced with the American Ballet Theater in Agnes de Mille’s ballet Black Ritual, and in the 1950s she appeared with the dancer and choreographer Pearl Primus. As a model, she posed for numerous artists including Diego Rivera, Edward Weston, and Weegee. [news release with additional photos]

Panel from a Diptych Showing the Adoration of the Magi
Anonymous

In celebration of the Museum of Art and Archaeology’s fiftieth anniversary, Museum Associates Board of Directors gave attendees at this year’s Paintbrush Ball the opportunity to actively be involved in this “Golden Opportunity” to purchase an acquisition commemorating the Museum’s anniversary. The ivory panel was chosen by Museum staff with recommendation from the Department of Art History and Archaeology as an important teaching tool and addition to the Museum’s medieval collection. Pledge bids were taken during the live auction at the Ball, raising enough funds to purchase this small, important piece of artwork.

Its Use and History
by Anne Rudloff Stanton, Associate Professor
Department of Art History and Archaeology

Medieval worshippers used many types of visual aids in their devotions, from the monumental images that enriched their churches to the illuminated prayer books that guided the contemplations of the upper classes. Many wealthy people also owned small sculptures and folding diptychs made of precious materials that, depending on their size and format, could function as altarpieces for private chapels or as tiny, jewel-like ‘books’ that could be carried about, tucked into a sleeve or belt-pouch. An influx of elephant ivory into the European market in the later medieval period translated into a wealth of luxury items, but ivory had long been a prized material. Not only did it foster a sense of connection to objects described in the Bible, like the throne of the wise King Solomon (3 Kings 10:18), but the creamy, smooth material could be carved into minute forms and patterns and could be further enlivened with paints and gold leaf.

This ivory panel (3” high x 1¾” wide) is the left wing of a diptych, the right border of which is now lost; the style of its carving suggests that it was made in Germany or the Netherlands in the late-fourteenth century. The hole in the center top suggests that the panel, or even the whole diptych, was suspended from a chain or ribbon at some point in its history. The scene depicts the Adoration of the Magi: beneath a canopy of trefoil arches, the seated Virgin Mary holds the Christ Child on her lap as he turns toward the Magus kneeling before them. One of the standing Magi holds his pot of myrrh or frankincense in one hand and looks down at the seated group; the other turns back toward his companion while pointing up toward the star of Bethlehem. Originally, the enlarged pointing hand also would have guided the viewer’s eye toward the opposing leaf of the diptych, which most likely depicted either the Crucifixion, or the Last Judgment. This object would have been read from left to right, from Christ’s birth to his death, or to his second coming, and would have evoked the cycle of the Christian liturgical year, and the entire scope of Christian history, for its owner.

Frutas des Campos
Diego Rivera

The print titled Frutas des Campos [sic] (Fruits of Labor) by Diego Rivera (1886–1957) was made in 1932. It features a central female figure who is handing out apples to the children around her. A male in the upper right corner holds an open book toward the children, most of whom are turned away from the viewer. To the lower right of the picture plane, one-quarter of a uniformed soldier shows. His arm embraces one of the young boys, and they face the woman who is distributing apples and the man who is holding a book. Rivera’s initials, as well as the date, are on a book at the bottom left.

Latin American artist Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato, Mexico, and decided to pursue artmaking at the young age of ten. Rivera used Pre-Columbian sculptural forms to symbolically connect Mexicans to their pre-conquest past and to foster a national identity separate from outside rule. He worked in a modernist artistic style and is best known for his powerful, politically charged public murals painted on the architecture and walls of Mexico and the United States. He is one of Los Tres Grandes of Mexican modernism, along with Josè Clemente Orzoco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. These artists were known for creating artwork with revolutionary, politically leftist themes that included uniting the world’s workers through communism. Rivera’s subject matter was usually dedicated to those who toil the land or the proletariat class. As a self-proclaimed communist, Rivera believed that art should serve the working people, not just the wealthy.

In addition to mural paintings, prints such as Frutas des Campos were made to disseminate leftist ideas to working people. This print is a detail of a larger mural titled Fruits of the Earth and was executed in New York by George C. Miller, one of the most important master lithographers of the early twentieth century. Despite Rivera’s admiration for easily accessible art forms, he rarely made prints himself but instead permitted professional printmakers like Miller to reproduce his work. The subject matter of this print represents Rivera’s desire to restore agrarian work to the central concern of society. According to his Marxist perspective, the true frutas des campos are the toil of the agrarian worker, whose hands feed the nation. Frutas des Campos conveys a central revolutionary theme: the growth of a nation’s economy rests not on its capitalist elite but on the productive "fruits" of the common laborer. His subject matter presents viewers with the idea that the most important components of a society are ultimately linked to land and labor.

Diego Rivera
Mexican (1886–1957)
Frutas des Campos
1932
Lithograph
(2006.15)
Gilbreath-McLorn Museum Fund

Opening Page for the Office of the Dead
Anonymous

This illuminated manuscript leaf is taken from a medieval Book of Hours, which was a prayer book meant for private devotional use. The page opened the Office of the Dead, the last section in a Book of Hours. The Office of the Dead was an integral part of the medieval funeral service and was used to pray for souls of the deceased so that they could be released from Purgatory and hopefully go to Heaven.

This particular page is unusual because most opening pages only contain one hand-painted picture (or miniature) while five scenes are illustrated here. The largest miniature depicts Christ raising Lazarus. The four surrounding images (clockwise from top to bottom) also show typical medieval imagery associated with death and the afterlife: 1) a priest blesses a dying man; 2) the man is buried, and an angel and demon battle over his soul; 3) four men speak to the Old Testament figure of Job; and 4) the story of "The Three Living and the Three Dead." According to that story, the corpses say, “We were once as you are now, and what we are, you soon will be.” The central text on the page translates from Latin as “I have loved, because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer. Because he has inclined his ear unto me…"

Sarcophagus Fragment with Figure Standing against an Architectural Background

In the Roman world, inhumation burial became increasingly popular in the 2nd and 3rd centuries C.E., replacing the earlier rite of cremation. Wealthy Roman elites throughout the empire commissioned lavishly carved marble sarcophagi, which could be freestanding, placed within family tombs, or in catacombs. This fragment comes from a type of sarcophagus belonging to the "Asiatic" variety, the largest and most decorative in the Mediterranean world. In these sarcophagi, the figures are carved in high relief and are often set in an architectural backdrop consisting of elaborately carved colonnades.

There were three main centers of sarcophagus manufacture: Attica in Greece, and Proconnesus and Docimaeum in Western Asia Minor. One advantage of sarcophagi was the large space they offered for figural decoration; they were prefabricated with appropriate funerary themes, with the details carved after commission. Although many sarcophagi were crafted at workshops close to marble quarries, a great number were ordered by the elite of Rome (over 6,000 sarcophagi have been found there).

The identity of the preserved youth on this fragment is unknown, but his garment is tied with the Knot of Hercules, which was associated with the bridal outfit. Marriage themes were common on the tombs of young women. Perhaps this is an allegorical figure associated with marriage.

Quatrefoil from a Window
Anonymous (French)

During the medieval period, artists and artisans invented the stained-glass technique to embellish architectural interiors. Colored glass pieces were painted and fastened together in lead frames to fashion pictures and ornamental designs that were placed in windows. Light shining through these windows created walls of color that transformed ecclesiastic interiors into otherworldly, spiritual spaces.

This small quatrefoil is a fragment from a much larger window. It consists of a central square panel, or "boss," surrounded by eight lobes decorated with leaf designs. An unusual ornamental knot encloses a small decorative motif at the center of the boss. The deep blues, rich yellows, and bright reds create a beautiful ensemble of primary colors that is typical of French stained glass during the thirteenth century. Each panel is delicately hand- decorated with black paint, and the brush strokes are visible on close inspection.

River Bank
Daniel Garber

River Bank is a spectacular example of American Impressionism from the Pennsylvania School. The artist, Daniel Garber, is one of many twentieth-century American painters inspired by the nineteenth-century French Impressionist style. Like his European predecessors, the Pennsylvania painter was interested in representing transient effects of light and atmosphere in the landscape. River Bank probably depicts a scene near Garber’s home in Buck’s County, Pennsylvania. The broken color and tapestry-like quality of the image suggest the effects of flickering light across the water and riverbank. Garber preferred to paint out of doors, and his plein air paintings are characterized by a fresh, spontaneous style and vibrant color.

Garber studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts with William Merrit Chase, one of the first artists to bring the impressionist style to America. After winning praise and recognition from the art establishment in the first quarter of the twentieth century, Garber returned to the Academy, where he became a well-known instructor. Garber continued to produce his luminous landscapes until his death in 1958, although by the 1930s his impressionist style was regarded as old fashioned by critics. Untitled (Summer Landscape) is a first-rate example of the artist’s work.