New York Times honors The Westmoreland with best art book choice
The catalogue for “Simple Pleasures: The Art of Doris Lee,” currently showing in The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, has made the list of The New York Times Best Art Books of 2021.
The 240-page, fully illustrated, full-color hardback catalogue includes an essay by The Westmoreland’s chief curator Barbara Jones and explores the artist’s history and the exhibition’s more than 70 works, spanning Lee’s 40-year career from the 1930s through the 1960s. The exhibition features paintings, drawings, prints, commissioned designs in fabric and pottery and a selection of commercial commissions on loan from 58 lenders.
The traveling exhibition, which Jones co-curated, debuted at The Westmoreland on Sept. 26 and will close Jan. 9.
The book selection “is wonderful for Doris Lee and for our museum and the three venues that are going to take this exhibition after us,” Jones said. “It’s so fabulous to bring her work back to the attention of the public.
“I think selecting the book as one of the best art books of 2021 is a vehicle that will really help invigorate her style and bring her back into the public eye,” Jones added. “She’s been lost, it seems, for a while, so this is almost like a resurrection for her work.”
Though one of the most popular and renowned mid-20th-century American artists, Lee’s folksy, representational style was eclipsed by the growing popularity of abstraction and more serious themes in art.
Critics’ choice
The catalogue was the choice of Roberta Smith, The New York Times’ co-chief art critic, who echoed Jones in saying the book and exhibition “should begin to end (Lee’s) obscurity.”
Other books on the list were chosen by critics Holland Cotter, Jason Farago and Siddhartha Mitter.
Jones was interviewed for an article that will run in The New York Times on Jan. 2.
“That will be a nice piece for us and to give more attention to Doris and the exhibition,” Jones said. “It will really benefit the venues where it goes on after us.”
Other contributors to the catalogue were exhibition co-curator Melissa Wolfe, curator of American Art at St. Louis Art Museum; John Fagg, professor of American studies at University of Birmingham, United Kingdom; and Tom Wolf, professor of art history at Bard College in New York.
“Melissa did an overarching essay that covered all of Doris’ work,” Jones said.
Fagg focused on Lee’s sense of humor and history, Wolf explored Lee’s time in the Woodstock (N.Y.) art colony and Jones wrote about her commercial artwork. Anne Kraybill, The Westmoreland’s Richard M. Scaife director/CEO, added the foreword.
Vision and logistics
Wolfe had the original vision for the exhibition, previously having done extensive research on the artist, Jones said.
“At St. Louis, they didn’t want to do the exhibition, but they said they would free Melissa up to write for the catalogue,” Jones said.
“Deedee Wigmore and her D. Wigmore Fine Art gallery in New York had always wanted to do a Doris Lee exhibition,” Jones said. “Ever since she started handling her work, Deedee knew that she needed to sort of bring her back from the abyss.”
Wigmore approached Jones and former Westmoreland Museum director/CEO Judy O’Toole about organizing the exhibition.
“We jumped at it because Judy and I loved Doris’ work. We have two in the collection,” Jones said. “And we’re good at organizing exhibitions – we’ve done this before.”
Wolfe had the knowledge of the artist, while The Westmoreland took on the logistical organization of the exhibition and the major work of producing the catalogue.
Jones, who will retire in April, called “Simple Pleasures” her “swan song exhibition.”
News of The New York Times book selection “came the day after my birthday, so I took it as a belated birthday present,” she said. “I thought, oh, that’s really nice of them to do this for my birthday.”
After leaving The Westmoreland, “Simple Pleasures” will show at the Figge Art Museum Davenport, Iowa, Feb. 6-May 8; Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida, June 5-Sept. 18; and Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tenn., Oct. 30-Jan. 15, 2023.
Copies of the catalogue signed by Jones are available in The Westmoreland’s Museum Shop and at thewestmoreland.org. Advance online registration to view “Simple Pleasures also can be completed on the website.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.