On May 16, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art will be presenting an exhibition titled “Concerning the 1930’s in Art: Paintings from the Schoen Collection,” in connection with an exhibition showing now at the Frick Art Museum in Pittsburgh. In addition to 40 paintings created by various artists during the 1930’s, the exhibit also features a mural designed and painted by several Seton Hill University (SHU) students.
By Andrew Wichrowski
SHU Community News Editor
On May 16, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art will be presenting an exhibition titled “Concerning the 1930’s in Art: Paintings from the Schoen Collection,” in connection with an exhibition showing now at the Frick Art Museum in Pittsburgh. In addition to 40 paintings created by various artists during the 1930’s, the exhibit also features a mural designed and painted by several Seton Hill University (SHU) students.
“The selections are really to tell the story of the variety of artistic approaches during the decade,” said Chief Curator, Barbara L. Jones. “Everyone thinks it was all about the depression, but in fact, there were artists that were looking in a lot of different areas of their experiences to paint,” said Jones.
Jason Schoen, for whom the exhibit is named, is a collector who specializes in American art from the early 20th century. His collection, titled “Coming Home, American Art 1930-1950” highlights many different aspects of American life during that time. The paintings included in the exhibition at the Westmoreland Museum of Art are divided into groups based on their subject matter.
“We were trying to collaborate with the Frick Art Museum in Pittsburgh, and to complement the exhibition that they’re hosting from the Smithsonian American Art Museum,” Jones said. “So I had established a connection with Jason Schoen through another exhibition for which he was a lender, and I made selections from his collection.”
“I think it’s really interesting that they all seem to have the same palate, they all have the same sort of feel to them, and it just seems like a real sign of the times to me,” said Katie Barnard, Director of Education and Visitor Services. “There is an enduring American spirit to them.”
The collection being presented at the Frick Art Museum, 1934: A New Deal for Artists, is a traveling exhibition on loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C.
“Often we do partnerships and collaborations and plan for shows to coordinate with each other,” said Barnard. “So it just seemed like a perfect opportunity to have both shows going on at about the same time.”
The entrance to Concerning the 1930s in Art: Paintings from the Schoen Collection features a mural painted by SHU students Nikki Sebula, a junior, senior, Jon Stefaniak and junior, Tia Woller.
“Our curator decided that she’d like the entryway to the exhibition to be sort of a vignette of a 1930’s living room,” said Barnard.
Jones thought that the best way to highlight the time period would be to feature a work of art centered around a radio from that time period.
“Most families, that’s how they got all their information and their news during those years,” said Jones, “and so I wanted that to be sort of the focal point.”
“She had the opportunity to borrow an antique cabinet radio from a local man that deals in antiques, and she wanted to give that sort of look and feel that you’re entering into this world, going back in time,” said Barnard. “So she asked me to invite Seton Hill students to volunteer to paint the mural.”
SHU student and junior art education major, Tia Woller was one of the students who worked on the mural.
“Me and Nikki met with Katie, and she basically said ‘Well, you have these three walls, and we need to have a 1930’s living room setting, and we’re going to have a stand-up radio put in there,'” said Woller. “We talked about ideas and what we could do and the space.”
The students were given specifications and then were allowed to design the mural with final approval from the museum staff.
“They used images of real furniture from the 1930’s, and put in a lot of volunteer hours for us, and I think it’s a really great finished product,” said Barnard.
“We’re very grateful to Seton Hill that we have this community partnership that we can do stuff like this… I have so much admiration for kids that go above and beyond. That’s the kind of people we need in the museum.”