‘Grant Wood’s Masonic painting in Whitney retrospective’

     
Of course the Whitney’s upcoming Grant Wood show will feature the artist’s Masonic masterpiece. It’s the Whitney.

The Whitney Museum of American Art (99 Gansevoort Street) will open “Grant Wood: American Gothic and Other Fables” on March 2 for a three-month exhibition to end June 10. (Members will have access on February 28.) Thanks to the Iowa Masonic Library and Museum, Wood’s triptych “The First Three Degrees of Freemasonry” will be among the paintings on display.

Courtesy Iowa Masonic Library and Museum

From the publicity:


Grant Wood’s “American Gothic”—the double portrait of a pitchfork-wielding farmer and a woman commonly presumed to be his wife—is perhaps the most recognizable painting in 20th century American art, an indelible icon of Americana, and certainly Wood’s most famous artwork. But Wood’s career consists of far more than one single painting. “Grant Wood: American Gothic and Other Fables” brings together the full range of his art, from his early Arts and Crafts decorative objects and Impressionist oils through his mature paintings, murals, and book illustrations. What the exhibition reveals is a complex, sophisticated artist whose image as a farmer-painter was as mythical as the fables he depicted in his art. Wood sought pictorially to fashion a world of harmony and prosperity that would answer America’s need for reassurance at a time of economic and social upheaval occasioned by the Depression. Yet underneath its bucolic exterior, his art reflects the anxiety of being an artist and a closeted gay man in the Midwest in the 1930s. By depicting his subconscious anxieties through populist images of rural America, Wood crafted images that speak both to American identity and to the estrangement and isolation of modern life. This exhibition is organized by Barbara Haskell, Curator, with Sarah Humphreville, Senior Curatorial Assistant.


Bro. Grant Wood was at labor in Mount Hermon Lodge 263 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “The First Three Degrees of Freemasonry” is his only known Masonic-themed painting (but look for his “Shriner Quartet” litho!). The painting is exhibited in the Iowa Masonic Library and Museum of the Grand Lodge of Iowa, whose skilled experts are packing and preparing the painting for transport to New York City pretty much as I type this.
     

‘Mark Tabbert on George Washington, Freemason’

     
(Another cross-post with American Creation.)

Mark A. Tabbert

This is premature—the ink on the contract may not be dry yet—but also scratches an old itch. I want to report the inevitability of a serious biography-history on the subject of George Washington the Freemason by Masonic scholar Mark A. Tabbert. The author figures the book will be published in about three years, a deadline I assume might be intended to coincide with the tercentenary celebration of Freemasonry’s emergence into the public, which occurred in London in 1717.

It is a necessary book. Practically all existing literature on the subject of Washington the Mason was published in adoration of both the man and the fraternity. Much of that offers a childlike mythologizing (think Grant Wood’s spoof of Washington the youth, with a 60-year-old face, taking the rap for felling the cherry tree) of the subject, and none of the material is recent enough to have profited from modern research abilities and standards. I wouldn’t say Tabbert aims to eviscerate anyone, but there is a need to cut to the truth. Too many within and without the fraternity think Washington lived and breathed Freemasonry. Too many believe the man had almost nothing to do with Masonry. The truth, I imagine, is somewhere between, and encompasses information that will birth a new understanding of American Freemasonry’s most famous brother.

A cropped image of Parson Weems' Fable by Grant Wood.
Oil on canvas, 1939.

For the past nine of his twenty years of museum experience, Tabbert has served as Director of Collections of the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. Prior to that, he devoted almost seven years a Curator of Masonic and Fraternal Collections at the National Heritage Museum (now the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library) in Lexington, Massachusetts. He also is a leader in the fraternity itself, having served as President of the Masonic Library and Museum Association, as Treasurer (previously Secretary) of the Masonic Restoration Foundation, as Trustee and Founding Fellow of The Masonic Society, as a published scholar in the most prestigious research lodges and research societies in Freemasonry in the United States and England, and in numerous other capacities in the fraternity that share responsible scholarship. Among his books are American Freemasons: Three Centuries of Building Communities.

My point: He knows his business, and he is capable of rendering an honest portrait of Freemason George Washington based on what one of my former teachers at university calls “the best obtainable version of the truth.”

Tabbert’s book will be published by an academic press. The most credible books attempting to define this subject were published under Masonic auspices, the most recent dates to 1952, to commemorate the bicentenary of Washington’s initiation into Freemasonry.

For fun (my word, not his) Tabbert maintains a blog where interested readers can follow his research. American Creation readers who want the truth about Freemason George Washington and related subjects should check it out, as the most recent post addresses Masonic membership among the Founding Fathers.

Disclaimer: Mark Tabbert not only is my brother Mason, but also is a friend.
     

‘Big Night,’ Part Deux

Hamming it up with hats – Bro. Ari Roussimoff and his wife strike a pose.

“I love the holiday season,” said Ari Roussimoff, beginning his presentation Monday night at La Petite Auberge. This second annual dinner-lecture is the doing of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, whose trustees selected the topic “Freemasonry and the Arts.” The fine arts and various performing arts, and even a by-gone era’s ways Masons promoted the arts were the subjects discussed. “It’s Christmas. It’s Hanukkah,” Roussimoff added. “I wish it would snow!”

Praising what he called the universality of this season of Jewish and Christian holy days, Roussimoff introduced the two paintings he brought to the restaurant. The pair are two-thirds of a triptych devoted to Masonic symbolism. All three components are oil-on-canvas paintings that lead the initiated eye through multiple Masonic degrees. Both of these measure 24x36, but the third portion was too large to transport. The complete triptych is on exhibit at the Livingston Library, located at the Grand Lodge of New York at 71 W. 23rd St., near Sixth Avenue.

Roussimoff spoke on “Freemasonry and Painting & Sculpture,” and he is worthy and well qualified to do so. The prolific painter and sculptor has had his work exhibited in 80 galleries, museums and other venues around the world, where his Russian, Ukrainian and Jewish imagery has won accolades. When not tending to those labors, Ari is a prize-winning maker of documentary films.

“The contributions to Freemasonry of artists are seen in aprons, tracingboards and too many artifacts to mention here,” he said. “Before standardized aprons, Masons wore hand-painted, individualized aprons. They used water-based paints, and some aprons even had jewelry. Still, you can’t call them folk art. For example, Jeremy Cross and Amos Doolittle actually signed their painted aprons.” He then lauded diverse artists who contributed to culture, from the famous Masons, like William Hogarth, to lesser known creators, including Lovis Corinth, Juan Gris and even Grant Wood. (The “American Gothic” painter also created a lithograph titled “Shriner’s Quartet” in 1939.) Roussimoff described Gris’ career, lamenting how despite being Master of his lodge, he never painted a Masonic picture. “It’s ironic. Gris was a Cubist, so he worked in geometry, in cubes.”

Focusing on his own work, Roussimoff displayed the two outer portions of his triptych, which he dubbed a “Parable of Light and Dark.” It is for the enjoyment of Mason and non-Mason alike, he explained. They parallel the legend of Hiram Abiff. The left portion is titled “Foundations.” It challenges the eye to keep pace. From the top left, the All-Seeing Eye surveys a cultural evolution. From the bottom, the operative workmen swing their tools. Emerging above are the Grand Masters of legend. A menagerie of architectural styles leads the viewer around the center of the painting. Beginning with the Beehive, a building of nature, the trail leads to classical temples, medieval cathedrals and Yakovlev-like towers, with Enlightenment icons the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower along the way. Observing from above are Pushkin (poetry), Wilde (theater), Twain (fiction) and Mozart (music).

Ari discusses his ‘Rebirth.’

The other painting available to us Monday was “Rebirth,” the third story of the triptych. Similarly it gives the eye a lot to consider. I suppose I ought to convey the artist’s explanation of the obvious eye-catcher: that double-vision pair of peepers denoting the supernatural Hebrew figure Melchizedek. “ ‘Rebirth’ is about today, not tomorrow. It is a rebuilding,” Roussimoff said. “The two sets of eyes show spirituality/creativity and the mind/intellect. I wanted to convey heart, soul and logic.”

Part III to come!