Join Cascadia Art Museum for a special lecture from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, June 5.
John Impert, PhD, will be discussing the Associated American Artists (AAA) -- a private publishing venture organized in the 1930s Great Depression focusing on the associated work by Northwest artist Melville Wire. This lecture will be a fascinating deep-dive into the work and impacts of AAA with a focus on a group of etchings by Melville Wire.
More about the lecture:
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, hundreds of artists found employment through federal government programs referred to as the WPA. Much less well known is Associated American Artists, a private publishing venture by Reese Lowenthal, that provided work to dozens of artists. Lowenthal's vision was to make fine art affordable to the American middle class for $5 per "etching," generally lithographs.
AAA printed up to 250 copies of each etching, all signed and titled by hand by the artist, and sold through a mail order catalog. The most famous AAA artists were Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood. The only Northwest artist to publish multiple prints through AAA was Melvllle T. Wire, an Oregon Impressionist.
The presentation will describe the AAA operation in more detail, with images by Benton, Wood and others, giving special attention to the 8 AAA etchings by Melville Wire, as well as other examples of his art.
John Impert was one of the founding directors of the Cascadia Art Museum. After a career in international law, with long-term assignments in Brussels and Paris, in 2005 John sought a doctorate in art history at the University of Washington, his degree being awarded in 2012. John's dissertation described Northwest Impressionist artists, 1900-1930, the first time any art historian had addressed this subject. Subsequently, in 2018, the University of Oklahoma Press published John's book, Painters of the Northwest: Impressionism to Modernism, 1900-1930, a broader look at this era. In 2019, the Cascadia Art Museum devoted its principal exhibition to John's book and art collection, augmented by other pieces from the period.
Cascadia Art Museum | Wednesday - Sunday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. | 190 Sunset Ave. S.., Edmonds, WA 98020 | 425-336-4809