Exhibition Dates: April 7 – May 29, 2015
Opening Reception: April 9, 2015 from 5-7pm
The works in this exhibition include portraits and genre scenes primarily from the 1930s and early 1940s, with the subject matter providing an almost diaristic account of ordinary lives in an extraordinary time. The decade leading up to the Second World War saw the twin disasters of the Great Depression and the Dustbowl Years, two monumental calamities that radically altered our nation’s self-perception as a place of endless resources and limitless opportunity. It is a profound paradox that this same decade — in which basic survival was often at stake — gave rise to an unprecedented visibility for American artists and to a sincerely and broadly held belief in these men and women as vital forces in our collective “recovery.”
“As we, in the twenty-first century, struggle with the perception that our nation has lost its magical exceptionalism to forces of globalization, extremism, and climate change, it is worth noting that this very same fear — the sense that America’s best days were behind it — shadowed the point-to-point, day-to-day challenges of the 1930s,” said Museum Director, Dr. George V. Speer. “But what is striking about the paintings and sculptures in the Hittner Collection is the steady, quiet thrum of optimism sustained by American artists in the face of hardship.”