David Abbey Paige, Halo, Two Airplanes, Beacon, 1934I wish I could take a bobsledding trip to Massachusetts to see this show at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. I'm very intrigued by the pastels of David Abbey Paige (1901-1979), an Anatolian-born Armenian artist, who came to Massachusetts at the age of 10. He seems to have worked as a commercial artist throughout his life, but caught the polar bug around the time of the first American expeditions to the Antactic in the late 1920s. After some persistent lobbying, he joined the Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition in 1933-35, and produced "100 pastels of various sizes; 300 pencil drawings of aurora australis, and eight portraits in charcoal of the men as they appeared through the Winter Night, with their picturesque beards." A bunch of these are now at the Ohio State University Archives along with the papers of Admiral Richard E. Byrd. Lots more pictures here.
I really like how blindingly colorful these are, as I imagine the light and the crazy expanses of sky and ice and water at the South Pole must be otherworldly. I also like the more intimate scale here. Unlike more famous painters of sublime landscapes, like Frederick Edwin Church, Paige isn't giving you staggering perspectives or mysticism. I get the sense that these colors are his best attempt to convey the light, which seems so strong as to destroy any perspective whatsoever. Anyway, let me know if you get to Salem and tell me what you think.
I really like how blindingly colorful these are, as I imagine the light and the crazy expanses of sky and ice and water at the South Pole must be otherworldly. I also like the more intimate scale here. Unlike more famous painters of sublime landscapes, like Frederick Edwin Church, Paige isn't giving you staggering perspectives or mysticism. I get the sense that these colors are his best attempt to convey the light, which seems so strong as to destroy any perspective whatsoever. Anyway, let me know if you get to Salem and tell me what you think.
David Abbey Paige, Snowmobiles Leaving the Station Around Midnight, 1934
5 comments:
These are gorgeous. They make me think of those unfinished Turner's from the end of his life where the whole thing is just exploded. The pastel adds a sort of childish wonder to the whole thing. All of these pieces from the show, though, look excellent, and are reminding me of the bizzaro landscapes I am currently reading about in Lovecraft.
looking more at the Ohio State Paige collection, I see a lot of blue rider colors and textures too. I wonder what he took from Armenia with him.
Another reason I miss the reading group :(
And are you thinking, perhaps, of the Blue Rose group? You're right, there is perhaps something about the light...I wonder if he carried it around with him the way we "Soviet children" carry around our love of cabbage?
My very firstest museum internship was the Peabody-Essex!
Interesting, that's a bit out of your geographic commonplaces, as far as I know. You'll have to tell me about it sometime.
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