Book review; Aline Meyer Liebman, Pioneer Collector and Artist

my book review of Aline Meyer Liebman, Pioneer Collector and Artist

by Margaret Liebman Berger

This book, by Aline Meyer Liebman's daughter, provides insights and some useful information on a woman who was a photographer, art collector and  practicing artist and also an active, generous patron of the arts. Her love of modern art led her to be an important supporter of Alfred Steiglitz' revolutionary galleries in New York City in the 1920's.

As well as providing indispensable support to Steiglitz, Aline's enthusiasm for modernism led her to be a founder of the New York based Museum of Modern Art, contributing at its creation in 1929 with both finance and her time. She continued to serve MoMA on the museum's committees for many years and remained concerned with the practical expansion of MoMA's remit. In 1948 she made a financial donation specifically for the purchase of photographic works by younger artists.

The book suffers a little from not being professionally put together and published privately. The writing is non-academic and it lacks a bibliography. Nonetheless, as a family tribute it is better than average and the illustrations include some of her photographs and paintings, which are not available elsewhere. The book also has unique value as a reminder of artist and art collector Aline Meyer Liebman. She is one of a few overlooked women whose enthusiastic patronage was vital to the success of modern art in the early years of the twentieth century.
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The book is out of print and I bought a second hand copy via abebooks.com.

The 31 Women - Number One, Gypsy Rose Lee




Gypsy Rose Lee in 1937, with one of her dogs

I decided to begin with Gipsy Rose Lee as her birthday, 9th of January is the first in the year - although it may actually have been on the 19th of February, or on a different day entirely. To understand why, and what she was doing in an art exhibition, you must read the biography below!

                                  
Gypsy Rose Lee        Born Jan 8, 1911 or Feb 19, 1912..?           Died April 26, 1970

In 1943 Louise Rose Hovick was by far the most famous of all the 31 Women, but as an artiste rather than an artist, under her stage name of Gypsy Rose Lee.

From childhood she had a career as a dancer, actress and then a stripper and burlesque performer, gaining her fame & notoriety. She was a multi-talented, self-educated woman and a great self-publicist who read voraciously and described herself as the Literary Stripper. Introduced into New York’s artistic circles in 1940, Gypsy decided to try her hand at the visual arts. Two shows at Peggy  Guggenheim’s Art of This Century gallery included Gypsy's work, however her aspirations to be a visual artist were short lived.  She remained friends with Peggy and many of the artists but her own creations were just one of her many hobbies, soon replace by another.

The Exhibition by 31 Women - Resolution for this blog.

As I still seem incapable of doing anything new in the way of creative writing, I've returned to my work on the 31 Women. These artists are defined as a group by their participation in the 1943 "Exhibition by 31 Women" which was held at Peggy Guggenheim's New York City gallery, Art of This Century. I've been researching and writing about this exhibition and its participants for several years. I will post a list of the artists here, and over subsequent weeks I'll post a paragraph or six about each of them.
Many of these artists are not well known and if you have any information about the lesser known ones (marked  *) I'd be delighted to hear - just post a comment and I'll get back to you. I'm interested to know the whereabouts of any works by them,  especially work in private hands.

The 31 Women (and where they were active as artists)

1  *        Djuna Barnes - France/USA

2     *     Xenia Cage (Xenia Andreyevna Kashevaroff) - USA

3          Leonora Carrington - UK/France/Mexico

4          Maria Elena Vieira da Silva - Portugal/Brazil/France

5      *  Elisabeth Eyre de Lanux - USA/France

6          Leonor Fini - Italy/France (born Argentina)

7   *     Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (Else Plotz) (The Dada Baroness) - Germany/USA/France

8      *    Suzy Frelinghysen - USA

9      *    Meraud (Guinness) Guevara – UK/France

10     *   Anne Harvey – USA/France

11    *    Valentine Hugo - France

12    *    Buffie Johnson  - USA          

13        Frida Kahlo - Mexico/USA

14   *     Jacqueline Lamba (Breton) - France/USA

15        Gypsy Rose Lee - USA

16   *     Aline Meyer Liebman USA

17    *    Hazel McKinley (Guggenheim, King-Farlow) – USA/UK

18    *    Milena Pavlovic Barilli – Yugoslavia/USA

19        Louise Nevelson - USA

20        Meret Oppenheim - Switzerland/France

21    *    Barbara Reis (Poe-Levee) - USA

22        Irene Rice Pereira - USA

23        Kay Sage (Tanguy) - USA/Italy/France

24    *    Sonja Sekula - Switzerland/USA

25   *     Gretchen Schoeninger - USA

26     *   Esphyr Slobodkina - USA

27        Hedda Sterne – USA

28        Dorothea Tanning - USA/France

29        Sophie Taeuber (Arp) - Switzerland/France

30   *     Julia Thecla - USA

31    *    Pegeen Vail - USA/France/UK/Italy (b. Switzerland)

My take on a Royal Proclamation which has been circulated...

Proclamation to the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
 
 In light of the following three factors:

1                  your insistence on winning the majority of the Olympic medals even though the recent games took place in Great Britain and not in some backwater American State,

2                your failure to control your urges to acquire all the oil resources on the planet and

3                 your proclivity (despite having two elected governing houses when it should be obvious that one is too many) for usually electing incompetent politicians who are only in it for the money and are in all cases incapable of believing that there is a world beyond the US borders (i.e. the Olympics have not just been superbly produced in London, England, but in London. Full Stop.);

The Tower of London.

you have proved incapable of governing yourselves; we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, this revocation to take immediate effect (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary, all other dictionaries are inaccurate and will be abolished).
 
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and territories within the borders of the former United States (except for Alaska, which she does not want and will be returned to the natives).
 
 Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will consult Her Majesty the Queen on the appointment of a Governor for Northern America (excluding Alaska [see above]) without the need for further elections. The current U.S. president may apply for the position provided he drops the idea of being a ‘democrat’. No ‘republican’ may apply, Great Britain is a Monarchy not a ‘republic’.
 
Congress and the Senate will be dis-established. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you have noticed. Each former state will become a County and may elect a County Council. Former ‘counties’ will, depending on their size, become either Parishes or Rural Districts, with the sole exception of Hazzard County, which is amusing.

Do you enter Writing Competitions? Don't dismiss the small ones!

I do enter writing competitions, I've had a go at dozens over past years. Mostly I never even know if my manuscript or email has reached the correct location and not exceeded the deadline. Those who run competitions obviously can't notify all who enter and don't win, but it is frustrating never knowing.

However I'm not saying there's no point in entering competitions. I have been told I was on a long list years ago and once I was even on a shortlist and very close, but my short story didn't quite fit with the others which were all to be published together in a magazine. So that was that.

And once I was joint winner! It was a local playwriting competition for scripts of up to one hour, and there were not hundreds of entries. However there were two winners and the prize wasn't cash, but much more valuable than a couple of hundred quid. My play was joint winner with Andrew Crowther's Funny Men. We both got to see and participate in full productions of our plays as part of the Snowgoose New Writing Festival in Bradford in 2008.

The Single Utamaro at the Carriageworks Theatre,
Leeds & Bradford Playhouse in June 2011
cast: l-r Richard Houghton-Evans as Chas,
Steph Lodge as Martha and Harry Venet as Benedict

My play was called 'The Single Utamaro'. The whole process was extremely rewarding. I helped with the set and props but the directing was done by an expert, Audrey Caldron. I learnt a huge amount and after two re-writes the play was revived three years later with a largely new cast and I directed. I've written other plays since but the Utamaro* is still a piece of writing which I'm very close to.

So forget the Mann Booker prize, entries for that have to be submitted by a publisher anyhow! Get involved with smaller competitions run by groups and organisations nearby. The fact that there will be less competition for the prizes doesn't imply that it's not worth entering. There's more chance that you will get valuable experience and recognition. This doesn't mean you don't have to be a really good, conscientious writer. It does mean there's more chance of your good writing being noticed.



*Utamaro was an eighteenth century Japanese painter and printmaker who was famous for creating exquisite images of beautiful women.

Articles for magazines.

I've been asked to write another article for QS Eye magazine.

This magazine is aimed at quantity surveyors, a branch of professionals in the building industry whose work is concerned with figures. The content of their magazine is quite dry and my job is to liven it up slightly, although the subject must be broadly related to the construction indistry.

I've had articles published there about, amongst other things, seaside piers, pylons and most recently about the listed structures at London Zoo (which I've previously published a version of on my other blog - to read it go to my blogger profile and click on Expertslife blog).

Now I have to decide a subject for the next article, and I've only got five days to submit - so I'd better get on with it!

Shell Beach - (part of the Aden Collection)

In Aden we had a good car.
Opel Olympia Estate
which took a family of 5,
friends, fishing tackle,
beach gear and picnic to
the place we called shell beach. 

Near naked under the sun
we gathered the shells,
limpets cowries,winkles,
fished from the reef,
bathed in the clear shallows,
shrieked at reef sharks.

We returned with shorts full
of white sand, pockets full
of light shells, buckets full
of bright fish and once, a box
of big, khaki crabs still alive,
claws tied together with raffia.
 
Amazing what we could fit
in a car without restraint,
without shoes and no one
cared for the upholstery.