A & E

One cannot experience the current Carnegie International, "Life on Mars," on display through Jan. 11 at Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland, without engaging a bit in the history of what widely is known to be the oldest exhibition of international contemporary art in North America.

Founded in 1896, the exhibition series always was intended to be an international survey. But, few know that for seven years of that exhibition's 112-year history, the International was not international in scope at all. That's because from 1943 to 1949, exhibitions of American painting replaced the annual Carnegie International exhibition when it was suspended due to World War II.

This little-known fact would largely go unnoticed until now. That's because, today, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg opens "Painting in the United States," an exhibition that is an overview of the series of the same title organized by the Carnegie Institute (now Carnegie Museum of Art) during those years.

Put together by the Westmoreland's curator, Barbara Jones, the exhibition includes 48 paintings on loan from 36 institutions, 42 of which are the actual works selected for the Carnegie exhibits in the 1940s. They include works by important and widely recognized artists such as Thomas Hart Benton, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, Jack Levine, Andrew Wyeth and Grandma (Anna Mary Robertson) Moses, among others.

The concept, Jones says, came to her rather serendipitously as she was researching the art and life of legendary Pittsburgh painter and art instructor Samuel Rosenberg, whose work the Westmoreland featured in the 2003 retrospective exhibition "Samuel Rosenberg: Portrait of a Painter."

"I was researching his exhibitions, and I kept coming across paintings that were in 'Painting in the United States,' " Jones says. "Then, I realized how many artists that I came across (in general) that were in those shows. That's when I had the idea for this show, but decided to file it away."

Jones says that it wasn't until the last Carnegie International spanning 2004 and 2005 that she decided to pursue organizing the exhibit in earnest, timing it to coincide with "Life on Mars." And what perfect timing it is, says the Westmoreland's director-CEO Judith O'Toole. "The International draws people from the nation and around the world who we hope will be interested in viewing this historical complement and become excited about American art. These two exhibitions present such a great opportunity for comparison, " she says.

True enough: like many of the artists in "Life on Mars," many of the artists represented in this exhibit already were established in their careers and artistic styles during the war years.

Here, visitors will find such iconic works as Hopper's "Pennsylvania Coal Town" (1947) on loan from the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, Benton's "Plantation Road" (1944-1945) from the collection of Carnegie Museum of Art, and Levine's "Welcome Home" (1946) on loan from the Brooklyn Museum.

But, more than that, they will get a chance to re-examine the work of what was a significant period in the history of American painting, a time when critics in this country were calling out for a truly American style in art.

Jones says the 1940s were a significant for its confluence of ideas and styles. "It was a volatile period in American art, when American Scene painting dominated but modes of abstraction were ascending," she says. "Artists played a vital role in trying to create an art that was truly American, as opposed to being overtly derivative of European styles."

This gave rise to art that was of a regional focus. Artists turned inward seeking an understanding of the turmoil occurring in and outside this nation, expressing through their art nostalgia for aspects of their life that were changing rapidly.

That's one of the reasons, Jones says, that Rosenberg, a Pittsburgh artist, was included in all seven of the exhibitions, as was Roy Hilton, who, like Rosenberg, was an art instructor at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University).

In the exhibition, Hilton's painting "My Ivory Tower" (1946), which depicts a white house on a rural homestead as if a chapel for the American Dream, hangs not far from Rosenberg's painting of a downtrodden black mother and child titled "Long on the Way" (1947), giving two alternative views of life in America at that time.

Jones says that the Carnegie's "Painting in the United States" exhibitions didn't just feature works by established artists. "It also presented the opportunity to show lots of young artists that were new to Pittsburgh," she says.

Hence, viewers will find works by then-emerging artists Philip Guston and Dorothea Tanning, both of whom were experimenting with new ways to express themselves and create a style that was more relevant to their own experience.

During this same time period, abstract expressionism was gaining ground, and many abstract expressionist artists found their path through surrealism, which allowed artists like Guston and Tanning a means to escape their immediate surroundings (World War II, the ongoing Depression) and explore a new arena in art.

Tanning's painting "Guardian Angels" (1946) sums this up best. Based on a dream, it depicts bed sheets becoming birds, tearing helpless women from their beds and flying them up into the sky.

"It holds for every surrealist painting of the 1940s," Jones says. "She painted her dreams. It's a dream she had, but its really a night terror."

Guston, on the other hand, was just formulating his style during these years. His piece "The Porch No. 2" (1948) is far more representational than his later works, depicting a group of folks on a porch. Yet, the unusual composition hints to a future in which Guston would become one of the leading abstract expressionists, together with Jackson Pollock and Willem deKooning, among others.

Jones says this exhibition is in keeping with the museum's mission. "It not only allows the Westmoreland to show works of art together as they would have been seen during the '40s, thus recreating that experience for our visitors, but also allows visitors to witness artistic responses to the times in which the artists were living."

In that way, it is not unlike "Life on Mars," making for a perfect complement to that exhibition and well worth experiencing.

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Related programs

Brown Bag Lecture -- The Art of the 1940s: Styles and Influences -- Maureen Vissat, assistant professor of art history at Seton Hill University, will describe the artistic styles that dominated American art during the 1940s, from Realism to Surrealism to Geometric Abstractionism to New American Abstractionism. Noon, July 16. Admission: Free

Thursday Evenings at The Westmoreland -- Painting in the United States Gallery Tour -- Examine the movements, schools and approaches to painting that dominated the 1940s during a gallery talk by the Westmoreland's curator, Barbara Jones. 7 p.m. July 13. Admission: Free

Additional events are planned throughout the months of August and September, as well as early October. Details: 724-837-1500, ext. 10, or at the Web site.

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