The Society of Six: California ColoristsSix plein-air painters in Oakland, California, joined together in 1917 to form an association that lasted nearly fifteen years. The Society of Six--Selden Connor Gile, Maurice Logan, William H. Clapp, August F. Gay, Bernard von Eichman, and Louis Siegriest--created a color-centered modernist idiom that shocked establishment tastes but remains the most advanced painting of its era in Northern California. Nancy Boas's well-informed and sumptuously illustrated chronicle recognizes the importance of these six painters in the history of American Post-Impressionism. The Six found themselves in the position of an avant garde not because they set out to reject conventionality, but because they aspired to create their own indigenous modernism. While the artists were considered outsiders in their time, their work is now recognized as part of the vital and enduring lineage of American art. Depression hardship ended the Six's ascendancy, but their painterliness, use of color, and deep alliance with the land and the light became a beacon for postwar Northern California modern painters such as Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud. Combining biography and critical analysis, Nancy Boas offers a fitting tribute to the lives and exhilarating painting of the Society of Six. |
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American Art Annual Exhibition April Ariss Armin Hansen Armory Show art school August Gay Bay Area Belvedere Berkeley Bernard von Eichman Blue Four Bruton Califor California Art California Artists California School Carmel catalogue cisco color December February Francisco Art Association French friends Gay's Gile's illustrated Impressionism Impressionist inches January June Lake Temescal land Art landscape Lehre Louis Bassi Siegriest Louis Siegriest Lundy Siegriest March Maurice Logan Modern Art Monterey Peninsula Montreal mural Museum of Art northern California November Oakland Art Gallery Oakland Art Museum Oakland Museum October oil on board oil on canvas painters Panama-Pacific International Exposition Photograph courtesy Private collection reviewed Oakland Tribune reviewed San Francisco San Fran San Francisco Art San Francisco Chronicle San Francisco Examiner San Francisco Museum Santa scenes Scheyer Selden Connor Selden Gile September Sloun Society of Six Stevenson House studio style taped interview Tiburon tion Untitled watercolor on paper Wayne Thiebaud William Clapp York