Painting in Pure Color: Modern Art in Cleveland Before the Armory Show (1908-1913)

By Henry Adams, with Lawrence Waldman
Cleveland Artists Foundation, 2013

ISBN 9780615879819, 0615879810

Excerpts from Eboni Akins, writing for cleveland.com:

What Post Impressionists sought to achieve was simple: a breakaway from Impressionism. These painters chose to paint about symbolism and inner feelings instead of the real and natural conveyed in Impressionistic forms of artwork.

Little did they know this style would eventually reach distant parts of the world.

As a result, by the early 20th-century, the Post-Impressionism movement reached Cleveland, Ohio, even before hitting other industrial cities such as Boston, Mass., and Chicago, Ill. – even before the style was introduced at the famous New York Armory Show of 1913.

The reason behind the modern, Post-Impressionistic presence in Cleveland is what acclaimed author Henry Adams explains in his newest book, Painting in Pure Color: Modern Art in Cleveland before the Armory Show, 1908-1913. Lawrence Waldman is the Publisher.

The book features a collection of vibrant, colorful modern art paintings created by Cleveland's Post-Impressionists such as William Sommer, Abel G. Warshawsky, Marguerite Zorach, and William Zorach.

"The art produced in Cleveland was arguably more modern, forward-looking and radical than that produced in any other American city except New York," said Adams, a renowned art historian and Professor of American Art at Case Western Reserve University. "This catalogue provides extensive documentation of the interaction of these artists, based on newspaper clippings, exhibition catalogues, and contemporary letters."

Regarding [Cleveland-based, Post-Impressionist Abel G.] Warshawsky, Adams wrote an article in the American Art Review Magazine in 2013 describing Warshawsky as one of the "key figures" responsible for introducing Post-Impressionism to the Cleveland area. Adams points out Warshawsky returned to Cleveland from France one day, inspired by both Impressionistic and Post-Impressionistic art techniques. So, he proceeded to teach modernistic art to a class full of experienced artists. In a short time, Warshawsky and his students hosted the first modern art exhibition in Cleveland: "The First Secessionist Show" held in March of 1911.

Which was two years prior to the “New York Armory Show of 1913” – a large-scale, art exhibition often viewed as the moment American artists were officially introduced to modern art.

Both Adams' article in the American Art Review and a 2013 art exhibit titled, "Pioneering Modernism: Post Impressionism in Cleveland, 1908-1913" were catalysts for his current book, Painting in Pure Color: Modern Art in Cleveland before the Armory Show, 1908-1913. The 2013 art exhibition was hosted in Lakewood at the Cleveland Artists Foundation and ran from May 24 – July 27. Both Lawrence Waldman and Adams curated the event.

For Adams, using his publication to bring recognition to the Post-Impressionists of Cleveland from the early 20th-century is his mission.

“I think it's exciting to revive interest in a largely-forgotten group of artists,” he said. “And hopefully their work will also inspire contemporary artists, and encourage them to believe that it’s possible to have an artistic Renaissance in Cleveland.”