JAMES COX GALLERY ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR
This
unique gathering of artists and models will not be held as reported in
a 1916
New York Tribune feature story in a remote part of the Catskills which
can be
reached only “on foot or by stage”. It instead will be ensconced on the
six-acre grounds of the James Cox Gallery at Woodstock.
What began
before World War I in the Catskill art colony of Woodstock, NY, was
just one of
a series of major cultural shocks that has made the town famous the
world over.
Two artist residents, Miss Dewing Woodward and Miss Louise Johnson had
scandalously launched a taboo-free environment wherein artists were
encouraged
to paint nude models out of doors or as known in French art circles “en
plein
air”. They named their “club” The Blue Dome Fraternity and held their
summertime classes on the grounds of their sumptuous residence knows as
Red
Roofs.
Several
qualities distinguished the two women from the mostly rag tag artist
community
that centered around the Art Students League Summer School and the
Byrdcliffe
arts and crafts colony, both in Woodstock since the century’s
beginning. Dewing
Woodward was rich and remotely related to Cornelius Vanderbilt. Both
women were
open about their predilection for the same gender and both had traveled
and studied
art in France where more progressive artists had been painting naked
arabesques
outdoors for decades. Historian Alf Evers, in his book about Woodstock History
of an American Town describes the Woodward/Johnson enclave as “a
place
(that) was viewed with suspicion by many of the older people in
Woodstock who
glanced quickly at Red Roofs as they passed by and averted their eyes.”
Their home,
which was filled with antiques and a sense of “continental ease”,
contrasted markedly
with the provincial Catskill lifestyle surrounding them. Within this
progressive environment The Blue Dome Fraternity served up a unique
opportunity
for artists (men and women) to freely paint and draw from live models
posed in
sylvan tableaux. They even adopted the use of a light blue gauze scrim
hung
over the models to mute the light and create more of the “blue dome
effect” (a
reference to the wide open sky above).
“As the
music world knows, Woodstock has a unique place not only in
origination, but
also for its anniversary revivals”, explains James Cox, Woodstock
gallery
owner. The town also has a long tradition of festivals, workshops and
reprises
of historic events. “I think it is time to give credit to these two
pioneering
women and what better way than to give artists the same opportunity
they
bravely originated”.
Ninety
years later when nudity is widely available to every American home with
cable
TV it is still a rare (and expensive) opportunity for artists to have a
comfortable environment with a wide range of professional models posed
outdoors
from which to paint and draw. Such an arrangement will be offered this
summer
on the gallery property just outside of the town of Woodstock in a two
day Blue
Dome Fraternity painting weekend workshop.
Participation
will be in three categories: invited professional artists; scholarship
painters, selected by review committee; and tuition paying artists.
The
Saturday/Sunday workshop will culminate in an exhibition, at The James
Cox Gallery, of resulting work on Monday July 4th at 2:00
p.m.
This
reception and exhibition is the only element of The Blue Dome project
that will
be open to the public. There will also be a related exhibition that
will hang
in the Gallery for the entire month of July.
Artists wishing
to participate can find additional information on
the
gallery’s website: www.jamescoxgallery.com
or by calling the gallery at 845-679-7608.