1134

POOR, HENRY

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:75.00 - 100.00 USD
POOR, HENRY
(1888 - 1970) American artist renowned for his landscapes and murals. An interesting grouping of material relative to the preparation and research for a book and a series of painting based on his experiences in Alaska. In 1942, Poor was sent by the U.S. Army to act as a war artist and correspondent in Alaska. Travelling around the remote terrain by means of a 37-foot boat named "Ada," Poor was fascinated with the desolate terrain and by the native Eskimos. He produced a number of drawings and paintings of the Eskimos and their environs, and a series of portraits of Russian pilots stationed in Alaska. Additionally, Poor's research during this time led to the publication of his well-known 1945 volume "Artist in Alaska". This grouping comprises five A.L.S. "Henry" ca. 1942-1945, all written to noted art commentator FORBES WATSON who wrote for the New York Evening Post and New York World, with good content about his works and experiences in Alaska; a fine-content A.Ms., 17pp. 4to., [n.p., but ca. 1942], entitled "Notes on the Fresco at State College Penn."; a carbon typescript of a list of Poor's paintings and works, 2pp. 4to., with several holograph emendations; an original 13pp. typescript manuscript entitled "Portraits at a Russian Base"; seven carbon copies of letters from Watson; two 8" x 10" b/w photographs of Poor's paintings, and more. In small part: "...I sent off today the crate of paintings to Miss Varga...She spoke of wanting to use the Eskimo ones, so may hold them out...Will you give me...a bit of advice? In an urgent and excited letter from Mangravite, he tells me that he & Bartlett Hayes nominated me & I was unanimously elected a new artist director member on the Board of the American Federation of Art or Magazine of Art or whatever...He tells me it's a sacred duty to accept this as a labor for the good of the artist...I don't want to be on this if its just paving over a lot of dead wood...I get little and free unharrassed time & spirit for painting as it is. So will you tell me art of this abundance in your experience? Could I do anything...for ART or even a-r-t?...My book [Artist on Alaska] is due for publication in June and I'm getting my drawings together to select the reproductions. I'm a little ashamed to be writing a book, honestly, but Covici likes it very much. It's a leisurely sort of travelogue. I want to call it 'Journey to Alaska'. It hasn't much to do with the war, but it's American in war time anyway. Varga's office says that they sent to you an envelope of small sketches of Russians...At last my text is finally done...In getting together sketches I find a lot un-accounted for. 'Life' certainly lost some that I most valued. You have some that are not in any show...in particular, a large black crayon drawing of a seaman in a leather jacket, Nils Bango. Would you be kind enuf [sic] to send any...back to me...". His manuscript on "Notes on the Fresco at State College Penn." reads, in very small part: "...First a mural must decorate a wall. Second, it should be a human document with real meaning to the people who use the place. From the architects and purists point of view, the first is most important, but there have been enuf [sic] instances of great human documents spread upon a wall without much regard to the architecture, but yet taking a certain grandeur & scale from its contact with building, that even the purist forgives them!...Still, the ideal remains, the perfect harmony of the two, & for that ideal there must be a close union between architect & painter...The confusion of symbols in present-day painting -- pure realism at one end and pure decoration at the other -- will be slow in resolving itself into a clear and universal and powerful language...This mural at State College Pennsylvania first had to be terms of what it is, as much as we have arrived at it, a universal pictorial language. It was not for a special group, it was to be as the most-seen interior wall in the main administrative building of a big democratic State University...I wanted, no matter what grouping of figures I arrived at, that the whole wall should be unified in one light, under one skin, to give the whole under one skin; that skin is the sense of surface which comes from a love of your material for its own sake, not just as a medium for representation...This is the beauty of fresco. It is plaster, it belongs to & is part of the wall. The line which holds your plaster, & binds and gives depth & brilliance to all your color, is one of the fundamental earthy but miraculous mediums...". Slight wear to edges, a bit of soiling, overall very good. An intriguing group, worthy of further research!