User:Jazznracer/sandbox/American Artists Professional League
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The American Artists Professional League (AAPL) is an American organization that promotes artists and their works. It was formed in 1928 in New York City by Frederick Ballard Williams, and the first meeting was held at the Salmagundi Art Club on January 29, 1928. Ballard became the organization's national chairman [1] [2] [3]. The organization has hosted an annual Grand National Exhibition for 96 years to promote artists specializing in realistic art forms.
The American Artists Professional League (AAPL) is one of the oldest fine art organizations in the United States. Established in 1928 by a group of painters, illustrators and sculptors in New York City, the AAPL is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of traditional Realism in American fine art. Almost one hundred years later, the organization continues to maintain its base in New York City, at the fabled Salmagundi Club on 5th Avenue. The AAPL is composed of a curated group of over 600 member-artists across the country representing the finest of American Realism.
The American Artists Professional League is an organization exempt under § 501(c)(6) and the affiliated entity American Artists Fund (AAF) is exempt under § 501(c)(3). The AAF is GuideStar Silver certified and is specifically designed for educational and charitable purposes. Through private and corporate donations to the AAF, the organization funds public exhibitions, show awards and scholarships to students studying classical techniques at American ateliers. Scholarships are awarded through the Art Renewal Center [1] and the Art Students League of New York [2].
Address of the American Artists Professional League
American Artists Professional League (AAPL)
47 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10003
AAPLinc.org
F. Ballard Williams, Assistant Treasurer of the National Academy and former President of the Salmagundi Club, both of whom are located in New York City, noted a need for a national organization to fill the rapid development of art interest in other large cities and distant areas across the United States. The stated objective: “A national organization of American artists and art lovers, working positively and impersonally for contemporary American art and artists”.[2]
On January 29, 1928, he called a meeting of fifteen members of the Salmagundi Club to discuss forming “The American Artists Professional League.” The majority attending were academicians such as Frank DeHaven, Hobart Nichols and Bruce Crane. “The American Artists Professional League” became a reality at that meeting with F. Ballard Williams its first President, Wilford Conrow Secretary and Gordon Grant its Treasurer.[2]
Eminent member artists who also served the AAPL in the past as Officers, Board Members and Chapter Chairs include Dean Cornwell, Lionel Barrymore, Roger Deering, Harvey Dunn, Rockwell Kent, Frederic Whitaker, A.C. Pelikan of the Milwaukee Art Institute, Theodore H. Pond of the Akron Art Institute, among so many others [3] prominent past members include Elizabeth Okie Paxton (Elizabeth Okie Paxton), Edgar Alwin Payne (Edgar Alwin Payne), Andrew Wyeth and Henriette Wyeth.
The first issues pertinent to artists to be considered were the inferior manufacture of artist’s paint and obtaining commissions of official portraits for American Artists [4]. Many European painters were coming to Washington, D.C. and receiving commissions for official portraits while American Artists were neglected (https://www.nytimes.com/1930/12/14/archives/insist-americans-do-official-portraits-artists-league-wants.html) [5]. Albert T. Reid [6] had connections amongst legislators in Washington, D.C. and persuaded a California Senator to attach a rider to a Congressional Bill. This rider specified that all official portraits, paid for with taxpayers’ money, were to be painted by American Artists. The American Artists Professional League, now referred to as the AAPL, achieved its first success, and to this day our government’s official portraits are painted by American Artists.
Wilford Conrow’s (Wilford Conrow) specialty was the chemical and physical purity of pigments. Through his efforts, a fund was obtained from the Carnegie Corporation Endowment Fund for a program of color pigment research. Dr. Martin Fischer undertook the investigation at the University of Cincinnati. It was completed in 1932, making the AAPL the country’s authority on artists’ pigments. The AAPL was also instrumental in securing the U.S. Bureau of Standards’ original set of government-sponsored standards for artist’s colors (https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/CS/cs98-42.pdf), subsequently updated in 1962. All major manufacturers of artist’s paint followed AAPL standards, with each tube of paint stating: “Statement of contents as recommended by The American Artists Professional League” (https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/CS/cs98-42.pdf). The AAPL was not compensated in any way for these recommendations; it was done as a service to all artists.
Starting in 1931 lectures and films were presented on classical fine art techniques [4] to fill a gap in modern art education. These were produced in partnership with New York University College of Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Art Boston [4].
In 1930 the AAPL founded “American Art Week,” and sponsored its observance nationally during the first week of November each year. Eleanor Roosevelt, a great champion of American fine art, opened American Art Week in 1940 [7] . President Eisenhower applauded the AAPL’s efforts with a telegram in 1959. Rising costs and diminishing funds made it necessary to discontinue the national program in the early ‘70s. In 1953 American Art Week was renamed the Grand National Exhibition, to distinguish it from the government program of the same name [8]. The AAPL Grand National Exhibitions were originally for members only, held at the National Academy and the Salmagundi Club, moving to other locations like the exhibition gallery of the Equitable Life Assurance Society [1981_53gn_cat], and in 1963 the Smithsonian Natural History Museum [1963_35gn_cat]. In the mid-1980’s the Grand National Exhibition returned to the Salmagundi Club, a beautiful Landmark Building on lower Fifth Avenue in New York City, where it continues to the present day.
During the years between 1930 [9] and 1951, the AAPL published a bi-weekly column, in ART DIGEST magazine, devoted to solving problems for artists [9] , giving news of members and such editorial comments and criticism as the AAPL wished to discuss. State Chapters were organized during this period, with Chapters in 20 states and a growing membership of 3,000 in 47 of the 48 states. With modern communications and shipping, state chapters are not needed anymore.
The decades of 1950, 1960 and part of the 1970s saw an art world with drastic changes. Public and government tastes were in an era during which modernism and abstraction were getting the lion’s share of government sponsorship, grants of public money and media promotion. AAPL raised objections to these practices to the highest levels of government at the White House, before Senate Committees, through lectures, radio broadcasts, TV appearances and in publications.
Co-founders included in the first Board of Directors, 1929
(from Macbeth Gallery records letter p1 — https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/macbeth-gallery-records-9703)
Officers:
Chairman: F. Ballard Williams
Vice-Chairman: H. Hobart Nichols
Secretary: Wilford S. Conrow
Treasurer: Guy C. Wiggins
Chairman of the Legal Committee: W. Sherman Potts
Robert Macbeth Esq. - appointed to the Legal Committee (owner Macbeth Gallery)
National Executive Committee:
Gardner Symons
J. Scott Williams
J. H. Freedlander
Alternates:
Chauncey F. Ryder
Gordon Grant
John Ward Dunsmore
W. Sherman Potts
Ralph M. Pearson
Edward Field Sanford, Jr
John Vassos
American Artists Professional League Sponsored Exhibits
[edit]Annual Exhibits of the Fine Arts and Crafts by Maryland Men and Women. Baltimore: The American Artists Professional League, Maryland, Chapter, 1938
AAPL sponsored Artists for victory - MET exhibition of contemporary American art 1942 p15324coll10_152387 (1) (Rockwell Kent, Andrew & Henriette Wyeth, et al)[10]
Excerpts about the American Artists Professional League
[edit]HERBERT HOOVER
31st President of the United States: 1929 ‐ 1933
Message to the American Artists Professional League.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/message-the-american-artists-professional-league
Note: The President's message, subsequently printed in an issue of Art Digest, was in response to a protest from the league that foreign artists had exploited the Chief Executive to enhance their own prestige. Particular reference was made to portraits done by Philip de Laszlo, Philides Costa, Joseph Sigall, and Douglas Chandor. According to the league, Raymond Adams had been the only American to paint the President's portrait.
Herbert Hoover, Message to the American Artists Professional League. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Statement on Art Week [7]
32nd President of the United States: 1933 ‐ 1945
"November 29, 1940
In view of the gratifying success achieved during the observance of the first Art Week, which will close tomorrow (Sunday, December 1), I feel justified in recommending that Art Week be made an annual event under the sponsorship of the President.
… "
Dwight Eisenhower
Eisenhower sent a telegram to Wheeler Williams about Art Week.
https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/finding-aids/pdf/fox-frederic-records.pdf — Box 30 - 30, Presidential and Secretarial Correspondence. These are drafts of letters, mostly by Kevin McCann (Special Assistant to the President). There are also various messages and letters about American Art Week and an interesting overall summary on function of Presidential messages filed under “Birthday Data” are included in this series. Also included are various stencils of True Brotherhood, Lincoln and Education, to the Boy Scouts of America, The Prayer of Our People.
Katherine S. Dreier
This is a correspondence, from 1906-1952 (GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE) about the American Artists Professional League, 1928, 1948
https://lux.collections.yale.edu/view/object/66e36bb8-4e05-4717-a2c7-41cb27cf02d1
Artists for Victory
AAPL was one of many organizations in this group. Based in New York, N.Y., 1942-1946. This organization was formed by artists who desired to assist in the war effort by using their artistic abilities. Activities included a war poster competition, British-American goodwill exhibition, sponsoring portrait drawings, demonstrations of arts and crafts, and instruction in military hospitals. Officers include Paul Manship, John Taylor Arms, Arthur Crisp, Ralph T. Walker, Hobart Nichols, Hugo Gellert [4].
References
[edit]- ^ "Major League", Pioneers of the Hardwood, Indiana University Press, pp. 102–122, retrieved 2024-08-01
- ^ a b c Kasson, John F. (April 24, 1928 – February 10, 2019). Black, Shirley Temple (23 April 1928–10 February 2014). American National Biography Online. Oxford University Press.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date format (link) - ^ Dearinger, David B., ed. (2004). Painting and sculpture in the collection of the National Academy of Design (1st ed.). New York ; Manchester: Hudson Hills Press. p. 589. ISBN 978-1-55595-029-3.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ a b c Rowe, W. Page (1931). "Some Aspects of Maori Art". Art Digest Journal. 31: 31. doi:10.2307/2789054. ISSN 0025-1496.
- ^ ""Anita Page näht…," Tempo, 9 January 1931". dx.doi.org. Retrieved 2024-08-01.
- ^ "American Artists Professional League booklet | Kenneth Spencer Research Library Archival Collections". archives.lib.ku.edu. Retrieved 2024-08-01.
- ^ a b "Statement on Art Week. | The American Presidency Project - Franklin D. Roosevelt". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. November 29, 1940. Retrieved 2024-08-02.
- ^ Quinsac, Annie-Paule (1941). "Letter about two art weeks". The Art Digest. 70 (1): 3. doi:10.2307/3051170. ISSN 0004-3079.
- ^ a b "Art". Art Digest. 4 (7): 11. 1930.
- ^ Wyeth, Henriette. Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford University Press. 2011-10-31.
External links
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