American Workman by Maxwell King and Louise Lippincott

Posted by on Dec 15, 2022 in | Comments Off on American Workman by Maxwell King and Louise Lippincott American Workman The Life and Art of John Kane by Maxwell King and Louise Lippincott University of Pittsburgh Press, 288 pp., hardcover $40 American Workman: The Life and Art of John Kane reconsiders the legacy of a prominent, self-taught Pittsburgh artist. Kane was a pugnacious, heavy-drinking Scottish immigrant who toiled for 40 years in mines, steel mills and railyards before achieving...
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Artists of Wyeth Country by W. Barksdale Maynard

Posted by on Dec 1, 2021 in | Comments Off on Artists of Wyeth Country by W. Barksdale Maynard Artists of Wyeth Country Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, and Andrew Wyeth by W. Barksdale Maynard Temple University Press, 237 pp., paperback $23 Few artists are so intimately associated with a regional landscape as the painters of the Brandywine area, popularly known as “Wyeth Country.” Rooted in exacting draftsmanship and rich visual storytelling, this artistic tradition was founded by illustrator...
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A Gift to America: Maxo Vanka and the Millvale Murals

Posted by on Nov 29, 2021 in | Comments Off on A Gift to America: Maxo Vanka and the Millvale Murals “This is my gift to America,” declared Croatian artist Maksimilijan “Maxo” Vanka (1889–1963) in 1941, when he completed a vast mural cycle for a small Catholic church in Millvale, Pennsylvania, a working-class town just across the river from Pittsburgh. A recent émigré, Vanka had not yet been in the United States a full decade when he completed the 4,500 square feet of wall painting for St....
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Dox Thrash and the “Poetry of the Artist’s Own People”

Posted by on Aug 23, 2021 in | Comments Off on Dox Thrash and the “Poetry of the Artist’s Own People” A son of sharecroppers, Dox Thrash was born in 1893 and raised in a cabin outside the town of Griffin in rural Georgia. The second of four children, he was raised primarily, perhaps solely, by his beloved mother, Ophelia. Throughout her adult life, Ophelia Thrash worked six to seven days a week as a housekeeper and cook for a white family named Taylor while providing materially and spiritually...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Aug 13, 2021 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter The cover of this edition features a poignant watercolor portrait, Woman in Blue, Waiting, by a Philadelphia artist whose work has been regrettably overlooked in the past but is now being rediscovered as new studies and exhibitions, as well as a preservation effort to save his home, have emerged in recent years. Printmaker and painter Dox Thrash sought to document the African American experience...
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Linton Park, Pennsylvania Folk Artist

Posted by on Jun 4, 2021 in | Comments Off on Linton Park, Pennsylvania Folk Artist   Linton Park (1826-1906) is recognized today as a significant artist in the primitive or folk tradition; however, his work was unknown during his lifetime. At his death, in fact, he had less than $100 to his name. He never married or had children, and his relatives and neighbors considered him an eccentric hermit. Evidence indicates that he was a self-taught painter, only beginning in the...
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Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter

Posted by on Feb 17, 2021 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter Topics in the Winter 2021 Newsletter: PHF Continues Partnership with The State Museum on Art of the State Art of the State Ceremony and Tours Presented Virtually for 2020 PHF Cosponsors Virtual Archaeology Workshops   Winter-2021-phf-newsletter  ...
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Trailheads

Posted by on Oct 15, 2020 in | Comments Off on Trailheads Charter Day – always the second Sunday in March – kicks off the spring season on the Pennsylvania Trails of History. Public program schedules start to fill up, and the influx of school group visits reaches its peak. Spring lambs and other animal babies make their appearance at sites with livestock programs, and our many gardens show signs of new life as well. For up-to-date...
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Art of the State 2019 / Scholars in Residence

Posted by on Apr 22, 2020 in | Comments Off on Art of the State 2019 / Scholars in Residence Art of the State 2019 On June 23, 2019, Pennsylvania’s finest artists mingled with guests at the opening of Art of the State: Pennsylvania 2019 at The State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. The 52nd annual juried exhibition, presented by the museum in association with the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation, PHMC’s nonprofit partner, showcased 110 works of art by 103 artists from 35 counties...
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To Form a More Perfect Union: Violet Oakley’s Murals in the Pennsylvania Senate Chamber

Posted by on Apr 15, 2020 in | Comments Off on To Form a More Perfect Union: Violet Oakley’s Murals in the Pennsylvania Senate Chamber At breakfast tables on Sunday morning, December 3, 1911, readers of The New York Times were confronted with a surprising headline running across the magazine section: “A WOMAN CHOSEN TO COMPLETE THE ABBEY PAINTINGS.” Four months earlier, the news that the American artist Edwin Austin Abbey (1852–1911) had passed away in London raised speculation about who would receive the remainder of his...
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