Alan Gussow
Encyclopedia
Alan Gussow was an American artist, teacher, author and conservationist devoted to and inspired by the natural environment.
. Only 21 years old, he was the youngest ever to have won the award at that time. By the time he left New York to study at the American Academy in Rome from 1953 to 1955, Gussow had learned printmaking from Stanley William Hayter, and was already heavily influenced by Paul Klee
, Arshile Gorky
, and Stuart Davis
.
In 1956, Gussow married Joan Dye
, who was then a Time magazine researcher and later a nutritionist and chair of the nutrition department at Columbia Teacher's College. Together, they made a home with their sons in the Hudson River Valley, where they eventually became avid organic gardeners, incorporating into their home garden a method of biodynamic double digging championed by Alan Chadwick
. Balancing his passion for art with teaching jobs, writing, and endeavors to save the environment, Gussow made yearly painting trips to Monhegan Island, ME and kept a studio in his New York home. He died from cancer May 5, 1997 in Piermont, NY.
Gussow cites his walks through the Middlebury college campus in Vermont as some of his original inspiration to become an artist. His early paintings created in the 1950s and 1960s are landscapes of a more traditional nature, depicting scenes painted from a separate vantage point. Still, Gussow came of age in a time when action painting and artists like Jackson Pollock
and Franz Kline
were at the peak of their popularity, and eventually he connected the energy of his art with the energy he experienced in natural settings, presenting a perspective all his own.
The works he created throughout the 1970s and the rest of his life capture deeper, more personal encounters with nature—smells, tastes, tactile sensations, sounds. In The New York Times, Holland Cotter describes a selection of Gussow's later pastels, "...passages of undulating horizontal lines suggested both flowing water and fingerprint patterns, summing up the intimate link between man and nature that was Mr. Gussow's central concern."
In 1980, Gussow experienced what he would later describe as a pivotal realization when he traveled with his wife to Australia and was captivated by aboriginal art. Profoundly moved by the role art played in these communities, Gussow severed his gallery connection upon returning home and began to experiment with art as a process instead of as a product. In 1982 his International Shadow Project was a prime example of his belief that an artist's duty is to connect people to their shared potential to change the world around them. On the 40th anniversary of the bombings on Hiroshima
, the project involved 15,000 people painting silhouettes in the streets of 400 cities all over the world in an act of creative remembrance.
Gussow's first solo museum show was in 1961 at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts
in Hagerstown, MD; he has since been the focus of more than 50 one-man exhibitions and has been included in over 60 group shows internationally. After 20 years of representation by the Peridot Gallery and Joan T. Washburn, Gussow's work has shown at the Sid Deutsch Gallery, MB Modern, Gavin Brown's Enterprise and Babcock Galleries. His work can be found in numerous significant museums as well as public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad.
. With others, he went on to found the Citizen's Committee for the Hudson River, and brought Senator Robert F. Kennedy
to the Hudson to explain the dangers facing the river. Gussow testified before Congress on environmental issues and advised George McGovern
when he was a senator and embarking on his presidential campaign. As a consultant for the National Park Service
, he implemented and inaugurated the Artist in Residence program in the National Parks.
Gussow was an active teacher for 40 years. He played a significant role in establishing the fine arts program at the Parsons School of Design, where he taught through 1968, and also taught at Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Massachusetts, Middlebury College, and the University of California in Santa Cruz where he held positions in both the Environmental Studies and the Art Department.
His publications include 13 articles, essays and monographs. His book, A Sense of Place: The Artist and the American Land, published in 1972, couples works by American landscape artists spanning four centuries with excerpts of their own writing. Both this book as well as his 1993 publication, The Artist as Native: Reinventing Regionalism, inspired major gallery exhibitions.
Life and education
Alan Gussow was born May 8, 1931 in New York City but grew up in Rockville Centre, NY. He took art classes at the Pratt Institute before graduating from Middlebury College in 1952 with a degree in Literature. The following year, while studying painting at Cooper Union, he was awarded the Prix de RomePrix de Rome
The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
. Only 21 years old, he was the youngest ever to have won the award at that time. By the time he left New York to study at the American Academy in Rome from 1953 to 1955, Gussow had learned printmaking from Stanley William Hayter, and was already heavily influenced by Paul Klee
Paul Klee
Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
, Arshile Gorky
Arshile Gorky
Arshile Gorky was an Armenian-born American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. As such, his works were often speculated to have been informed by the suffering and loss he experienced of the Armenian genocide.-Early life:...
, and Stuart Davis
Stuart Davis
Stuart Davis or Davies may refer to:* Stuart Davis * Stuart Davis , or his album, Stuart Davis * Stuart Davis , Australian rugby league footballer* Stuart Davies, Welsh rugby union fotballer...
.
In 1956, Gussow married Joan Dye
Joan Dye Gussow
Joan Dye Gussow is a professor, author, food policy expert, environmentalist and gardener. The New York Times has called her the "matriarch of the eat-locally-think-globally food movement."- Occupation and works :...
, who was then a Time magazine researcher and later a nutritionist and chair of the nutrition department at Columbia Teacher's College. Together, they made a home with their sons in the Hudson River Valley, where they eventually became avid organic gardeners, incorporating into their home garden a method of biodynamic double digging championed by Alan Chadwick
Alan Chadwick
Alan Chadwick , English master gardener, was a leading innovator of organic farming techniques and influential educator in the field of biodynamic/French intensive gardening. He was a student of Rudolf Steiner, and is often cited as inspirational to the development of the "California Cuisine"...
. Balancing his passion for art with teaching jobs, writing, and endeavors to save the environment, Gussow made yearly painting trips to Monhegan Island, ME and kept a studio in his New York home. He died from cancer May 5, 1997 in Piermont, NY.
Art
Over the course of an artistic career that lasted almost half a century, Gussow honed a visionary blend of abstraction and representation with nature as his primary subject.Gussow cites his walks through the Middlebury college campus in Vermont as some of his original inspiration to become an artist. His early paintings created in the 1950s and 1960s are landscapes of a more traditional nature, depicting scenes painted from a separate vantage point. Still, Gussow came of age in a time when action painting and artists like Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
and Franz Kline
Franz Kline
Franz Jozef Kline was an American painter mainly associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement centered around New York in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and attended Girard College, an academy in Philadelphia for fatherless boys...
were at the peak of their popularity, and eventually he connected the energy of his art with the energy he experienced in natural settings, presenting a perspective all his own.
The works he created throughout the 1970s and the rest of his life capture deeper, more personal encounters with nature—smells, tastes, tactile sensations, sounds. In The New York Times, Holland Cotter describes a selection of Gussow's later pastels, "...passages of undulating horizontal lines suggested both flowing water and fingerprint patterns, summing up the intimate link between man and nature that was Mr. Gussow's central concern."
In 1980, Gussow experienced what he would later describe as a pivotal realization when he traveled with his wife to Australia and was captivated by aboriginal art. Profoundly moved by the role art played in these communities, Gussow severed his gallery connection upon returning home and began to experiment with art as a process instead of as a product. In 1982 his International Shadow Project was a prime example of his belief that an artist's duty is to connect people to their shared potential to change the world around them. On the 40th anniversary of the bombings on Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
, the project involved 15,000 people painting silhouettes in the streets of 400 cities all over the world in an act of creative remembrance.
Gussow's first solo museum show was in 1961 at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts is an art museum located in Hagerstown, Maryland, United States. The building is located off Park Circle and serves as a centerpiece in Hagerstown City Park. The museum was donated in 1929 by Mr. and Mrs. William Singer, Jr. It was completed in 1931 and two...
in Hagerstown, MD; he has since been the focus of more than 50 one-man exhibitions and has been included in over 60 group shows internationally. After 20 years of representation by the Peridot Gallery and Joan T. Washburn, Gussow's work has shown at the Sid Deutsch Gallery, MB Modern, Gavin Brown's Enterprise and Babcock Galleries. His work can be found in numerous significant museums as well as public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad.
Gussow as an activist, author, and educator
In addition to being recognized as a painter, Gussow was a voice heard nationally on matters concerning the natural environment. His first foray into the world of activism was in 1965 when he played an integral role in preventing a proposed Con Edison plant that would have destroyed Storm King Mountain in the Hudson ValleyHudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
. With others, he went on to found the Citizen's Committee for the Hudson River, and brought Senator Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
to the Hudson to explain the dangers facing the river. Gussow testified before Congress on environmental issues and advised George McGovern
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....
when he was a senator and embarking on his presidential campaign. As a consultant for the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
, he implemented and inaugurated the Artist in Residence program in the National Parks.
Gussow was an active teacher for 40 years. He played a significant role in establishing the fine arts program at the Parsons School of Design, where he taught through 1968, and also taught at Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Massachusetts, Middlebury College, and the University of California in Santa Cruz where he held positions in both the Environmental Studies and the Art Department.
His publications include 13 articles, essays and monographs. His book, A Sense of Place: The Artist and the American Land, published in 1972, couples works by American landscape artists spanning four centuries with excerpts of their own writing. Both this book as well as his 1993 publication, The Artist as Native: Reinventing Regionalism, inspired major gallery exhibitions.