Jackson Lee Nesbitt: Prints from the Collection of S. William and Leona Pelletier

JecrsoN Les Nnssrrr Prints from the Collection of S. William and Leona Pelletier

Knox Gallery of Prints and Drawings March 30 - June 13, 1999

Georgia lvluscunr

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The Universiry of Georgia

INrnooucrroN A

student of midwestern regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Lee Nesbitt (b.

1913) has created a body of prints recalling life in the midwest during the Great Depression.

Born in McAlestet Oklahoma, Nesbitt trained at the Kansas Ciry Art Institute in the 1930s and early 1940s, studying painting and composition with Benton and printmaking with regionalist painter John deMartelly. As a student and young artist, he created numerous paintings and prints largely in the American Scene tradition of familiar, everyday subject matter. In the etching Nouember Euening, for example, a farmer rides on his horse through the center of a countryside drawn in great, loving detail, the split-rail fence, grasses and fields, and finger-like clouds of dusk framing the composition. According to the artist, "Tom Benton and I were on a trip together and were making a drawing of this muddy road when the old guy on the horse rode by.

Thinking we were surveyors, he allowed the road could stand some 'fixin' up." Nesbitt executed the scene with fine networks of infinitesimal lines, flecks, and crosshatchings which were drawn on a wax-covered plate and etched in stages, the resulting crevices filled with ink, and, lastly, the plate printed.

In the 1950s, as interest in regionalism waned, Nesbitt turned to commercial art.

Much later, in the 1980s, in the midst of a nationwide, renewed appreciation of art from the Depression years, he returned to

printmaking, creating a number of lithographs with imagery inspired by previous works and by his life in the midwest. The exhibition contains twenty-seven prints and two drawings from the collection of S. \Tilliam and Leona Pelletier of Athens. Generous support for this exhibition was provided by Directort Circle member Martin E. Segal.

Additional support for the exhibitions and programs at the Georgia Museum of fut is provided, in part, by the Georgia Council for the futs through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly.

Patricia Phagan

Curator of Prints and Drawings Organizer of the Exhibition

RETATED EDUCATION PROGRAM:

Lrcture: Jachson Thursday,

Lee

Nesbitt

April 15, 5:30 p.m.

will be on hand for this slideillustrated talk in which he will discuss his work and

Jackson Lee Nesbitt

the work of his contemporaries, including

his

former teacheq artist Thomas Hart Benton.

Copies of Earl Retif and Ann Salzer, Jackson Lee Nesbitt: The Graphic \Wo rk, New Orleans, I993, are auaikbb for purchase

in

the Museum Shop.

CsBcxusr oF rsB ExHIBITIoN 1.

Jester

(Feste),1935

7.

inches)

Sheet: 350 x 286 mm. (13 21132 x Printed by the artist Edition of 50 Retif & Salzer 1, only state

Open Hearth

Men, 1937

Etching in black ink on white wove paper Platemark: 152 x 127 mm. (5 31132 x 5 inches) Sheet: 206 - 204 x 151 - 152 mm. (B 1/16 x 5 31132

Etching in black ink on thick, light-beige wove paper Platemark: 279x224.1 mm. (10 31132x827132

1l l/4 inches)

inches)

Printed by the artist 3 or 4 prools only Commissioned by the president of Sheffield Steel

Corporation Retifl

2. Blind Beggar, 1935

Etching in black ink on cream wove paper Platemark: 227 x 174 mm. (8 I 5/ l6 x 6 27132 inches) Sheet: 339 x 263 mm, (13 11132 x 10 11/32 inches) Printed by the artist Edition of 25 Retif 6r Salzer 2, only state Don Quixote, 1935 Etching in black ink on thick, beige wove paper Platemark: 152 x 125 mm. (5 31132 x 4 29132 inches) Sheet: 178 x 150 mm. (7 x5 29132inches) Printed by the artist Edition of 25 Retif & Salzer 3, only state

Chwn, 1936 Etching in black ink on cream wove paper Platemark: 198.5 x 152.5 mm. (7 13116 x 6 inches) Sheet: 271 x 236 mm. (10 21132 x 9 9/32 inches) Printed by the artist Edition ofabout 30 Retif & Salzer4ivliv

t.

Ozark Minstrel, 1937

Drypoint in black ink on cream-colored rvove paper Platemark: 277 x2l9 mm. (10 29132x 8 1/8 inches) Sheet: 420 x 301 mm. (16 17132 x ll 27 132 inches) Printed by the artist F.dition of about 8 Retif & Salzer 5 Thpping a Heat, 1937 Etching in black ink on cream wove paper Platemark: 303 x236 mm. (11 3/4 x 9 l/16 inches) Sheer: 374 x 298 mm. (14 23132 x 11 23132 inches) Printed by the artist Edition o[ B0 Commissioned by Shetfield Steel Corporarron Retif & Salzer 7

8.

&

Salzer 8, only state (artist's proof)

B;lkt Mill, 1938 Etching in black ink on cream laid paper Platemark: 302 x 234.5 mm. (l 1 7 18 x 9 7 | 32 inches) Sheet: 468.5 x356 mm. (187116 x 14 1/32 inches) Printed by the artist Edition oF 80 Commissioned by Sheffield Steel Corporation

Retif&

Salzer 10

o

Charging Molten Metal (Open Hearth), 1938 Etching in black ink on ivory wove paper Platemark: 301 x235 mm. (11 27132x 9 1/4 inches) Sheet: 347 x 298 mm. (13 21132 x 11 23132 inches) Printed by the artist Edition of 80 Commissioned by Sheffield Steel Corporation RetilEt Salzer 12, only state

10.

Stripping Ingou, 1939 Etching in black ink on off-white wove paper Platemark: 302 x 233 mm. (1 I 7/8 x 9 3/ I 6 inches) Sheet: 344 x297 mm. (13 l7l32x 11 ll/16 inches) Printed by the artisr Edition of 80 Commissioned by Sheffield Steel Corporation

Retil& lVire

Salzer 14, only state

Mill,

1939

Etching in black ink on off-white wove paper Platemark: 234 x3A3 mm. (9 7132 x l1 15116 inches) Slreet: 303 x 346 - 344 mm. (1 I l5l16 x 13 518 13 lTl32inches)

Printed by the artist Edition of 80 Commissioned by Sheffield Steel Corporation Retif & Salzer 1 5, only state

(Changing of Shift), 1939 Etching in black ink on ivory wove PaPer Platemark: 304.5 x234 mm. (11 13/16 x 9 1/8

12. The

Goose

18.

Soahing Piu, 1946 Etching in black ink on beige wove PaPer Platemark: 250 x 350 mm. (9 27132 x 13 25132 inches)

inches)

Sheet: 320 x 433 mm. (12 19132 x 17 1/16 inches) Printed by the artist Edition of 70

Sheet: 336 x279.5 mm. (13 7/32 x 1l inches) Printed by the artist Edition of 80 Edition commissioned by Shetfield Steel Corporation Retif & Salz-er 17, only state

Retif& 19.

t3. Watering Phce, 1939 Etching in black ink on cream-colored wove paper Platemark: 3ll x246 mm. (12 ll4 x9 | 1/16 inches) Sheet: 360 x 290 mm. (14 3116 x l l 13/32 inches) Edition printed and commissioned by Associated American Artists, New York Edition of 250 Retifand Salzer 18, only state

October Afiernoon, 1946 Etching in black ink on cream wove PaPer Platemark: 241 x345 mm. (9 ll2 x 13 19/32 inches) Sheet: 325 x 431 mm. (12 25132 x 16 3il32 inches) Edition printed and commissioned by Associated American Artists Edition o1250 Retif & Sa.lzer 26, only state

20. Tuelue hrch Mill (Rod M;ll, ShefieA Steel, Kansas City),

14. Ozrtrh Bridge, l94l Etching in black ink on light-beige wove paper Platemark: 303 x 243 mm. ( I l5l 16 x 9 9/ l6 inches)

1948

Etching in black ink on light-beige rvove paper Platemark: 261 - 260 x 353.5 - 314.5 mm. (10 1/4 x

I

l3

Sheet: 409 x 319 mm. (16 3132 x 12 9/16 inches) Printed by the artist (before the edition printed by Associated Arnerican Artists) Retif & Salzer 20, only state

15.

Euening in March, 1942

Etching in black ink on medium weight, light-beige

21.

l6

inches)

Casting Blast Furnace, 1951

Lithograph in black ink on thick, cream wove Papet lmage: 286 x 404 mm. (l I 1/4 x 11 29132 ir,ches) Sheet: 402 x 578 mm. (15 131 16 x 22 314 inches) Printed by Robert Blackburn Edition of 70 Retif& Salzer 31, only srate

22.

Etching in black ink on ivory wove PaPer Platemark: 256 x 350 mm. (10 ll16 x 13 25132 inches) Sheet: 310 x 408.5 mm. (12 7132 x 163/32 inches) Printed by the artist Edition of 70 Retif & Salzer 23, only state

Old Man uirh a Violin, 1955 (prinred in 1984) Etching in black ink on thick, rvhire rvove paper Platemark: 325 x271 mm. (i2 21132 x 10 21132 inches)

Sheet: 495 x 375 rnm. (19 112 x i4 3/4 inches) Printed by Mohammad Khalil as part of rhe edirion completed by June and Norman Kraelt in 1984 Edition of 137 Retif & Salzer )4, only srate

17. Nouenber Euening 1946 Etching in black ink on lighebeige wove paper Platemark: 226 x 304 mm. (B 29132 x 1l 3ll32 inches) Sheet: 308 x 404 mm. (12 ll8 x 15 29132 inches) Edition printed and commissioned by Associated Arnerican Artists Edition o1250 Retif Er Salzer 24, only state

15i

Sheet: 321 x 446 mm. (12 518 x 17 9/16 inches) Printed by the artist Edition o[70 Retif & Salzer 28, only state

wove PaPer Platemark: 304 x229 mm. (11 31132 x 9 1/32 inches) Sheet: 409 x 304 mm. (16 3132 x 11 3ll32 inches) Printed by the arrist (before the edition printed by Associated American Artists) Retif & Salzer 22, only state

16. Blooming Mill, 194,

Salzer25

23.

Ouer

Ffu

Years

of Seruice-Onaha Steel \Y/orks, 1959

Graphite on paper Image: 354 x 509 mm. (13 15132 x 20 li32 inches) Sheet: 360 x5l7 mm. (143116 x 20 12132 inches) Preliminary drawing for Retif & Salzer 35

24.

Ozarh Farmer, 1988

Lithograph in black ink on thick, beige wove paper lnage: 322x246 mm. (12 lll16 x 9 11/16 inches) Slreet: 446 x 341 mm. (17 9l16 x 13 7/16 inches) Edition printed and published by Rolling Stone Press (Atlanta)

Edition of 250 Retif & Salzer 36, only stare

25.

Aucriort Barn,1989 Lrrhograph in black ink on rhick, beige rvove paper Inrage: 320 x 434 n'tm. (12 19132 x 17 3/32 inches) Sheet: 380 x 498 mm. (14 31132 x i9 l9132 inches) Edition prinred and published by Rolling Srone Press (Atlanta) Edirion of 250

Retif

26.

&

Salzer 37, only srare

The L[atheu lV. Johnston Fanily 1990 Lithograph in black ink on thick, light-beige wovâ‚Ź paper lnage: 242 x 317 mm. (9 17132 x 12 11132 inches) Sheet: 311 x 380 mm, (12 ll4 x 14 31132 inches) Edition printed and published by Rolling Stone Press

(Arlan ta)

Edition of 250 Retii

)i.

&

Salzer 39, only state

Calhour Sreel 1990 Lithograph in black ink on light-beige rvove paper u'ith a rvarermark of BFK RIVES/FRANCE lmage: 3il x297 mm. (13 13116 x 1l I l/i6 inches) Sheer: 4i3 x 382 mm. (17 27132 x l5 l/32 inches) Edirion prinred and published by Rolling Stone Press (Atianra)

Edition of 2i0 Retii

&

Salzer 40, only state

28. Drilling.

1912

Pen and black ink, rvirh graphite, on

thick, beige

rvove

PaPer

Irnage: 282 x407.5 mm. (11 3132x16 1/4inches) Sheer: 392 x 4 j7 mm. (15 7l16 x I B inches) R:lared to rhe lirhograph December A,fternoon (Reif &.

Salzer 4 I )

29.

Dccenber Afernoon, 1993 Lirhograph in black ink on thick, Iight-beige wove paper In.rage: 314 x 420 mm. (12 318 x 16 17132 inches) Sheet: 382 x 493 mm. (15 ll32 x l9 13/32 inches) Edition printed and published by Rolling Stone Press (Arlanta) Edirion of 250

Retif

&

Salzer 4

l, only

state

?,,ta,?.,