In July 1955, Warren Beach,
assistant director of the Columbus Ohio Gallery of Fine Arts, became
the Director of the Fine Arts Gallery. He was an accomplished artist
and had several one-mans shows in Minnesota, Boston, Georgia, and
Florida. He completed his Masters Degree in Fresco Painting.
The Gallery
hosted "Meet the Artist" events. Dan Dickey was one in
1956.
In 1956 the Guild allowed
non-members from San Diego County to enter its winter show, members
only for the spring and autumn show. All shows became All Media.
They also would disallow any piece that had been shown previously.
And all works must have been completed within the last two years.
(They lost one of their four shows when Warren Beach became director,
however the Allied Craftsman continued to have their annual.)
At the Guild Board meeting
on June 13, 1956, Warren Beach suggested that the gallery assist
artists in having one-man shows. Jerome Land drafted a letter, which
was read by Ethel Greene, Guild President, to be sent to the Fine
Arts Board asking them to hold one-man shows for local artists.
On September 12, 1956 Ethel
reread Jerome's letter and it was approved and passed on to Warren
Beach.
In 1956 the Guild Corner was
originated, a revolving monthly exhibit in the Fine Arts Gallery,
consisting of juried work. This gave every Guild member a chance
to submit during a ten-month period.
Here is
an article about a Guild show written in the San Diego Union on
October 7, 1956:
Guild Show: New Setting Enhances Entries
By George Sorenson
"The San Diego Art Guild's
second all-media show of the season in the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery
is surrounded by a new feeling of light, air, and dignity. For the
first time since the gallery opened its doors in 1926, the east
wing--where the Art Guild traditionally holds its shows--has had
its brown plaster walls repainted…
Credit for these pleasant
changes is due to Director Warren Beach who planned them with the
able assistance of color-consultant Mrs. Ilsa Ruocco of San Diego
State College's art department."
The following letter was written
by Stanford E. Steinbeck, President of the Fine Arts Society to
Ethel Greene, President of the Art Guild on October 15, 1956. It
exemplifies the relationship between the Guild and the Fine Arts
Society at that time.
"The letter dated July
1, 1956 from the San Diego Art Guild with reference to Art Guild
member one or two man exhibitions at the Fine Arts Gallery was carefully
reviewed by the Executive Committee of the Fine Arts Society of
San Diego at the regular September meeting, and by the Trustees
at their regular September meeting.
In order that the Director
of the Fine Arts Society might have a policy decision for his permanent
guidance the Executive Committee recommended that the Trustees adopt
as such a policy the motion that it be a matter of record that the
Fine Arts Society wanted to take the lead in recognizing through
the medium of one man shows the artists of merit, and that as space
and opportunity are available that the Director should follow such
a program to its fullest extent.
Our new building campaign
will, when successfully completed provide a great deal more opportunity
to satisfactorily meet the problem.
Knowing Warren as you do,
you will understand that it was he who took a most active part in
recommending that our Trustees establish the policy that I've just
described. Being a capable artist as well as a gallery administrator
he is 100% behind every action we can perform to fully back up the
Art Guild of which we are so proud. Again, you know, too, that I
and all our Trustees are going to back our Director up in seeing
to it that he runs the Gallery. I know that you will back up 100%
in giving Warren, Carl and their staff a completely free hand in
the operation of the Gallery.
We are very proud of the San
Diego Art Guild's present show at the Gallery. George Sorenson in
this past Sunday's San Diego Union gave it a very fine write up.
Don't you agree? His analysis of the 'All Media' description was
a challenging one too.
We missed you at the September
meeting, but will look forward to seeing you at the October meeting."
The Guild held its first countywide
show in January 1957.
On January 2, 1957 Jerome
Land offered his resignation to avoid possible embarrassment to
the board due to his appearance before the Un-American Activities
Committee in Los Angeles. There was considerable discussion, but
the resignation was accepted by a vote of 9-5.
This letter about the ongoing,
and it's still ongoing, conflict between modern and conservative
art, was written to Warren Beach by Frank Morgan on March 3, 1957:
"Your letter of about
two weeks ago noting my failure to renew my Guild membership and
wondering about the reason for it is the first concrete evidence
I have ever had that anyone in the Gallery cared whether anyone
renew a membership or not… Donal Hord considers you a very
sincere person and tells me you would welcome any constructive comment
I might care to make.
My failure to renew my membership
in the Art Guild was no oversight. I have no intention of ever renewing
it. I feel that there is no place for me in the Guild, or for that
matter, for any conservative artist. Most certainly there is no
place for a conservative sculptor. The present Guild show is one
of the most depressing sights I have seen in a long time…
I have been a practicing sculptor
for about fifteen years. Perhaps I'm no great shakes at it but I
have had my work shown in Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, and here.
It has not only been exhibited but it also sells. I could have made
a comfortable living from it in the Chicago area if I had chosen
to stay there… I think I can assume that my work is not completely
lacking in merit.
It is no disgrace to have
work rejected by an art jury and I know that one of the soundest
bits of advise Donal ever gave me was 'Never be impressed by anything
that happens in an art show.' However it galls me beyond words to
have my work rejected when trash like the pathetic doodlings of
the past Guild shows are not only shown but given prizes.
I know this sounds like the
letter of a sorehead. I do not mean it to be. I have no quarrel
with abstraction as such. After all, nearly all art is abstract
to some extent. I have tried many times, sometimes almost desperately,
to see some meaning or sense, or esthetic value in these blobs and
lumps and bundles of wire the juries and critics so grandly praise
and discuss. I have concluded long ago that there is usually nothing
there. Most of them are nothing more than abject confessions of
incompetence or outright attempts to bamboozle the public. The artist
is not necessarily the guilty party always. Many of them conclude
that they, not the rest of the art world, must be out of step and
since there is no other way to have their work hung, they begin
to turn out these--things. That I cannot do. Art, and more particularly,
sculpture is too personal a thing with me. It is the most important
thing in my life to me.
I believe if you check the
records for the past ten years you will find that there has been
a steady decline, not only in Guild membership, but in the number
of entries in the Guild shows, the quality of the work generally,
and in public interest. There are a great many very fine artists
in our city but few of them would want to be found dead in the Art
Guild. Every new member the Art Institute gains is the Guilds loss.
The Guild simply had nothing to offer.
Donal said something else
one time which stuck with me. He said, 'When judging of art shows
is taken away from the professional artists and put in the hands
of school teachers, look out!' How right he was! The last piece
I had shown was a job I had completely botched and discarded. One
of my arty friends just raved about it so just on a small bet I
entered it in on of the annual shows. Needless to say, it was shown
and awarded a ribbon.
I believe if something along
the following outline were practiced you might see a revival of
interest in the Guild. Maybe.
First: Revamp the Guild so
that the membership as a whole would have some voice in the conduct
of its affairs and with meetings at least once each month with some
sort of art program included.
Secondly: Get professional
artists to judge the shows and make sure that they recognize more
than one type of art.
Third: Advertise in the papers,
entry blanks, and notices that the jury would NOT be comprised of
art educators. That should encourage a few real artists who otherwise
would not enter.
Fourth: Make sure the conventional
or conservative art and the abstract art is judged separately.
Fifth: Remind the juries that
their job is to judge the quality of the work submitted, not to
determine what style of art they think the public should be allowed
to see.
Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth,
and Tenth: Keep those schoolteachers off the jury.
I hope I haven't been too
longwinded. It is just that I feel strongly about this thing. And
I refuse to aid and abet the Art Guild in its foolishness by remaining
a member any longer."
Warren Beach sent this letter
in return dated April 23, 1957:
"Only several weeks of
illness have kept me from answering your very considerate and thoughtful
letter…
I was particularly interested
in you feeling that the school teacher juror tends to be one sided
and not artistically high enough trained for the job. I presume
that you meant the college or university art teachers, which include
a good fifty percent of our most vital young artists in this country.
Your suggestions regarding
the Art guild, particularly those having to do with giving the membership
a real voice in its activities, I think are excellent and indeed
would like to see the whole membership get together four or five
times a year so that this rather large organization might have some
of the cohesion and greater vitality of our Allied Craftsmen organization.
Certainly the Art guild is only human and open to improvement though
its operation has been carried on honestly and according to the
best lights of its officers.
Thank you again for doing
me the honor of giving my note such a complete answer. I will not,
of course, try to change your opinion of the organization, but will
leave the activities of the organization to do this if they are
to succeed in otherwise affecting your opinion."
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