Sunday, January 26, 2014

Yun Gee at the Museum of Modern Art


The New York Times
April 24, 1932
Exhibition of Murals to Open New Museum
The names of forty-nine American painters and photographers who have sent murals to be shown in an exhibition which will open the new quarters of the Museum of Modern Art at 11 West Fifty-third Street have just been made public. The mural exhibition and the museum will be open to the public Wednesday, May 4.

...The exhibitors include: ...Yun Gee...

Museum of Modern Art
Murals by American Painters and Photographers
Exhibition catalog and press releases

The New York Times
May 3, 1932
The Museum of Modern Art Gives Private Showing Today of Murals by American Painters.
...The artists who arrive within hailing distance of mural probity, or who achieve results of genuine consequence, are Reginald Marsh, George Biddle, Yun Gee, Thomas LaFarge, Edward Biberman, James E. Davis, Philip Evergood (although his Easter egg colors are not very reassuring), Kimon Nicolaides and Henry Varnum Poor....

...One admires...Yun Gee’s “Wheels: Industrial New York” for their charming spirit of fantasy…

The New York Times
May 8, 1932
Exhibition of Murals Proves How Much Our Painters Have Yet to Learn
...It will not be possible today to take up in detail the mural problems presented by this exhibition for public appraisal. The subject invites considerable future discussion. But one is unwilling to end this installment of comment on a vital theme without a reiterated word or praise for the artists who here demonstrate either positive mural accomplishment or the possession of unmistakable gifts in that direction. Reginald Marsh, George Biddle, James E. Davis, Thomas La Farge, Kimon Nicolaides, Yun Gee, Henry Varnum Poor, Edward Biberman and Philip Evergood have already been suggested as candidates.…

The New York Times
May 22, 1932
...In the realm of paint much yet remains to be discussed. Careful reexamination of the murals on the second and fourth floors of the museum bolsters certain previously arrived at favorable evaluations, accentuates uneasy doubts, intensifies the prevailing mood of dismay and withal leaves me prepared to assert that six of the artists represented—George Biddle, Reginald Marsh, Henry Varnum Poor, James E. Davis, Kimon Nicolaides and Yun Gee—I would gladly, were they mine to distribute, entrust walls today.

…If Nicolaides’s grandly conceived “Merry-Go-Round” strikes one as possibly a shade too cool, there may be those who will object that Yun Gee’s gorgeous fugue on a similar theme is conceivably a shade too warm….At any rate each of these artists has substantially proved an aptitude for mural work, and among the remaining painters there are a few who need take only another turn or two before meriting walls.


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(Tomorrow: Yun Gee 1932–1933)

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