Journal 7 - Chapter 17: The Modern Movement in America

From this week’s reading I became interested in the design work supported by Walter P. Paepcke and the Container Corporation of America (CCA). After World War II, the CCA commissioned a series of paintings by artists from each of the then forty-eight states. These paintings advanced the Bauhaus ideal: the union of art with life.

When I saw the painting for Nevada in the book, I wanted to research these paintings further and see if there was an image for California. The image for California, from the United States Series, was created by Charles Howard in 1946. It is housed in the Smithsonian collection.

Charles Howard (1899-1978) was born in Montclair New Jersey and died in Bagni di Lucca, Italy. He was born into a family of architects, painters, and sculptors. He introduced the style of European surrealism and biomorphic expression to the American art world. Howard was a journalism graduate at Berkeley. Howard moved to Paris to pursue his writing, but was encouraged to take up painting. He returned to New York and began painting. He married a British painter, Madge Knight. They lived in New York, London, the Bay Area, Suffolk, England, and retired to Bagni di Lucca, Italy.

Resources:

Meggs’ History of Graphic Design

http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=10821

http://www.caldwellgallery.com/bios/howard_biography.html