When I was just beginning my art education, there were a handful of painters who thrust me out of my pre-affixed ignorance of the motivation behind the works I once blankly glared at and put me on the road to relevance in my preferences for my own art. The significance of Tomas Eakins in my journey enjoys parity with names such as Braque, Picasso, Rembrant, Cassatt and Degas. Sadly, upon reading the Sunday paper, I am now privy to yet another devaluation of our national interest as a result of the existence of Wal Mart.
In my humble beginnings (for which I feel I still remain,) my foundation classes required me to wander museums and historic institutions in the Philadelphia area with a sketch pad, a composition notebook, and an open mind. I am grateful to have done so, without this exercise, I would have never relished in the endless gifts I was given, even though many occasions led me to works and artists who I truly was no fan of.
The greatest of these gifts was that I was able to link compositions and movements to their historical significance. Thus, rising above a glance and a Boolean response to the piece. For, it was the history behind the works of Matisse that led me to `like his work.' His reaction to his time transcends the aesthetic critique in my mind because he had masterfully taken the time to etch the visualization of his history for the world's eye to examine.
Thomas Eakins was more than an American master. He was a nurturer of progressive thought. Further, in a staunch Victorian era, he was an unspoken devotee to parity among people. His art and the way he carried out his life represented the virgining notions of Feminism, of Progressivism and of instilling racial parity in his field. As with Duchamp, he obsessed himself with movement, as with Rodin, he pondered the depth of humanity and translated his findings brilliantly to tangible works.
Eakins, to me, was a Realist, a Romantic, and a Futurist in one package. With Cassatt and Homer, O'Keefe and Wyeth, Thomas Eakins was an American Master, worthy of permanence in his region. Sadly, it seems that once again, money will be the factor that overrules the permanence of a master's place within the city he or she had helped to uplift.
From The Philadelphia Inquirer
Shock bordering on anguish spread through Philadelphia's cultural, medical, philanthropic and political communities yesterday as news of the impending sale of Thomas Eakins' incomparable painting, The Gross Clinic, hit home across the region.
But in the midst of the immediate trauma, efforts are already stirring to save what many believe is the very heart of Philadelphia's cultural identity.
"Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic should never, never, never leave Philadelphia, where it was painted," said saddened artist Andrew Wyeth. "It is my favorite American painting."
...
The painting, which is widely seen as Eakins' masterpiece and an indelible part of the Philadelphia cultural landscape since its creation in 1875, will be sold by its owner, the university, to a partnership of a new museum being built by Wal-Mart heirs in Arkansas and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
To an artist and a (former) Philadelphian, removing this painting and handing it over to an undeserving woman who's only qualification for possessing this work is money is the equivalent to smashing the controversial Rocky Statue in to pieces at an Eagles game. I only wish I had the venue to make this comparison before the people of Philadelphia, who I am confident would see my point and stop this madness `Philly style' (If you're from Philadelphia, you know what I mean. "Snowballs and Santa" comment goes here.)
Thomas Eakins IS Philadelphia. Just as with the stereotypical cheese steak, Eakins remains an institution in himself. His life and his work are credits to the `brotherly love' doctrine. Therefore, to remove what is largely considered to be his masterpiece from the city he had once helped to build is nothing short of a criminal act.
Forgive me for being all over the place here, but I am very upset about this. Because I am shy of $68 million dollars right now, I beg of you to join me in writing Jefferson Hospital, Mayor John Street, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Alice Walton, herself to express your anger at this burglary of a Philadelphia treasure.
It is time to tell monoliths like Wal-Mart that some things in our nation are just plain not for sale. I urge you to help.
Thanks!
Andrew
Philadelphia Inquirer
PO Box 41705,
Philadelphia, Pa. 19101
oped@phillynews.com
Inquirer.Letters@phillynews.com
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
111 South 11th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-955-6000
The Honorable John Street
mayor@phila.gov
Philadelphia Museum Of Art
Contact Page
Wal-Mart (via the Crystal Bridges Museum)
Mailing address: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art?P.O. Box 1169
Bentonville, Arkansas 72712
Telephone: 479.418.5700
Fax: 479.418.5701
E-mail: info@crystalbridges.org
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Mitchell Communications Group, Inc.
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This is the painting in question:
(The Gross Clinic)
Note the representation of humanity, which clearly stands above the way the money was obtained to `purchase' it.