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拍品专文
A painter deeply informed by place, Marvin Cone lived and worked in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the vast majority of his life, with a brief intermission during his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. Cone’s stylized technique imbues his works with an inherently Modern appeal while maintaining an unwavering dedication to his surroundings that portrays his deep admiration of the American heartland. While he did not identify as a Regionalist painter himself, Cone’s oeuvre is undoubtedly infused with aspects of this artistic tradition, in part due to his lifelong friendship with fellow artist Grant Wood. Painted in 1936, Hill Farms embodies the best of Cone’s work, depicting the landscape he loved dearly in his idiosyncratic style of Modernism.
According to Joseph S. Czestochowski, “During the 1930s, Cone concentrated on the landscape of the Midwest, and the paintings he produced epitomize his work. The flavor of midwestern light and the complex shapes of the land and the sky are captured in [these] paintings…In his works of this period, Cone clearly was seeking to communicate nature’s sublimity, rather than its mere physical qualities…he shared with the regionalists a search for cultural roots, [but] he also saw his landscapes as optimistic symbols for a revitalized nation.” (Marvin D. Cone: Art as Self-Portrait, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1990, p. 9)
Hill Farms belongs to a series of approximately fifteen works on this subject executed in the second half of the 1930s. Following a picnic on the bluffs along Iowa’s Cedar River, Cone created numerous sketches of the surrounding landscape, culminating in the first work of the series, River Bend of 1935 (Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Iowa). “The River Bend landscapes sought a precise balance between rendering specific geographic reference and evoking a generalized response to a scene…The main horizontal lines are carried without interruption to the edge of the picture, serving to heighten the viewer’s awareness of what goes beyond the limitations of the canvas…Cone truly created an eternal vision safe from the changes of time, a quality of transience in permanence.” (Marvin D. Cone: Art as Self-Portrait, pp. 28-29) Indeed, the scale and continuous, mountainous forms of Hill Farms emphasize the seemingly untouchable greatness of the American landscape.
The vastness of the American Midwest is further heightened in the present work by Cone’s choice to employ a bird’s eye view. High above the winding river and rolling hills, the viewer looks down upon the scene, complete with tender vignettes in the foreground, such as a woman hanging her laundry to dry. While the viewer can see far into the distance, Cone’s rare inclusion of figures in the present work grounds the scene with a sense of familiarity and community, reflecting his love for Iowa and its people.
Hailing from a masterwork series, Hill Farms exemplifies both Cone’s love for his home and his greater artistic philosophy. In Cone’s own words: “It is the subtle differences in the individual renderings of nature that are the life blood of art…Art is the representation of Nature, not Nature reproduced but Nature as interpreted by the personality of the artist.” (as quoted in Marvin D. Cone: Art as Self-Portrait, p. 12)
According to Joseph S. Czestochowski, “During the 1930s, Cone concentrated on the landscape of the Midwest, and the paintings he produced epitomize his work. The flavor of midwestern light and the complex shapes of the land and the sky are captured in [these] paintings…In his works of this period, Cone clearly was seeking to communicate nature’s sublimity, rather than its mere physical qualities…he shared with the regionalists a search for cultural roots, [but] he also saw his landscapes as optimistic symbols for a revitalized nation.” (Marvin D. Cone: Art as Self-Portrait, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1990, p. 9)
Hill Farms belongs to a series of approximately fifteen works on this subject executed in the second half of the 1930s. Following a picnic on the bluffs along Iowa’s Cedar River, Cone created numerous sketches of the surrounding landscape, culminating in the first work of the series, River Bend of 1935 (Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Iowa). “The River Bend landscapes sought a precise balance between rendering specific geographic reference and evoking a generalized response to a scene…The main horizontal lines are carried without interruption to the edge of the picture, serving to heighten the viewer’s awareness of what goes beyond the limitations of the canvas…Cone truly created an eternal vision safe from the changes of time, a quality of transience in permanence.” (Marvin D. Cone: Art as Self-Portrait, pp. 28-29) Indeed, the scale and continuous, mountainous forms of Hill Farms emphasize the seemingly untouchable greatness of the American landscape.
The vastness of the American Midwest is further heightened in the present work by Cone’s choice to employ a bird’s eye view. High above the winding river and rolling hills, the viewer looks down upon the scene, complete with tender vignettes in the foreground, such as a woman hanging her laundry to dry. While the viewer can see far into the distance, Cone’s rare inclusion of figures in the present work grounds the scene with a sense of familiarity and community, reflecting his love for Iowa and its people.
Hailing from a masterwork series, Hill Farms exemplifies both Cone’s love for his home and his greater artistic philosophy. In Cone’s own words: “It is the subtle differences in the individual renderings of nature that are the life blood of art…Art is the representation of Nature, not Nature reproduced but Nature as interpreted by the personality of the artist.” (as quoted in Marvin D. Cone: Art as Self-Portrait, p. 12)