Society of Six: California Colorists

by Nancy Boas, Charles C. Eldredge (Foreword)

Six plein-air painters in Oakland, California, joined together in 1917 to form an association that lasted nearly fifteen years. The Society of Six―Selden Connor Gile, Maurice Logan, William H. Clapp, August F. Gay, Bernard von Eichman, and Louis Siegriest―created a color-centered modernist idiom that shocked establishment tastes but remains the most advanced painting of its era in Northern California. Nancy Boas's well-informed and sumptuously illustrated chronicle recognizes the importance of these six painters in the history of American Post-Impressionism.

The Six found themselves in the position of an avant garde not because they set out to reject conventionality, but because they aspired to create their own indigenous modernism. While the artists were considered outsiders in their time, their work is now recognized as part of the vital and enduring lineage of American art. Depression hardship ended the Six's ascendancy, but their painterliness, use of color, and deep alliance with the land and the light became a beacon for postwar Northern California modern painters such as Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud. Combining biography and critical analysis, Nancy Boas offers a fitting tribute to the lives and exhilarating painting of the Society of Six.

Genres: Art

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1988

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Society of Six was a group of plein air artist friends in the San Francisco Bay Area who socialized and worked closely together, critiquing and influencing one another's styles. They were more avant-garde than most Bay Area artists, especially after seeing the various exhibits of European modernism at the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915. Their work was important in the development of Californian Impressionist, Colorist, and figurative expressionist painting. Their work is marked by exuberant color, in the manner of the Fauves.


Selden Gile, "San Rafael Ave, Tiburon"


William Clapp, "Path Through the Woods"


August Gay, "Canneries"


Maurice Logan, "San Francisco ferry dock"

[image error]
Louis Siegriest


Bernard von Eichman

The group centered around Selden Connor Gile, formerly of Maine, older and possessed of a large house. His friends socialized there nightly (parties were pretty raucous, apparently) and some even lived there off and on.

Of course, this idyllic stage didn't last forever.

Gay moved to Monterey, a popular area for landscape painters. Although he returned to the Bay Area frequently, his friend C.S. Price and other Monterey artists influenced his stylisticic development.


C.S Price


August Gay "Monterey Wharf"

Red von Eichman moved to New York in 1928, where he met artist Mildred Stazer, married and had children. The family eventually returned to California but due to economic pressures he never went back to art as a primary career.

Gile remained in the Bay Area but suffered from alcoholism and became increasingly moody and anti-social.

Boas does a good job here. The artists' backgrounds, their personalities, travels, interrelations, and developments are all considered. The only weakness I'd complain of is that the art of non-Society of Six artists who influenced them is minimally included in the reproductions, and then usually as a black-and-white thumbnail, which is practically useless especially when discussing color. It isn't a big deal with well-known artists such as Gauguin, but I doubt many readers have much familiarity with the works of California artists such as Price or Fortune.

But that's really just a quibble. It's a well-done study. Good assortment of plates. Recommended for those with an interest in Colorism or California art history.

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic book. I still like Selden Gile the best.