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MILITARY VETERANS FINE ART The Sixth Annual Exhibition American Veterans Society of Artists Inc. November 11th-December 1st 1944 Every Day 1-5 P. M.
194412619New York: American Veterans Society of Artists Inc 1944. Staplebound. Near fine. Small octavo unpaginated 24pp. illustrated. A near fine copy in the publisher's stapled wraps. A smoker's copy with faint tobacco odor. Staples rusted else a sound clean example. SIGNED and generically INSCRIBED by Frederic Allen Williams then President of the organization as well as a contributing artist. A catalogue for the sixth such exhibition this one held during the height of America's involvement in World War II five months after D-Day. There are sixteen halftone illustrations depicting some of the work on display; mostly painting but some sculpture as well. While all of the art is competent some of it is truly impressive and it's clear that while the organization welcomed a range of talent most of the artists had some mastery of their form. Williams in his introduction to the catalogue writes: "The demoralizing influences of war are obvious throughout the country and have made a great impression on creative genius. As the clouds of war pass by art shall bloom again nurtured by the sanity of American Art tradition and fed by the passion of young blood. Stand by and support American Art." Williams was a privileged Bostonian and a veteran of World War I. While he didn't see actual combat there can be no question that the experiences of his comrades left a great impression on him and he became involved with the American Veterans Society of Artists. He was an early member of the artist set in Taos and his work was exhibited in countless mainstream museums during his lifetime. The pamphlet is scarce--in fact we find no holdings of this exact one in OCLC and just a handful of other near-contemporary ones. We also have had toruble finding examples of his signature outside of original artwork. As such a desirably scarce example. American Veterans Society of Artists, Inc unknown
Cleveland Book Company · États-Unis200,00 $US≈ 169,22 €
