MAJOR EXHIBITION OF MID-CENTURY ART OPENS AT SAN ANTONIO

ART LEAGUE & MUSEUM ON JUNE 9TH, 2019

Keith McIntyre, Storm Warning, Watercolor on Paper, 1961

The San Antonio Art League Museum (SAALM) presents Mid-Century Modern in San Antonio, an exhibition which opens to the public on Sunday, June 9th, 2019.  These 64 works span three decades, from 1940 to 1970, and are part of SAALM’s permanent collection.  During those years, the Art League was in a unique position to procure and preserve the best of San Antonio’s mid-century art through its annual Onderdonk Purchase Prize and its Artist of the Year program. Included in this exhibit are rarely-shown paintings, sculptures and ceramics executed in a variety of mid-century styles with unique San Antonio fusions by artists such as Keith McIntyre, Harding Black, and Amy Freeman Lee.
 
In San Antonio, one of the most influential mid-Century modern art groups was the Men of Art Guild, whose members are well-represented in this exhibition. Cecil Casebier, Bill Reily and Chester Toney cofounded this men’s group in 1952. Though the members worked in diverse styles, their unifying goal was to bring contemporary art to San Antonio.  Painting was evolving from social realism to regionalism and eventually to abstract expressionism, which is a strong component of this important exhibition. 
 
The museum is open to the public free of charge Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

The exhibition opened with a private preview event on Friday, June 7th, from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. at the San Antonio Art League. Katie Robinson Edwards, author of Mid-Century Modern Art in Texas, gave an informal lecture about the significance of this revolutionary period in the arts, both nationally and regionally.

Dr. Edward’s book is available for purchase by clicking on this link.