I first learned the use and meaning of the word, retarditaire,
in the 1970’s as I sat in a History of Interior Design class
at UW Madison. An interpretation of its meaning is simply this:
Some new ideas are slow to move from one area to another, implying
that what is new in one place is not simultaneously new all over.
Some important and freshly minted art movements take their time
to arrive in other geographic regions due to physical, technical
and cultural reasons, and due to human obstinacy and obstructionism.
For example during the second half of the 18th century the fresh
neoclassical styles in architecture and furniture such as Hepplewhite
and Sheraton took their time to move from England to America due
to the slow pace of communication and transportation. These Classical
Revivals were the new “hot” thing following news of
excavations in Herculaneum and Pompeii. Those who could afford
it chose to employ architects and designers who could create for
them the latest popular styles. Sailing ships took a long time
to traverse the seas.
Gradually, over the course of months and years, these revival
styles made their way across the expanding western United States.
However, what was new in New York might not be seen produced in
western territories for many years, or perhaps never if there
was no local demand for it. Sometimes there was resistance to
change less adaptable attitudes simply slow to accept outside
influences, especially if local styles were vital and preferred.
Sometimes there were the local idiosyncrasies and mutations that
made regional styles unique, possibly a positive trait seen thru
the eyes of an exploring art historian or artist.
Eventually throughout the 19th century rail travel and distribution
of literature lessened time gaps and the expansion of ideas moved
at greater speeds. We also sometimes overlook that artists did
not merely wait for things to come to them. They often traveled
in many directions to learn about other places and ideas. Travel
in the 19th century was not a rare thing. It was taken with greater
frequency than we think. There were day trips on rail and coach,
as well as extended travel to the East and West.
However, the acceptance of the important European art movements
of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries did not take hold in
American until decades after they arose in Europe. It took a major
art event like the 1913 Armory Show in New York, which traveled
to Chicago and Boston, to set fire to slowly awakening artists
and to the drowsy or recalcitrant general public. This titled
“International Exhibition of Modern Art” was the brain
child begun and executed by American artists, especially Arthur
Davies and Walt Kuhn, and the organization they formed called
“The Association of American Painters & Sculptors”
in 1912.
In 20th century Wisconsin we can see that the advent of Modernism
did arrive in a retarditaire fashion. In the first several decades
of the 1900’s the remaining influence of German academies
was very strong due the several 19th century immigrant German
artist teachers and their respect for the academies they had known.
Academic teaching techniques meant that students followed long
established curricula; including study from classical molds, figure
drawing, traditional use of color, composition and technique,
with little to no thought about taking advantage of accidents.
Accidents were not supposed to happen. Paintings were planned
and were meant to be executed in stages, with little deviation
from that plan.
The influence of 19th C. French Impressionists did eventually
make its way into the Midwest. Even some paintings by German influenced
Wisconsin artists, such as the important and academically trained
Carl Von Marr, reveal a softening and diffusion common to Impressionism.
Full blown impressionism generally came late to America, as evidenced
by the late dates of American Impressionists compared to the period
of its blossoming in France.
In the second and third decades of the 20th Century, as seen in
Europe and Russia, more advanced styles of art emerged, including
Cubism, Fauvism, Constructivism, Futurism, and more…all
breaking with traditional academies. The noted New York Armory
Show of 1913 remains a touchstone moment in the education of American
artists and the public at large. As word spread from the East
coast to the West, more adventurous artists came to vent their
own experimental tendencies, embrace artistic freedom and follow
new hypotheses.
Some Wisconsin artists who broke from hide bound traditions had
to leave the state to find an audience and make a name for themselves.
We have important regional examples from early 20th Century like
Edward Steichen, Georgia O’Keeffe and Frank Lloyd Wright
who became internationally prominent. Others who a bit later reached
outside our limited regional community to take jobs or commissions
that provided them success and broader name recognition included
Edmund Lewandowski, Aaron Bohrod and Brooks Stevens.
There were second and third generations of our regional artist
who remained here and who responded to the revolution and evolution
of 20th Century Modernism by engaging in their own brands of progressive
contemporary styles, such as Schomer Lichtner and his wife, Ruth
Grotenrath, Elsa Ulbricht and George Niedecken, but even they
benefited from reaching outside the geographic and cultural restrictions
of our locale. After all, even New York artists do not just show
their wares in New York.
Adding to the mix of expressions there were some artists working
in the style called Midwest Regionalism and Social Realism who
believed that their mission was to represent the working classes
of country and city. In their art they proclaimed that it was
working class citizens that provided the raw materials, the food
stuffs, the factory produced goods, as well as the human character
and social adhesion that holds our societal fabric together. Such
nationally known artists as Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood
stand out as Regionalists.
Their art was a representative one that technically and stylistically
appeared conservative when compared to some progressive art accepted
in avant-garde circles. Wisconsin had its share of these Midwest
Regionalists, some associated with art schools like UW Madison,
UW Milwaukee and Layton School of Art. I speak respectively of
John Steuart Curry, Robert von Neumann and Gerritt Sinclair.
It was during the decades of the 30’s to the 50’s
that breaks with traditions in Wisconsin seem to have really emerged,
a process that may have been “retarditaire” in the
true sense of that word. What was modern and progressive in Europe
and the Eastern US eventually made its way to cities further west.
Students from Wisconsin looked outside their environment and attended
the likes of the School of the Chicago Art Institute and traveled
to far flung contemporary exhibitions.
The group of older academically trained artists was passing on
while the influence of newer styles was being seen in literature
and media, in text books and art classes. Artists such as Picasso,
Klee, Kandinsky, etc. were being studied and emulated. Progress
was also amplified due to the movement of European artists coming
to America as a result of the First and Second World Wars. The
liberalizing of American Art, including in Wisconsin, would not
be stopped.
Of course, like all regions, Wisconsin has its appreciators and
proponents of some art forms which must be considered conservative.
There will always be the lovers of landscape and inspired pictures
of natural places, still lifes and portraits. There will always
be some artists, dealers and collectors of more traditional art
forms. This does not mean that the work is flawed, unskilled or
backward. Such work can be very sophisticated, long studied and
historically relevant. It is an extension of traditions that have
proven historically significant and which speak to human conditions
and ideals.
Today the word retarditaire has little relevance in our culture.
Besides the great ease of travel, we have access to the latest
art and ideas from around the globe coming at us thru TV and the
Internet. The media loves to tell us about what is new, topical
and often outlandish. Specialized publications are delivered to
our doors. We learn what is being exhibited and talked about from
California, London, Australia, to Johannesburg and China. Each
morning I can look at my online New York Times and get reports
about the latest major art news. I Google and add layers of knowledge.
In conclusion, art emerging in Wisconsin in the early 21st century
does not seem at all “retarditaire”, unless we can
find a regional artist who lives in a cave without electricity,
and who avoids contact with the rest of humankind. But…you
know, I would love to see the work of such an individual creating
an art form that has not been affected by the popular influences
of the time.
Perhaps a national study of regional art is in order, as we attempt
to find inspiration. After all, many artists have looked to the
work of Naives, the mentally affected, and Outsiders for inspiration.
Maybe somewhere in neglected regions, away from the urban centers
of influence, there are unique expressions which are being overlooked,
but which can themselves serve as influential models.
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