Kyra Markham
Kyra Markham | |
---|---|
Art Students League | |
Known for | Painting, Printmaking, Lithography[1] |
Movement | Realism, Social realism |
Spouses | |
Awards | Mary S. Collins Prize, Philadelphia Print Club annual exhibition, 1935[2] |
Kyra Markham (born Elaine Hyman, 1891–1967) was an actress, figurative painter and
Biography
Markham was born Elaine Hyman in
In addition to her work as an artist, Markham was an accomplished actress. She appeared with the Chicago Little Theater from 1909 to the 1920s, with the Provincetown Players from 1916, and in movies in Los Angeles.[1] She lived with the author and playwright Theodore Dreiser in Greenwich Village from 1914 to 1916, helping him with his writing, editing, and typing.[3] Through Dreiser she became acquainted with H.L Mencken, Edgar Lee Masters, and other writers.[3] Due to Dreiser's womanizing tendencies, Markham left him in 1916 and moved to Provincetown to escape his desperate pleas of reconciliation.[3] While there, Markham continued acting alongside George Cram Cook, Susan Giaspell, and Eugene O'Neill, who founded the Provincetown Playhouse.[3] During this early stage, Markham supported herself by making bookjackets and illustrations, and later working as an art director for film companies like Fox and Metro.[3]
In 1922 she married the architect
During the 1930s, Markham's artistic career began to gain momentum, regularly winning prizes for her lithographic work.
Markham moved to Port-au-Prince in Haiti as a widow in 1960. She was still enthusiastic for her work, and her later work reflected Markham's new home.[4] While living in Haiti, Markham continued to paint and established a salon for local celebrities, American expatriates, and island visitors.[3] Markham died in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1967.
Work
Context and themes
In the time between the two World Wars, American Scene printmakers, like Markham, opposed the Etching Revival style and instead embraced lithography.[9] During the Great Depression, lithography exploded – the WPA/FAP alone published roughly 240,000 prints from 11,285 original images.[9] Like Markham, many other artists working in this style, such as Mabel Dwight, Reginald Marsh, Elizabeth Olds, Caroline Durieux, and Russell Limbach, used lithography as a vehicle to employ humor and satire of daily life.[9]
Often categorized as social realism, Markham's work presents extracted scenes from everyday life in a dramatic manner, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.[7] Markham's work explored the incredible and grim aspects of modern society with a strong interest in labor themes, like much of the socially concerned art of the 1930s.[8] This examination of labor roles was especially vital during Depression-era politics, and Markham often expressed this theme through the environment she knew best: theater.[8] A repeated theme in Markham's work, theater is presented in several prints through the unique perspective of the backstage.[8]
Although similar in subject matter to Mabel Dwight's Houston Street Burlesque (1928) and Elizabeth Olds' Burlesque (1939), Markham's Burlycue (1938) differs by focusing on the dancers identities as workers, rather than as objectified figures.[8] Markham emphasizes the dancers confidence, workplace solidarity, and relaxed interactions – allowing viewers to see the Burlesque in a new light and shifting the mood from tantalizing to lighthearted amusement.[8] Although many of her prints depict scenes of entertainment, whether backstage in the dressing room or performing under the spotlight, Markham is also interested in other leisure activities such as attending lively night clubs and social gatherings.[10] A mural she painted for the Community Hall in West Halifax, Vermont depicts a barn-raising. Often evoking a dream-like state, Markham's use of light, combined with detailed realism, results in fantastical compositions of daily life (9). Similarly to Paul Cadmus and George Tooker, Markham injected fantasy into the social realist genre.[3]
List of works
- Nightclub, 1935, lithograph.
- Fisherman's Luck, 1938, lithograph.
- Hotcha, 1938, aquatint.
- Ohmpeer, 1944, lithograph.
- Bleecker Street Fire Hydrant, 1942, lithograph.
- July 4th, 1936, 1936, lithograph.
- Cherry Blossom in Brooklyn, 1937, lithograph.
- The Silver Trumpets of the Rain, 1936, lithograph.
- New Year's Eve in Greenwich Village, 1938, oil on canvas laid on masonite.
- Flag Raising in Leroy Street, 1942, lithograph.
- Mature Vision, 1935, lithograph.
- Stage Door Johnnie, 1937, lithograph.
- Sailors at Penn Station, 1944, lithograph.
- The Fit Yourself Shop, 1935, lithograph.
- The Show is Over, 1936, lithograph.
- At Her Dressing Table, 1939, oil on canvas board.
- Laughing Gas (Theodore Dreiser's Operation), 1943, lithograph.
- Summer Idyll, 1941, aquatint.
- Burlycue, 1936, lithograph.
- Haitian Village Women, 1961, oil on masonite.
- Elin and Maria, 1934, lithograph.
References
- ^ a b c "Kyra Markham". IFPDA. Archived from the original on 2012-04-28. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
- ^ "Keith Sheridan Fine Prints - Kyra Markham". Retrieved 2011-12-18.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Witkin, Lee D. (1981). Kyra Markham: American fantasist (1891-1967). New York: Witkin Gallery.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Kyra Markham". Terra Foundation for American Art. Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
- ^ "Movie Review - - CHILDREN'S PLAYERS GIVE 'THE FOREST RING'; Group's First Offering at the Roerich Museum Theatre Is Fanatasy Charmingly Presented. - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. 1930-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
- ^ a b "Kyra Markham". American Women at Work. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
- ^ a b c d e Potter, Jeff (2012). "Does this painting portray local people?". The Common.
- ^ a b c d e f Langa, Helen (2004). Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930s. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- ^ a b c Balk, Eugene (1994). "The 'American Scene' Print and the Cartoon". Print Quarterly. 11: 379–94.
- ^ "Kyra Markham Biography". Terra Foundation.
Further reading
- Markham, Kyra (1981). Kyra Markham : American fantasist (1891-1967). New York: Kyra Markham; Lee D Witkin; Witkin Gallery. OCLC 40638945., Catalog of an exhibition held at the Witkin Gallery, New York, N.Y., Oct. 13-Nov. 7, 1981.
- Borden, Ethel; OCLC 5026265.
External links
- Works by Kyra Markam
- Bleeker Street fire hydrant, by Kyra Markham
- Flag Raising in Leroy St, 1942, lithograph at the Library of Congress
- July 4th, 1936
- Lockout, lithograph by Kyra Markham
- Ohmpeer, lithograph of laundry hanging behind tenement
- Sleep, lithograph in the Cleveland Museum of Art
- Well Met in the Subway, lithograph in the Smithsonian Institution