American Art Talks and Classes

 
“Rena has a gift for bringing fine art alive, which is a true feat in the age of digital distractions. Audiences of all ages are captivated by her interactive presentations, and always leave with a far greater appreciation for still paintings, and the fascinating artists behind the brushstrokes.”
                                Corey William Schneider, CEO & Founder, New York Adventure Club
 
“Very well organized, intelligently presented with an engaging and charming manner.”
“Rena’s passion and knowledge about subject. Very interesting topic. Excellent gripping presentation. Audience interaction stimulating.”
                                  Webinar Participants, New York Adventure Club webinar, April 2020
 
“On behalf of the Tompkins Square Library and its patrons, I want to thank Rena for an amazing lecture on breakout women artists. You inspired us to learn more about these talented women and to see their artworks in museums/galleries. We can’t wait to see you next time!”
          Alyona Glushchenkova, Information Assistant, New York Public Library, March 2019
 
“Rena Tobey gave five sessions on ‘Visions of New York’ at our non-profit school for people 55+ in Manhattan. The sessions were totally absorbing and, without flashiness, very exciting. Rena’s approach is to draw students out so they make their own discoveries, literally seeing more in the paintings and photographs than they would have individually. By encouraging us to stop and explore the images, I think she will have a lasting effect on our appreciation of art.”
             Judy Langer, Executive Director, The Center for Learning and Living, Inc, Fall 2018
 
“Rena’s ‘Painting Connecticut’ program was a big hit at the Scranton Memorial Library in Madison. On their way out the door attendees were already asking for her to make a return visit. The talk has a terrific blend of fascinating stories, beautiful artwork, and discussion of some artistic concepts and techniques. This program is accessible to art novices and experts alike. Highly recommended!”  
              Andy Northrup, Adult Services & Programs Librarian, Scranton Memorial Library
                                                                                                                    January 2018
 
“Rena’s high energy, thoroughly engaging art lectures include high quality visuals that engage the audience.  We’ve hosted her numerous times, and she remains a patron favorite!
               Tina Panik, Reference & Adult Services Manager, Avon Free Public Library, 2017
 

“Rena Tobey gave a marvelous presentation ‘Finding Her Way’ for the Middlesex Institute for Lifelong Education (MILE).  I loved the way that she interacted with the audience, and was able to elicit so many great comments, observations, and questions from them … as well as giving us a wealth of information.  Our group learned so much from Rena, and we had such fun learning that we could have stayed well beyond the program’s time frame — in fact, several of us did just that!”                                                                                                                                         Nancy Jordan, MILE Advisory Board Member, March 2016

“We were delighted with Rena’s presentation of ‘Clothes Make the Country: Fashion History and American Colonial Portraits.’  Rena’s enthusiasm for the subject was infectious, and the entire audience was enthralled. We look forward to having Rena return to the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum to share even more details on how to read early American portraiture.”                                                                                                                          Charles Lyle, Executive Director, Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum, October 2016

“Rena Tobey did an outstanding presentation for our patrons at the Lucy Robbins           Welles Library…We look forward to having her again!”                                                                                                            Head of Community Services, Newington, CT, May 2015

 

Rena conducts exuberant talks on American Art topics, including:

Eating, Shopping, Dancing in the Big City: Coronavirus Edition
American Artists on the Town, 1820-1940

Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, The Shoe Shop, c1911

2020 has provided us clear vision about the everyday we used to take for granted. Nevermind eating out, shopping, and simply getting together with family and friends, celebrating life events and joining crowds for urban playtime are all a challenge now. Join us for a close look with Rena Tobey at artworks created by American artists from the mid-1800s to the Great Depression. These works exuberantly depict all those small and larger moments of urban life, and you may find they provide just the refresher you’ve been waiting for!

 

 

Modern Life in the Modern City: Art in New York 1900-1945

John Sloan, Hairdresser’s Window, 1907

Come take a fresh look at New York City through the eyes of some of America’s greatest artists who were endlessly inspired by the city. Their exuberant depictions of the city’s people and places collectively tell the visual story of New York’s charge into modernity, while also sharing intimate details of daily life.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Clothes Make the Country: Fashion History and American Colonial Portraits

John Singleton Copley, Nicholas Boylston, c1769

 

American colonial portraits provide viewers important clues into the values, aspirations, and daily lives of men, women, and children in the 18th century. By closely examining several works, especially the clothing and accessories portrayed, participants will discover how paintings reflect the shaping of our unique American identity. This interactive session provides fresh ways to consider the formation of a nation.

 

 

 

Finding Her Way: American Women Artists 1845-1945
Alternate Title: Dancing the Boundary: American Women Artists Negotiate Two Worlds

Theresa Bernstein, In the Elevated, 1916

American women artists working before 1945 had to navigate societal expectations of women’s domestic roles with their drive to be professionals. These artists often faced difficult choices–-sacrificing in their personal lives or in their careers. Despite evident talent and success, most fell into obscurity with their death. In this interactive session, come discover and closely examine works by women artists who collectively paint a picture of a changing America.

Painting New York

George Luks. Hester Street. 1905. Brooklyn Museum.

Come take a look at art made by New York artists depicting the people and places of the city. Together, these works tell the visual story of the New York’s social, political, and cultural history from the Dutch settlement to World War II. Ranging from nostalgic views to the descriptive, the images celebrate, promise and reveal the way New Yorkers lived during the city’s formative years.

 

New Classes!

Books and Storytelling in American Art

John Quidor. The Return of Rip Van Winkle. 1849.

Books and art have had a close relationship since their inception. Now open the cover of this partnership to explore how American artists have used books to reveal character, amplify stories, establish legends, and tickle our imaginations. Topics include Books for the Future, Illustrating the Story, Making the American Myth, and Creating Stories in American Art. If you love literature, if you love books, if you love art, come explore the rousing adventures of the collaborations of books and stories in American art. Prepare for intrigue and laughter in this highly-interactive, image-rich class.

4 sessions; each session can stand alone
Books for the Future
Illustrating the Story
Mythmaking
Stories in American Art
 

 
The Modern City: Art of New York 1900-1950

Edward Hopper. Office at Night. 1940.

Come take a deep look at New York City through the eyes of some of America’s greatest artists who were endlessly inspired by the city. Their depictions of people and places collectively tell the visual story of New York’s rise to a global powerhouse, while also sharing intimate details of daily life. In this highly interactive, image-rich class, we’ll dive into works of art, so that you’ll see your city in fresh ways. Artists include: Urban Realists who described the explosion of the new urban scene; Harlem Renaissance artists who gave voice to the African-American experience; Social Realists who unveiled the challenges of the Depression; and Mid-Century Modernists who altered how we see daily life.

4 sessions; each session can stand alone
Urban Realism
The Harlem Renaissance
Social Realism
Mid-century Modernism

 

Finding Her Way: American Women Artists Rise to Professionalism, 1845-1945

Lilly Martin Spencer.
Young Husband, First Marketing. 1854

The American experiment has allowed for many forms of societal rule-breaking, but historically, women artists often found themselves bound by old-world conventions. In this course, we take a deep look at the artworks of extraordinary American women artists, some familiar and most less so. You’ll get a better understanding of the strategies these artists employed to become professionals, a reflection of the challenges urban women faced overall. Most of these artists have fallen into obscurity with their death, no matter the successes they achieved while living. Together we will resuscitate and celebrate the art careers of historical women working over 100 years. Join us for this highly interactive course!

Sessions – choose all, some, or one–they can stand alone
Lilly Martin Spencer
The Gilded Age Breakthrough
The Red Rose Girls
The Boston School
Theresa Bernstein and the Urban Realists
The Salons of Gertrude Whitney and Florine Stettheimer
Isabel Bishop and the Social Realists

 

Shaking Hands with Lilly Martin Spencer

Lilly Martin Spencer          Shake Hands?                        1854

Perhaps no artist better captures the experience of day-to-day life of American women in the mid-1800s than Lilly Martin Spencer. Come learn how one of the first American professional women artists balanced her chaotic home life with her career aspirations. Laugh with her distinctively wry and witty ‘kitchen’ paintings that satirize gender roles, what it meant to be a middle-class woman, and how the growing women’s movement complicated both. You’ll come away with a fresh appreciation for this relevant artist, and who knows, maybe a little flour on your hand.

 

 

The Boston School: Using Beauty to Advance the Story

Ellen Day Hale. June. 1893.

By the turn of the 20th century, more women artists were working in urban centers. Women painting as part of The Boston School provided each other support, critique, and exhibition opportunities. The Boston School advocated for beauty as a key approach to any artwork and took inspiration from Johannes Vermeer and the Dutch masters of the 1600s. Marie Danforth Page was the most successful artist, male or female, to work in Boston’s affluent Back Bay, providing elegant portraits of the elite. Her most intriguing work is a family portrait, with its complex investigation of gender roles, marriage, and the Gilded Age. A generation younger, Elizabeth Okie Paxton typified the New Woman with her companionate marriage and breakthrough art exhibited in New York, a milestone for any Boston artist. Together, these two artists’ portfolios suggest the tensions in a rapidly changing society.

 

The New Woman Painter: Elizabeth Okie Paxton and The Breakfast Tray.

Elizabeth Okie Paxton.  The Breakfast Tray

Elizabeth Okie Paxton, The Breakfast Tray, c1910.

With The Breakfast Tray, Elizabeth Paxton invites us into a world—feminine, messy, sensual, and believable.  It is full of personality.  We dig into it trying to learn more about a woman who apparently was not shy, but left little record of who she was and what she cared about.  The implied presence in The Breakfast Tray is a New Woman.  She is educated and the beneficiary of improved health care.  She advocates for women’s right to vote, to work outside the home, to go to the theater unaccompanied, and to buy objects she uses to create an intimate space all her own, just as we see in The Breakfast Tray.  Come learn more about the opportunities and particular challenges of New Women painters and the unique voice of Elizabeth Okie Paxton.

 

Theresa Bernstein and the Urban Realists: Exuberantly describing life in the city

Theresa Bernstein. The Milliners. 1919.

Technological innovations affected every aspect of life in America’s exploding cities in the early 20th century. The Urban Realists worked to capture and describe the rapid changes to the landscape of New York City. Theresa Bernstein, in her unprecedented long career, showed the woman’s experience. Intimate, often deeply personal, her paintings also expressed the energy of the age with hot colors and animated brushwork. Her story and women’s stories intertwine through the decades, while also revealing the struggles she and her artist husband faced during the upheavals of the 20th century. Her works reveal the resilience and determination of the American spirit.

 

Isabel Bishop and the Social Realists: Empathy and Change during the Great Depression

Isabel Bishop. Noon Hour. 1935.

American art tends toward Realism, an art movement focused on the everyday lives of ordinary people expressed naturalistically. During the Great Depression, artists of the Fourteenth Street School used their works to touch the hearts of viewers and evoke action to make change. Isabel Bishop, working in the classically-inspired method these artists favored, provided a window into women’s experiences. Working from her Union Square studio, Bishop studied people in all their circumstances, as they lived the Depression in that one place. Articulate in her vision of the American Dream, she painted the particular, but also a sweeping sociological expression of her vision for a positive future.

 

Land-People-City

Thomas Cole. View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, MA, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow. 1836.

Thomas Cole. View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, MA, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow. 1836.

When you think of America, these are the qualities you may think of first. Come explore how American identity has been shaped by images of the land, people, and city with art historian Rena Tobey. In this interactive series of talks, we’ll dig beyond the surface layers that create a streamlined, but simplistic notion of the American character. We’ll take a slow look at paintings that tell complex, often coded stories, reflecting both the challenges and greatness of our country.

 

Painting Connecticut

Beatrice Cuming, Saturday Night, New London, 1935-43

Beatrice Cuming, Saturday Night, New London, 1935-43

Many famous artists have been inspired by Connecticut’s pastoral tranquility and radiant light. But the story of Connecticut told through painting is so much more. Come explore stories of the state’s rich history through the painted canvas. Learn about the Colonial portrait painter who as a Loyalist fled to England during the Revolutionary War, only to return to paint Connecticut’s faces. Explore how painters helped create the myth of Connecticut all around the country. See the rise of industrialism and its uneasy relationship with farm culture. And yes, there are the transcendent landscapes, too. This talk is sure to give you new perspective on the place you inhabit every day, through this rich range of diverse artists and their compelling works.

 

Japonisme—Cross-Cultural Greetings:
American Artists Embrace Japanese Art and Culture

William Merritt Chase, Miss Dora Wheeler, 1881-1883

William Merritt Chase, Miss Dora Wheeler, 1881-1883

From the 1860s to the 1920s, Japanese art and culture fascinated Western connoisseurs. From famous American artists like James McNeil Whistler to anonymous women porcelain painters, the American art world was revolutionized through this cross-cultural contact, with influences on painting, printmaking, decorative arts, and architecture.  In this interactive session, participants will compare works of art by Japanese and American artists, consider how possibilities for women artists emerged, and delve into the Aesthetic, Arts and Crafts, and Art Nouveau movements that still influence visual culture today.

 

To hire Rena or to learn more, contact her today.

“Rena was outstanding: She was extremely knowledgeable, personable, humorous, and willing to answer many questions.  She really helped us understand and appreciate the story behind each painting and put each one into perspective.”                                                                                               American Association of University Women, August 2012

“Your presentation yesterday was outstanding.  I only wish it had been video-taped for those who were unfortunate enough to have missed it…Your reputation as a must-see has been cemented.”                                                                                                                                                                               Docent, Delaware Art Museum, October 2010

On Isabel Bishop, “Dante and Virgil in Union Square,” 1932                                                  “Rena’s talk was terrific!  Loved it and learned so much–a whole new insight.”                                                                                 Delaware Art Museum, October 2010

On Dorothy and Herb Vogel, “Fifty Works for Fifty States”                                            “What a terrific talk!  You looked like you were having such a good time, which is why all the rest of us were having such a good time!  Many thanks for sprinkling us with your enthusiasm.”                                                                                                                                                 Delaware Art Museum, June 2010