LAM shines overdue light on one of Laguna’s early artistic luminaries Donna Schuster: An Independent Brush
By MARRIE STONE
If you follow Laguna’s art history, you probably know of William Wendt, Frank Cuprien, Edgar Payne, Anna Hills and Joseph Kleitsch. You’re less likely to have heard of Donna Schuster, whose work is every bit as deserving as her early 20th century contemporaries. Now through September 7, the Laguna Art Museum (LAM) offers a retrospective of Schuster’s work. It’s Schuster’s first solo show in more than 40 years and highlights what makes this artist special.
Click on photo for a larger image
Photos by Jeff Rovner
Photo of Donna Schuster painting “Girl in a Hammock.” This photo was published in the art section of the “Los Angeles Herald” on June 1, 1917.
Born into a wealthy family in Milwaukee, Wis. in 1883, money never concerned Schuster. Her father found success in the tobacco business, ensuring that his family could indulge their passions. Schuster took an early interest in art and was encouraged to pursue it.
“In the early 20th century, in the United States, women artists had a difficult time. With the Victorian era and its leftovers, people didn’t buy works by women. They preferred works by men,” said LAM curator Jean Stern. “Schuster could not get artistic representation. But she didn’t need it – nor did she need to get married for financial reasons – because she was from a wealthy family.”
Schuster trained both at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (where she graduated with honors) and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. In 1912, she toured Belgium with the renowned American impressionist and teacher William Merritt Chase, winning the William Merritt Chase Prize with a painting titled Le Petit Dejeuner (meaning “breakfast” in French).
Click on photo for a larger image
Schuster’s “Le Petit Dejeuner” (1912). The work was painted in Belgium under the instruction of William Merritt Chase and garnered an award at the end of the course.
The following year, Schuster moved to Los Angeles and became active in the California Art Club and the Laguna Beach Art Association. She split her time between two homes, one in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles and one at 559 Thalia St. in Laguna Beach.
In contrast to Laguna’s popular plein air movement, which has endured for nearly 150 years, Schuster focused primarily on the human figure. Working with oils, watercolors, pencil sketches and gouache, Schuster painted portraits, still lifes, architecture, seascapes and landscapes. She studied cubism, modernism, impressionism and expressionism, making her one of the more experimental artists of her time. Perhaps that’s because she wasn’t in the business of art. Free from the constraints of dealers and the demands of the market, Schuster indulged her curiosities.
“It is said that she changed her style every five to seven years,” Stern said. “She was very experimental, interested in some modern art, landscape, portraiture and still life.”
Click open story button to continue reading…
Click on photo for a larger image
“Samovar on the Table” is an example of Schuster’s range of subject matter, which included portraits, still lifes, architecture and more
“She was very aggressive in getting her way and getting her art out,” Stern said. “She didn’t have a dealer, and she didn’t need a dealer because she could do it all herself.”
Her mastery over light and color sets these paintings apart. When touring the exhibition, pay particular attention to how Schuster manages to convey color through suggestion. We understand a white dress to be pure white. In fact, Schuster’s whites include yellows, pinks, purples and blues. We understand bricks to be red. But look closer. Schuster’s bricks contain very little red, instead suggesting the color with greens, blues, grey and orange.
Click on photo for a larger image
“The Mission Bells” (1920)
Much of these color choices are about how to communicate light and shadow. We can tell the location of the sun based on how Schuster uses colors on her subjects’ faces, hair and clothing.
Consider the painting below, an oil entitled Woman at a Desk. The subject is lit by two light sources – the muted sun which shines through a drawn window shade on the left-hand side of the painting and more diffuse light that enters through a bare window behind her. Now look at the woman’s face and the color choices Schuster used to communicate those separate light sources.
Click on photo for a larger image
“Woman at a Desk”
In 1921 Schuster was one of the founders of the Group of Eight, one of the first organizations for exhibition and sales of Modernist works in Southern California. The group was immersed in European modernist approaches, particularly in a freer use of color. They tended to favor painting the figure and not so much the landscape.
From July 20 through August 28, 1927, the Group of Eight held an exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, in Exposition Park. Schuster submitted O’er Waiting Harp Strings, now in the Laguna Art Museum. The painting was praised for its vivid and bold color use. The title is from a hymn written by Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science Church.
“Note that the lower part of the painting is all blue, but the upper part – where the music is spreading – is gold,” Stern said. “It’s a very wonderful and passionate painting. The hymn’s meaning is that the beautiful music takes you – up into the heavens where you can experience beauty, purity and richness.”
Click on photo for a larger image
“O’er Waiting Harp Strings” (1921)
In December 1953, a brush fire broke out near Schuster’s Griffith Park home. High winds and downed power lines were to blame. When the fire erupted on Schuster’s property, she ran back inside her house to retrieve her dog and never returned. Firemen later retrieved her body, though her dog was never found.
“In my career as an art historian, I always felt that if you were looking at a painting, you’re standing where the artist was when he or she painted it,” Stern said. “I feel it’s important to put yourself where the artist was, and to experience what the artist did. Different colors have different effects on the mind and – depending on which colors you use – it affects how a person looks at a painting. I’m delighted to see that the Laguna Art Museum is featuring this very important woman artist. People will get to see what Schuster did and understand what she was trying to do.”
Click on photo for a larger image
“Donna Schuster: An Independent Brush” will be on display through September 7 at LAM
For more information, visit LAM’s website here.
