alla prima
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The first phase of Impressionism tends to get overlooked in favor of the color experiments of Monet and Seurat. Originally, the Impressionists were interested in capturing life on the street -- in movement, ephemeral, natural -- which became an exercise in parsimony: laying down the fewest strokes in the quickest time to sufficiently describe moving targets like dancers or circus performers. This type of Impressionism had a powerful influence for decades afterward because it turned out to be useful. By the 1890s, a revolution occurred in the print media: the invention of the halftone plate (the familiar dots that make up a newspaper picture), allowing books, newspapers and magazines to have shaded pictures while skipping the laborious and inaccurate engravings. To satisfy the huge demand for accurate pictures on deadline, young artists joined the rebellion against time-consuming academic methods. To maintain good draftsmanship at high speed is extremely difficult, and the artists who could render perfectly "at first stroke" (or "premier coup" or "alla prima") achieved renown. Sargent, Sorolla, Whistler, Henri and Zorn were revered by illustrators. This last was a particular influence on fellow Swede Haddon Sundblom, the subject of our little exhibit. Sundblom gets pigeonholed as the painter of Coca-Cola Santa Clauses, but this trivializes his central place in 20th century advertising art. More than any artist including Norman Rockwell, Sundblom defined the American Dream in pictures, proved by his work for virtually the entire Fortune 500. [Among his still-living legacy is the Quaker Oats man, posed by his assistant Harold Macauley.] Our show focuses on an advertising campaign Sundblom did for the Cream of Wheat company in the later 1920s. It was a departure from their previous imagery, featuring their chef holding the product. Sundblom's focus was on children in various phases of growing up healthy and happy thanks to their hot cereal breakfasts. His pictures were attractive and universal. By the 1950s, when much of Sundblom's work was done by assistants, and his slick imagery encroached on the insincere, it's less interesting. But back in the 1920s, his pictures were more personal, his characters more real, and his technique was much closer to its Impressionist origins, capturing the essence of his subjects in a few quick -- but perfectly placed -- strokes. Roger T. Reed |
