Nearly 50 drawings by Elizabeth Layton (1909-1993) have been given recently to art museums including the Whitney Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the High Museum and the Hammer Museum at UCLA. Layton (Grandma Layton) gained national attention for her imaginative self-portraits in which she portrayed herself squarely in the center of current events. She had solo exhibitions in more than 150 museums, including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and feature stories in Life, People and Parade magazines and on National Public Radio. The recent gifts had been donated to the Lawrence Arts Center in Kansas near the artist's home in Wellsville. The Lawrence Arts Center, a community-focused organization came to realize that it did not have the resources to adequately preserve and exhibit this important body of work so the staff asked Don Lambert to find new homes for the drawings. Lambert "discovered" Layton's work 38 years ago when he was a young newspaper reporter. Her longtime champion, who now lives in Kansas City, commented, "I am pleased to continue to widen and deepen the appreciation of this artist on a national level. While basically untrained, she has a foothold in contemporary art." Lambert added that several museums plan to exhibit their Layton drawings in the fall of 2017, the fortieth anniversary of the artist's first and only art class.
The museums recently gifted Layton drawings include:
- Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
- American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
- Art Institute of Chicago, IL
- Detroit Institute of Arts, MI
- Hammer Museum (Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts), University of California, Los Angeles
- High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
- Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
- John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
- Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
- St. Louis Art Museum, MO
- Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
In addition, five drawings each have gone to institutions in Layton's home state including:
- Beach Museum of Art, Manhattan, KS
- Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, KS
- Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS
- Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS
- Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS
Whitney Museum curator, David Kiehl, who has exhibited Layton's work in the past, was pleased with the acquisition of her "Capital Punishment" and "Nuclear Scream" drawings. Mark Pascale, a curator at the Art Institute, had seen Layton's two previous shows in Chicago and welcomed the addition of her version of "American Gothic." Connie Butler, a curator at the Hammer Museum and a proponent of women artists, believes that Layton addresses feminist issues in her nude self-portraits.
Layton began drawing at the age of 68 and did nearly a thousand drawings in her 15-year career. She used the blind contour method, looking only into a mirror while drawing what she saw and felt. After only a few months, she realized that drawing had cured her 30-year manic depression, which had been treated with thirteen shock treatments. Her self-portraits deal with many contemporary issues - women's rights, racial prejudice, the environment, AIDS, marriage equality and aging. Because learning to draw "saved" her life, she chose not to sell any of her works but gave many to charities including civil liberties projects, public television, arts organizations and women's shelters. In addition to the museums listed above, her drawings were previously donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO; the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, NE; the Phoenix Art Museum in AZ; the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe; the California Palace of the Legion of Honor (Achenbach Foundation) in San Francisco, CA and the Honolulu Museum of Art, HI. Elizabeth Layton's work has received numerous accolades. Kay Larson wrote in New York Magazine, " Considering her background, I am tempted to call Layton a genius." Hank Burchard, critic at the Washington Post dubbed her "Grandma Moses on Tabasco sauce." Jane Addams, Washington Times, called Layton the "Van Gogh of contour drawing." Noted art historian Lucy Lippard wrote, "she has unselfconsciously mastered the fusion of personal and political that so many progressive artists strive for. By using her own image to stand for all of denigrated, invisible, abused humanity, she has raised the universal from the particular."
Betty Dawson, one of Grandma Layton's good friends, contributed a box of cards and letters Grandma had written her through the years to the Nelson Museum. They are in the archives. Anyone who is interested in seein those can call the archivist at 816-751-1354.
The museums recently gifted Layton drawings include:
- Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
- American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
- Art Institute of Chicago, IL
- Detroit Institute of Arts, MI
- Hammer Museum (Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts), University of California, Los Angeles
- High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
- Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
- John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
- Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
- St. Louis Art Museum, MO
- Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
In addition, five drawings each have gone to institutions in Layton's home state including:
- Beach Museum of Art, Manhattan, KS
- Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, KS
- Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS
- Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS
- Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS
Whitney Museum curator, David Kiehl, who has exhibited Layton's work in the past, was pleased with the acquisition of her "Capital Punishment" and "Nuclear Scream" drawings. Mark Pascale, a curator at the Art Institute, had seen Layton's two previous shows in Chicago and welcomed the addition of her version of "American Gothic." Connie Butler, a curator at the Hammer Museum and a proponent of women artists, believes that Layton addresses feminist issues in her nude self-portraits.
Layton began drawing at the age of 68 and did nearly a thousand drawings in her 15-year career. She used the blind contour method, looking only into a mirror while drawing what she saw and felt. After only a few months, she realized that drawing had cured her 30-year manic depression, which had been treated with thirteen shock treatments. Her self-portraits deal with many contemporary issues - women's rights, racial prejudice, the environment, AIDS, marriage equality and aging. Because learning to draw "saved" her life, she chose not to sell any of her works but gave many to charities including civil liberties projects, public television, arts organizations and women's shelters. In addition to the museums listed above, her drawings were previously donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO; the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, NE; the Phoenix Art Museum in AZ; the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe; the California Palace of the Legion of Honor (Achenbach Foundation) in San Francisco, CA and the Honolulu Museum of Art, HI. Elizabeth Layton's work has received numerous accolades. Kay Larson wrote in New York Magazine, " Considering her background, I am tempted to call Layton a genius." Hank Burchard, critic at the Washington Post dubbed her "Grandma Moses on Tabasco sauce." Jane Addams, Washington Times, called Layton the "Van Gogh of contour drawing." Noted art historian Lucy Lippard wrote, "she has unselfconsciously mastered the fusion of personal and political that so many progressive artists strive for. By using her own image to stand for all of denigrated, invisible, abused humanity, she has raised the universal from the particular."
Betty Dawson, one of Grandma Layton's good friends, contributed a box of cards and letters Grandma had written her through the years to the Nelson Museum. They are in the archives. Anyone who is interested in seein those can call the archivist at 816-751-1354.
PHOENIX ART MUSEUM
This Just in: A Spotlight on New Acquisitions presents a selection of new artworks as they are accepted into the collection of Phoenix Art Museum. Many of these works are on view for the first time in our galleries, and all lay the foundation for and bear witness to new curatorial initiatives, while foreshadowing what the future of our collection, held in the public trust, holds. Many of the works in this regularly rotating installation, including a work on paper by Elizabeth Layton and a painting by Miné Okubo, which represents the first work in the Museum’s American art collection by a Japanese-American woman, are on view for the first time in the Museum’s galleries, and all lay the foundation for and bear witness to new curatorial initiatives.
AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM
The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland is the nation's museum for self-taught, intuitive artistry. Their Layton drawings are now "in the closet" but have been on exhibit in their permanent collection gallery. They are: "Every Which Way", the one where she is trying to water a plant; Barbara Frietchie (Barbara lived not far from Baltimore); and one I'm drawing a blank on, she is surrounded by devils and angels, I think. - Don Lambert