Abstraction, spiritualism, and social justice: The art and writing of Charmion von Wiegand.
Item
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Title
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Abstraction, spiritualism, and social justice: The art and writing of Charmion von Wiegand.
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Identifier
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AAI9820540
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identifier
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9820540
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Creator
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Hersh, Jennifer Newton.
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Contributor
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Advisers: Marlene Park | Rose-Carol Washton Long
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Date
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1998
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Art History | Journalism | History, United States | American Studies | Women's Studies
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Abstract
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This study examines the significant contribution Charmion von Wiegand's (1898-1983) paintings and critical essays made to the development of American modernism. A feminist before the term was invented, she began her writing career in 1922 as a poet and playwright, publishing in Poet Lore, Buccaneer, and Double Dealer with the assistance of Hart Crane. In 1928, she gave up her artistic pursuits for a career in journalism, working for Hearst papers as the only woman correspondent in post-revolutionary Russia. From 1932 to 1940, von Wiegand turned her interests solely to art and theater as one of two women on staff at the New Masses. Her ideas about the relationship of art to politics and economics reflected a Marxist perspective. A steady stream of articles in Art Front (the official publication of the Artists' union), where she served as the only woman editor, elevated her reputation as a New York critic in the mid 1930s.;Her articles appeared in later years with less frequency in Art News, Arts Magazine, and The Journal of Aesthetics, but continued to document the evolution of the abstract movement. She gave new context and meaning to the works of George Vantongerloo, Mark Tobey, Marsden Hartley, and Pablo Picasso. Von Wiegand is best known for her critical writings on Piet Mondrian, about whom she wrote the first American essay in 1943.;Von Wiegand began painting in 1926 when she underwent psychoanalysis. In the 1930s, John Graham and Hans Richter encouraged her to experiment with psyche-automatism. In the early 1940s von Wiegand studied Mondrian's painting and the principles of Neo-plasticism. She found a spiritual kinship in Mondrian's theories of Neo-Plasticism. After Mondrian's death, von Wiegand researched the origins of Theosophy, reading Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, and Tibetan religious writings. Von Wiegand adopted many ideas from these Eastern sources for her choices in color and geometrical forms. By the 1950s, von Wiegand based her work on sacred principles of the Tantra--the foundation of Tantric Buddhism.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
