AFA Summer 2020

Summer 98 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com 1. For more on Chanler, see Betsy Fahlman, “Robert Winthrop Chanler: Flamboyant American Modernist,” in SECAC Review , XVI, no. 3, (2013): 293–310. 2. The centennial of the 1913 Armory Show was marked in 2013 with an exhibition at the New York Historical Society that featured two works by Chanler, an important milestone in the expanding awareness of his work. 3. The last decade has seen a growing interest in the life and work of Chanler. A 2014 symposium on Chanler was held at Vizcaya, followed by the publication of Robert Winthrop Chanler: Discovering the Fantastic (2016: Monacelli Press), as well as a multitude of conservation projects led respectively by Vizcaya Museum and Gardens and the Whitney Studio in NYC, which were centered on the unique preservation challenges of Chanler’s creations. 4. Ivan Narodny, The Art of Robert Winthrop Chanler (New York: William Helburn, 1921). 5. Narodny, 15. 6. This room is now in the permanent collection of the Fine Art Museum of San Francisco. 7. Guy P è ne du Bois, “Robert Winthrop Chanler: The Man,” Arts and Decoration (January 1921): 192 . 8. Narodny, 15. mid fight, golden tigers leaping out at us and a deer succumbing to the vigor of a leopard with claws extended all illustrate the spirit of Chanler’s work. Questions of dominance emerge, whether through brute strength as in the pieces noted above or through beauty, represented by strutting peacocks and birds of paradise. Chanler is equally baroque through his drama, extravagance and intensity, yet his understanding of decorating and the arts was distinctly modern. Described as an aristocratic bohemian, anti-academic but equally anti-modern, Chanler’s otherworldly and unclassifiable art was fodder for the press of his day. Guy Pène du Bois, artist and writer and contemporary of Chanler, described his work as a dynamic force that reveals intuition before it does intellect, which is perhaps the best way to understand the artist. 7 His work is visceral, something to be experienced first, and then, perhaps, understood. Though Chanler was undeniably influenced by myriad sources, he created work best described as Chanleresque, having a style of its own. 8 The Electrifying Art and Spaces of Robert Winthrop Chanler is organized by Planting Fields Foundation. The exhibition was originally scheduled to run from April 1 through July 31, 2020; please check www.plantingfields.org fo r updates on the opening. A virtual tour will be available on the website after April 9th. The exhibition features twelve works from a number of private collections throughout America and provides special access to the Buffalo mural and Lace Room at Planting Fields. The exhibition is located in Coe Hall at 1395 Planting Fields Road, Oyster Bay, New York 11771. For more information please visit www.plantingfields.org. Gina J. Wouters is the Executive Director of Planting Fields Foundation in Oyster Bay, New York, a 409-acre Gilded Age estate. Gina has worked at a number of historic sites including Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, Florida and Cheekwood Estate and Gardens in Nashville, Tennessee. Fig. 10: Robert Winthrop Chanler (1872–1930), Leopard and Deer (Death of the White Hart), 1913. Panel, Oil on panel. Rokeby Collection, New York. photograph by T. Whitney Cox. Fig. 11: Robert Winthrop Chanler (1872–1930), Birds of Paradise, 1913. Panel, Oil on panel. Collection of Tracie Rozhon, New York. Photograph by T. Whitney Cox.