AFA Autumn 2021 Preview

HAPPENINGS Autumn 18 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Peter Miller: Forgotten Woman of American Modernism Gratz Gallery & Conservation Studio 5230 Silo Hill Road, Doylestown, PA 18902 For information: 215.348.2500 or www.gratzgallery.com American artist Peter Miller (1913–1996) was born Henrietta Myers. She changed her name to Peter shortly after concluding her studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1934, believing she would be more fairly treated as a man. Miller is classified as an American Modernist, a reputation she earned for having shown at the prestigious Julien Levy Gallery, the premiere showcase for Surrealist painting in New York, in the 1940s. Reviewers noted the unmistakable influence of the artists Joan Miró, whose work she owned and whom she knew, and Arthur Carles, whom she studied with, as well as Native American culture, which came from sharing time between her home state of Pennsylvania and New Mexico. She married fellow artist Earle Miller in 1935. Together, they considered New Mexico their spiritual home. Being neighbors of the indigenous people in the Santa Fe area, their crafts and religious beliefs fascinated Peter. The belief that all creatures could serve as intermediaries with the spiritual world, inspired Miller to incorporate their symbols in her own paintings, along with signs drawn from indigenous pottery and local petroglyphs. The Millers’ intimate familiarity with indigenous customs, rituals, and ceremonies, was assisted by their friendship with the writer Edith Warner, a longtime New Mexico resident, and her friend Tilano Montoya, a Native American from the San Ildefonso Pueblo. Peter Miller has largely been a forgotten figure within the history of American modernism. This is about to change, with Peter Miller: Coming Home , on show through November 2021, at Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, N. Mex., (peytonwright.com) , accompanied by a fully illustrated book, the first monograph on this artist ever published, featuring a preface by Paul Gratz, with text by Francis M. Naumann, and, additionally, the Gratz Gallery & Conservation Studio’s (gratzgallery.com) introduction of Miller’s work at its home gallery in Bucks County, Pa., and at the Delaware Antique Show. C M Y CM MY CY CMY K Peter Miller, Portrait of a Woman, 30 x 36 inches. Oil on canvas, 1930s.