Sadie Garland, 1933
Leon and Sadie at Koehnline
Museum, through Sept 20
Social idealism has not been the theme of Chicago pictorial art for several
generations, but it came quite naturally in the 1930’s to Leon and Sadie
Garland, the children of Jewish immigrants
who met in the art classes at Hull House.
Their wedding reception was hosted by Jane Adams herself, who would have reaffirmed that transcendent sense of community that Eastern European Jews brought with them from the shtetl. Regretfully, social idealism also took some catastrophic turns in that era, so understandably the cult of individualism has dominated the “Free World” ever since. But the idealism of Leon and Sadie was quite benign – indeed they led their lives as remarkably free individuals, moving throughout Europe to study art, and then returning to teach and practice it.
Leon’s visions of society are gentle and a bit folksy, though not too saccharine or mythic.
Leon Garland, "Jewish Wedding" (detail), 1930's
Their wedding reception was hosted by Jane Adams herself, who would have reaffirmed that transcendent sense of community that Eastern European Jews brought with them from the shtetl. Regretfully, social idealism also took some catastrophic turns in that era, so understandably the cult of individualism has dominated the “Free World” ever since. But the idealism of Leon and Sadie was quite benign – indeed they led their lives as remarkably free individuals, moving throughout Europe to study art, and then returning to teach and practice it.
Leon Garland, "Hull House", 1930
Leon’s visions of society are gentle and a bit folksy, though not too saccharine or mythic.
Leon Garland, "Chicago near Hull House", 1930's
Leon Garland, "Morgan Street", 1941
His visions of some Chicago neighborhoods feel exactly how they still feel to me today – not so much charming as gritty and practical.
Sadie Garland, "Boats", 1940
While Sadie’s urban visions feel like excuses to make geo-form abstractions that express how much she enjoyed her life. Both of them show the strong influence of Andre Lhote in whose Paris atelier they studied. Lhote practiced a kind of breezy, decorative Cubism that celebrated the light-hearted side of modern life that must have appealed to the Romantic newly weds from Chicago.
Leon Garland, "Four Frenchmen", 1930
Helpfully, David Sokol, the curator, has placed postcard size reproductions of Lhote’s work right next to similar paintings done by the Garlands.
Leon Garland, "Blacksmith", 1940
Sadie Garland, Jesus Torres and Wife, 1930
Initially, the Garlands captured his lightheartedness, but like so many artists who depicted the American scene at that time, there’s a looming darkness and heaviness in their images. Unfortunately, as time passed, health problems restricted Leon’s activity and Sadie took jobs in social work to support the couple – so there’s a feeling that they did not achieve what they could have.
The show has examples of Leon’s talent at commercial graphic design,
and he did a large, rambling painting of ominous children’s toys that prefigures the surrealism of Seymour Rosofsky. But he failed to develop a strong, consistent vision, and after his untimely death, Sadie stopped painting altogether. What they left behind was a window into the lives of two idealistic, talented, brave young Chicagoans in the 1930’s.
Thank you so much for posting this very perceptive and appreciative analysis of My Great Aunt Sadie Ellis Garland and her husband Leon's works. I knew Sadie ("Tee" to my side of the family) very very well. She instilled a deep appreciation and love for Art. I know she would be so pleased to be seeing Leon's work on display publicly aqain for the first time since 1942. I was honored to loan 8 works to the show, including "Four Frenchmen" you illustrated here. As Sadie told me often, she felt Leon was the better artist (I disagree personally) and Leon was very self deprecating of his talents and never took praise of his work without embarassment.
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