 | GRACE LIBBY VOLLMER(1884-1977) CALIFORNIA EXPRESSIONISTby Frank Goss |
Grace Libby Vollmer was an important California expressionist who trained under German artist Hans Hoffman. She lived and worked in Taos and in Montecito, CA as a painter with a particular sensitivity for emotive colors and brushwork.
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Table Of Contents
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I. BIOGRAPHY
Grace Libby was born on September 12, 1884 in Hopkinton, Massachusetts to Ann-Lauri Young and Edgar Libby. At an early age, she insisted that she would be an artist. She persuaded her parents to send her to a private school for girls, Quincy Manse in Providence, Massachusetts, starting in 1899.
Quincy Manse was a finishing school which specialized in instruction in painting. Both Grace and her sister attended. There are several examples of Grace Libby's early work and it is evident that she was a very competent drafter in the expressive style of Tissot.
After the family's 1901 move from Massachusetts to Lewiston, Idaho, Grace's father apparently changed professions from publisher to engineer. In that capacity, he designed at least one bridge. In 1906, Grace met and on April 26th married Ralston Vollmer. It was said of Vollmer that he owned half the state of Idaho. Later that year, she moved with her new husband to Lewiston, Idaho and had two children, John and Ann. For the next nineteen years she devoted herself to her family. |
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BIRD OF PARADISE
At right is a magnificent painting, a 1999 acquisition for the collection of the Bacara Hotel in Santa Barbara, California. It is on display in the Spa Restaurant. It is 40" x 30" and is a superb example of Vollmer's wildest expressive work. |  |
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In order to restart her art career, Vollmer convinced her husband to relocate to Los Angeles. In 1925 she resumed her formal art career with two years of study at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles.
Vollmer's teachers include Edward Vysekal, Roscoe Shrader, Alfred Ramos Martinez, and Clarence Hinkle. Immediately after the conclusion of her studies, she joined the artists represented at the famed Cannell & Chaffin art gallery in Los Angeles. In late 1926, she had her first one-person exhibition with Cannell & Chaffin, a show of 142 works. No catalogue of this exhibition survives. |
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 | PORTRAIT OF HANS HOFFMAN
Above left is a study of Hoffman by Vollmer. Hoffman's influence on Vollmer was early in his career before he left Europe and while he was still considered a representational painter. Vollmer often remarked that she did not care for Hoffman's abstract work, the work for which the world knows him today. (Private collection) |
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II. AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK
Vollmer's style was fully mature by the time of the 1936 Olympic exhibition. She had been painting in La Jolla, and had been submitting her work for juried exhibitions for some time. Herman Reuter, in a review which appeared in the March 20, 1937 issue of the Hollywood Citizen News, expounded on a painting he had seen in the Laguna Beach Art Association exhibit that year.
He noted that the painting was "unsigned and incorrectly numbered" but that it "took rank as the most refreshing" in the show. He had previously seen one or two paintings by the same artist in Los Angeles shows, and immediately recognized this painting as the work of Grace Vollmer. He went further to rank Vollmer with "painters of high talent and conviction" who "make their work solely their own." And he added further that "the spirit of canvases done by such purposeful painters gets into you, so that ever after you can recognize their other work, even if unsigned."
Reuter used his insight even futher when he discussed the specific painting:
The picture has to do with a few cattails and several odds and ends of leaves and grasses in a bowl. Simple as that. And yet, it is real painting, because Mrs. Vollmer had a harmony in her head before she started to paint, and she did not set out to do a mere portrait of cattails and grasses in a bowl, but to suggest these things as they could best be suggested while creating something which stood on its own feet in pigment. |
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COMPLETELY LOST
c. 1930s
30" x 24"
Oil on canvas
Private Collection
To the right is one of Vollmer's most remarkable portraits. She refined her style throughout her life, but the exaggerated texture, muted tones, bold brush strokes, passionate compositions and determined expressiveness remain in almost all her mature paintings. The painting Completely Lost contains the furthest expression of her emotive style. A fractured composition, swirling energy, spirited brushwork and a beating sense of rhythm together make this one of her most powerful pieces. |  |
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III. PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY |
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 | PORTRAIT OF GRACIE LIBBY AT 18
It is easy to see what Ralston Vollmer saw in this talented young woman. Known to be bright, effervescent and at ease in social situations, Grace took her vocation as an artist seriously. The only time she stopped her productivity as an artist was during the years she raised her children and following the illnesses that lead to the death of one child and her husband Ralston. |
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SHORTLY AFTER HER MARRIAGE TO RALSTON VOLLMER
She and her husband lived in Lewiston, Idaho, an important shipping and cultural center for the interior Northwest. In the accompanying photo she is wearing a high collered, fashionable blouse, a tailered skirt and matching cape. |  |
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 | THE ARTIST AT EASEL
Once she had moved to Santa Barbara, Vollmer concentrated on still life paintings. The work pictured to the right is an excellent example of her work from the mid 1940's. |
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THE ARTIST IN HER 70S:
According to those who knew her, Vollmer maintained a sense of style throughout her life. In paintings as in dress, her work remained vibrant throughout her career. The still life on her easel is as forceful as the work she produced in her days at Otis in the 1920s, even though almost fifty years had come between. |  |
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IV. CHRONOLOGY
1884 Born on September 12, in Hopkinton, Massachusetts
1899 Receives art training at Quincy Manse, Providence, MA
1901 Moves to Lewiston, Idaho
1906 Marries Ralston Vollmer
1925 - 1927 Trains at Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA.
1926 Representated by Cannell & Chaffin, Los Angeles, CA
1926 1st one-person show, Cannell & Chaffin, 142 works
1928 Takes one of several trips to paint in Europe
1930 Moves to La Jolla, joins Laguna Beach Art Assoc.
1930 Studies for six weeks with Hans Hoffman
1932 Moves to Taos, NM and meets Georgia O'Keeffe
1934 Moves to Avenue 64, near Pasadena
1936 Studies a second time with Hoffman in Berkeley
1938 Travels to Mexico
1939 Moves to 181 Middle Road in Montecito, California
1940 Death of her child John
1945 Death of her child Ann
1948 Death of her husband Ralston
1970 Gives up painting because of respiratory trouble
1975 Moves to home on Valerio Rd. in Santa Barbara
1977 Dies on November 25 in Santa Barbara, California
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V. COLLECTIONS & AWARDS
Collections
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, Calif.
Sullivan Goss, Permanent Collection, Santa Barbara, Calif.
Museum of Art at Brigham Young University, Provo , UT
Springville Museum of Art, Springville, UT
AWARDS
1926 Honorable Mention, Life Drawing, Otis Art Institute
1927 Honorable Mention, Orange County Fair
1935 Honorable Mention, Laguna Beach Art Assoc., St. Joseph
1936 1st Award, Laguna Beach Art Assoc., Zinnias & Brocade
1951 Premium Award, (purchase prize), California State Fair
1952 Third Prize, California State Fair
1955 Purchase Prize, Santa Paula Art Show
AFFILIATIONS:
Art Guild of the Fine Arts Society of San Diego
Laguna Beach Art Association
Society of Western Artists
Santa Barbara Art Association
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VI. EXHIBITIONS
1926 Debut Exhibition at Cannell & Chaffin, Los Angeles
1931 Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, California, 4th Annual Exhibition by California Artists, paintings titled Sub-Division and Unemployed
1932 Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, California, 5th Annual Exhibition of California Artists, painting titled Unemployed
1933 2nd Annual Exhibition, Progressive Painters of Southern California, Laguna Beach, California, painting titled Still Life
1934 Los Angeles Museum, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, 15th Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, painting titled Chop House
1934 Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, Balboa Park, San Diego, California, 8th Annual Exhibition of Southern California Art, painting titled Fisherman's Cove
1935 Laguna Beach Art Association, Laguna Beach, California, December-January 1935-1936 Exhibit, painting titled St. Joseph
1937 Laguna Beach Art Association, March Exhibition, Laguna Beach, California, painting titled, Autumn
1937 One-person Exhibition of drawings at Santa Ana Public Library, Santa Barbara, Caliornia
1937 One-person show of drawings at Manker Studio, Padua Hills, Claremont, California
1938 Tuscon Fine Arts Association, Tucson, Arizona, 1938-1939 Season, Temple of Music and Fine Arts Gallery, painting titled Autumn
1938 Fine Arts Society of San Diego, 10th Annual Southern California Art Exhibition
1939 Santa Barbara Artists, Faulkner Memorial Art Library, Santa Barbara, California, 9th Summer Exhibition, painting titled Sombras Pasadoroa, Taos
1951 15th Annual Art Exhibit, Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce, painting titled Girl and Flowers
1951 Society of Western Artists, 12th Annual Exhibit, San Francisco, CA
1952 One-person Exhibition, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
1953 California State Fair (by invitation), Sacramento, CA
1954 Santa Barbara Art Association, Faulkner Memorial Library, Santa Barbara,California 10th Annual Exhibit, painting titled Green Mansion
1955 Santa Paula Art Show, painting titled Still Life
1955 One-person Exhibition in Ojai, California
1958 One-person Exhibition, Art & Frame Shop,
1984 One-person Exhibition, Arlington Gallery, Santa Barbara, California
2000 One-person Exhibit, Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbara, California
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VII. CATALOGUE RAISONNE
In the event that you have works by Grace Libby, Grace Vollmer or Grace Libby Vollmer which you would like included in the Catalogue Raisonne or which you would like reviewed for authentication, contact Sullivan Goss for submission requirements. The Catalogue Raisonne, (or The Complete Work of Grace Libby Vollmer) is being assembled as part of this page. The catalogue will include paintings in oil and drawings.
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Alpine Landscape. |
Anne, Villa de Rosa. |
Church in Taos. |
Cottage by the Sea, Santa Barbara. |
Fantastic Landscape with a Stream Leading to the F... |
Landscape with Trees. |
Old Chateau. Var, France. |
Portrait of a Native American Child. |
Portrait of a Woman with a Purple Scarf. |
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