Six plein-air painters in Oakland, California, joined together in 1917 to form an association that lasted nearly fifteen years. The Society of Six—Selden Connor Gile, Maurice Logan, William H. Clapp, August F. Gay, Bernard von Eichman, and Louis Siegriest—created a color-centered modernist idiom that shocked establishment tastes but remains the most advanced painting of its era in Northern California. Nancy Boas's well-informed and sumptuously illustrated chronicle recognizes the importance of these six painters in the history of American Post-Impressionism.
The Six found themselves in the position of an avant garde not because they set out to reject conventionality, but because they aspired to create their own indigenous modernism. While the artists were considered outsiders in their time, their work is now recognized as part of the vital and enduring lineage of American art. Depression hardship ended the Six's ascendancy, but their painterliness, use of color, and deep alliance with the land and the light became a beacon for postwar Northern California modern painters such as Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud. Combining biography and critical analysis, Nancy Boas offers a fitting tribute to the lives and exhilarating painting of the Society of Six.
Society of Six California Colorists
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"The Oakland Six may constitute the most important modernist development that occurred in this country during the 1920s."—William H. Gerdts, author of American ImpressionismTable of Contents
Foreword by Charles C. Eldredge Introduction One: The BackgroundWithin the Closed CircleA City’s EvolutionDevastation and Reconstruction Two: BeginningsSelden Connor GileAugust Francois GayMaurice LoganLouis Bassi SiegriestBernard von EichmannWilliam Henry Clapp Three: At the FairThe Meaning of the Fair The Art at the FairAfter the FairA New World Four: Coming Together, 1917-1923The Chow HouseThe Six at WorkNew Painting IdeasThe Six SeparatelyThe Manifesto Five: The Exhibition Years, 1923-1928Modernism in the Bay AreaWilliam Clapp at the Oakland Art GalleryThe Society’s Six Annual Shows Six: Color Ascendant, 1919-1929Bernard von EichmanLouis SiegriestMaurice LoganSelden GileWilliam ClappAugust Gay in Monterey Seven: The Depression Years, 1930-1939The ContextSelden Gile and the Group’s DispersalLouis SiegriestMaurice LoganBernard von EichmanWilliam ClappAugust GayThe Golden Gate International Exposition Eight: The Forties and BeyondSelden GileMaurice LoganLouis Siegriest Conclusion NotesList of IllustrationsBibliographyExhibition History and ReviewsChronologiesIndex