Mitchell Siporin

(American, 1910-1976)

End of an Era

, 1946

oil on canvas

signed Mitchell Siporin and dated (lower right)

52 x 40 inches.

Provenance:

The Artist

Downtown Gallery, New York, acquired directly from the above

Sold: Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, May 16, 1973, Lot 71

Dr. Robert Atkins, New York

Acquired by the present owner, 2003

Exhibited:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Painting in the United States, October 10 - December 8, 1946, no. 180

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, One Hundred and Forty Second Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, January 26 - March 2, 1947, no. 107

Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 51st Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, June 5 - August 17, 1947, no. 149, pl. 1, illus.

New York, Downton Gallery, Mitchell Siporin: I'll Be Home Soon, October - November 1947 (the painting also exhibited at Downtown Gallery in 1954 and 1957)

New York, American Federation of Arts, A Collector’s Choice: Selections by William H. Lane, September 1957 - September 1958, no. 20

Waltham, Massachusetts, Brandeis University, Rose Art Museum, Mitchell Siporin: A Retrospective, May 11 - June 30, 1976, no. 29, pp. 7-8; 14; 30, illus.

Literature:

C.H. Bonte, "Modernism in Art is Strongly Stressed in 142nd Annual Exhibition at Academy," The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 26, 1947, p. 58

Ivan Le Lorraine Albright, “Chicago Art Exhibition Shakes Provincialism,” Chicago Herald-American, June 4, 1947

C.J. Bulliet, “Army Artist Wins in Chicago Show,” Chicago Daily News, June 14, 1947

Judith Hansen O'Toole, Mitchell Siporin, The Early Years: 1930-1950, New York, 1990, p. 8

Andrew Hemingway, Artists on the Left: American Artists and the Communist Movement: 1926-1956, pp. 233; 235

Elizabeth Maynard, ‘Monster’ Masculinity: The Veteran-Artist and Figural Representation in Postwar Chicago, 1946-1959, 2014, PhD dissertation, McGill University, pp. 161-162; 228

Maggie Taft, Robert Cozzolino, Judith R. Kirshner, and Erin Hogan, Art in Chicago: A History from the Fire to Now, Chicago, 2018, fig. 4.1, pp. 138-39

Lot note:

A politically active artist committed to social justice, Mitchell Siporin’s 1946 End of an Era celebrates the end of Fascism in Italy and commemorates his experiences as an artist-war correspondent during World War II, where he was assigned to North Africa and Italy from 1942-1945. Born to a union organizer father and artist mother, Siporin’s parents instilled in him a lifelong commitment to human rights. Before the war, he studied at Chicago’s School of the Art Institute from 1928 to 1932 and worked with the politically active Jewish American artist Todros Geller. Siporin also contributed drawing and cartoons throughout the ‘30s to left-leaning publications such as the New Masses. From 1937 to 1942 he painted public murals for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), including a mural for Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago and for the St. Louis central post office, which was the largest single government commission of the WPA. In these works, Siporin understood and recognized the influence of the Mexican muralists Jose Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, who fused a mural style inspired by frescos of the Italian Renaissance with contemporary subjects and issues to express strong political views.

Exhibited in 1947 at the Art Institute of Chicago’s 51st Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, End of an Era won the exhibition’s most prestigious prize, the Logan Medal. It was also well received in the 1947 Downtown Gallery’s exhibition, Mitchell Siporin: I’ll Be Home Soon. A reviewer succinctly described the work, which also applied to others by the artist during this period: “In oil or casein, Siporin’s rigidly controlled art, influenced by such Renaissance artists as Benozzo Gozzoli, is geared to tell us a story, most often the story of war and its aftermath in Italy. As he feels that the people, the wars, and the history of Italy are all of a piece, so he fuses quattrocentro composition, with modern distortion and almost surrealistic juxtaposition of imagery. Built up from countless glowing glazes, his pictures are elaborate, fascinating mosaics from which no section can be removed” (“Siporin,” ARTnews, October 1947, p. 27).

End of an Era is less real than surreal, with subdued color and minimal surface handling. A multitude of somber figures populate the composition, with several mournfully gazing out at the viewer. Fragments of scenes combine to recreate the turmoil of war, including funerals, congregants venerating the Virgin Mary, groupings of military figures, and the hanging figures of dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci, who were executed by Italian partisans in 1945. The word “Avanti” can be seen painted in the upper right of the canvas and may allude to Avanti!, an Italian newspaper that was the official voice of the Italian Socialist party. The frieze-like presentation harks back to Siporin’s socio-historical murals of the 1930s, while the expressionistic style explores the war’s physical and psychological after math.

During his time as a correspondent, Siporin witnessed the chaos and devastation caused by the war, and this trauma continued to echo in his work after his return to the United States. End of an Era “…was a public statement of mourning for what he had seen in Europe. It attempted to conjure an image of hope through closure, laying to rest a period that resulted in unprecedented destruction” (Robert Cozzolino, “Raw Nerves, 1948-19,” Art in Chicago: A History from the Fire Until Now, Chicago, 2018, p. 138). Although it garnered criticism from some, the painting struck a chord with exhibition jurors who held similar political views as the artist. It is panoramic in scope and open-ended in interpretation. It shows the past and holds the artist’s hope of a society that chooses to build a brighter, better future.