Elsie Driggs facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Elsie Driggs
|
|
|---|---|
Elsie Driggs, 1927
|
|
| Born | 1898 |
| Died | July 12, 1992 (aged 93–94) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Art Students League of New York |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Precisionism |
| Spouse(s) |
Lee Gatch
(m. 1935; died in 1968) |
Elsie Driggs (1898 – 1992) was an American painter. She was famous for her part in a special art style called Precisionism. This was an important modern art movement in America. Elsie Driggs was the only woman artist who was a main part of the Precisionist group.
Precisionism started in the 1920s and 1930s. Artists used a style similar to Cubism to paint new American scenes. They focused on tall skyscrapers and busy factories. Elsie Driggs' paintings are now in many famous art museums. These include the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Houston Museum of the Fine Arts. She was married to another artist named Lee Gatch.
Contents
Elsie Driggs' Early Life and Art Training
Elsie Driggs was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She grew up in New Rochelle, New York, which is near New York City. Her family always supported her interest in art.
When she was a teenager, Elsie spent a summer painting in New Mexico. This trip made her realize that art was her true calling. At age 20, she started taking classes at the Art Students League of New York. Here, she learned from inspiring teachers like George Luks and Maurice Sterne. She also attended evening art classes at the home of painter John Sloan.
Studying Art in Europe
From late 1922 to early 1924, Elsie Driggs lived in Europe. She spent 14 months drawing and studying Italian art. While there, she met Leo Stein in Paris and Florence. He was a big influence on her thinking. He told her to study the works of Paul Cézanne. He also showed her the art of Piero della Francesca, a Renaissance artist. Elsie admired Piero della Francesca's work throughout her life.
Becoming a Precisionist Artist
After her time in Europe, Elsie Driggs moved to New York City. She found an art dealer named Charles Daniel to show her work. Daniel was known for being old-fashioned and not often showing women artists. So, Elsie signed her paintings simply "Driggs." She waited to meet him until he had already said he wanted her art in his gallery.
Painting the Modern World
Elsie Driggs joined other artists in the growing Precisionist movement. These artists included Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler. They painted the "modern landscape" of factories, bridges, and skyscrapers. They used sharp, clear lines and simple shapes. Elsie felt that older art styles like Impressionism were from the past. She wanted her art to be truly modern. She was a determined artist who wanted to make her mark in the art world.
Elsie Driggs was part of the first group of Precisionist painters. They showed their art at the Daniel Gallery in the 1920s. She believed the Precisionist style ended around the time of the 1929 stock market crash.
Famous Precisionist Paintings
In 1926, Elsie Driggs painted her most famous work, Pittsburgh. This painting is now at the Whitney Museum of American Art. It shows the huge smokestacks of the Jones & Laughlin steel mills in Pittsburgh. The painting is dark, with many black and gray smokestacks and pipes. Only clouds of smoke break up the serious image. Elsie found a strange beauty in this industrial scene. She called it "my El Greco." She was surprised that people later saw it as a criticism of society.
Celebrating Technology
Like other Precisionist artists, Elsie Driggs used modern art techniques. She painted new industrial and city scenes. They were not trying to warn about dangers of machines. Instead, Precisionism was a way to celebrate human energy and technology. One year after Pittsburgh, she painted Blast Furnaces. This painting was similar in style. Piero della Francesca's art, with its solid, still forms, greatly influenced Elsie's Pittsburgh painting.
Queensborough Bridge and Aeroplane
Another important painting by Elsie Driggs was Queensborough Bridge (1927). It is now in the collection of the Montclair Art Museum. This painting shows strong lines of light cutting through the large parts of the East River bridge. She studied the bridge from her apartment window. This painting showed her moving away from her old teacher's style and embracing the machine age.
In 1929, Elsie Driggs had her own art show. It included a powerful painting called Aeroplane. This painting is now at the Houston Museum of the Fine Arts. Elsie was inspired to paint it after her first airplane ride in 1928. She flew from Cleveland to Detroit. On this trip, she sketched a plane and sat next to the pilot. This trip led to two Precisionist paintings: "Aeroplane" and "River Rouge." Sadly, her "River Rouge" painting was lost in a fire.
Other Artworks and Later Life
While Elsie Driggs was painting her machine-age works, she also created a series of plant paintings. These were done in pastel and oil. In 1924, she showed a large painting of a cabbage called "Chou." Art critics praised this painting. Her painting "Cabbage" (1927) is even more detailed and shows the crinkly leaves of the plant. The background of this painting reminds some people of works by Georgia O'Keeffe.
Elsie Driggs also showed her art in group exhibitions. These included shows at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum's first Biennial. Important art critics wrote good reviews about her work.
Marriage and New Art Styles
In the 1930s, Elsie Driggs stopped painting in the Precisionist style. She focused more on fun watercolors and paintings of people. She also created murals for the PWPA. In 1935, she married painter Lee Gatch. They moved to a rural area in Lambertville, New Jersey. Elsie spent time supporting her husband's art career and raising their daughter, Merriman.
In 1940, Elsie's daughter Merriman was playing with watercolors and tearing paper. This gave Elsie an idea! She started making watercolor collages. She would attach cut-out pieces of paper to a canvas and then paint over them. Her husband Lee also started using this collage method in his own art.
Returning to New York
After Lee Gatch passed away in 1968, Elsie Driggs moved back to New York City. For the next 20 years, she tried new art forms. She made mixed media art and figurative paintings. People started paying more attention to her work again. She had a solo show in 1980 and a big exhibition of her art in 1990.
Near the end of her life, Elsie Driggs even painted two more Precisionist-style oil paintings. These were "The Javits Center" (1986) and "Hoboken" (1986). She continued to follow new art trends. When she passed away in 1992 at age 94, Elsie Driggs was seen as one of the most important, yet underrated, Precisionist painters. She was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York.
Images for kids
-
Elsie Driggs, 1927
