Rekindling Memories of American Impressionism: Guy Wiggins at Joan Whalen Fine Art

NEW YORK CITY

:Joan Whalen Fine Art, 24 West 57th Street, Suite 507, will exhibit "Guy A. Wiggins Recollections - Growing Up Among American Impressionists" beginning Saturday, May 14. It will run through July 16.

The exhibition features works by all three generations of Wigginses - (John) Carleton Wiggins (1848-1932), Guy C. Wiggins (1883-1962) and Guy A. Wiggins (born 1920) as well as works by some of the American Impressionists who lived in Lyme, Conn., or visited the Guy Wiggins Art School.

An informative brochure based on Guy A. Wiggins's historic accounts, is available from the gallery.

The gallery will feature two free lectures by Guy A. Wiggins, one on Saturday, May 14 at 11 am and the other on Saturday, May 21, also at 11 am. Mr Wiggins will discuss growing up in the family of his father, prominent American Impressionist Guy C. Wiggins (1883-1962), and will share youthful memories of many important artists of the day including Bruce Crane, John Sloan, Ernest Lawson and the colorful George Luks. Seating is limited and reservations are required; call the gallery at 212-397-9700.

Guy A. Wiggins's grandfather, (John) Carleton Wiggins, the founder of the artistic dynasty, was born in Harriman, N.Y., in 1848 and grew up in Brooklyn. Known for his Barbizon style of painting, he was one of the founders of Old Lyme Art Academy.

Guy A. Wiggins's father, Guy Carleton Wiggins, was born in Brooklyn in 1883 and mastered watercolor techniques by the age of 9. He received early training from his father, (John) Carleton, studied architecture and drawing at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and then studied painting at the National Academy. Early on he adopted the bright palette and short brush-strokes made with a laden brush that were characteristics of the French Impressionist movement that had taken the United States by storm.

Guy C. Wiggins sold his first painting when he was only 18 years old. The youngest American artist to have one of his works purchased by the Metropolitan Museum for its permanent collection, within a few years, major museums and private collectors across the country were buying his paintings. A noted "man about town" and friend of socialites, actors and wealthy businessmen, he once recalled that during those heady bachelor days "every headwaiter in New York knew me by name."

Guy Arthur Wiggins was born in Lyme, Conn., in 1920. The youngest of three children, Guy was always sketching and cartooning from earliest childhood. His father once stated: "Guy can draw anything."

In 1926, the family rented a lovely brownstone on Central Park South, a location that provided Guy's father with some of his favorite subjects - the Plaza Hotel with its horse-drawn cabs, Columbus Circle and Central Park.

After the stock market crashed, Guy's mother, Dorothy Stuart, urged his father to establish an art school. She turned their Connecticut house into a center for the students, brought in a chef to organize a big efficient kitchen capable of serving 100 meals a day, remodeled the sheep fold into a dormitory for the women students, moved the ice house from its stream bed and made it into summer sleeping quarters for her sons. The studio, set up in a barn for Guy's father, was big enough to accommodate still life classes on rainy days.

The Guy Wiggins Art School became a beacon not only for students but also for visiting artists, some of whom made the journey from as far west as Chicago, coming by rail or driving on two-lane roads all the way. The school flourished for some six years. When Guy's parents became estranged, his father moved the school to picturesque Essex, Conn., near the mouth of the Connecticut River.

Without Dorothy Stuart's administrative skill the school languished. It closed with the coming of World War II. During the war, Guy's father helped build gliders for the Air Force at a nearby factory until management took him off the assembly line and commissioned him to produce a series of large paintings of the factory at work to boost morale.

After Guy Arthur graduated from the Loomis School in Windsor, Conn., where his father paid for his education and room and board with paintings, he moved with his mother, brother and sister to Los Angeles where he worked as a riveter at the Lockheed plant. He completed two years at UCLA before volunteering for the armed forces in 1942. He served in the Southwest Pacific and in the Occupation of Japan. In 1948, he returned home to complete his education, obtaining his BA and two advanced degrees.

After serving in the White House as a staffer and in Indonesia with the Mutual Security Agency, Guy entered into the Foreign Service, working both in the State Department and abroad. In 1959, he married Dorothy Palmer, by whom he has had two children.

In 1975, Guy retired from the US Mission to the United Nations, and devoted himself entirely to painting. He enrolled at The Art Students League and studied at The National Academy of Design. In 1977, Guy took his family abroad and painted in France and Italy before returning home to New York City. He later painted in Morocco, Portugal and Turkey.

In 1979 Guy A. Wiggins's work was exhibited to critical acclaim in "The Three Generations of Wiggins" exhibition at the New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Conn. The New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, N.J., The New Britain Museum of American Art, The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Conn., and the Connecticut River Museum in Essex, have acquired his paintings.