Wednesday, September 11, 2019

ANNA MARY ROBERTSON MOSES -THE GERIATRIC WONDER.


            
 
            Anna Mary Robertson a folk artist of the 20th Century proved that Age is no bar to living a fruitful life. As Longfellow said “Nothing is too late until the tired heart ceases to palpitate.”
            Anna was born on 7th September, 1860, at Greenwich, New York. Her father was a small-time farmer, and she was third daughter in a family of ten. Her father recognized her passion for Art and would buy for her white paper sheets for her drawings. She would use lemon and grape fruit juice, grass, flour paste or saw dust to colour her drawings. Anna attended school for just a short time.
            At the age of 12, she became house keeper of a family and worked there for fifteen years. Her employers too recognized her interest in Art and provided her with chalk, wax and crayons. Apart from cooking and cleaning, Anna also did sewing and embroidery. She embroidered colourful landscapes on cloth and attractive quilted objects for family and friends, from 1930 till her 76th year when she began to develop arthritis. Using needle and thread for her embroidery became painful. Her sister suggested that painting would be easier.
            So in 1918 at the age of 78, Anna started painting every day until she was 90. When her right hand grew tired, she would paint with her left hand, but never gave up. She generated more than 1500 canvases and initially sold them for a pittance.
            In 1938, an Art collector Louis J Calder discovered her paintings in the window of a drug store in Hoosick Falls, New York. He bought all of them and promoted her work among New York Art dealers. In 1939, three of her paintings were exhibited in the New York Museum of Modern Art, titled “Contemporary Unknown Painters.”
This was followed by solo exhibitions in New York, other parts of USA and later in Europe for the next twenty years. Bennington Museum in Vermont has the largest collection of her paintings.
            In 1887, Anna was married at the age of 27, to Thomas Solomon Moses a farmer. They stayed in Virginia for two decades and had ten children. But only five survived. Always an industrious woman, Anna not only worked on the farm but supplemented their income by making and selling potato chips and butter churned from cows’ milk. In 1905, the couple relocated to Eagle Bridge, New York. Thomas died in 1927. Anna continued to run the farm with the help of her son Forrest.
            Anna portrayed pastoral scenes in different seasons, like snow fall in winter or budding greenery in spring. She also painted people engaged in farm activities. She was completely self- taught and developed her own style of painting from top to down- first the sky, then the hills down to houses, people and cattle. The luminous colours she used imbued her paintings with life. Artists may have thought her art was primitive and called it “Naïve Art,” but it never bothered her. “I paint to keep busy and pass the time away,” she said. She drew from memory.
A German critic remarked, “The unrest and neurotic insecurity of present day make us inclined to enjoy the simple, and affirmative outlook of Grandma Moses. She depicted the world as beautiful and good.”
Judith Stein an Art historian said she was ‘a cultural icon. The spry, productive nonagenarian was continually cited as an inspiration to house wives, widows and retirees.’
Jean McMahon, Professor of Women’s Studies called her a ‘homespun feminist who advocated Women’s Suffrage.’
Grandma Moses escaped from the feeling of domestic confinement through Art and her paintings.
            In 1950, the National Press Club cited her as one of the five most newsworthy women.
At 88 years, Mademoiselle Magazine called her ‘The Youngest Woman of the Year.’
            After retirement from farm work Anna moved in with her daughter. In 1952, she published her autobiography “My Life History.” She wrote “I look on my life as a good day’s work………Life is what we make it. Always has been, always will be.”
            The ‘tiny, lively woman with mischievous grey eyes and quick wit’ won numerous awards and two honorary doctorate degrees.
Her 100th birthday was celebrated as “Grandma Moses Day” by Nelson Rockefeller. In the September 19th, 1960 issue of Life Magazine, Grandma Moses was featured on the cover page.
She died at the age of 101, on December 1st, 1961, at a healthcare centre in Hoosick Falls, New York, and was buried in Maple Grove Cemetery.
President John Kennedy said, “Death of Grandma Moses removed a beloved figure from American life. The directness and vividness of her paintings restored a primitive freshness to our perception of American life.”
            Grandma Moses leaves behind the message that Age is no bar to a productive life.