Wharton Esherick and the Birth of the American Modern

University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Wharton Esherick sitting at his trestle table in his studio, photograph, circa 1931. Photo courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum. — *Wharton Esherick sitting at his trestle table in his studio*, photograph, circa 1931. Photo courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum.

Recipient

Grant Year 2010

Grant Amount $90,000

Status Completed

Updated May 30, 2023

A Philadelphia-area modernist sculptor deeply influenced by the Arts & Crafts movement, Wharton Esherick designed and built furniture distinctive for its asymmetric, prismatic forms. His goal was to design furniture that functioned as sculpture, and sculpture that functioned as furniture. The American Institute of Architects once noted that, "He led, not followed, the Scandinavians."

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries, in collaboration with the Wharton Esherick Museum and the Architectural Archives at the University of Pennsylvania, presented the first major examination of Esherick's work and artistic development in over 50 years. The exhibition was accompanied by a staged revival at the Hedgerow Theater of The Case of Clyde Griffiths, based on the novel An American Tragedy by Esherick's friend Theodore Dreiser; a symposium of visiting scholars; and a series of gallery talks, lectures, and workshops in various venues.

Recipient

University of Pennsylvania Libraries

The university library that Benjamin Franklin founded—one of the first in the country—is the only University of Pennsylvania institution to have been in continuous operation since 1750. In recent years, it has expanded its curatorial mission to present long-running, thoroughly researched exhibitions that draw on the library’s expansive archives to approach a wide range of artworks and complement the materials in its collection. In 2010, the Center funded an exhibition entitled Wharton Esherick and the Birth of the American Modern, which explored the career of Wharton Esherick, a Philadelphia native whose work forged a link between the arts and crafts movement and mid-20th-century modernism. A 2018 Center grant supports Whitman at 200: Art and Democracy, a region-wide series of cultural events designed to reassess Walt Whitman (1819–92) and his impact on art and society, on the occasion of his 200th birthday.

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