MAURICE STERNE
Retrospective Exhibition 1902 – 1932
Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings
H. M. Kallen
H. M. Kallen: MAURICE STERNE [Retrospective Exhibition 1902 – 1932, Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings]. New York: Museum of Modern Art, February 1933. First edition [1,000 copies]. Quarto. Yellow cloth titled in maroon. Frontis. 39 pp. followed by 24 black and white plates. Yellow cloth soiled and a couple of small random spots to textblock. Plate 58 with faint pencil grid drawn over the artwork [see scan]. Overall a nearly very good copy of this scarce, early MoMA catalog.
7.5 x 10 hardcover book with 39 pages of text followed by 24 black and white plates. Includes an essay by H. M. Kallen, a note by the artist, and a checklist of 174 works. Catalog of the first one-man showing of the work of an American artist at the Museum of Modern Art, from February 15 to March 25, 1933.
A Museum of Modern Art press release from Sunday, January 15, 1933 reads in part: “The Museum of Modern Art, 11 lest 53d Street, announces its first one-man showing of the work of an American artist, a retrospective exhibition of the paintings, sculpture, and drawings of Maurice Sterne, to open to the public on Wednesday, February 8th and to continue until April 1st.
“Mr. Sterne has just returned from Anticoli-Corrado, Italy, where he has been at work for the past six months, bringing with him his most recent paintings' and sculpture, which will have their first showing in the coming exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. The Artist is now putting the finishing touches on these pieces at his studio at Croton-on-Hudson.
“Mr. Sam A. Lewisohn, Trustee of the Museum and Chairman of the committee organizing the Exhibition, says: “Mr. Sterne is one of the most thoroughly informed and widely traveled of artists. His cultural contacts have been remarkable. He is familiar with the art of the past and present, the art of Europe and of the Orient. At first hand he has studied the art of France, Italy, Greece, Egypt, India, Burma, Java, Bali, and New Mexico. The early years of his life were spent mostly in America and he has absorbed its atmosphere. Thus he combines the raciness and vigor of an American with the background and cultivation of a cosmopolitan. The result is evident in he richness of his work.”
“Mr. Sterne is one of the first artists to discover and appreciate the art of the Pueblo Indians, having spent two years in New Mexico. He is also among the first Americans to discover Bali, where he made thousands of sketches and scores of paintings of the life of the island people. After a trip to Greece in 1908, he modelled his first piece of sculpture, "The Head of a Bomb Thrower", owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and now on display in the Exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art.
“Maurice Sterne was born in Libau on the Baltic in 1878 and came to America as a boy of 11, He began his art career as an etcher, studying first at Cooper Union and later at the National Academy of Design, where he learned anatomy under Thomas Eakins, who came once a week from Philadelphia to teach. His work was first shown in New York in 1902 at the Old Country Sketch Club on Broadway. The late William Merritt Chase, one of the most famous painters and teachers of painting of that time, bought a picture from the exhibition. The following year, winning the Mooney Traveling Scholarship offered by the National Academy, Mr. Sterne went to Europe to study.
“Among the prizes which Mr. Sterne has won are the Logan medal and prize in 1928, the William A. Clark Prize and Corcoran Gold Medal for his painting “After Lunch” at the 12th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Painting in Washington in 1930, and Honorable Mention for his "High School Girl" at the 29th Carnegie Institute International Exhibition at Pittsburgh in the same year. In 1925, he was invited to represent America at the Third Biennial International Exhibition in Rome. Three galleries were given to the showing of his work at this time. He has also been invited to paint a self-portrait for the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, an honor bestowed on but few artists.
“Museums owning works by Maurice Sterne include: Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; R. I. School of Design, Providence; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Detroit Museum; Harrison Gallery of the Los Angeles Museum; Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D. C.; Cleveland Museum of Art; Kaiser Fredrich Museum, Berlin; Cologne Museum; Tate Gallery, London.