Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Howard’s biomorphic abstractions were shown in numerous Surrealist exhibitions in England and the United States. This work, executed in San Francisco in the summer of 1942, was the artist’s prize-winning entry in the Artists for Victory competition, held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art that winter. Although its iconography is obscure, Howard wrote that works like this were meant "to recall shapes and relations of things which are common to all mankind."
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Artwork Details
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Title:Prescience
Artist:Charles Houghton Howard (American, Montclair, New Jersey 1899–1978 Bagni di Lucca)
Date:1942
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:28 1/4 × 40 1/2 in. (71.8 × 102.9 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1942
Accession Number:42.163
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): Charles Howard 17:VII:42
the artist, San Francisco (1942; sold to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Artists for Victory: An Exhibition of Contemporary American Art," December 7, 1942–February 22, 1943, unnumbered cat. (p. 6; awarded a Fifth Prize).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Artists for Victory: Prize Winners," March 8–May 10, 1943, no catalogue.
Boston. Institute of Modern Art. "Artists for Victory: Prize Winners," May 22–June 19, 1943, no catalogue.
Art Gallery of Toronto. "Museums' Choice: Paintings by Contemporary Americans," February 2–25, 1945, no. 47.
San Francisco. California Palace of the Legion of Honor. "Charles Howard Retrospective Exhibition, 1925–1946," May 10–June 9, 1946, unnumbered cat. (p. 110).
Norfolk, Va. Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. "Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," December 1, 1946–January 26, 1947, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "20th Century Painters: A Special Exhibition of Oils, Water Colors and Drawings Selected from the Collections of American Art in the Metropolitan Museum," June 16–October 29, 1950, unnum. brochure (p. 7).
American Federation of Arts circulating exhibition. "American Paintings of the Twentieth Century," January 1951–November 1952 (lent to numerous U.S. venues, including those listed below), no catalogue (checklist no. 9).
Hagerstown, Md. Washington County Museum of Fine Arts. "American Paintings of the Twentieth Century," April 1951.
Nashville. Watkins Institute. "American Paintings of the Twentieth Century," November 5–25, 1951.
Montgomery, Ala. Montgomery Museum of Art. "American Paintings of the Twentieth Century," December 1951.
Abilene, Tex. Abilene Museum of Fine Arts. "American Paintings of the Twentieth Century," April 7–20, 1952.
Shreveport. Louisiana State Exhibit Museum. "American Paintings of the Twentieth Century," May 11–25, 1952.
South Hadley, Mass. Dwight Art Memorial, Mount Holyoke College. "American Paintings of the Twentieth Century," November 6–25, 1952.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Miró in America," April 21–June 27, 1982, not in catalogue.
Oakland Museum. "The Howards: First Family of Bay Area Modernism," May 14–August 7, 1988, unnumbered cat. (p. 114).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Design 1925–1945: Selections from the Collection," December 18, 1989–June 1, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. Hirschl & Adler Galleries. "Charles Howard, 1899–1978: Drama of the Mind," May 1–June 18, 1993, no. 3.
Oakland Museum. "Pacific Dreams: Currents of Surrealism and Fantasy in California Art, 1934–1957," February 25–June 11, 1995, no. 52.
Los Angeles. Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center. "Pacific Dreams: Currents of Surrealism and Fantasy in California Art, 1934–1957," July 11–September 17, 1995, no. 52.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Artists for Victory," October 1, 1996–January 12, 1997, extended to January 22, 1997, no catalogue.
New York. Hirschl & Adler Galleries. "Three American Surrealists," March 5–April 18, 1998, no catalogue.
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. "Charles Howard: A Margin of Chaos," June 21–October 1, 2017, unnumbered cat. (pl. 33).
A. Hyatt Mayor. Artists for Victory: An Exhibition of Contemporary American Art. A Picture Book of the Prize Winners. New York, 1942, unpaginated, ill.
"Artists for Victory Score Victory in Metropolitan Exhibition." Art Digest 17 (December 15, 1942), pp. 6, 9, ill. p. 8.
Edward Alden Jewell. "Artists for Victory: Afterthoughts on the Huge Nation-Wide Survey at the Metropolitan Museum." New York Times (December 20, 1942), p. X9.
Alfred M. Frankfurter. "The Artists for Victory Exhibition: The Paintings." Art News 41 (January 1–14, 1943), p. 12, ill. p. 8.
Charles Howard. "What Concerns Me." Magazine of Art 39 (February 1946), p. 65, ill.
"Art Exhibit Opens Sunday at Museum." Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch (November 30, 1946), p. 3.
Robert Beverly Hale. 100 American Painters of the 20th Century: Works Selected from the Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1950, ill. p. 107.
Doris Brian. "The Metropolitan's American Policy—A Long View, No Blind Flying." Art Digest 24 (July 1, 1950), p. 9.
"Art Displayed at Watkins." Nashville Banner (November 1, 1951), ill. p. 30 (installation in progress for the Nashville venue of Exh. AFA 1951–52).
D. R. K. "Metropolitan Exhibit at Museum." Montgomery Advertiser (December 9, 1951), p. 29.
"Paintings of Famed American Artists to Be Shown Monday." Abilene Reporter-News (April 6, 1952), p. 7-B.
"New Exhibit by American Artists Opens." Shreveport Times (May 11, 1952), p. B9.
"Widely-Known Painters' Exhibit at Mount Holyoke Opens Thursday." Transcript-Telegram (November 5, 1952), p. 3.
Piri Halasz. "Manhattan Museums: The 1940s vs. the 1980s; Part Two: The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Arts Magazine 59 (March 1985), pp. 91, 93, fig. 3.
Eugene Victor Thaw. "The Abstract Expressionists." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 44 (Winter 1986–87), p. 18, fig. 12.
Susan M. Anderson. Pursuit of the Marvelous: Stanley William Hayter, Charles Howard, Gordon Onslow-Ford. Exh. cat., Laguna Art Museum. Laguna Beach, 1990, p. 27.
Douglas Dreishpoon. Charles Howard, 1899–1978: Drama of the Mind. Exh. cat., Hirschl & Adler Galleries. New York, 1993, pp. 3, 39, no. 3, ill. p. 20.
Apsara DiQuinzio inCharles Howard: A Margin of Chaos. Exh. cat., University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Berkeley, 2017, pp. 26–27, 31, 117, colorpl. 33 and ill. (color detail, front cover).
Lauren Kroiz inCharles Howard: A Margin of Chaos. Exh. cat., University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Berkeley, 2017, p. 52.
Georgia O'Keeffe (American, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin 1887–1986 Santa Fe, New Mexico)
1927
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