This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  A painter, Macena Barton was born in Union City, Michigan. She graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago* in 1924 and held one-woman shows there as well as at Knoedler Galleries and Findley Galleries in Chicago. At the Institute, she was much influenced by the teaching of Leon Kroll, who in turn was influenced by Social Realism*. He encouraged her to develop her own style and to use her imagination, advice that she took to heart. Inspired by Kroll and also challenged by critic C.J. Bulliet in a book before they had met personally, she was responding to his remark that no woman had ever painted a first-rate nude. Barton was a committed feminist, sure that women could perform equally as well as men in art and other areas.
She incorporated a variety of styles into her work including Realism* and Abstraction*, and artists on both sides of that fence tried to claim her.
C.J. Bulliet, an art writer and subject of one of her portraits wrote: "The 'moderns' sense her as an individualist, an egoist, going her unique way, untrammeled by the 'schools'. The 'conservatives' recognize her technical equipment and note her contempt for the 'isms'. " (89)
Barton became known for her richly colored figural and portrait paintings, and she received numerous portrait commissions. She and Bulliet became lovers, although he was married, and appeared to flaunt their public relationship by appearing together at social events and by him continuously promoting her work above others.
In 1927, she earned the August Peabody Award at the University of Chicago, and from 1945 to 1956, earned first prizes at the Chicago Galleries Association. She was a Fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters, and a member of the Arts Club of Chicago and the Chicago Society of Artists*.
Sources:
Louise Dunn Yochim, Role and Impact: The Chicago Society of Artists
Elizabeth Kennedy, Chicago Modern, 1893-1945
* For more
in-depth information about these terms and others, see AskART.com Glossary
http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx
| |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|