Masters of their medium

That works by realists Robert Henri and John Sloan appear side by side in the “American Masters” exhibit at the LSU Museum of Art is no coincidence. They were colleagues in Philadelphia, then members of “The Eight,” a famed artistic circle in New York, representing a creative movement in the early 1900s.

These two works—and the nearly 40 others on view—are part of a collection from the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin. The collection was donated by James Michener, the novelist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning Tales of the South Pacific, and his wife Mari.

Throughout Michener’s writing career, he amassed a vast collection of works by American artists from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henri’s and Sloan’s gritty realism is just one style represented in this personal collection. Michener’s methods of collecting art were as varied as the pieces adorning the walls.

“He didn’t just focus on one kind of art or one area,” says Victoria Cooke, chief curator at LSU MOA. “Sometimes he got to know the artist and spent time with them. Sometimes, he’d walk by a gallery and see something and just snatch it up. He was very talented as a collector. He researched quite a bit.”

A Tom Wesselmann grabs attention immediately. From across a long corridor, the work looks like a regular still-life painting of a clock and other items in shades of gray resting on a shelf. Walk closer, and it is not a usual painting at all. The objects are jutting off from the canvas on what appears to be a real shelf. Cooke admits Wesselmann’s piece is the staff’s current favorite, mainly for its deceptive effect. “That still life, to me, it questions what is sculpture, versus a drawing, versus a painting,” she says.

While Wesselmann’s is one of the few in the collection that represents mixed media or sculpture, others are inventive in different ways.

An untitled painting by Lawrence Stafford looks like abstract graphic design. But the sign next to it explains how the artist achieved the illusion by walking back and forth in front of the large canvas with spray paint.

The Michener collection reads like a history of artistic movements in America, explaining the techniques, styles, and connections among the varied artists. Not far from Henri’s and Sloan’s pieces hangs a satirical painting by William Gropper, a student of Henri’s, depicting his appearance before the McCarthy hearings in 1953.

Michener intended these works to be teaching tools for art students at UT-Austin, and it is clear they serve that purpose well.

The collection is not on tour, and its appearance at LSU MOA is unique. “It was a personal favor, in a way,” Cooke says. “Our director [Thomas Livesay] had his first museum job as a college student at Blanton.”

It also helps that some of the artists represented, like abstract expressionist Lester Johnson, have ties to Baton Rouge and LSU. Renowned local painter Edward Pramuk has even posted several of his own notes next to pieces in the collection. “American Masters” shows until Nov. 30 at the LSU Museum of Art in the Shaw Center for the Arts. lsumoa.org