Robert ChadeayneService Station, 1935Oil on canvas30 x 36 inchesPrivate collection, courtesy of Keny Galleries
The Painter's Eye: December 2015
Featuring Service Station by Robert Chadeayne
“The first half of the 20th Century was one of great transformation nationally, across Ohio, and in Springfield.
“The emergence of the automobile, telephone, radio and electric household appliances ushered in a new era of speed, communication and convenience. The Ohio regionalists took note of these developments and responded with Carl Gartner’s dynamic urban industrial images and enigmatic, isolate narrative landscapes; William Sommer’s expressionistic horse-drawn carts; Charles Burchfield’s fusion of Post-Impressionist aesthetics with haunting rural and urban isolation; Robert Chadeayne’s reductive, light-infused pastoral and urban images; Emerson Burkhart’s elegiac, exposed junked engines; and Clyde Singer’s wry, animated rural and urban environments.”
–Timothy Keny, guest curator
Authentic Narratives: Ohio Regionalists (1915-1950)
Springfield Museum of Art, Sept. 12-Jan. 17
Robert Chadeayne (1897-1981) came to Columbus in 1927 from New York to take a teaching position at the Columbus School of Art (now the Columbus College of Art and Design), leaving behind the robust and exciting art world centered there then as now. Columbus, like most other cities at the time, did not have art galleries or a museum, though it did have some 6,000 speakeasies.
Alice Schille, James and Edna Hopkins, and Ralph Fanning were active here, and were exhibited nationally as well. Chadeayne also became part of the Columbus’ nascent art scene. Though he traveled and painted widely, Chadeayne’s work shows his great affection for Ohio.
This wonderfully constructed painting is based on the geometry of the buildings and the crisp, clear light of the morning sun. Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was an artist who Chadeayne admired, and you can see that influence here. By flattening the design just a bit, however, he makes a nod to European modernism.
A quartet of hues – red, yellow, blue and green – gives this piece a lively and palpable sense of light.
Chadeayne had a long and fruitful career as a teacher. Notable students included Edmund Kuehn (1916-2011).
Chadeayne’ s paintings won a number of awards in national exhibitions, and he is in numerous private collections in this area as well. There are fine examples of Chadeayne’s work at Capital University’s Schumacher Gallery, the Springfield Museum of Art and the Columbus Museum of Art.
This image is used on the cover of the excellent catalog that accompanies this exhibition.
Nationally renowned local artist Michael McEwan teaches painting and drawing classes at his Clintonville area studio.
