Charles Green Shaw (May 1, 1892 – April 2, 1974) was an American painter, poet, writer, and illustrator.
He was a key figure in early American abstract art.
Shaw's paintings are part of most major collections of American Art, including the
Art Institute of Chicago,
Corcoran Gallery
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University.
Overview
The Corcoran School of the Arts & Desi ...
, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, the
Musee d'Art Moderne de Paris,
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
, the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
, the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
, and the
Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
.
[Pennington, Buck. “The ‘Floating World’ in the Twenties: The Jazz Age and Charles Green Shaw.” ''Archives of American Art Journal'' 20, no. 4 (1980): 17–24. via JSTOR. Accessed March 9, 2022.https://www.jstor.org/stable/1557337][“Charles (Green) Shaw.” May 22, 2020. ''CA Online'', January. via Gale. Accessed March 9, 2022.]
Before turning to art in 1932, Shaw was a prominent writer for ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' and ''
Vanity Fair''.
He was also a poet, with more than 1,200 published poems.
Early life
Shaw was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
to Eva (née Morris) and Charles Green Shaw, a merchant.
This was a wealthy family connected to the
F. W. Woolworth Company
The F. W. Woolworth Company (often referred to as Woolworth's or simply Woolworth) was a retail company and one of the pioneers of the five-and-dime store. It was among the most successful American and international five-and-dime businesses, se ...
fortune.
However, Shaw was orphaned at a young age—his mother died when he was just three.
As a result, he and his twin brother were raised by their uncle, Frank D. Shaw.
He grew up spending summers in
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...
and Christmas at
Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt's balls.
He began drawing when he was six; he wrote and illustrated his first book, ''The Costumes of Nations, when he was nine''.
Shaw attended the
Friends Seminary and Berkley School.
He graduated from
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
in 1914.
While at Yale, he befriended
Cole Porter, joined
St. Anthony Hall, and contributed artwork to campus humor magazine, ''
The Yale Record
''The Yale Record'' is the campus humor magazine of Yale University. Founded in 1872, it became the oldest humor magazine in the world when ''Punch'' folded in 2002."History", The Yale Record, March 10, 2010. http://www.yalerecord.com/about/histo ...
.''
He studied
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
from 1914 to 1915.
Shaw was a Lieutenant in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, first receiving an assignment as a supply officer stationed in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
Then, he was assigned to the
Army Air Force
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
at Kelly Airfield in
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
.
Over the course of eighteen months in the service, he never saw active duty.
After the war, Shaw tried to follow the business model set by his family, and soon found he was ill-suited for selling real estate in New York City.
Writer
Shaw started his career as a writer by the early 1920s.
He worked as a freelance writer for magazines such as ''
Harper's Bazaar'', ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', ''
The Smart Set
''The Smart Set'' was an American literary magazine, founded by Colonel William d'Alton Mann and published from March 1900 to June 1930. Its headquarters was in New York City. During its Jazz Age heyday under the editorship of H. L. Mencken and ...
'', and ''
Vanity Fair'', focusing on theater and café society.
[Adams, Henry. “Mother Booze's Nursery Rhymes." ''Archives of American Art Journal'' 52, no. 3/4 (2013): 4–9. via JSTOR. Accessed March 10, 2022.] Shaw was "the master of the bon mot, the glib remark, the clever definition."
He frequently created illustrations to go with his articles.
Along with "his witty and insightful articles," Shaw was a journalist and a novelist.
His articles were published in magazines such as
''Antiques'', ''
Connoisseur
A connoisseur (French traditional, pre-1835, spelling of , from Middle-French , then meaning 'to be acquainted with' or 'to know somebody/something') is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts; who is a keen appreciator o ...
,
House & Garden,'' and ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
.''
He interviewed
Adele Astaire
Adele Astaire Douglass (born Adele Marie Austerlitz, later known as Lady Charles Cavendish; September 10, 1896 – January 25, 1981), was an American dancer, stage actress, and singer. After beginning work as a dancer and vaudeville perfor ...
,
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
,
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...
,
George Jean Nathan
George Jean Nathan (February 14, 1882 – April 8, 1958) was an American drama critic and magazine editor. He worked closely with H. L. Mencken, bringing the literary magazine ''The Smart Set'' to prominence as an editor, and co-founding and ...
,
Michael Strange.
One of his books with "lasting merit" is ''The Lowdown,'' a collection celebrity character sketches.
In April 1936, Shaw decided to write and illustrate books for children.
[Marcus, Leonard S. “Looking-Class Modernist: Charles Green Shaw and the Making of ‘No Such Animal.’” ''Archives of American Art Journal'' 48, no. 3/4 (2009): 4–15. via JSTOR, accessed March 9, 2022.] In May 1939, he finally found an editor interested in his ideas—
Margaret Wise Brown, who would go on to write the children's classic ''
Goodnight Moon''.
Shaw published dozens of books for children, including ''
It Looked Like Spilt Milk'' in 1947.
He also illustrated books for Brown.
In 1952 when he was 62 years old, Shaw started writing poetry and had some 1,200 poems published in ''
Literary Review
''Literary Review'' is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh. Its offices are on Lexington Street in Soho. The magazine was edited for fourteen years by v ...
'', the ''
New York Tribune'', ''Poetry Digest, and
Trace
Trace may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* ''Trace'' (Son Volt album), 1995
* ''Trace'' (Died Pretty album), 1993
* Trace (band), a Dutch progressive rock band
* ''The Trace'' (album)
Other uses in arts and entertainment
* ''Trace'' ...
.''
He also released four poetry collections.
Art
As an artist, Shaw was "essentially self-taught."
[Stavitsky, Gail. 1993. “A Landmark Exhibition: Five Contemporary American Concretionist, March 1936.” ''Archives of American Art Journal'' 33 (2): 2–10. via EBSCO, accessed March 10, 2022.] In 1927, he enrolled in
Thomas Hart Benton's class at the
Art Students League of New York.
He also studied privately with
George Luks
George Benjamin Luks (August 13, 1867 – October 29, 1933) was an American artist, identified with the aggressively realistic Ashcan School of American painting.
After travelling and studying in Europe, Luks worked as a newspaper illustrator a ...
from 1926 to 1928.
In 1929, he lived in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
for a month, visiting museums and meeting artists.
He found a great deal of inspiration in London, going to the park and sketching every day.
Shaw "considered himself a painter" when he returned to New York City in 1932.
In 1933, he started a series of works called ''Plastic Polygon,'' working on this series of abstracted architectural paintings for about seven years.
''Plastic Polygon'' included "architectural forms of the New York City skyline" and helped establish his reputation.
Shaw called his style of modern art "concretionist" because he painted "concrete objects" rather than abstractions.
In 1934, Shaw had a solo exhibition at Valentine Gallery in New York City.
From May to October 1935, he also had a show at
Gallery of Living Art that was organized by
Albert Gallatin
Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin (January 29, 1761 – August 12, 1849) was a Genevan–American politician, diplomat, ethnologist and linguist. Often described as "America's Swiss Founding Father", he was a leading figure in the early years o ...
.
This was the first one-man show at the Gallery of Living Art; Gallatin said he broke his own rule because "Mr. Shaw is doing the most important abstract painting in America today."
The next year, Gallatin curated a show at
Reinhardt Gallery called ''American Concretionists,'' which included Shaw's works and those of others.
Also in 1936, Shaw was a founding member of the
American Abstract Artists
American Abstract Artists (AAA) was formed in 1936 in New York City, to promote and foster public understanding of abstract art. American Abstract Artists exhibitions, publications, and lectures helped to establish the organization as a major fo ...
and participated in their first annual exhibition.
This group was established "at a time when
abstract art was met with strong critical resistance," and many such artists struggled to find galleries willing to display their work.
In the 1940s and moving forward, Shaw shifted from the strict geometrical format of the polygon paintings, focusing on
abstract expressionism.
He softened the color palette for some of his paintings.
He also explored another medium, making montages by mountings antique items related to games on fabric, such as game boards and antique playing and tarot cards.
In addition, he designed posters, book covers, and illustrated picture books.
A significant figure in American
abstract art, Shaw was the only American artist to have two solo exhibitions at
Guggenheim Museum
The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
Museums in this group include:
Locations
Americas
* The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...
in his lifetime.
In total, he had thirty one-man shows in galleries, museums and traveling exhibitions in America, Europe, and Japan.
Affiliations
Shaw was a member of
American Abstract Artists
American Abstract Artists (AAA) was formed in 1936 in New York City, to promote and foster public understanding of abstract art. American Abstract Artists exhibitions, publications, and lectures helped to establish the organization as a major fo ...
, the Artists Equity Association (now called th
New York Artists Equity Association, the
Century Association, th
Federation of Modern Painters & Sculptors the Nantucket Art Association (now called th
Artists Association of Nantucket, the
Newport Art Association, the
Poetry Society of America
The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the society have included such renowned poets as Witter Bynner, Ro ...
, and
The Poetry Society
The Poetry Society is a membership organisation, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The society was founded in London in February 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society ...
.
Awards
Shaw won the
Michael Strange Poetry Award in 1954.
The Nantucket Art Association gave Shaw the Nantucket Art Association Award in 1958, and first prize in 1960.
Personal
Shaw was a noted collector of
tobacciana
Tobacco is the agricultural product of the leaves of plants in the genus ''Nicotiana'', commonly termed ''tobacco plants''. All species of ''Nicotiana'' contain the addictive drug nicotine—a psychostimulant alkaloid found in all parts of the ...
.
In 1975, his collection sold at
Christie's for £41,403.
When he was 81 years old, Shaw died at his home at 340 East 57th Street in New York City on April 2, 1974
He bequeathed fifty boxes of archival materials to the Smithsonian's American Art Museum.
His papers include correspondence with
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
,
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...
,
Anita Loos
Corinne Anita Loos (April 26, 1888 – August 18, 1981) was an American actress, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. In 1912, she became the first female staff screenwriter in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood, when D. W. Griffith put h ...
,
H. L. Menken, and
Cole Porter.
Publications
Books
*Shaw, Charles G. (1927). ''Heart in a Hurricane''. Illustrations by Ralph Barton New York: Brenton's.
*— (1930) ''Nightlife, Day''. New York: Day
*— (1930) ''The Low-Down''. New York: Henry Holt.
*— (1931) ''Lady by Chance''. New York: Macaulay.
*— (1938) New York—Oddly Enough. New York: Farrar, Rinehart
*— (1940). ''The Giant of Centra Park''. New York: William R. Scott
Children's books
* — (1941) ''The Guess Book''. New York: William R. Scott, Inc.
* — (1942) ''The Blue Guess Book'' (and illustrator) New York: William R. Scott
* — (1947) ''
It Looked Like Spilt Milk''. New York: Harper.
Poetry collections
* — (1959) ''Into the Light'', Fine Editions
* — (1962) ''Image of Life.'' Poets of America Publishing Co.
* — (1966) ''Time Has No Edge: A Poetry Collection.'' William-Frederick
* — (1969) ''Moment of the Now: A Poetry Collection.'' Profile Press
Essays and reporting
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Illustrator
* Brown, Margaret Wise (1944) ''Black and White.'' Illustrations by Charles G. Shaw''.'' New York: Harper & Brothers.
* — (1947) ''Winter Noisy Book.'' Illustrations by Charles G. Shaw. New York: W. R. Scott.
* Felton, Harold W. (1971) ''James Weldon Johnson.'' Illustrations by Charles G. Shaw. New York: Dodd.
* McCullough, John G. (1947) ''Dark is Dark.'' Illustrations by Charles G. Shaw. New York: W. R. Scott.
* Pedersen, Elsa (1968) ''House Upon a Rock.'' Illustrations by Charles G. Shaw. New York: Atheneum
* Scott, William Rufus (1951) The Apple that Jack Ate. Illustrations by Charles G. Shaw. New York: W. R. Scott.
* — (1944) ''This Is The Milk That Jack Drank.'' Illustrations by Charles G. Shaw. New York: W. R. Scott.
* — (1950) ''This Is the Water That Jack Drank.'' Illustrations by Charles G. Shaw. New York: W. R. Scott.
Exhibition catalogs
*
References
Other sources
*Staff report (April 3, 1974). Charles G. Shaw, 81, Abstract Painter. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''
*Russell, John (January 3, 1976). Art: The American Idiom of Charles Shaw. ''The New York Times''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Charles Green
1892 births
1974 deaths
People from New York City
Yale University alumni
20th-century American poets
20th-century American male writers
The New Yorker people
20th-century American painters
American male painters
Modern painters
Abstract painters
American illustrators
St. Anthony Hall
20th-century American male artists