The Society for Sanity in Art was an American artist's society whose members strongly opposed all forms of modern art, including cubism, surrealism, and abstract expressionism.

History

The society was founded in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1936 by Josephine Hancock Logan, and eventually had branches is most US cities, with major branches in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. Ms. Logan also published a book entitled ''Sanity in Art'' in 1937.

Haig Patigian Haig Patigian ( hy, Հայկ Բադիկեան; January 22, 1876 – September 19, 1950), was an Armenian-American sculptor. Biography Patigian was born in the city of Van, Turkey, Van in the Ottoman Empire. His parents were teachers at the Am ...

was the group's president in the 1940s. Margaret Fitzhugh Browne founded the Boston branch, and led it in protesting a 1940 exhibit of paintings by Picasso at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A western branch of the Society changed its name to the Society of Western Artists in 1939; it is currently the largest society of representational artists in the western US. The society's San Francisco branch sponsored an annual art exhibit-for-sale by its members at the

California Palace of the Legion of Honor The Legion of Honor, formally known as the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, is an art museum in San Francisco, California. Located in Lincoln Park, the Legion of Honor is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which a ...

at least as late as 1945. Artists that supported the group's cause included William Winthrop Ward, Florence Louise Bryant,

Percy Gray Henry Percy Gray (1869–1952) was an American painter. Gray was born on October 3, 1869 into a San Francisco family with broad literary and artistic tastes. He studied at the San Francisco School of Design and later under William Merritt Chase ...

, Rudolph F. Ingerle,

Frank Montague Moore Frank Montague Moore (1877–1967) was a painter and the first director of the Honolulu Museum of Art. He was born November 24, 1877 in Taunton, England, and studied at the Liverpool Art School and the Royal Institute. He immigrated to the Uni ...

, Thomas Hill, Frank Charles Peyraud,

Theodore Wores Theodore Wores (August 1, 1859 – September 11, 1939) was an American painter born in San Francisco, son of Joseph Wores and Gertrude Liebke. His father worked as a hat manufacturer in San Francisco. Life Wores began his art training at age t ...

and Chauncey Foster Ryder. The Society gave awards to artists who met its standards of "sanity", included the

Logan Medal of the Arts The Logan Medal of the Arts was an arts prize initiated in 1907 and associated with the Art Institute of Chicago, the Frank G Logan family and the Society for Sanity in Art. From 1917 through 1940, 270 awards were given for contributions to Ame ...

.''Sanity & Mrs. Logan''
(22 March 1937), Time Magazine. Author unattributed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Society For Sanity In Art American artist groups and collectives 1936 establishments in Illinois Conservative organizations in the United States Arts organizations established in 1936