Robert Winthrop Chanler: Discovering the Fantastic

Description

Rediscovery of Robert Winthrop Chanler, an early twentieth century American painter whose fantastic imagination and patrician clientele provide a fascinating artistic and biographical saga. The lively chronicle of American modernism is populated with a cast of fascinating characters, but few were as exuberant as Robert Winthrop Chanler (1872-1930). He made his artistic reputation with exotic and brilliantly colored lacquered screens whose compositions feature fantastical avian, jungle, and aquatic creatures, many overlaid with iridescent metallic finishes. Critically and publicly acclaimed, Chanler was a unique decorative artist whose reputation centered on exquisite, elaborately crafted lacquered screens and architectural interiors, typically populated by exotic and fantastic flora and fauna. Later in his career he turned to portraiture, which one sitter described as a career and social experience. A scion of American aristocracy, he led a flamboyant life, the "lurid details" of which attracted as much attention as his art, according to one scholar. Chanler's work is now regaining long-overdue attention, particularly among art historians and preservationists. The increasing interest occurs in tandem with mounting urgency surrounding the preservation of his art, particularly his architectural projects.

Gina Wouters is curator at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. Responsible for the research and display of a multifaceted collection, Wouters's focus centers on the twentieth century, including the commissioning of contemporary artists in a Gilded Age context. Prior to joining Vizcaya, she worked at The Wolfsonian-FIU, She received her B.F.A in Photography from Barry University in Miami, Florida and obtained her master's degree in Dutch Art in European Context from the University of Amsterdam. Andrea Gollin is an art historian and an independent editor working with Vizcaya, the Wolfsonian, and other institutions.

"It could be he's unknown to us because his murals and installations are hard to exhibit. They exist mainly in media-averse private buildings and out-of-the-way estates. Probably, too, because Gilded Age art isn't vogueish anymore. Such a perfect moment for this book, then, the first in 80 years to dust off the luxuriant work of this maverick, this all-but-forgotten rock star." - World of Interiors "The focus of Robert Winthrop Chanler: Discovering the Fantastic is the subject's gobsmackingly marvelous works of art. Folding screens, murals, stained-glass windows, portraits, and architectural details - namely a towering bronze-and-plaster chimneypiece for arts patron Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney that was designed to resemble a furious fire blazing from baseboard to ceiling - were among Chanler's many creations, which often incorporated bizarrely magical, strangely malevolent evocations of the natural world." - Architectural Digest "I first learned about the artist Robert Winthrop Chanler during my research writing The World of Gloria Vanderbilt. The artist and Gloria's aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney were great friends, and he designed the fantastical flame-licked fireplace in her Greenwich Village studio. Chanler was a bohemian aristocrat, related to Astors and Stuyvesants, but lived by his own rules, hardly a model of convention. This is the first major book on his life and art in many years, and I look forward to hours poring over every page." - New York Magazine's Design Hunting "Born in 1872, died in 1930, Robert Chanler was a brilliant artist. He worked in a variety of media-paint, lacquer, plaster - and a variety of formats - folding screens, murals, canvas. In New York and Europe, he ran with a swell crowd of influential artists and bohemians. The iconic Greenwich Village house of his friend, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, features a spectacular Chanler fireplace. In a new book edited by Gina Wouters and Andrea Gollin, Robert Winthrop Chanler: Discovering the Fantastic, Chanler's life and work are detailed in a series of excellent essays by art historians, museum curators and family members." - Rural Intelligence "Chanler influenced modernism with his fluidity between hi and low, representation and imagination, and screens and sculptures. Robert Winthrop Chanler: Discovering the Fantastic is a welcome contribution to conversations we have about making art today - and what it means to call yourself avant-garde in 2016 given the modernism that came before us." - Miami Rail