The Associated American Artists: Textile Art for the Masses

 

by

Karen Herbaugh

 

In 1934 an organization known as the Associated American Artists formed with the mission to bridge the gap between artists and their audiences by making fine art affordable. This undertaking began with a nationwide collaboration: fifty department stores agreed to display and sell signed etchings and lithographs by artists belonging to this newly formed group. By the 1950s this association expanded their merchandising theories to include designing fabrics for both the apparel and interior markets, produced by M. Lowenstein & Sons and Riverdale Manufacturing Co. respectively. These fabrics, which are titled, signed, and dated in the selvage, were heralded at their introduction by newspaper articles, shelter and apparel magazines--both for the public and the trade. Macy's Department Store was integral in the promotion of the early fabrics, creating vignettes throughout the store to introduce each fabric line and companion ceramic products by Stonelain.

 

A preliminary search of museum collections has revealed more than forty fabrics and garments made from AAA printed cotton fabrics. Periodicals and advertisements from the period, however, allude to many more. The fabrics currently identified date from 1952 to 1957 and include works by forty-four artists.

 

This research-in-progress explores the history of the organization; its artists and their motives for expanding their artistic media; the textile designs and how they relate to other printed fabrics of the period; and, not least, the manufacturers and why they considered this partnership with the Associated American Artists good for business.

 

 

Karen Herbaugh is the curator at the American Textile History Museum. She joined the ATHM staff in 1994, when she was hired as part of the project team to move the Museum’s textile and wooden tool and machinery collections to Lowell.  Since that time, she has assumed increasing responsibilities within the collections department and is now curator of those collections.  She has coordinated and mounted several of ATHM’s recent temporary exhibitions.  She holds a B.S. from Arizona State University and an M.S. from Oregon State University in historic costume and textiles.  Before coming to ATHM, she worked with several costume collections in Arizona and Oregon. She serves on the Costume Society of America, Region I board of directors and the Textile Society of America 2002 biennial symposium committee.