lighton's community

   One need only look at the 1922, 1923, and 1924 Midwestern Artist Exhibitions to locate the individuals with which Gertrude Woolf Lighton associated. Many were students and employees of the Kansas City Arts Institute. Listed are names, residence, accepted entries, mediums, or title of employment. Work of the names in orange were exhibited at Lighton's studio in the 1930s.

 
The 1922 exhibit was held at the Phil R. Toll home, located on the southwest corner of Warwick and Armour Boulevards (above).
Program notes
Art school committee - Ilah Kibbey, Registrar.
January exhibition committee  - Ms. Massey Holmes, Miss Elizabeth Gentry.
KCAI Trustees - Mrs Hal Gaylord, Ms. Massey Holmes

Alfred H. Clark  LINK
Box 153, St. Marys, KS
  Portrait Head of Boy - painting

Mrs. Massey Holmes
1040 W 53rd St, Kansas City
  Still Life - painting

Ilah Marion Kibbey LINK
  October - painting
  Gloucester Docks - painting

Gertrude W. Lighton  LINK
3526 Locust, Kansas City
  Main Street, Provincetown - painting
  The Gillham Road from Georgia Court - painting

Le Roy D. Morris  LINK
42nd and Mill Creek Parkway
  Morning, Taos - painting
  Jim Luwasu - painting
  Wagon Wheel Gap - painting
  Taos Girls - painting

R. Wetherill  LINK
1640 Poplar St, Kansas City
  Evening Glow - painting
  Cozy Corner - painting

Ethel G. Holmes  LINK
1040 W 53rd St, Kansas City
  Silver and Lapis Lazuli - jewelry/metalwork
  Carver Silver Bracelet - jewelry/metalwork
  Filet Lace Panel - textile decoration

1922 Friends of Art - A. R. Jones - President
Miss Effie Seachrest - Vice President
Program note
Sunday, Jan. 22, "Old Masters and New" lecture
Miss Floy Campbell, Art Director Junior College

---------------------------

1923 Midwestern Artists Exhibition
(Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma)

Floy Campbell  LINK
4026 E 67th Street Terrace, Kansas City
  Dunes, Indiana - oil painting
  The Fallen Monarch - litho

Roger Cunningham 
3123 Washington St, Kansas City
  November Prairie - watercolor

Gertrude Freyman  LINK
6220 Indiana Ave, Kansas City
  The Scarlet Bowl - oil painting

Coah Henry  LINK
3106 Olive, Kansas City
  Maine Birches - oil painting
  Summer Quiet - oil painting
  The Harbor - watercolor

Ethel G. Holmes
  Morning Light on Gould Mountain - watercolor
  Thunderstorms - oil painting
The Curve of the Brook - watercolor

Ilah M. Kibbey
  Across the St. Laurence, Quebec - pastel
  From the Fort, Quebec - litho print
  Minanna, Monhegan - pastel
  Lower City, Quebec - litho pencil
    Silver Metal of Graphic Arts 1923
  Sous le Cap, Quebec - litho pencil
  Summer - oil painting
  The Fishing Village - oil painting
    Mr/Mrs JB Irving Prize of Painting 1923
  The Riding Academy, Country Club - watercolor
  The Village Road - watercolor
    Bronze Medal of Watercolor and Pastels 1923

Gertrude W. Lighton
  Flowers - oil painting

W. Rosenbauer LINK
  Marguerite - plaster
    Mrs. Anthony French Merrill Prize of Ceramics 1923
  Jar / Bowl

R. Wetherill
  Landscape - oil painting
  After The Storm - sketch watercolor
  Winter - silk print
  Ozark Hills - oil paintoing

Margaret Whittemore  LINK
1615 College Ave, Topeka, KS
  Santa Fe Poster - oil painting
  Pueblo Indians - woodblock

Program note
Friday, Jan. 26 "Expressionism, Van Gogh, Gaugan" lecture
by Miss Floy Campbell

--------------------
1924 Midwestern Artists Exhibition
(Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado)

Walter A Bailey, art department Kansas City Star 
  The Edge of Town - oil painting
  Swope Park in Winter - oil painting
  Shadows - oil painting
  The Fork in the Road - oil painting
  Moonlight - Graphic Arts
  Pine Tree - Graphic Arts
  Coasting - Graphic Arts

Floy Campbell
  In An Old Garden - oil painting
  Flickering Gold - oil painting
  The Ragged Edge - watercolor

Fern I. Coppedge
4011 Baltimore Ave, Philadelphia, PA
  A Morning In Winter - oil painting
    Silver Award for Painting 1924

Dr. Emmet J. Craig  LINK
707 Waldheim Bldg, Kansas City LINK
  Dr. Chas C. Allen - Portrait Bust Sculpture
    Silver Medal for Sculpture
  Helen Craig - Portrait Bust Sculpture

Gertrude Freyman
  Still Life - oil painting
  The Yellow Jar - oil painting
  Portrait - Red Crayon Drawing

Coah Hentry
3106 Olive St, Kansas City
  Going to Church - oil painting
  From the Garden - oil painting
  A Maine Homestead - oil painting

Ethel Greenough Holmes
  Sweet Peas - oil painting
  The End of the Point - watercolor

Helen Scott Jaccard
1502 Drury Lane, Kansas City
  Flowers - oil painting
  Flowers from Mother's Garden - oil painting
  The Blue Bowl - oil painting

Ilah M. Kibbey
  Chateau Frontenac From Culdesac - litho pencil
  November Snow, Mission Hills - watercolor
    Silver Metal of Watercolors
  Posies - watercolor

Troy Kinney  LINK
46 W Ninety-fifth St, New York
  Lopokova and Nijinski in Les Sylphides - etching
    Gold Metal for Etching
  Zephyr - etching
  Mme. Genee - ething
  Serenade - etching

Le Roy Mc Morris
  Portrait of My Mother - oil painting
  New Mexico - oil painting
    Bronze Medal for Painting
  White Iris - oil painting
  Mr. John H. Bovard - oil painting
  Agatha - litho
  Portrait - litho tiny
  Figure Sketches, Group No.1 - watercolor
  Orange Lily - watercolor
  Miss Kaye - etching

W.W. Rosebauer
109 E 40th St, Kansas City
  Charley Mc Gowan - Bronze
    Honor Mention for sculpture

C.A.Seward  LINK
  Summer - litho
    Honor Mention for sculpture
  Red Sandstone Banks - litho

R. Wetherill
  Boats - silk print
  The Boat House - silk print
  Lonesome Pine - silk print

          "Interest in the Art Institute was increasing, as was enrollment. In 1922, a brochure listed classes in design, illustration, interior decorating, costume design, fashion, wood carving, drawing, lettering, commercial art, sculpture and industrial art. There were also special classes in jewelry, home crafts such as batik, gesso, lamp shades, ceramics, weaving, basketry. The catalogue was profusely illustrated with examples of student art including work by Ruth Alexander, Illah Marion Kibbey, Lora Wilkins, Fred Geary, Doris Prat, Gene Thornton, Leroy D. MacMoris, L.F. Wilford, Delle Miller. Costs were day classes, per week, $3.50; evening classes, per week, $1.50; children's classes, Saturdays, 50 cents; holiday classes Sunday mornings, 60 cents." (A History of Community Achievement 1885-1964 by Mazee Bush Owens and Frances S. Bush, page 9, accessed from Jannes Library, Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010).

(List from "Midwestern Artists Exhibition, Kansas City: Kansas City Art Institute, 1920-1942," Mines, Cynthia, courtesy of Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, 14 West 10th St, Kansas City, MO, accessed November 12, 2011) (Links courtesy of Ask Art, Clark, http://www.askart.com/askart/c/alfred_houghton_clark/alfred_houghton_clark.aspx, Kibbey, http://www.askart.com/askart/k/ilah_marian_kibbey/ilah_marian_kibbey.aspx, Wetherill, http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/ArtistKeywords.aspx?searchtype=KEYWORDS&artist=10057827, Lighton, http://www.askart.com/askart/artist.aspx?artist=10032708, Morris, http://www.askart.com/askart/m/leroy_daniel_mcmorris/leroy_daniel_mcmorris.aspx, Holmes, http://www.askart.com/AskART/H/ethel_greenough_holmes/ethel_greenough_holmes.aspx?searchtype=SUMMARY&artist=130467, Campbell, http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/ArtistKeywords.aspx?searchtype=KEYWORDS&artist=10008439, Freeman, http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/ArtistKeywords.aspx?searchtype=KEYWORDS&artist=10018777, Henry, http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/ArtistKeywords.aspx?searchtype=KEYWORDS&artist=10024443, Rosenbauer, http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/ArtistKeywords.aspx?searchtype=KEYWORDS&artist=101971, Craig, http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/ArtistKeywords.aspx?searchtype=KEYWORDS&artist=5011853, Kinney, http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/ArtistKeywords.aspx?searchtype=KEYWORDS&artist=23471,
Seward, http://www.askart.com/askart/s/coy_avon_seward/coy_avon_seward.aspx
  accessed Feb 15,2013)

Works of Promise, 1918, Kansas City

Before the Society organized in 1921, Kansas City artists were students at the Fine Arts institute. This article was in the Journal Post, April 10, 1918. Students whose names would appear later on the Lighton studio roster are highlighted in blue.

    Interesting bits of local color are evident in the exhibit of 37 paintings by art students and local Kansas City artists now on display at the Fine Art institute. One of these is a painting of Miss Amorette Root, daughter of Walter C. Root, 4345 Locust street, which is a study in effective use of color. Miss Root is wearing a blue smock, of a shade similiar to her eyes.  Alfred H. Clark is the painter. 

    Walter A. Bailey, one of the promising students of the institute, has effectively pictured the West Bottoms (before the fire) and F. M. Benedict has done "A Foggy Day in the Kaw."

    Miss Ilah Marian Kibbey, 3008 East Thirty-second street, has in the exhibit her first picture, "Isabel,"a study which shows promise, the judges said. She was awarded an honorable mention.

    For poetry and fine execution, two paintings by Charles A Willmovsky, one of the teachers at the institute, surpass all other exhibits.

    His "Boats," a wood cut, and an etching, "Houses, Provincetown," have the same elusive quality which are distinctive to this artist.

    Although it is entitled "Snow and Sunshine," Birger Sandzen's painting of that name gives little evidence of either to the unaccustomed eye. He has done also "Twilight in the Mountains" which is mostly twilight and another of the big, slashing conceptions of the nature wonders of Colorado in "In the Rocky Mountain National Park."

    Bertha Venanzi-Rockwell, the Kansas City girl who married an Italian artist, Venanzi, has one picture with considerable local color. It is "Westport," a small frame house of uncertain architecture which is like several which still stand in that part of Kansas City, made historic by battles in the Civil war.

    A new artist has come into the display this year, John Frazier, an instructor of the University of Kansas, with a painting, two etchings and two pencil drawings, all well drawn and well destailed. He won the O.H. (?) prize of $50. for his pencil drawing "The Smithy."

    L.L. Balcom has done the Blu (?) with the most startling exactitude seems to the spectator familiar the steep banks, overhanging willows and narrow, curving water and banks.

    Mrs. Charles Beach Allen, another Kansas City artist, has two paintings, her style somewhat resembling Sandzen. "A Street Scene in Havana, Cuba," is one and "Salvia" another.

    Mrs Fern I Coppedge of Topeka on the $100 prize offered by Edwin W. Shields on her painting, "Winter Morning."

  

(article courtesy of Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, 14 West 10th St, Kansas City, MO, accessed March 2011)

(more on Venanzi-Rockwell, Missouri Valley Special Collections, http://www.kchistory.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/Local&CISOPTR=27322&CISOBOX=1&REC=20 and http://www.kchistory.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/Local&CISOPTR=26740&CISOBOX=1&REC=4 , and accessed Feb 11,2012
(more on Coppedge, James A. Michener Art Museum, http://www.michenermuseum.org/bucksartists/artist.php?artist=62 ,
accessed Feb 11.2012)

Two Cutters From Kansas City

In January of 1934 works by Jim Edd Spencer and Fred Geary toured the country with the American Block Prints exhibition out of Wichita, Kansas. Both were members of the Kansas City Society of Artists. Both were on the roster at the Lighton Studio at 1718 Holly Street. (Double click on images to see enlarged.)

 Granary 1 by Jim Edd Spencer, linoleum cut, 9 by 7 inches

Storehouse (Granary 2) by Jim Edd Spencer, linoleum cut, 9 by 7 inches.(courtesy of the Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, 14 West 10th Street, Kansas City, MO, accessed December 4, 2010)

The Steamboat Bixby by Fred Geary, woodcut, 6 1/8 by 9 1/2 inches.(courtesy of the Fred Geary Collection, The State Historical Society of Missouri, 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, MO, accessed October 8, 2011)

Old Maple Tree by Fred Geary, woodcut, 4 by 5 3/4 inches. (Woodcut size information courtesy of The Collections of the Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art: Prints, 1460-1995 by George L. McKenna, 1996, pg.268-273, courtesy of Carrollton Public Library, 1 North Folger Street, Carrollton, Missouri, United States, accessed Jan 7, 2011, image courtesy of Carrollton Public Library, 1 North Folger Street, Carrollton, Missouri, United States, accessed Jan 7, 2011)

Both Steamboat Bixby by Geary and Storehouse by Spencer were among the 91 entries chosen for the 1934 Midwestern Artist's Exhibition held at the Kansas City Art Institute, February 4 - 28th. Accepted works came from nine states, including Oklahoma, Missouri, Ohio, Michigan, Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, and New Mexico. (Listing from "Midwestern Artists Exhibition, Kansas City: Kansas City Art Institute, 1920-1942," Mines, Cynthia, courtesy of Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, 14 West 10th St, Kansas City, MO, accessed June 24th, 2010) 

More on American Block Prints under the Wichita Art Association HERE. This national exhibition began in 1928 by invitation and under the guidance of Coy Avon Seward. (courtesy of  C.A. Seward Printmaker, http://www.casewardprintmaker.com/C.A._Seward_1884-1939/Arts_Advocate.html, accessed Nov 11, 2011)

Fred Geary, Society member

   Burro And Cart by Fred Geary, watercolor, 10 by 15 inches

  

Featured artwork Children's Section of Carrollton Public Library,1 North Folger Street, Carrollton, Missouri

Mrs. Lighton's enthusiasm and leadership

The following article first appeared in The Independent, Kansas City's Journal of Society on July 23rd, 1973, pages 16 and 17. In it, an unnamed author recalls the contributions Mrs. David M. (Gertrude) Lighton made, during her involvement with her Lighton Studios on 1718 Holly Street. It reveals Mrs. Lighton's attitude and generosity to the art community.

      "It was a vacant, elderly brick building that had begun respectfully enough in the 1880's as a hotel high on the west bluffs near Kersey Coates Drive. Later, it housed the Bucket of Blood Saloon and a group of feminine occupants of dubious hospitality and reputation. The police in their uneasy surveillance of the place knew the address well: 1718 Holly. In 1929 it got not religion, but culture, in a rebirth that began with a candlelight procession. The leader was Mrs. David M. (Gertrude) Lighton, and the group she led on an impromptu 10 p.m. tour of the premises  was the Kansas City Society of Artists. Her fellow artists had felt the need of an informal but inspiring center for studios, serious work, and congenial company. But this forlorn place! It wasn't even  wired for electricity. It needed new plumbing and remodeling. Most of all it needed  Mrs. Lighton's  enthusiasm and leadership, and her willingness to restore the building at her own expense."

      "The result by the fall of 1930 was the Lighton Studio, with its inviting reception room, electric lights, three floors of studios, and the Red Lantern tea-room in the basement. Mrs. Lighton found the barn lanterns at a neighborhood hardware store. Rent for the studios ranged from $5 to $40 monthly, depending on the size, and including heat and light, an an associate membership in the Kansas City Society of Artists was required.  Miss Ilah Marian Kibbey shared a studio with  Mrs. James Summers  and Mrs. Loren Martin. Others with studios included Larry Richmond, Gale Stockwell, Mrs. L. B. (Peg) Kittinger, Richardson Rome, Mrs. Joseph Webb Kessinger, Dr. L. Davidson, John W. Orth, Dr. Erwin Brown, Charles Allen, sculptor Dr. Emmett J. Craig (whose dental office was in the Argyle Building) and novelist Frank F. B. Houston, now of San Francisco."
      "Artist Gayle Stockwell remembers the Bohemian charm of the tea-room  and its romantically dim lighting, Oriental  screens, and incense burners. Red and black tables contrasted with chrome yellow walls. Mrs. Lighton's antique pewters  graced buffets and wall shelves. A chauffeur drove Mrs. Lighton's car. We were impressed," says Mr. Stockwell, speaking for his young fellow artists. Yet this same lady-with-the-chauffeur pitched in happily on the remodeling, even helping to put down the linoleum. She also loved to cook, and created many a delicacy in the small jade green kitchen. A handmade menu from the Studio scrapbook (now cherished by Richard M. Hollander, Mrs. Lighton's son-in-law, and by family members) lists tempting entrees such as Studio Chicken with rich cheese sauce and sherry. Lunches were 75 cents and a dollar. There were also sandwich menus and a variety of soups and salads."

      "The Studio became a center for art exhibitions, book reviews, musicals, literary luncheons, teas, and bridge luncheons. And the parties! One pink handbill created by the K. C. Society of Artists was headed BUCKET OF BLOOD--Big Party. "Free beer, free lunch. Come in western costumes." George Cartlich, retired advertising manager for Woolf Brothers, remembers the farewell parties Mrs. Lighton gave for soldiers called to war in 1941-42, "notably [one for] Jerry Rodehaver, manager for the boys' shop and a reserve officer."

      "Other artists of the 30's, whose work appeared in exhibitions at the Studio included Mrs. Hal Gaylord, Mrs. Massey Holmes, Walter Bailey, A. H. Clark, Evalyn Miller, Jim-Edd Spencer, Mrs. Marcus Ford, Coah Henry, Floy Campbell, Roger Cunningham, Mildred Rubin, Letha Churchill, Walter Giffard, and Gertrude Freyman."

      "A newspaper clipping of 1/1/34 announced  "The first one-man show of the works of Thomas Benton, Missouri artist now living in New York will open next week at the Lighton Studios...Twenty-two watercolors and drawings will be shown."

      "Among the popular speakers at the Studio were Tom Collins, Miss Helen Hoopes, and Mrs. Estelle  B. Schneider. Hostesses at various gatherings included Mmes. Thorton  E. Cooke, Nelson Studebaker Riley, Lynn  S. Banks, Powell  C. Groner, Arthur Kriehn, Louis Sosland, Harry  B. Wolf, E. Gilbert Jaccard."

      "After ten years of flourishing activity, the Studio felt the impact of World War II. Lives were geared to war-time living and gasoline was rationed. Eventually Mrs. Lighton moved her studio to 4890 Main Street, near her residence. The tea-room days were over. In 1953 the old building was reopened as the Holly Street Art Gallery, with Mrs. Ivan Ganser as chairman. (In the intervening years the building had served as a youth club, navy barracks, and flood evacuation center.)"

      "The candlelight procession that signaled its happy days as the Lighton Studio was a symbolic contrast to its fiery ending. The old building was destroyed by fire in 1962. It seems a kindness of fate that Mrs. Lighton's death occurred before that time. She died in 1961 at the age of 82, a beautiful, outgoing spirit who would rejoice in Kay Cee's current artistic reawakenings."

    
     -----------------------------------------
 

One footnote of my own. During the 1920s, portions of Kansas City were known for their notoriety. In their book, Kansas City Jazz: From  Ragtime to Be-bop--A History, authors Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix described the night scene along a stretch of 12th Street as "gambling dens, nightclubs, and taxi dance halls...The clubs ranged from rough, bucket-of-blood joints with sawdust on the floor and a stomp-down piano player, to elegant nightclubs.."(page 7). The expression "buckets-of-blood" had a certain kind of appeal and excitement. The original Bucket of Blood Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada took its notorious past, and used its folklore to make the saloon into a tourism magnet. Casinos will use this idiom to suggest a wild, good time. It is no surprise then that "Buckets of Blood" was used by the artists of 1718 Holly Street to advertise what was a safe, non-violent get-together. KM

(newspaper article of The Independent, Kansas City's Journal of Society on July 23rd, 1973, pages 16, courtesy of Linda Lighton of Kansas City, page 17, courtesy of Heather Paxton, KC Independent, 4233 Roanoke, Suite 100, Kansas City, Missouri, November 12, 2010. Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Be-boy--A History by Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix,http://books.google.com/books?id=8ZbAyDygTLAC&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=Bucket+of+Blood+saloon,+kansas+city&source=bl&ots=kDyD4OqiQU&sig=9J5lo8DW2E3_3xCwY0ndXUtI84&hl=en&ei=ytbMTJ3JK8LsnQf4zbHZDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CDEQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed November 12, 2010)

richardson rome winters in kansas city

In 1929 Richardson Rome came to work for John H. Bender at the Alden Galleries in Kansas City, MO. He worked the winter months of 1929, 1930, 1931, and 1932 as a lecturer and manager. In the fall of 1933 Rome stepped down. That year Alden Galleries published High Country: An Artist's Colorado, a collection of fifteen block prints by Rome. He held an associate membership with the Kansas City Society of Artists. He was one among several that had a studio at 1718 Holly Street in Kansas City.

Here is what J. H. Bender said about Richardson Rome in his monthly publication Fine Prints, Vol. 3, No. 3, February, 1934, pp.66-74.  Double click on image or text to see it larger.

(Fine Prints, Vol. 3, No. 4, February 1934, p.66-75, courtesy of the

Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, 14 West 10th St, Kansas City, MO, accessed December 4, 2010. High Country: An Artist's Colorado, courtesy of  Nicholas Angelo Fine Art, http://nicholasangelo.com/dynapage/IP6153.htm, 4089 Ute Highway (Highway 66), Lyons, Colorado, (303) 823-0607. Minnesota Prints And Printmakers, 1900-1945 by Robert Crump, Minnesota Historical Society, p.157, accessed November 18, 2010.   Old Estes by Dave Tanton, http://www.oldestes.com/Rome%20-%20Come%20Up%20and%20See%20My%20Etchings.htm, accessed November 18, 2010)

1937 listing

This just in. Double click to see enlarged.

If you recognize a name, send me a comment. Thank you.

KM (courtesy of 1937-1938 American Art Directory, page 280, purchased, accessed December 22, 2010)