Temple to the New Order by Barbara Olmsted

Temple to the New Order by Barbara Olmsted

Temple to the New Order

Barbara Olmsted

Title

Temple to the New Order

 
Artist
Year
1942  
Technique
lithograph 
Image Size
8 3/8 x 11 3/8" image size 
Signature
pencil, lower right 
Edition Size
unstated, proofs only 
Annotations
 
Reference
San Francisco Art Association Annual Exhibition of drawings and Prints, 1943, cat. no. 79 
Paper
ivory Warren's Olde Style watermarked wove 
State
published 
Publisher
artist 
Inventory ID
23525 
Price
SOLD
Description
This surreal composition by Barbara Olmsted embodies many of the Surrealist concepts she learned while working at Atelier 17 in Paris in the 1930s - a bleak landscape with imposing, monolithic structures situated on a grid of light. Swirling overhead is a gestural, amorphous shape which casts an ominous shadow as it appears to overwhelm the structures. The title "The New Order" refers to the German term "Neuordnung" which was used by the Nazis as they sought to "reorganize" Europe and the world. Barbara Olmsted attended the University of California Berkeley for two years and the California School of Fine Arts, where she met and married fellow student Frederick Olmsted. The couple traveled to Paris to visit another CSFA student, Helen Phillips, who had received a scholarship to study abroad. While in Paris, they met Phillips’s future husband, Stanley William Hayter. Barbara and Fred worked at the first incarnation of Atelier 17 for three months before departing with Phillips and Hayter to tour Germany and Vienna to study frescos. The Olmsteds returned to San Francisco in late 1937. Barbara Olmsted's work was included in the important 1944 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Hayter and Studio 17, which featured sixty prints by thirty-two artists from twelve nations. Her prints are few and very rare but she exhibited them in the San Francisco Bay Area for a few years and was an active member of the San Francisco Art Association.