The Clark Hulings Foundation and the Salmagundi Club Offer Glenna Goodacre’s Bas Relief of Hulings’ “Helping to Push” at the 10th Annual American Masters Show
New York City – As an emblem of The Clark Hulings Foundation (CHF)’s work to enable visual artists to be self-sustaining entrepreneurs by providing them with business training and support, Hulings’ classic drawing “Helping to Push” provides inspiration to The Foundation, their fellows, and other artist beneficiaries of the FAund’s work. Created by celebrated sculptor Glenna Goodacre as her final work, the piece is now available as a thank you for a major donation. Proceeds benefit CHF and will be used to deliver art-business programming jointly with the Salmagundi Club. Programs will benefit Club members and other visual artists.
The work is on exhibit at the club’s landmark brownstone clubhouse at 47 5th Avenue through October 26 as part of their American Masters 10th Anniversary Exhibition.
For the concluding work of her career, Glenna Goodacre created this bas-relief from an iconic Clark Hulings drawing. An unprecedented collaboration, which includes both artists’ signatures, is quintessential Goodacre interpreting Hulings at the height of his powers. This is a rare opportunity to own the joint work of two preeminent Santa Fe artists. Thanks to the generosity of Glenna Goodacre, and Mary and Elizabeth Hulings, “Helping to Push” is available in return for a tax-deductible donation of $15,000 and above. Only 25 will ever be cast, and only a few remain.
This sculpture of “Helping to Push” is the fourth iteration of this subject for Hulings. The scene is from Aswan, Egypt, where Hulings spent six weeks before the area was flooded by the dam in the 1960’s. He painted a watercolor on location while there. In 1973 he revisited the subject, creating a major oil painting of it entitled “Burro Pulling Logs at Aswan.” The sculpture is based on a drawing of the same name.
CHF’s founder, Hulings’ daughter Elizabeth, notes, “I don’t know whether the finished drawing was done before or after the painting, or if it was a study for the painting or a stand-alone work. Regardless, this subject clearly held a lot of significance for my father, and it certainly contains multiple hallmarks of his oeuvre: people and animals working, a rural setting, a donkey, complex architectural elements and details, lots of different textures and movement, etc. My father was known for working with light, but I think in this case he was interested in the challenge of capturing all of that movement.”
She adds, “My mother and I used the piece as the initial logo for The Clark Hulings Foundation for Visual Artists because it so perfectly conveys the idea of one artist supporting the next generation of artists as they build their careers. Now Glenna Goodacre has interpreted the drawing in clay as a bas-relief to assist The Foundation. So this subject has a fourth iteration, in bronze, half a century after my father made that first watercolor.”
Hulings finally notes, “CHF is thrilled to continue its partnership with the Salmagundi Club. We look forward to offering more art-business support to their members, and in their beautiful brownstone.”
Tim Newton, Chairman of the Board/CEO of the Salmagundi Club, and founder and curator of the American Masters show related, “As Clark was a lifetime member of the Salmagundi Club who contributed his work to the first American Masters Show, we are so thrilled to be able to offer Glenna’s amazing bas-relief, as both artists are true American Masters and represent the finest of our country’s representational artists.” Adding, “we are also excited that the offering will benefit our current artists as they learn of Hulings prescient business model and how it uniquely applies to artists’ business needs in the current moment.”
The Salmagundi Club, one of America’s oldest art organizations, will host their annual American Masters event from October 8 – October 26. The event will help celebrate the recent $1.5 million renovations and restoration of the Club’s Upper Gallery space in their landmarked 19th-century townhouse in Greenwich Village. This fine art exhibition and sale will feature works by nationally recognized artists not often exhibited in New York City. The American Masters art sale will take place during a special gala event on Friday, October 12, from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm. Interested collectors who can’t make the sale are still able to participate in absentia by purchasing a ballot book here.
About The Salmagundi Club
Founded in 1871, the Salmagundi Club is one of the oldest art organizations in the United States. Housed in a historic brownstone mansion in Greenwich Village, New York City, the Club offers programs including art classes, exhibitions, painting demonstrations, and art auctions throughout the year for members and the general public. The Salmagundi facilities include three galleries, a library, an elegant period parlor, and a restaurant and bar with vintage pool tables. All facilities are available for special events and private rentals. The Club owns a collection of over 1,500 works of art spanning its 140-year history and has a membership of nearly 850 artists and patrons. Its members have included important American artists such as Thomas Moran, William Merritt Chase, Louis Comfort Tiffany, N.C. Wyeth and Childe Hassam. Today the Club builds on this legacy by providing a center for the resurgence of representational art in America. The Salmagundi Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
