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Lawrence Whitaker's three paintings record various aspects of the coal mining industry near Windber, Pennsylvania, a small town located south of Johnstown. Drift Mouth shows a group of miners standing around the mouth of a coal mine; Wagon Mine depicts a scene of one of the last mines in Pennsylvania to employ mules for hauling coal carts; and Bituminous Coal Preparation Plant presents a view of a switching locomotive and a number of railroad cars lined up and waiting to filled with coal. The first two paintings are primarily landscape rendered in varied colors of red, yellow, green, and brown. The latter work is of a different tonality; mostly shades of rust, brown and tan in the railyard and buildings, and swirling strokes of blue and white for the sky. It presents a view of industry on a much larger scale than the former two, and eliminates any reference to the natural landscape, instead focusing only on the work of the hand of man.
Whitaker was born in Reynoldsville in 1889. His mother encouraged his artisitc pursuits from a very early age, providing him with his own studio when he was ten years old. He was self-taught, although he later studied with Emil Walters. A barber by trade, he always considered painting to be his first calling.
In 1920, he moved to Windber, Pennsylvania. His subject matter, which included scenes of mining, folklore, and religion, was drawn from his adopted hometown. In 1947 he received an award as an outstanding artist from the American Artists Professional League in New York City. In 1952, Whitaker turned his attention to sculpture, producing a statue of a miner that stands in the Windber town park to this day.
Whitaker exhibited with the Allied Artists of America; at the Indiana (Pa.) State Teachers College; the Pennsylvania State College; the Phillips Memorial Gallery; the Allied Artists of Johnstown in 1933-36 (prizes) and 1938 (prize); the Butler Art Institute, Youngstown, Ohio; and is one of the many artists in the collection who exhibited with the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. In his review of the 29th annual of 1939, Elmer A. Stephan, Director of Art Education for the Pittsburgh Public Schools, commented on his method of viewing an art exhibition:
"And so I look first for a singing canvas, one which holds me and finds in me a chord--one which makes me want to applaud. I find such a canvas in Changing Shift, by Lawrence Whitaker, awarded the Art Society of Pittsburgh Prize for a figure painting. This award is surely deservedly won. The small painting represents a group of men coming out of a mine shaft, skillfully conceived in composition and rendered in a realistic manner but with a too-rare combination of an imaginative quality. It possesses a feeling of plane recessions in well-handled dark and light, a delightful movement through this play of light by the use of well-placed shadows, giving the painting a sparkle far beyond the ordinary canvas. But beyond all these technical considerations, Mr. Whitaker seems to possess an originality above the rest, an ability to take a commonplace thought and render it so well that it becomes a true solo voice in the crowd.
The same quality is highly evident in another canvas by the same artist showing a group of miners on their way to work, following almost in line a cow path over the snow. It is a very human interpretation filled with a mood of solitary desolation, all pulled together by a fine pigment use in sky and foreground, showing a freshness and fullness of handling in a very subtle manner."
where he also exhibited, winning awards in the 1933 through 1936, and 1938 annuals.
Whitaker donated two paintings to the collection in 1935; , which, and, which shows. His painting, was donated to the collection in ca. 1956. The painting records a view of Maryland Shaft No. 1 of the Berwind-White Cola Mining Co., in St. Michaels, Pa., in Cambria County. It Unlike th, which, consist is composed primarily ofLawrence Whitakerís,, and ps Collection, Washington, D.C. , and can also be found in
Lawrence Whitaker to David Snell. Letter dated October 31, 1956, concerning the donation of . Steidle Art Collection Files.
In 1945, Whitaker's painting, Golden Triangle, was awarded the Christian J. Walter Memorial Prize for landscape painting at the 35th annual exhibition of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. It presented a view of the skyscrapers of downtown Pittsburgh, as seen from one of the many bridges leading across the rivers and into the city.
Whitaker was a member of Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, the American Artists Professional League, The Somerset Art Association, and was instrumental in establishing the Allied Artists of Johnstown. His paintings are in the collections of the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Indiana University of Pennsylvania; the William Penn State Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and the Somerset (Pa.) Public Schools, as well as a number of schools, churches and private collections in southwestern Pennsylvania. His work is also represented in the One Hundred Friends of Pittsburgh Art Collection, a collection assembled for the purpose of displaying art in the public schools of Pittsburgh.
Sources:
Stephan, Elmer A., "An Evaluation: The Twenty-ninth Annual Exhibition of the Pittsburgh Associated Artists," with illustration of Changing Shift in Carnegie Magazine, vol. 12, February 1939, pp. 259-266.
"Pittsburgh Artists Hold Their Annual Show With No Wild Tangents," Art Digest, vol. 13, March 1, 1939, p. 17.
O'Connor, John Jr.,
This document copyright © 1996, Eric John Schruers