John Covert

John Raphael Covert (* 1882 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , † 1960 in New York City ) was an American painter , founding member of the Society of Independent Artists and the pioneer of American modernism .

Life

John Covert began his studies at the Pittsburgh School of Design in 1902 with the painter Martin Leisser and developed a conservative, academic style. At the age of 26, Covert received a scholarship from the German government and traveled to Munich , where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1909 to 1912.

From Munich he moved to Paris and stayed there for three years, where he ignored the modernist influences around him and instead painted nudes and portraits in the style of realism.

However, Covert's style changed dramatically in February 1915 upon his return to the United States. Covert settled in New York, where from 1915 to 1921 he regularly attended meetings of American and European artists , intellectuals and writers who met in the apartment of Covert's cousin Walter Arensberg and his wife Louise on 67th Street (West), because the Arensbergs were committed supporters of modern art . The result was that Covert left his academic style behind. At first he created cubist paintings and later he also included unusual materials in his work.

Between 1915 and 1918 Covert was particularly close friends with Marcel Duchamp . Together with a group of like-minded people, they founded the Society of Independent Artists in 1916 , of which Covert became managing director. He was also instrumental in organizing the Society's first joint exhibition in 1917 .

Although Covert was represented by the de Zayas Gallery , Covert's paintings received little recognition so that he could not survive financially. Therefore, in 1923 he became a sales representative at the Vesuvius Crucible Company . Despite retiring from the avant-garde of the art world, Covert continued to pursue interests he shared with Walter Arensberg and other friends of his New York circle - primarily cryptography , math, and word games . Like his cousin, Covert believed that he could solve the Shakespeare-Bacon dispute with the help of cryptography - a theory by Walter Arensberg and his research institute, the Francis Bacon Foundation . Covert spent years experimenting with complex number and word puzzles, including using magic squares , anagrams, and acrostics to prove that Sir Francis Bacon was the true writer of William Shakespeare's plays . After the Arensbergs moved to Hollywood , California in 1921 , Covert visited the couple at least once to work with Walter Arensberg on his studies. Covert also used codes for entries in his cash book, which he kept as a representative.

Covert never seemed to be able to fully make friends with his new professional life. Whenever he was in New York, it was particularly important to him to visit galleries and kept hinting that he wanted to paint again, which he never did.

He suffered from many health problems, had two major operations in 1945 and finally died in 1960.

His work can now be found in the collections of the Yale University Art Gallery , the Museum of Modern Art , the Seattle Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as in various private collections.

literature

• Abraham A. Davidson: Two from the Second Decade: Manierre Dawson and John Covert. In: Art in America. 63, Sept. 1975, pp. 50-55.
• Michele D. De Angelus: John Covert (1882-1960). Avant-garde Painting and Sculpture in America, 1910-25: Exhibition Delaware Art Museum, April 4-May 18, 1975. Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington 1975.
• George Heard Hamilton: John Covert: Early American Modern. In: Art Journal. 12.1, fall 1952, pp. 37-42.
• Michael Klein: John Covert and the Arensberg Circle: Symbolism, Cubism, and Protosurrealism. In: Arts. 51.9, May 1977, pp. 113-115.
• Michael Klein: John Covert's Studios in 1916 and 1923: Two Views into the Past. In: Art Journal. 39.1, Fall 1979, pp. 22-29.
• Michael Klein: John Covert's 'Time': Cubism, Duchamp, Einstein-A Quasi-Scientific Fantasy. In: Art Journal. 33.4, Summer 1974, pp. 314-320.
• Laurent Le Bon : Dada. Catalog de l'exposition présentée au Center Pompidou du 5 octobre 2005 au 9 janvier 2006. édition du Center Pompidou, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-84426-277-5 , pp. 290 and 291.

Web links

• Penn State University Press
• John Covert on the Philadelphia Museum of Art homepage
• John Covert on the MOMA homepage