This exhibition examines the artist Russell Cheney (1881–1945) and his relationship with his partner, the influential literary historian and critic F.O. Matthiessen (1902–1950). It seeks to marshal the term “domestic” to reframe and reassert Cheney’s work within modernism in the United States at mid-century. First, the word suggests a focus on small-scale, figurative modern art—the kind produced by Cheney—that has been generally undervalued and understudied since it was overshadowed by the large-scale, gestural non-figuration of Abstract Expressionism. Second, “domestic” here also recognizes the importance of the local setting for Cheney’s production, which was the house in Kittery Point, Maine, which he shared with Matthiessen. By placing Cheney’s work in this domestic context, the exhibition and its catalog will contribute to a more expansive—and at the same time, more inclusive—view of mid-20th-century American modernism and will demonstrate the diversity of practices at the time. This exhibition is produced in collaboration with Vanderbilt University.
