Anita Parkhurst Willcox
Encyclopedia
Anita Parkhurst Willcox
Anita Parkhurst Willcox (1892–1984) was an American artist, feminist and pacifist. Her career as a graphic illustrator was interrupted by 15 months spent entertaining the troops in World War I, which left her passionately anti-war. During the ‘20s, she gained fame for drawing "the New American Woman" image, but this contradicted her personal experiences as wife and mother. By the 1930s she drew images that reflected her own life and beliefs. She was inspired by Gandhi’s non-violence, and in Mao's China; but met rejection and censorship during the McCarthy era. Despite this, she continued painting until her death in 1984.
. While a student, she began her commercial art career drawing illustrations of hats for Gages, the largest millinary company in the United States. She then moved to New York City, where she worked as a graphic artist and commercial illustrator, initially sharing a studio with Neysa McMein
. Between 1913 and 1929, her commercial graphics included covers for Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Every Week, Fashion Art, McCalls, and Screenland; posters for the YMCA, and numerous advertising illustrations. She signed her commercial work throughout this period with her maiden name, "Anita Parkhurst".
In New York, Willcox joined the social and intellectual group that after 1919 formed the Algonquin Round Table
. (Willcox was an occasional participant in this group during the 1920s). She studied art briefly with George Bellows
and Robert Henri
(called the “Ashcan School
” of art), but left after they objected to her “classic” drawing style.
She married engineer Henry Willcox in 1918.
in March 1918, then in the Gondecourt sector. With artist Neysa McMein and Jane Bullard, she developed and performed a vaudeville show which toured the troops on the front lines. Willcox and McMein also painted elephants on an observation balloon and artillery guns. She remained with the US army when it entered Germany, returning to New York in March 1919. These experiences made her a committed pacifist.
In 1925, Willcox wrote a book called “Between Jobs and Babies”,exploring the changing nature of women’s roles in industrial society. Leading women academics responded positively; Edith Stern, reviewing the book for Boni and Liveright, commented: "This is exactly the book I have wanted to have written." Despite the reviews, Willcox was unable to find a publisher.
Arguing that the idealized “pretty girls” she drew for commercial illustration were “socially pernicious”, Willcox quit her career as a commercial artist.
During the Depression, Willcox designed posters and graphics for Norman Thomas
' League for Industrial Democracy, and for Masses magazine. She drew caricatures for Colliers of AFL leader W. Green
, and John Lewis
of the CIO.
Towards the end of World War II, she drew posters for Americans United for World Organisation, promoting the formation of the United Nations, and calling for an end to all wars. She publicly condemned the Korean War
, and nuclear weapons.
In 1949 Willcox traveled through India. Her sketches record the First All India Conference held in Jaipur after the end of British rule; and a peace conference at Sevagram, Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi)’s ashram, on the first anniversary of his assassination.
. Conceived as a haven from racism, the Cold War, and McCarthy era red-baiting, Village Creek became the first inter-racial cooperative on the Eastern seaboard of the United States. Village Creek today comprises some sixty houses; in 2010 it was declared a National Historical Monument.
In 1952 Anita and Henry Willcox represented the Quakers at the Asia and Pacific Rim Peace Conference
in Peking China. Willcox sketched delegates to the conference. Afterwards she traveled throughout the People’s Republic of China. Meeting Anna Louise Strong
led to extensive correspondence which laid the basis for Strong’s newspaper column in the US, Letter from China.
Following this trip, the US State Department confiscated the Willcox’s passports. The subsequent court case (a class action that included singer Paul Robeson
) led to the 1958 Supreme Court ruling that the State Department cannot withhold a passport because of a citizen’s beliefs or associations. (During the 1950s, when Robeson was unable to perform in public venues, he practiced on the piano in the Willcox house in West Greenwich.)
Willcox became a target for McCarthy era censorship. At aged 70, she was called to testify before Eastland Committee (both for attending the China conference, and as the person who funded the legal defence of Harvey Matusow
, an FBI informer jailed for publicly admitting perjury as a state witness against “communist” trade union officials). Publicity around this meant she was unable to find a publisher for her book about India, and a Norwalk elementary school refused to take donated murals depicting Norwalk Harbor in the seventeenth century (the school accepted and hung the mural panel in 1977). Henry Willcox, her husband, a professional engineer and president of Willcox Construction Company, was expelled from the company he himself had founded.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Willcox continued to travel and paint throughout the world. She died in Village Creek in 1984.
Anita Parkhurst Willcox (1892–1984) was an American artist, feminist and pacifist. Her career as a graphic illustrator was interrupted by 15 months spent entertaining the troops in World War I, which left her passionately anti-war. During the ‘20s, she gained fame for drawing "the New American Woman" image, but this contradicted her personal experiences as wife and mother. By the 1930s she drew images that reflected her own life and beliefs. She was inspired by Gandhi’s non-violence, and in Mao's China; but met rejection and censorship during the McCarthy era. Despite this, she continued painting until her death in 1984.
Early life
Anita Parkhurst Willcox was born in Chicago, 1892. She studied at the Chicago Art Institute from 1909 to 1913, learning classic drawing; but also studying mural-painting with John W. NortonJohn W. Norton
John Warner Norton was an Illinois muralist and easel artist who pioneered the field in the United States.Among his works are the landmark 1929 long ceiling mural for the concourse ceiling of the Chicago Daily News Building , the Ceres mural in the Chicago Board of Trade Building ,...
. While a student, she began her commercial art career drawing illustrations of hats for Gages, the largest millinary company in the United States. She then moved to New York City, where she worked as a graphic artist and commercial illustrator, initially sharing a studio with Neysa McMein
Neysa McMein
-Life:Born Marjorie Moran in Quincy, Illinois, she attended the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1913 went to New York City. After a brief stint as an actress, she turned to commercial art...
. Between 1913 and 1929, her commercial graphics included covers for Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Every Week, Fashion Art, McCalls, and Screenland; posters for the YMCA, and numerous advertising illustrations. She signed her commercial work throughout this period with her maiden name, "Anita Parkhurst".
In New York, Willcox joined the social and intellectual group that after 1919 formed the Algonquin Round Table
Algonquin Round Table
The Algonquin Round Table was a celebrated group of New York City writers, critics, actors and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke, members of "The Vicious Circle", as they dubbed themselves, met for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel from 1919 until roughly 1929...
. (Willcox was an occasional participant in this group during the 1920s). She studied art briefly with George Bellows
George Bellows
George Wesley Bellows was an American realist painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City, becoming, according to the Columbus Museum of Art, "the most acclaimed American artist of his generation".-Youth:Bellows was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio...
and Robert Henri
Robert Henri
Robert Henri was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School in art.- Early life :...
(called the “Ashcan School
Ashcan School
The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, is defined as a realist artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States during the early twentieth century, best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York's poorer neighborhoods. The movement grew out of a group...
” of art), but left after they objected to her “classic” drawing style.
She married engineer Henry Willcox in 1918.
Entertaining troops, World War I
In 1918, two weeks after her marriage, Willcox went to France, to work with the YMCA to support American troops. She worked in a canteen stationed with the American First Division army during the Second Battle of the Somme (1918)Second Battle of the Somme (1918)
During the First World War, the Second Battle of the Somme of 1918 was fought on the Western Front from the end of the summer, in the basin of the Somme River...
in March 1918, then in the Gondecourt sector. With artist Neysa McMein and Jane Bullard, she developed and performed a vaudeville show which toured the troops on the front lines. Willcox and McMein also painted elephants on an observation balloon and artillery guns. She remained with the US army when it entered Germany, returning to New York in March 1919. These experiences made her a committed pacifist.
"New American Woman" image
After the war, Willcox resumed both her commercial art career in New York, and her married life. She became known for creating the “New American Woman” image – idealized pictures of women who were young, beautiful, fashionable, invariably white and economically successful. A feature newspaper article by Thompson Feature Services in 1921 reads: “The name of Anita Parkhurst is signed with greater frequency than that of any other artist . . .her work has a certain touch.”Conflicts between art career and gender roles
Between 1921 and 1926 Willcox gave birth to four children; she adopted a fifth in 1930. In 1923, following the birth of her third child, Willcox spent six months in bed with puerperal fever (childbirth fever). This led her to question the contradictions between the idealized images she produced, and the actualities of women’s lives.In 1925, Willcox wrote a book called “Between Jobs and Babies”,exploring the changing nature of women’s roles in industrial society. Leading women academics responded positively; Edith Stern, reviewing the book for Boni and Liveright, commented: "This is exactly the book I have wanted to have written." Despite the reviews, Willcox was unable to find a publisher.
Arguing that the idealized “pretty girls” she drew for commercial illustration were “socially pernicious”, Willcox quit her career as a commercial artist.
Towards gendered social realism
From 1928, Willcox sought to create art that captured her own experiences and perceptions. In 1930, she studied briefly with John Sloan at the Art Student’s League. She traveled extensively, sketching scenes, events, and people around her. She did not attempt to position this artwork within the “art world”, and made few attempts to hold gallery exhibitions. All of her work from this period on is signed "Anita Willcox", or "AW".During the Depression, Willcox designed posters and graphics for Norman Thomas
Norman Thomas
Norman Mattoon Thomas was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.-Early years:...
' League for Industrial Democracy, and for Masses magazine. She drew caricatures for Colliers of AFL leader W. Green
W. Green
W. Green was an English cricketer who played for Surrey. He was a right-arm medium-pace bowler.Green made a single first-class appearance, against Derbyshire in 1883. He scored a single run in each innings in which he batted, and took one catch....
, and John Lewis
John Lewis
John Lewis may refer to:* John Lewis Partnership, a United Kingdom worker co-operative retailer** John Lewis , a department store chain in the United Kingdom-Politics:...
of the CIO.
Against all wars
A committed pacifist, Willcox saw World War II as incomprehensible. She wrote in 1939: “I am paralyzed, clinging to bare reason to find a pattern, any pattern, that I can accept.” Her depression was compounded by accidental carbon monoxide poisoning in 1940. For the next few years, she struggled to make any art, painting portraits of friends, and learning silkscreening.Towards the end of World War II, she drew posters for Americans United for World Organisation, promoting the formation of the United Nations, and calling for an end to all wars. She publicly condemned the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, and nuclear weapons.
In 1949 Willcox traveled through India. Her sketches record the First All India Conference held in Jaipur after the end of British rule; and a peace conference at Sevagram, Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi)’s ashram, on the first anniversary of his assassination.
Harassment from McCarthyism
In 1950, Anita and Henry Willcox, with three of their five children, founded a community in Norwalk, Connecticut called Village CreekVillage Creek
Village Creek is the name of at least 43 streams in the United States, among which are:*Village Creek , an immediate tributary of the Upper Mississippi River;*Village Creek, a stream in Alameda County, California.-Sources:*...
. Conceived as a haven from racism, the Cold War, and McCarthy era red-baiting, Village Creek became the first inter-racial cooperative on the Eastern seaboard of the United States. Village Creek today comprises some sixty houses; in 2010 it was declared a National Historical Monument.
In 1952 Anita and Henry Willcox represented the Quakers at the Asia and Pacific Rim Peace Conference
Asia and Pacific Rim Peace Conference
The Asia and Pacific Rim Peace Conference was held in Beijing, China from October 2-12, 1952. Delegates from dozens of countries attended the conference, which including a number of speeches and opening remarks by Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong....
in Peking China. Willcox sketched delegates to the conference. Afterwards she traveled throughout the People’s Republic of China. Meeting Anna Louise Strong
Anna Louise Strong
Anna Louise Strong was a twentieth-century American journalist and activist, best known for her reporting on and support for communist movements in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.-Early years:...
led to extensive correspondence which laid the basis for Strong’s newspaper column in the US, Letter from China.
Following this trip, the US State Department confiscated the Willcox’s passports. The subsequent court case (a class action that included singer Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
) led to the 1958 Supreme Court ruling that the State Department cannot withhold a passport because of a citizen’s beliefs or associations. (During the 1950s, when Robeson was unable to perform in public venues, he practiced on the piano in the Willcox house in West Greenwich.)
Willcox became a target for McCarthy era censorship. At aged 70, she was called to testify before Eastland Committee (both for attending the China conference, and as the person who funded the legal defence of Harvey Matusow
Harvey Matusow
Harvey Matusow was a U.S. Communist who protected himself from HUAC by providing evidence against his former left-wing colleagues. His false accusations led to his own perjury conviction and to being blacklisted...
, an FBI informer jailed for publicly admitting perjury as a state witness against “communist” trade union officials). Publicity around this meant she was unable to find a publisher for her book about India, and a Norwalk elementary school refused to take donated murals depicting Norwalk Harbor in the seventeenth century (the school accepted and hung the mural panel in 1977). Henry Willcox, her husband, a professional engineer and president of Willcox Construction Company, was expelled from the company he himself had founded.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Willcox continued to travel and paint throughout the world. She died in Village Creek in 1984.
Public murals
- Chicago park buildings (ceiling, done in 1913)
- University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana; Law School Library (1964)
- Church, Norwalk Connecticut (1957)
External links
(note also that much of her commercial artwork from the 1920s now on the web does not have attribution)- http://www.artnet.com/artists/anita-parkhurst/past-auction-results Anita Parkhurst (Willcox) posters at artnet.com
- http://www.goldposters.com/40548/anita-parkhurst.html Anita Parkhurst [Willcox] posters at goldposters.com
- http://www.allposters.com/-st/Anita-Parkhurst-Posters_c40548_.htm Anita Parkhurst [Willcox]posters at allposterscom
- http://www.prints.com/art.php/Anita_Parkhurst/?artist_id=9420 Anita Parkhurst (Willcox) posters at prints.com
- http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/AAED002077.html Anita Parkhurst (Willcox) posters at corbisimages.com
Sources
- One Woman: sketches/diaries/letters/notes/ fragments from Anita Parkhurst Willcox, ed. J.A. Seidman, Createspace, 2010
- Entertaining the American Army the American Stage and Lyceum in the World War',' by Evans, James W. And, Harding, Captain Gardner L.; Illustrated by Neysa McMein, Anita Parkhurst, Ethel Rundquist, 1921; now available as an [www.ebooksread.com/.../1-entertaining-the-american-army-the-american-stage-and-lyceum-in-the-world-war-nav.shtm]e-book & reprint
- Deadly farce: Harvey Matusow and the informer system in the McCarthy era, by Robert M. Lichtman, Ronald D. Cohen, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Il, 2004.
- The Great Fear, The Anti-Communist purge under Truman and Eisenhower,by David Caute, Simon and Schuster, 1978
Archival sources
- Writings and personal papers at the http://www.radcliffe.edu/print/schlesinger/women_arts.htm Schlesinger library, Radcliffe
- Full record of Eastman committee interrogation of Anita Willcox at: http://www.archive.org/stream/investigationofc19563unit/investigationofc19563unit_djvu.txt"Investigation of Communist activities in the New Haven, Conn., area. Hearings"