Wood Gaylor

rdf:langString Wood Gaylor

rdf:langString Wood Gaylor

rdf:langString Wood Gaylor

rdf:langString Brookville Cemetery, Upper Brookville, New York

rdf:langString Wood Gaylor

rdf:langString Samuel Wood Gaylor, Jr.

rdf:langString Wood Gaylor in 1937 taken by Emil Ganso

rdf:langString Artist

rdf:langString Wood Gaylor (1884–1957) was an American artist known for his colorful canvases of festive events painted in a flat, unmodeled style that struck critics as "witty" and "wisely naïve". He also made colored wood carvings in relief as well as colored etchings, aquatints, drypoints, watercolors, and drawings. His work appeared in the 1913 Armory Show and many other exhibitions during the first half of the twentieth century. During most of his long career, he participated in New York arts organizations as founder, officer, or active member. Known as a "fun-loving iconoclast" of the art world, he was also a businessman, who, in a long and successful career, worked his way up from office boy to head of a firm that manufactured sewing patterns. Gaylor married twice, both times to artists. With his second wife, Adelaide Lawson, he raised a family in a quiet hamlet on the North Shore of Long Island. Critics praised his work throughout his career and after his death. In 1930, for example, a critic for the New York Times wrote that some in the art world had begun to see Gaylor as "an American Bruegel". However, the critic said the comparison did not do justice to Gaylor since he was not an imitator but had his own individuality. In 1979, another Times critic discussed the features that distinguished his work, writing, "Although Mr. Gaylor's paintings appear to be primitive, they are only superficially so. Their simple, charming figures and clean, unshaded colors are organized in meticulously orchestrated compositions that are clearly the work of a sophisticated hand." She added that his style was "an alternative to both academic and abstract art".

rdf:langString Samuel Wood Gaylor, Jr.