Jack Kelly writer
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Grandmother to the Nation
(American Profile, March 2006)
Her name was Anna Mary Robertson Moses, but everyone
knew her as Grandma. She didn’t started painting until she
was 77, but she lived to become one of America’s most
popular artists.
Grandma Moses (1860-1961) left behind an evocative record
of rural America in a simpler era. She grew up during the
Civil War on a farm in upstate New York. She married and
raised five children. As a widow and grandmother, she
began to paint her memories of farm life -- Thanksgiving
dinners, maple sugaring, winter sleigh rides. In 1939, an art
collector discovered her paintings in a drugstore window.
Before long, her images were appearing on greeting cards,
lamps, drapes, and many other household products. She
painted more than 1,600 works before her death at 101.
This spring, a major show of her work and a new book about
her life will highlight the important contributions that this
captivating and spirited lady made to American culture. We
spoke to Karal Ann Marling, whose book Designs on the
Heart: The Homemade Art of Grandma Moses gives a portrait
of Grandma Moses in the context of her time.
Dr. Marling is a professor in the art history department at the
University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The show “Grandma
Moses: Grandmother to the Nation” will open May 26 at the
Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., and will travel to
four other locations.
AP: Why take a fresh look at Grandma Moses in the twenty-
first century?
KAM: Some critics have done her the disservice of shunting
her into the category of “primitive” artist or pop culture icon.
But Grandma Moses first became popular in the Forties and
Fifties because her work represented the values our soldiers
were fighting for and offered reassurance during the anxious
period of the Cold War. Today we are again looking for
order in an increasingly disordered world. Grandma Moses
and her work evoke some of the bedrock American values:
independence, self-confidence, family, simplicity, and
tradition.
AP: What did you learn about her that was surprised you?
KAM: Her character. I had known about her work, but I didn’t
understand what a gallant soul she was. Here was a woman
who went to work at twelve, who toiled hard all her life, who
made the most of the little schooling she had, who sewed her
own clothes, and who was still active at 101 – she was a truly
admirable person. Her attitude toward money is especially
refreshing today. Having come out a rural economy where
cash didn’t mean much, she never paid it much mind. She
would deprecate the monetary value of her paintings -- she
was proud of them simply as paintings.
AP: Does Grandma Moses have something to say to baby
boomers?
KAM: Certainly she could serve as the role model of
someone who stayed active all her life. She was always full
of curiosity and willing to try something new. She wasn’t the
type to retire to Florida. Her mantra was work, and she found
in work a source of satisfaction and self-respect. Grandma
Moses is a poster girl for living well indefinitely through
vigorous mental activity, good humor, and strong family ties.
At the same time, she contradicted the rampant
professionalism of her day, when people were working in
narrower and narrower niches. She could bake a loaf of
bread and then sit down and finish a painting and she didn’t
see much of a divide between these different facets of her
life. I think that’s something that women especially can
respond to. Today you can have a woman who’s a vice
president of a corporation and also involved in cleaning the
house and doing the shopping.
AP: What new perspective will the show and your book offer
on this familiar artist?
KAM: I think both will give a sense of how she fit into the
culture of her time. Her work is often seen as being
timeless. I wanted to show that the enormous popularity
Grandma Moses enjoyed resulted from the fact that her art
spoke to people of the period in which she worked. It was a
new era of television and tail fins, and though we wanted to
gain these things, we didn’t want to lose our root values.
AP: You call her “the Nation’s Grandma.” Why?
KAM: “Grandma” really brought out the fact that her art, her
memories, her statements to the press, all were grounded in
family. The name was both important and true. It didn’t
obscure her contribution as an artist. Instead, it put a finger
on the essence of what made her special.
# # #
(American Profile, March 2006)
Her name was Anna Mary Robertson Moses, but everyone
knew her as Grandma. She didn’t started painting until she
was 77, but she lived to become one of America’s most
popular artists.
Grandma Moses (1860-1961) left behind an evocative record
of rural America in a simpler era. She grew up during the
Civil War on a farm in upstate New York. She married and
raised five children. As a widow and grandmother, she
began to paint her memories of farm life -- Thanksgiving
dinners, maple sugaring, winter sleigh rides. In 1939, an art
collector discovered her paintings in a drugstore window.
Before long, her images were appearing on greeting cards,
lamps, drapes, and many other household products. She
painted more than 1,600 works before her death at 101.
This spring, a major show of her work and a new book about
her life will highlight the important contributions that this
captivating and spirited lady made to American culture. We
spoke to Karal Ann Marling, whose book Designs on the
Heart: The Homemade Art of Grandma Moses gives a portrait
of Grandma Moses in the context of her time.
Dr. Marling is a professor in the art history department at the
University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The show “Grandma
Moses: Grandmother to the Nation” will open May 26 at the
Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., and will travel to
four other locations.
AP: Why take a fresh look at Grandma Moses in the twenty-
first century?
KAM: Some critics have done her the disservice of shunting
her into the category of “primitive” artist or pop culture icon.
But Grandma Moses first became popular in the Forties and
Fifties because her work represented the values our soldiers
were fighting for and offered reassurance during the anxious
period of the Cold War. Today we are again looking for
order in an increasingly disordered world. Grandma Moses
and her work evoke some of the bedrock American values:
independence, self-confidence, family, simplicity, and
tradition.
AP: What did you learn about her that was surprised you?
KAM: Her character. I had known about her work, but I didn’t
understand what a gallant soul she was. Here was a woman
who went to work at twelve, who toiled hard all her life, who
made the most of the little schooling she had, who sewed her
own clothes, and who was still active at 101 – she was a truly
admirable person. Her attitude toward money is especially
refreshing today. Having come out a rural economy where
cash didn’t mean much, she never paid it much mind. She
would deprecate the monetary value of her paintings -- she
was proud of them simply as paintings.
AP: Does Grandma Moses have something to say to baby
boomers?
KAM: Certainly she could serve as the role model of
someone who stayed active all her life. She was always full
of curiosity and willing to try something new. She wasn’t the
type to retire to Florida. Her mantra was work, and she found
in work a source of satisfaction and self-respect. Grandma
Moses is a poster girl for living well indefinitely through
vigorous mental activity, good humor, and strong family ties.
At the same time, she contradicted the rampant
professionalism of her day, when people were working in
narrower and narrower niches. She could bake a loaf of
bread and then sit down and finish a painting and she didn’t
see much of a divide between these different facets of her
life. I think that’s something that women especially can
respond to. Today you can have a woman who’s a vice
president of a corporation and also involved in cleaning the
house and doing the shopping.
AP: What new perspective will the show and your book offer
on this familiar artist?
KAM: I think both will give a sense of how she fit into the
culture of her time. Her work is often seen as being
timeless. I wanted to show that the enormous popularity
Grandma Moses enjoyed resulted from the fact that her art
spoke to people of the period in which she worked. It was a
new era of television and tail fins, and though we wanted to
gain these things, we didn’t want to lose our root values.
AP: You call her “the Nation’s Grandma.” Why?
KAM: “Grandma” really brought out the fact that her art, her
memories, her statements to the press, all were grounded in
family. The name was both important and true. It didn’t
obscure her contribution as an artist. Instead, it put a finger
on the essence of what made her special.
# # #