William  Congdon. An American Anomaly
An Action Painter Rediscovered: Italy and Back Again
A conversation with Fred Licht

Washington, DC – Thursday May 7th in the early evening at the Carriage House Studio, part of  the Phillips Collection, Fred Licht spoke about William Congdon’s life and art at an event organized by The William G. Congdon Foundation in partnership with Crossroads Cultural Center, Washington, DC.
The event, titled “William  Congdon. An American Anomaly. An Action Painter Rediscovered: Italy and Back Again”, was meant to introduce William Congdon to the American public and to announce the temporary display of two Congdon paintings owned by the Phillips Collection: “Palaces, 2 (Venice)”, 1950, and “Venice, 2 (Canal Boat)”, 1954.  The audience included Theodore (Ted) Congdon, the artist’s only surviving brother, and his wife Eleanor (Elie) Congdon. The moderator Michael Patrick, architect and visiting lecturer at Catholic University of America in  Washington, DC, introduced Fred Licht, the William G. Congdon Foundation, and Dorothy Kosinski, the museum’s director.
In her welcoming remarks, Ms. Kosinski described the Center for the Study of Modern Art, an interdisciplinary forum for scholarly research on modern art housed in the Carriage House. Ms. Kosinski also expressed her interest for the re-discovery of modern artists that for various reasons have been left at the margin of the art market. William Congdon, she said, is one of such artists: in the 1950s he was quite famous and original, and exhibited in the States: indeed Duncan Phillips himself bought the two paintings in the collection, the first in 1952, after an exhibition of William Congdon and Nicholas De Stäel works at his own gallery; and the second one in 1955. Subsequently Congdon was totally forgotten and the American art world thought he had died or committed suicide. Ms. Kosinski concluded thanking the William G. Congdon Foundation for the opportunity to rediscover an undoubtedly talented artist.
The foundation’s managing director, Mr. Giorgio Gandolfi spoke briefly about its aims and programs: the foundation wishes to promote Congdon’s work and to improve the knowledge and understanding of the arts through exhibitions, conferences, seminars and publications, possibly in partnership with individuals and institutions that share its passion and enthusiasm.
Professor Fred Licht pointed out William Congdon’s “anomalies” in his personal and artistic itinerary. Unlike the other action painters of his generation, he had not received a prestigious artistic education: his teachers, Henry Hensche and George Demetrios were not particularly well regarded or famous. The second peculiarity, or “anomaly”, was the strong European connotation of his artistic production: starting from his personal war experience as an ambulance driver for the American Field Service – which brought him in close contact with human suffering and with the horrors of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp – Europe acquired for Congdon a strong polarity, both artistic and, later on, personal.
A third peculiarity was his family’s wealth: thanks to a legacy from his mother, Congdon was able to travel extensively and to follow his personal and spiritual path without having to sell his work on the market.
And, lastly, practically alone among the American action painters, Congdon never completely detached himself from the physical object he was painting, he never became totally abstract. In his paintings he never does away with the suject, he peers into its very essence: omens of death and decay that, later, give way to a path toward redemption.
Professor Licht retraced Congdon’s life through his paintings: from the war-time sketches at Bergen Belsen, to New York, dark and negative despite the sun; then to Venice, which he loved, and where he saw decadence and perdition behind its shining facades: to the city’s golden buildings Congdon juxtaposed dark backgrounds, disquieting lines and receding perspectives; and then to his restless voyages. Congdon’s conversion to the Catholic Church in 1959 represented a time of renewed stylistic and spiritual research, which gave life to a series of devotional paintings and marked the beginning of more travels to Latin America and India. During the last twenty years of his life, after moving to the countryside on the outskirts of Milan in an area called the Milanese flatlands, Congdon reached a new tranquillity, both in his life and in his painting: the surfaces of his ultimate style became smooth and steadfast and conveyed the symmetry of the plowed earth. At the close of his presentation, Fred Licht answered a few questions from the audience.
At the end of the evening, the audience was able to admire the two paintings on display in the hall of the Phillips Collection and professor Rodolfo Balzarotti, a director of the William G. Congdon Foundation, made himself available to explain in details the characteristics of the paintings.