Macena Barton (1901 – 1986)

Loaves, 1937, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left, 16 x 26 ¼ inches, exhibited at the Seventeenth Exhibition of Artists Members, Chicago Galleries Association, Chicago, IL, December 9 – 31, 1937, (see 1) Jewett, Eleanor, Hails Exhibit as One of Best in Many Years, Chicago Tribune, December 9, 1937, and 2) Jewett, Eleanor, Two Splendid Art Exhibits Now on View, Chicago Tribune, December 19, 1937)

$3250

Although often associated with provocative portraits and nudes, Macena Barton also produced a striking body of still life paintings such as Loaves. Her still lifes were notable for their heightened color, expressive tension, and remarkable hyper-realistic detail. Rather than quiet arrangements, they often animated everyday objects—food, flowers, and domestic items—with an almost theatrical intensity that resulted in an unusual combination of Old Master bravura and American modernism. In her 1937 review of the Seventeenth Exhibition of Artists Members of the Chicago Galleries Association, Chicago Tribune art critic, Eleanor Jewett, praised the present work, noting, “Macena Barton strikes one dumb with the marvelous textural effect she has achieved in Loaves. Here is a canvas in step with an old master of the Dutch School.” In a subsequent article, Jewett informed visitors “You will see Loaves by Macena Barton, a stunning still life so rich and of such admirable quality and texture that your mouth waters as you scan each crusty loaf.” The year after she painted the present version of Loaves, Barton created another still life with the same title and similar subject matter, which is in the collection of the Illinois State Museum.

Barton was an American painter associated with the Chicago modernist milieu, recognized for her bold, psychologically charged imagery and fiercely independent artistic voice. Born in Union City, Michigan, she moved to Chicago in 1921 to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she trained until 1925 and completed postgraduate work. Her principal instructor, Leon Kroll, encouraged her engagement with Post-Impressionism while fostering her highly individual use of color and form. Barton exhibited widely across the United States. She showed regularly at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she also held a solo exhibition in 1928, and her work appeared at Findlay Galleries in Chicago. She won the Augustus Peabody Prize from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1927 and subsequently won prizes with the Chicago Galleries Association. Nationally, she exhibited at major institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, the Carnegie Institute, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Baltimore Museum, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Kansas City Art Institute, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She also participated in important exhibitions such as the Century of Progress Exposition (1933–34) and remained active in arts organizations, including the Chicago Society of Artists, Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago Painters and Sculptors, and Chicago Galleries Association. She is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and other standard references.