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“I Just Quit”/ Rosalie Gwathmey

Posted in Uncategorized on November 15, 2023| 1 Comment »

Rosalie Gwathmey- Deep South

I was doing a little research on the painter Robert Gwathmey, the social realist painter (1903-1988) whose work most often depicted the day-to-day life of poor African American culture of the American South in the first half of the 20th century. I knew that his son, Charles Gwathmey, was a famous and influential architect but I didn’t know much about his wife, Rosalie. It turns out that she was a talented photographer who chronicled that same rural culture that was the subject of her husband’s paintings. In fact, her photos were often the source material for his work.

Digging deeper, I came across her photos and found them compelling. There were poignant shots of families at work and at home, often in abject poverty. Wonderful compositions of a barn on fire amid the wide flat fields, smoke ominously billowing. All very powerful stuff.

Rosalie Gwathmey- Barn

Reading some articles about her I came across a terrific article from 1994 and Erika Duncan in the New York Times. It was of an interview with Rosalie Gwathmey, who died in 2001 at the age of 92, focusing on her work as a photographer which, at the time of the article, was being rediscovered as the result of a solo show of her photos. It turns out that she had been an earnest photographer associated with some of the other great photographers of the time such as Dorothea Lange, from around the mid 1930’s up until 1955 when she abruptly put down her camera, destroyed many of her negatives and gave away her photos.

“I just quit,” was her description.

Reading the rest of the article, she also simply stopped painting at one point, despite having great promise, and she also abruptly ended a long career as a textile designer. She simply stopped, saying, “I did that for 27 years, and then I quit in much the same way. I have no regrets. I just closed up shop. There was no reason to keep on doing it.”

That really made me think. Was this merely a facet of her personality or could this happen to anyone? Could I one day suddenly decide that I no longer wanted to paint? What was it that made her suddenly lose that need to express herself in a certain way? Is it a loss of passion or something different?

It became a sort of scary thing to think about for me, as though it were some horrible affliction that lay in wait for me somewhere in the future. Maybe never but maybe tomorrow. Or the day after that.

I don’t know that there are actual answers here, only more questions. But her quitting is as intriguing an aspect of her life as her wonderful work and makes me wonder how many others have simply walked away from what seems to be a great career.

I came across this post that originally ran back in 2011 and it gave me pause. I’ve been doing this for 25 years now and there are certainly days when I would love to just shuck it all. However, for me, it’s always just a passing fancy that goes away as soon as I make my first mark on the next canvas. Besides, there’s nothing else I really want to do at this point.

For this reposting, I have added more of the photos of Rosalie Gwathmey below. They certainly evoke time and place. And for another perspective on what makes someone suddenly say “I just quit” I urge you to read a post, Stepping Off the 8:15, from my friend Linda Leinen’s The Task at Hand blog. It’s an interesting story.