In his eleven page biography, FRED GEARY, MISSOURI WOOD ENGRAVER, Deines sought to remember a fellow artist, whom he admired and no doubt held conversations with. As to the accuracy of his record, it did point me to locations and dates when I first began this research, but some dates have been proven inaccurate,
For example, Deines named instructors that Geary may have had when the "fundamentals of art" were given to him.
These include "the teachings of Charles A. Wilimovsky, a Chicago-born painter, etcher and woodcutter - (Robert) Merell Gage, well-known sculptor and teacher of anatomy - and Norman Tolson in the commercial branches." (Fred Geary, Missouri Wood Engraver by E.H. Deines, 1946, unpublished, page one, courtesy of Ms. Jane Metz and the Carrollton Public Library, Carrollton, MO, accessed January 10, 2010-----YMCA postcard, above, courtesy of the Missouri Valley, Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, MO)
However, after checking with school records, none of these instructors were available between 1914-1918. Nancy Warren, Archives Clerk with the Kansas City Art Institute, relayed: "You asked for the dates when Charles Wilimovsky and Norman Tolson taught at KCAI. Wilimovsky was at KCAI from 1920 through 1922 as was Merell Gage. Norman Tolson taught illustration and poster work here from 1920 through 1926. These dates don't seem to coincide with Geary's stint at KCAI as a student."(Email, Wednesday, April 21st, 2010, Nancy Warren,Archives Clerk, Jannes Library, Kansas City Arts Institute.)
Ernest Deines had been a pupil at the Kansas City Art Institute. Perhaps, these were the instructors he had known when he attended."Interest in a variety of subjects was augmented later on by a brief period away from Kansas City...."(Deines, p.2)When Geary took figure drawing at the Art Students League in New York City (photo below),
Deines presumed the art instructor was George Bridgeman, when in fact, it had been John Sloan. Editor Stephanie Cassidy clarified that when she wrote: "I found one record for Fred Geary, who listed his city address as the President Hotel, West 48th Street and his home address as Kansas City, MO. He enrolled in April 1928 in John Sloan's life class." (Email, Thursday, March 25th, 2010, Stephanie Cassidy, Editor Art Students League of New York, 215 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019. Area Of Design, www.areaofdesign.com, accessed Saturday, May 22nd, 2010)The later date of 1928 made more sense in light of Deines following remarks:"In New York Geary sought out an admired mentor, Winold Reiss, whose realistic (and colorful) drawings of the Blackfeet Indians on their Montana reservation, aroused in him a strong enthusiasm."
(Fred Geary, Missouri Wood Engraver by E.H. Deines, 1946, unpublished, page two, courtesy of Ms. Jane Metz and the Carrollton Public Library, Carrollton, MO. Book Rags, www.bookrags.com, accessed Monday, May 10th, 2010)
Records show that in 1928 Reiss showed fifty-one works from the Louis Hill Collection of his Blackfeet portraits in a solo exhibition, at the Belmaison Galleries in John Wanamaker's Gallery of Decorative Arts, in New York City. It was quite likely Geary visited Reiss' studio on 108 West 16th Street and may have seen the exhibit as well. (Winold Reiss, http://www.winoldreiss.org/works/portraits.htm#10-20, and http://www.winoldreiss.org/life/chronology.htm, and http://www.winoldreiss.org/works/exhibitions.htm, accessed Jan 18, 2014)Deines: "Coming in contact with Reiss was a useful experience, utilized afterwards many times in the course of (Geary's) regular work..."
(Fred Geary, Missouri Wood Engraver by E.H. Deines, 1946, unpublished, page two, courtesy of Ms. Jane Metz and the Carrollton Public Library, Carrollton, MO)
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