Grandma Moses A Good Day’s Work exhibit at Smithsonian American Art Museum
Today I visited the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) to see Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work exhibit . Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860–1961), universally known as Grandma Moses , I learned today, was a beloved American folk artist who launched her celebrated career depicting idyllic rural scenes in a self-taught, vibrant style, becoming famous in her late 70s. Grandma Moses did not begin her illustrious painting career until she was nearly 80 years old. For decades, she was a farm wife, mother of ten, and meticulous embroiderer, using wool to create "worsted pictures." It was the arthritis in her hands, making the finer work of needlepoint too painful, that forced her to pivot to paint. This forced transition—a seemingly small adjustment in medium—unlocked her true genius. Her paintings quickly transitioned from being small, homemade gifts to major museum acquisitions, launched by a chance discovery in a Hoosick Falls, New York, drugstore window. She sold her first wo...