WHO WERE THE NEW HATS?

essie Beard Rickly was a member of The New Hats, a group of St. Louis painters so noted that Rickly, a founder, insisted that a “New Hat” was always a painter, never an artist. “To call oneself an artist is presumptuous,” she told the . “This group anticipated the present movement in art…and decided that the organization of such a group would help to acquaint St. Louis with contemporary art,” she continued, adding a caveat: “the use of the word ‘contemporary’ rather than ‘modern’ is preferred.” Why? “Because so many atrocities have been committed in the name of modern art.”