Art: Grandma Goes to Town

The mayor of Albany proclaimed a “Grandma Moses Day” last week, and the famed little upstate New York artist bustled in from Eagle Bridge, 30 miles away, to help celebrate it. Wearing a perky black jersey bonnet with a velvet chin strap, and a corsage of sweetheart roses presented by her three-year-old great-granddaughter, Grandma accepted the keys of the city. Then she went on to grace the opening of a show of 60 of her paintings at the Albany Institute of History and Art. Some 600 people milled through the gallery, gaping at the artist and at such old favorites among her oils as The Old Oaken Bucket, Frosty Morning and Sugaring Off. “I never realized,” Grandma chirped, “that I had so many friends.”

That night the town gave Grandma a 100-place birthday banquet. She easily blew out all 90 candles on her 79-lb. cake, told well-wishers that she felt “no older than I did at 70.” Highlight of her day was a congratulatory wire from President Truman: “May the spirit of spring and eternal sunshine be yours always.”

At week’s end Grandma was back on the farm, cooking up more batches of painted peace and good cheer.