New

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wINter/sPrING 2014/vol VIII

what’s INsIde:2 supporting sUart 3 Notes from the director5 Al Hirschfeld and Syracuse: A Most Talented Association6 winter/spring 2014 Calendar

exhIbItIoN/edUCatIoN/ColleCtIoN suart.syr.edus y ra c u s e U n i v e rs i t y a r t G a l l e r i e s / s h a f fe r a r t b u i l d i n g / s y ra c u s e N e w Yo r k 1 3 2 4 4

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

ART GALLERIES

8 traveling exhibitions10 Gallery as Classroom: sUart and education12 building the Collection15 an Institutional Memory: the Cortese Print Collection

wIllIaM KeNtrIdGe:Nose aNd other sUbjeCts

Suzanne ThorinMalcolm LubinerMatthew DeganElisabeth MelczerHilda Wright Broad EstateThomas and Maureen Walsh Donald and Patricia CorteseRobert BirmelinGerald D. CramerElisabetta BartoloniDavid and Cleota Tatham Louise YamadaKatherine Schrag Wangh and Larry WanghWaitzkin Memorial Library and Kohl Foundation, Inc.Susan HilfertyRosalind SchneiderStanley and Margaret PlantonCarl SchrammAbbe and Lloyd HascoeSamuel MandelMichael and Helen LevyDian FriedmanAdam KruegerHamilton ArmstrongPaul and Marcia GreenbergSylvia GreenbergAmos Paul Kennedy, Jr.Nora LavoriDomenic and Maureen IaconoEdward and Cathleen AikenDavid TomlinNeal McCurnJerome WitkinRichard PasquarelliBill GoldstonMardy WidmanJohn & Claudia (Dattoma) McIntyreCharles & Jennifer HeckelmanMatthew ConwayCynthia CableMichael and Tatiana LefkowitzJanice MacKinnonDavid TomlinsonMichael and Carole BleierSusan Wadley

ArttheoF GIVING

You can direct your generosity in a variety of ways:

Underwrite Exhibitions and ProgramsSupport Research and PublicationsFund Graduate AssistantshipsSubsidize the Purchase of Artwork

they support the arts at sU.Recent gifts and donations from the past few years have included

original artwork from artists Richard Pasquarelli ‘90, Adam

Krueger and Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.; important contributions to

the collection from Bill Goldston, Abbe and Lloyd Hascoe (’78 and

‘81), and collector Hamilton Armstrong. Monetary gifts, like that

made by Robert Bradley Fritz ’51, allow us to further build the

SUArt Collection through the purchase of artwork.

Whether it’s through a financial donation or a gift of artwork, the

SUArt Galleries relies on the support of our alumni and friends

to continue the high level of unique exhibitions and educational

programs that make the SUArt Galleries such a valuable and

distinctive part of Syracuse University.

suart.syr.edu/give-now/

Simply go to suart.syr.edu/give-now to support the Galleries

today. Once at the secure giving page, you can let us know

exactly how you want your gift to be used. The SUArt Galleries

also accepts tax deductible donations of artwork and

ethnographic objects. Contact us at suart@syr.edu or (315)

443-4097 for more information.

be a part of the arts at sU. support sUart today.

You may remember from our fall 2013 newsletter that our exhibitions for

this academic year would have a decidedly international aspect. Nyumba

ya Sanaa: Works from the Maryknoll Collection, A World Apart: Art from the

Samuel T. Pees Collection, Print Making Revolution: Mexican Prints and the

Taller de Gráfica Popular, and Paul Strand: The Mexican Portfolio presented

works from Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, and Mexico. This semester

we continue to feature international artists with displays of artwork from

India and South Africa.

Mithila Painting: The Evolution of an Art Form includes works

from the early 1970s to 2010 that provide an insight into the

extraordinary vitality of a 700-year Indian tradition that has

been dramatically transformed in the last 50 years. Since the

fourteenth century women in the Mithila region of Bihar, India

have practiced a traditional form of painting originally intended

for the privacy of their homes. Often painted like murals on an

interior wall these images have changed in recent years and

now look very different. Today the paintings are done on paper

(making them more accessible to a larger audience), the subject

matter has been broadened to include socially relevant themes,

and the experience of making these paintings has contributed

to women’s empowerment in India. We have a very special

program here at Syracuse University that uses these paintings

to help teach about issues important to contemporary Indians,

especially women. The South Asia Center in the Maxwell School

has brought many of their classes/students over the years to

the SUArt Galleries to view our collection of Mithila paintings.

Beginning with Professor H. Daniel Smith and continuing with

Dr. Susan Wadley, these friends of the SUArt Galleries have

made significant gifts to our permanent collection so that we

now maintain more than 75 Mithila paintings. This particular

exhibition comes from the Ethnic Arts Foundation, a non-

profit organization dedicated to sustaining the Mithila painting

tradition and I am happy to report that this exhibition is funded,

in part, by the South Asia Center.

Notes FroM the dIreCtor

Two other exhibitions will also be on display beginning in late

January, Arts on Main: Contemporary Prints from South Africa

and William Kentridge: Nose and other Subjects. The first of

these shows features artists working in Johannesburg and

Cape Town who use their art to address contemporary issues

that are not only important to South Africans but the global

community. Some use traditional media to comment about

social and political conditions within urban centers, while

others explore notions of ‘African-ness’ in their post-Apartheid

world. Non-traditional image and mark making are also

explored by some of these artists in the development of their

art. Diane Victor, for instance, uses carbon soot from burning

candles to create fragile renderings of faces and figures. Faith

47, a street artist who has painted murals in the U.S., Europe,

and Australia, as well South Africa, uses found objects and a

graffiti-like approach to creating art in the studio.

We have worked closely with associates Miranda Leighfield

and Meghan Johnson at David Krut Projects on this exhibition.

They are part of a South African alternative arts organization

dedicated to encouraging an awareness of and careers in

the arts and related literature and media. Working with

young artists, David Krut promotes a dynamic, collaborative

environment in their studios, print shops and through his

publishing endeavors.

cover: detail, William Kentridge, 12 Coffee Pots, 2012. Courtesy of David Krut Projects

Domenic Iacono, Director

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Leela Devi, 9/11/2001, 2003. Devi has for many years painted the traditional gods, goddesses, and kohbars. But when moved by current events, like many other Mithila painters, she can also produce powerful contemporary images. Her painting of the events of 9/11 combines before, during, and after images of that tragic day.

Another important South African artist will be on view during

the early part of our spring semester. In recent years William

Kentridge has achieved great fame for his prints, drawings,

and animated films. Several years ago he created a series of

images based on the 19th century story by Nicolai Gogol about

a pompous Russian official who wakes up to find his nose has

left his face. Nose is a comical and satirical story that has been

interpreted in many ways, including society’s predilection for

refusing to acknowledge something that is ‘as plain as the nose

on our face,’ like poverty, corruption, or inequality. Kentridge

not only used the story as the basis for his series of 30 images

which we will be presenting in the gallery, but he also created

an opera based on the 1929 Shostakovich version of the story.

The Metropolitan Opera Company in New York City presented

the Kentridge version this past October.

Other recent works by Kentridge including images from the

Universal Archive series and one of his new animated films

will also be on view. In February we show William Kentridge:

Anything is Possible as part of our SUArt Galleries film series.

Check our website for further details about the showtime.

As is our custom, the SUArt Galleries will be hosting an

exhibition of artwork by Master of Fine Arts candidates in

April and early May. More than 20 students will be displaying

recent painting, sculpture, film, and print in our galleries and

if the pattern continues there will be a number of dynamic

works on view.

At the Palitz Gallery in New York City we are presenting Al

Hirschfeld and Syracuse: A Most Talented Association beginning

in mid-February. This exhibition of ‘the Line King’ (as he

was described in a 1996 documentary film) will highlight

artwork created for various publications that included images

of Syracuse alumni. Original drawings and lithographs of

distinguished graduates Aaron Sorkind, Jerry Stiller, Dick Clark,

Morton Janklow, and Frank Langella will be on view with Peter

Falk, Suzanne Pleshette, and Bob Dishy. Also on view in this

display will be his drawings for the 1972 Arthur Miller play The

Creation of the World and other Business that lasted only 20

performances on Broadway. We believe that this will be the

first time these drawings have been displayed since they were

created more than 40 years ago.

In April we will exhibit the 2013 winners of the Wynn Newhouse

Award. This year’s selection committee included past winner

Laura Swanson, whose work Display was on view at the Palitz

Gallery last April. You may know that the Wynn Newhouse

Foundation allocates grants each year to artists of excellence

who happen to have disabilities.

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Diane Victor, Ash Man - Johnny, 2011. Courtesy of David Krut Projects

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the PalItZ GallerY/NYC exhIbItIoN

al hIrsChFeld aNd sYraCUse: a Most talented association February 17 – april 10, 2014The Palitz Gallery, Syracuse University Lubin House

11 East 61st Street, New York City

2013 wYNN NewhoUse awards exhIbItIoN

april 14 – May 22, 2014For more information about syracuse University lubin house

visit suinnyc.syr.edu

Al Hirschfeld, Self Portrait in a Barber Chair, 1989. Courtesy of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation

CaleNdar/exhIbItIoNs

JANUARY 30 – MARCH 16, 2014Main Gallery

MIthIla PaINtING: the evolution of an art Formthe study Gallery

arts oN MaIN: Contemporary Prints from south africa

FEBRUARY 17 – APRIL 10, 2014The Palitz Gallery

al hirschfeld and syracuse: a Most talented association

APRIL 14 – MAY 22, 2014The Palitz Gallery

2013 wynn Newhouse awards exhibition

APRIL 3- MAY 11, 2014Main Gallery

MFa 2014

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ALSO ON VIEW THROUGH MAY 11, 2014

the Photography study room

VIsIoNs For sale:Photographs of Nineteenth Century japanthe Gallery of american art

aMerICa’s CallINGthe Print study room

UKIYo-e to shIN haNGa:japanese woodcuts in the sUart Collection

William Kentridge, Nose 29, 2009. Courtesy of David Krut Projects.

wIllIaM KeNtrIdGe: Nose and other subjects

Senzo Shabangu, Endless Journey I, 2011. Courtesy of David Krut Projects.

oPeNING reCePtIoN: thUrsdaY, FebrUarY 6, 20145:00 - 7:00 P.M.

Hokusai, Fugaku Hyakkei from 100 Views of Mt. Fuji, c1834. Gift of Alfred T. Collette

CaleNdar/edUCatIoN

lUNChtIMe leCtUreswednesdays at 12:15

FEBRUARY 12Gallery Tour: Arts on Main: Contemporary Prints from South Africa FEBRUARY 19Collection Focus: Ruth Reeves Collection FEBRUARY 26Gallery Tour: William Kentridge: Nose and other Subjects MARCH 5Gallery Tour: Mithila Painting: The Evolution of an Art Form

APRIL 9Gallery Tour: MFA 2014 APRIL 30Gallery Tour:MFA Artists Talks MAY 7Preview of 2014-2015 Exhibitions with SUArt Curatorial Staff

FIlM serIesSelected Sundays beginning in February2:00 P.M., Shemin Auditorium, Shaffer Art Building

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FEBRUARY

william Kentridge:anything is Possible2011, Directed by Charles Atlas

and Susan Sollins

A special screening of the Peabody award-winning PBS

documentary William Kentridge: Anything is Possible, giving

viewers an intimate look into the mind and creative process of

the South African artist whose acclaimed charcoal drawings,

animations, video installations, shadow plays, mechanical

puppets, tapestries, sculptures, live performance pieces, and

operas have made him one of the most dynamic and exciting

contemporary artists working today.

the NoseMetropolitan opera live in hd “The Nose,” one of the Metropolitan Opera’s most acclaimed

productions of recent seasons, according to the New York Times,

displays William Kentridge’s “unflagging energy and unfettered

imagination, [and] powerfully seconds both the irreverent

zaniness of the Gogol story on which the opera is based and the

teeming exuberance of Shostakovich’s music.” This simulcast

encore presentation is being shown by special permission.

Learn more at suart.syr.edu/film-series

Saturday February 22Sunday February 232:00 P.M.Mithila Painting: The Evolution of an Art Form

saturday March 8sunday March 92:00 P.M.Arts on Main: Contemporary Prints from South Africa

oN the road/traVex

a tale of two Cities: eugene atget’s Paris and berenice abbott’s New YorkSUzANNE ARNOLD ART GALLERY, LEBANON VALLEY COLLEGE

ANNVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA

JANUARY 17- MARCH 16, 2014

The Arnold Art Gallery previously exhibited Impassioned

Images: German Expressionist Prints and Modernist Prints

1900-1955, and we are pleased to work with them again on the

presentation of A Tale of Two Cities. In addition, the Arnold Art

Gallery has invited Curator David Prince to give a gallery talk

on the exhibition this coming February.

Pure Photography: Pictorial and Modern Photographs from the syracuse University art Collection MARxHAUSEN GALLERY OF ART, CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

SEWARD, NEBRASKA

JANUARY 13- FEBRUARY 14, 2014

FOUNDRY ART CENTRE,

ST. CHARLES, MISSOURI

MAY 2- AUGUST 1, 2014

Pure Photography continues its tour across the country, having

just been presented at the Beach Museum of Art in Kansas and

the Arkell Museum, in Canajoharie, NY. It will travel this spring

to the Marxhausen Gallery of Art in Nebraska, which previously

hosted A Tale of Two Cities in 2007, and to the Foundry Art

Centre in Missouri. We are grateful to Robert B. Menschel ‘51,

H‘91, for his 2007 gift of photographs that were the inspiration

for this popular exhibition.

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The Syracuse University Art Galleries Traveling Exhibition

Program [TRAVEx] has been offering affordable exhibitions

to museums and university art galleries for over twenty

years, generated from Syracuse University’s encyclopedic art

collection and collaborating institutions.

Want to learn more about the exhibitions available?

Visit us online at

travex.syr.edu

Modernist Prints 1900- 1955: selections from the syracuse University art Collection PEELER ART CENTER, DEPAUW UNIVERSITY

GREENCASTLE, INDIANA

FEBRUARY 13- MAY 8, 2014

This is the first time the SUArt Traveling Exhibition Program

has worked with the Peeler Art Center, and we are excited to

be traveling the Modernist Prints exhibition to the campus of

DePauw University in Indiana.

Pulled, Pressed and screened: Important american PrintsMUSEUM OF THE SOUTHWEST

MIDLAND, TExAS

FEBRUARY 21- APRIL 20, 2014

In 2011, The Museum of the Southwest hosted our exhibition A

Tale of Two Cities. This year, they will be presenting two of our

exhibitions to their constituents, Pulled, Pressed and Screened

in February, and Winslow Homer and the American Pictorial

Press this coming September. We are pleased that the Museum

will be the first venue to premiere the Pulled, Pressed and

Screened exhibition as a traveling exhibition.

winslow homer and the american Pictorial PressDAURA GALLERY, LYNCHBURG COLLEGE

LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA

MARCH 1- MAY 7, 2014

MUSEUM OF THE SOUTHWEST

MIDLAND, TExAS

SEPTEMBER 5- NOVEMBER 30, 2014

The Daura Gallery will be the second venue to participate in a

tour of the exhibition Winslow Homer and the American Pictorial

Press, previously on display in Arkansas at the Fort Smith

Regional Art Museum where it was the subject of a number of

regional newspaper articles. After its time in Lynchburg, VA at

the Daura Gallery, the exhibition will travel to the Museum of

the Southwest in the fall of 2014.

the artist revealed: artist Portraits and self-Portraits TExAS A&M UNIVERSITY ART GALLERIES

COLLEGE STATION, TExAS

MARCH 27- MAY 25, 2014

art in the detailTExAS A&M UNIVERSITY ART GALLERIES

COLLEGE STATION, TExAS

SEPTEMBER 5- NOVEMBER 30, 2014

The University Art Galleries at Texas A&M have been strong

supporters of the exhibitions and programs offered by the

Traveling Exhibition Program. In the past twenty years, they

have hosted over ten of our exhibitions, including The Etchings

and Drypoints of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, The Landscape

Revisited: The Shin Hanga Movement, America at Work, 1920-

1940, and American Woodblock Prints.

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GallerY as ClassrooM/edUCatIoN

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This past fall the Art Galleries hosted numerous teaching

days intended for students enrolled in School of Art and

Design classes, art history classes from the College of Arts and

Sciences, and art students in the Syracuse City School District.

Professors Gary Radke, Romita Ray, Laurinda Dixon and Sandra

Chai all brought their History of Art classes into the galleries to

look at short-term displays intended to broaden their students’

experiences with original art. Daina Mattis, an instructor in the

Painting Program at the School of Art and Design, brought her

classes to the galleries to see Flesh and Bone: Articulating the

Human Condition. Holly Greenberg and Dusty Herbig continue

to bring their printmaking classes to the Galleries for a hands-

on experience in our print room.

Luis Castaneda of the History of Art and Music department

brought his Latin American art history class and Catherine Nock

and Miryam Bar of the Language, Literature and Linguistics

Department came by to experience our Print Making Revolution

exhibition with their Spanish classes. Lori Lizzio and Mary Lynn

Mahan of the Henninger High School and Ed Smith Elementary

School, respectively, brought their classes to the galleries to

experience the Nyumba ya Sanaa (Tanzanian Art) exhibition.

Working with objects to create an exhibition gives graduate

students in art history a unique assignment with which to

sharpen their research and writing skills. Assistant Professor

of Art History Sascha Scott and her graduate students did just

that by collaborating with the SUArt Galleries to produce a

show of Alan Dunn’s political cartoons. Dunn, one of The New

Yorker magazine’s most prolific artists, created more than 2000

cartoons spanning forty-seven years. The SUArt Collection houses

over 2500 examples of Dunn’s work, while Syracuse University’s

Special Collections Research Center owns the artist’s extensive

personal papers, giving students a rich body of resources through

which to hone their art historical research skills.

laugh lines: Alan Dunn’s New Yorker Cartoons of the Second World War

Scott’s students participated in the seminar Graduate

Research Methods and Scholarly Writing, which was aimed

at professionalizing their research, writing, and presentation

skills. To this end, Scott and David Prince, SUArt Associate

Director and Curator of Collections, selected fourteen World

War II era cartoons by Dunn for the students to study. Scott, in

collaboration with Prince and Curator of Special Collections

Lucy Mulroney, guided students through the process of

researching and writing about these objects. Students

examined the visual and contextual nuances of Dunn’s work,

and conveyed their findings through wall text and catalog

essays. The exhibition explores Dunn’s sometimes humorous

and sometimes ironic take on World War II. His cartoons probe

American attitudes toward the war, addressing issues of class,

ethnicity, gender, and technology, as well as the surprising

and sometimes tense exchanges between allies and between

enemies. Through their research and visual analyses, Scott’s

students learned firsthand the truth of Alan Dunn’s comment,

“the work of a social cartoonist, whose pen is no sword but a

titillating feather…reminds us constantly that we do not act

as we speak or think.” The exhibition Laugh Lines: Alan Dunn’s

New Yorker Cartoons and the Second World War opens January

30 and closes March 16.

Students sketching from an Alphonse Mucha drawing in the Study Galleries

Alphonse Mucha, untitled [woman bending over], 1913.Gift of Abbe and Lloyd Hascoe (’78 and ‘81)

Alan Dunn, untitled [So Sorry], 1941.

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Professor Romita Ray in the Department of Art and Music

Histories has organized a selection of work from the H. Daniel

Smith collection from the Special Collections Research Center

in Bird Library, complementing the exhibitions of Mithila art

presented in concert with the Ray Smith Symposium on South

Asian Folk Art. Students and faculty from classes in the religion,

anthropology, and art and music histories departments will

be participating in the symposium and incorporating the

exhibitions into their lectures, assignments and projects.

and provides me with a

valuable learning experience which will further prepare me for

my professional goals. As a second year graduate student in

the Museum Studies program, I am thinking seriously about my

future and what skills will be necessary to help me stand out. I

received my undergraduate degree from SUNY New Paltz in Art

Education and have been teaching in both public and charter

schools since 2007. As a volunteer at the gallery, I have been

creating workshops for the SUArt Kids program that engages

youth with the current exhibits and helps students to make

creative connections between these exhibits and their own

art making practices. Each gallery tour uses Visual Thinking

Strategies that facilitate critical thinking in both art aesthetics

as well as making connections between art, history, and

culture. A hands-on art making workshop is incorporated into

every SUArt Kids program which introduces or reinforces art

making skills and techniques that gives participants a deeper

understanding of art concepts and helps them to not only look

at and talk about art, but also how to be inspired by it. I have

greatly enjoyed my time collaborating with the staff at the

Syracuse University Art Galleries and look forward to providing

more fun and engaging experiences for the SUArt Kids program.

The Louise and Bernard Palitz Art Scholar was established in

2011 to support deserving graduate students in Art History

or Museum Studies at Syracuse University by longtime SUArt

Galleries supporters Louise Beringer Palitz (SU ’44) and her

husband Bernard. For over 25 years the Palitz’s have supported

our activities in a variety of ways including donating important

works of art, underwriting exhibitions and publications, and

funding the renovation of the SUArt Galleries’ New York City

Gallery at Syracuse University Lubin House.

the PalItZ art sCholar amanda Nicholson

the syracuse University art Galleries has given me a unique opportunity to explore my passions as an art educator

Indian Calendar art from the h. daniel smith Poster archivespecial Collections research Center

Shrinkhal Murti [Mother India], nd. Courtesy of the Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries.

bUIldING the ColleCtIoN

One of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of working in an art museum is finding material

that builds and improves our collection. Sometimes we look to add artwork in areas where there is an

obvious need, other times we look to enrich our already strong holdings in a particular area. Recently

we had the opportunity to strengthen our Boris Artzybasheff collection. We already have more than 400

works by the great Russian-American illustrator but there are several areas that could be improved. When

alerted by colleagues at the Syracuse University Libraries about an available assortment of Artzybasheff

materials, we carefully investigated if and how they might strengthen our collection.

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helped us acquire artwork by Robert Stackhouse, Winslow

Homer, John Taylor Arms and Paul Strand. The Strand purchase

formed the basis for our fall exhibition, Paul Strand: The Mexican

Portfolio that accompanied our Print Making Revolution: Mexican

Prints and the Taller de Gráfica Popular exhibition.

Other purchase funds had been developed in the past for the

acquisition of specific works of art such as the Jalonack and

Wingate Funds, which helped purchase paintings and ceramics,

respectively, for the collection.

Harold M. Jalonack ’17 was an executive at General Electric and

an avid art collector. He helped the University Art Collection

acquire more than 180 artworks either through direct donations

or with purchase funds. In 1970 he was awarded the Centennial

Medal (later known as the Chancellor’s Medal) for his service to

higher education. ‘Jolly,’ as his friends knew him, gave us his

portrait painted by Norman Rockwell that was commissioned

by his colleagues at GE. Three important paintings, Charles

Burchfield’s Sun, Moon and Star, George Grosz’s Town Beyond

the River and Moses Soyer’s Apprehension II were purchased with

funds given by Jalonack. A number of important prints in our

collection are from Jalonack’s personal collection and they have

been used in recent traveling exhibitions including An American

in Venice: James McNeill Whistler and his Legacy and Above and

Below: Skyscrapers to Subways in New York City.

Francis A. Wingate was an administrator at Syracuse University

in the 1950s and 1960s serving first as Comptroller and later as

Vice President and Treasurer. In the 1960s he helped the Art

Collection acquire numerous pieces of contemporary ceramics

including work by Maija Grotell, Ralph Bacerra and Paul Soldner.

Many of the 40 pieces added to the collection through his funds

can be seen in our Open Storage galleries.

While acquisition funds are truly helpful, the outright

donation of important works of art can really help us with our

exhibition programs and teaching projects. We get excellent

help from alumni, faculty, and staff when looking to enhance

our collection. Over the last few years distinguished alumni

such as Robert Menschel ‘51, H’91, Susan Hilferty ‘75 and

Paul Greenberg ‘65, have given artwork that can be used for

exhibition, classroom teaching and for our active campus loan

program. Faculty (and former faculty) such as Susan Wadley,

Dusty Herbig, David Tatham, Don Cortese and Michael Sickler

have given art in the past few years that will become important

parts of our future exhibition programming.

In our last SUArt Galleries newsletter we wrote about our Robert

Birmelin collection and how it is being strengthened with a gift by

the artist and his family. Since that issue we have heard from Mr.

and Mrs. Richard Weiner who made the original gift in 1979 of the

Birmelin painting Night Driving. They read with interest how a gift

of art they made more than 30 years ago is still having an impact

on our students today.

Additionally, Sean Quimby, Senior Director of Special Collections,

told us how some of these pieces could further their goals of

building a world-class Honoré de Balzac collection. Another

serendipitous aspect of this potential purchase was the chance

to engage a long-time supporter of the University Libraries and

enthusiast of Artzybasheff artwork, alumnus Harry Greenwald,

‘51. In years past, we have done several exhibitions of

Artzybasheff artwork and Mr. Greenwald has shown great interest

in our efforts. He also has supported the Library’s development

of The Plastics Collection, and Artzybasheff used a plastic

material called “pyrolin” as the matrix for some of his engravings.

Among the material being offered was one such hand-carved

plate with an image called Young Scribe Riding a Snail that was

used to make an illustration for the book Three and the Moon.

In addition to the pyrolin plate, we added a number of World

War II era posters designed by Artzybasheff and other research

materials to our holdings. Mr. Greenwald quickly realized how

this purchase would help us meet our goal to strengthen the

Artzybasheff collection and helped finance our purchase. Sincere

thanks are sent to the Greenwald-Haupt Charitable Foundation

for partially underwriting the project.

Occasionally alumni have made monetary gifts to the University

Art Collection for the purchase of artwork. Such was the case

with Robert Bradley Fritz ’51, who established a purchase fund

for art that could be used for, among other things, decorating

offices on campus. Mr. Fritz was an arts educator in Connecticut

for most his career and was interested in 17th century art in

New England. In fact, he wrote a monograph about the role

of fine arts in education during the early years of New England

schooling. In recent years, the Robert Bradley Fritz Fund has

Boris Artzybasheff, Junk Rains Hell on Axis, 1942

Charles Burchfield, Sun, Moon and Star, 1920-55.Collection purchase, Harold Jalonack Fund

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In February 2011, the Community Folk Art Center, a member

of the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers here at Syracuse

University, opened Amos Kennedy Prints!, an exhibition

featuring hand printed letterpress works by the artist. The

exhibition also featured prints Kennedy made in the CFAC

gallery. Andrew Saluti, the SUArt Galleries Assistant Director

and a practicing printmaker, collaborated with CFAC in

developing a space in the gallery where Kennedy could hold his

print workshop. Andrew found and put in place a Vandercook

letterpress and other necessary print making materials. The

exhibition’s success was sweetened by Kennedy’s decision to

donate a group of his prints to the University Art Collection.

The gift added a contemporary American component to an

existing group of social comment prints in the tradition of work

by European artists William Hogarth and Honoré Daumier, and

Americans Thomas Nast, William Gropper and Ben Shahn.

Elisabeth Melczer has had a long and mutually beneficial

relationship with the University Art Collection. As a younger

woman, she was a graduate assistant with the department,

where her main project was classifying over 1900 cartoon

drawings by Alan Dunn. Overseen by the professional staff,

Melczer examined the collection, determined common subject

headings and organized the drawings into these subject

groups. Her organizational efforts made the collection

more accessible and her cataloging gave curators a variety

of possible thematic approaches. Elisabeth completed her

studies in the mid-1980s but she remained interested in the

Collection and was a regular visitor to department events.

Beginning in 2007, Elisabeth began to annually donate her

extensive collection of over 1000 reference books on Social

Cartooning. The gift inspired the department to reconfigure

part of the Petty-Dunn Center for Social Cartooning into a

dedicated library open to scholars and the community during

public hours. Melczer’s generosity has created an educational

resource for students and scholars where they can conduct

research on original works using quality reference books.

reCeNt GIFts/ColleCtIoN

In 1977, Tatyana Grosman, owner of Universal Limited Art

Editions, introduced the Russian poet Andrei Voznesensky to

Robert Rauschenberg. She hoped the two would collaborate

on a series of prints combining examples of Voznesensky’s

experimental poetry with Rauschenberg’s singular visual

compositions. The two men hit it off immediately and

Voznesensky left Rauschenberg six poems to begin the

collaboration. The resulting color lithographs illustrate

Rauschenberg’s interpretive and compositional abilities.

For Darkness Mother Rauschenberg learned that in Russian,

T’ma (darkness) and Mat’ (mother) can be interlocked and

he composed an image depicting the title repeating around

a bicycle tire. The circular design reinforced the poem’s

metaphorical reference to the life cycle. Last year the entire print

series became part of the University Art Collection, a gift of ULAE.

At New York City’s annual IFPDA Print Fair in 2010, Domenic

Iacono and Andrew Saluti had what turned out to be an eventful

conversation with Bill Goldston, Tatyana Grosman’s protégé and

ULAE’s current Director. In 2007 Goldston came to Syracuse to

speak about the exhibition Impressions: Jasper Johns that was

presented at the SUArt Galleries. That show had come from

the Belger Art Center in Kansas City and Goldston had worked

with the artist on many of the prints in the exhibition. Wanting

to continue a relationship with ULAE Saluti and Iacono spoke

to Goldston about developing an exhibition from the holdings

of ULAE. He was impressed to the point where he offered

the printshop’s recent catalog to develop the exhibition that

premiered in 2012 as Pressing Print: Universal Limited Art Editions

2000-2010. Andrew Saluti curated the show and included work by

emerging artists like Enrique Chagoya, Mark Fox and Amy Cutler,

in addition to recent work from Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha and

Robert Rauschenberg’s The Lotus Series, his last group of prints

created before his death in 2008. The Pressing Print exhibition

then began a national tour, with stops in Florida and New

Hampshire, where it has been well received by visitors.

This past fall the Art Galleries presented the exhibition

Rembrandt: the Consummate Etcher and other 17th Century

Printmakers at the Palitz Gallery in New York City. A visitor to

the exhibition, Louise Yamada, had been to the gallery before

but on this occasion she sought out Domenic Iacono to offer

several prints from her collection as gifts to the University

Art Collection. Two of the prints are by Anthonie Waterloo,

a French-born Dutch artist whose work was included in the

Rembrandt show, and a third was by an American artist Samuel

Margolies. This latter artist was represented by the famous

New York dealer Sylvan Cole who was a personal friend of

Louise Yamada and the subject of Iacono’s 2010 Sylvan Cole

and American Prints exhibition at the Palitz Gallery.

14

Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., Equal Rights Are Not Special Rights, c2010Gift of the Artist.

Anthonie Waterloo, The Forest Lane from Six Landscapes, c1655 Gift of Louise Yamada.

Being a unit of a larger institution certainly has its benefits. For

the SUArt Galleries, being a part of Syracuse University allows us

to take advantage of a variety of resources not commonly shared

among independent major collections. These include the ability

to work with skilled craftsmen and laborers employed by the

University’s Physical Plant and Carpentry Shop, access to state of

the art facilities, and an enthusiastic workforce of graduate and

undergraduate Museum Studies and Art students.

It also establishes an invaluable connection to the working

artists that make up our faculty and student community. And

while we don’t share the resource of a distinct alumni base like

the Schools and Colleges of the University do, we think globally

within SU’s universe of educators, alumni and friends as our

target base of patrons and supporters.

Central to the SUArt Galleries’ mission is education- we eagerly

make available the important and unique works of art, prints

in particular, that make the Syracuse University Art Collection

distinctive to classes, researchers and visitors alike. This

educational mission also guides our collecting plan- we believe

it to be SUArt’s responsibility to build and maintain a collection

that will continue to serve as an educational resource as much as

an aesthetic collection for our students and faculty. Maintaining

the collections of established alumni and professors emeriti

are often exceptional elements of SUArt- a distinctive resource

preserved and utilized for future artists to study.

Over the course of 40 years, Professor of Printmaking Don

Cortese has been an invaluable source of collegial cooperation-

generous with his own work as well as his commitment to

giving his students the experience of utilizing our encyclopedic

collection of prints and works on paper. This past summer

Andrew Saluti had the bittersweet experience of assisting

Professor Cortese clean out his studio while he prepared

to say goodbye to Syracuse. For the Collection, this was

hugely beneficial, as we acquired the final installments of our

compendium of student artwork donated over the years. Don

generously gifted over 100 volumes of print and art related

books, catalogs and journals. In addition, the Collection

accepted a selection of drawings and etchings by Cortese that

exemplify his success as an influential artist and educator-

securing his place among contemporaries like Robert Marx,

aN INstItUtIoNal MeMorY/ColleCtIoNthe Cortese Collection of Prints

Leonard Baskin and Gabor Peterdi. Drawings done while

studying in Honduras inform his longtime concentration with

the canine as a central metaphoric figure in his work, hence

the press name Canidae Press for his many artist books.

Early experiments in photo-etching and digital printing

illustrate Don’s commitment to experimentation. Of note is In

Memoriam: The Lockerbie Portfolio, a series of images created

immediately following the Pan Am 103 disaster that claimed

the lives of 270 men, women and children and 35 Syracuse

University students. Cortese’s use of digital inkjet printing in

its infancy, fused with delicate handmade papers and ghost-

like transfers make this piece an important addition to the

collection notwithstanding its inherent institutional relevance.

The Cortese Collection now eclipses 200 works on paper

and includes dynamic and innovative works by established

artists including Robert Marx, Louisa Chase, and Susan

Emshwiller. Many have been inspired to teach- continuing

a long thread of artist educators- like Nick Palermo (RISD),

Richard Pardee (Syracuse University, SUNY OCC) and Matt Kelly

(Central College, Iowa). These collected examples of student

work, alongside Cortese’s prints, drawings and books, have

become a valuable asset to the Art Collection as well as to the

University’s institutional memory. The experience of working

with a colleague and mentor to so many students like Professor

Cortese, and now being charged with the care, study and

display of his educational legacy, are obligations we value.

15

Don Cortese, In Memoriam: The Lockerbie Portfolio, 1989. Gift of the Artist.

Louisa Chase, The Car, 1972. Gift of Don Cortese.

FeatUred/exhIbItIoN

MIthIla PaINtING: the eVolUtIoN oF aN art ForM

jaNUarY 30 – MarCh 16, 2014oPeNING reCePtIoNthursday, February 6, 2014 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.This exhibition has been organized by the Ethnic Arts Foundation to expand public recognition and appreciation of the

painting tradition’s beauty, powerful imagery, and capacity to depict classical deities, ancient rituals, and very contemporary

national and global issues and events.

Dulari Devi, Ganesha, 2009