Barnett Newman
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Barnett Newman Author(s): H. R. H. Source: Art Journal, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Autumn, 1970), p. 84 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/775352 . Accessed: 29/03/2014 02:39
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Art Institute of Design, the New School for Social Research, and the Industrial Art School. He also studied privately under Jose de Creeft, Gutzon Borglum and U. S. Ricci. He had worked in the field of architectural sculpture from 1931-1942, when he came to Iowa. Professor Albrizio's interest in exploring the artistic potentialities of a wide variety of materials was evident in a retrospective exhibition of his works at the University of Iowa during the fall of 1966 which included 127 sculptures that he had made from 1929-1966, 27 drawings and 5 wood-block prints. He won numerous awards, including purchase prizes at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Joslyn Memorial Art Museum, Omaha, Neb.; the Des Moines Art Center and the Denver Art Museum. Upon his retirement, he received a sabbatical-leave grant from the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities, which was matched by Iowa. His works were shown in major museums across the country. Museums and art centers with Albrizio works in their permanent collections include the Walker Art Center; The University of Iowa; the Joslyn Memorial Art Museum; the Worcester, Mass., Museum; the Springfield, Mo., Art Museum; the Des Moines Art Center; the University of Northern Iowa; the University of Wisconsin; Montclair College, Montclair, N.J., and Colby College, Waterville, Me. Since his retirement he and his wife, Sonia, who survives him, lived in San Diego.
letters to the editor
On Eastman Johnson Sir: I've read Kenneth Ames' article on "Eastman Johnson: The Failure of a Successful Artist" (A.J., Winter, 69/70). The sketch reproduced in Mr. Ames' article of Johnson's "Sugaring-off" is stated "whereabouts unknown." If I'm not mistaken, I believe that this large sketch is in the collection of the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design.* P.S. The reproduction as it appeared in the article has been cropped at both the left and right sides. (Unintended by author and editor). ALVIN Ross Pratt Institute * Confirmed-Ed. More on the Johnson article Sir: It was with great interest that I noted the publication of the article, "Eastman Johnson: The Failure of a Successful Artist," by Kenneth Ames in the Winter 69/70 issue. While Mr. Ames has developed the importance of genre subject matter, during the last half of the 19th century, he introduces two concepts, relating to Johnson and his career, that tend to give us a false impression of the artist. I refer to Mr. Ames' development of Johnson as a failure and what we might call the aesthetic of the sketch. In his zeal to prove his concept that Johnson believed himself to be a failure, Mr. Ames develops a very complex and "freudian" interpretation of a number of the artist's selfportraits and genre paintings. What might be more to the point is to see these as evidence of Johnson's interest in "Rembrandt lighting" and the works of that Dutch master, or in his interest in "telling a story." Genre paintings were popular and did sell. The Embers or Not at Home can also be seen as permitting the viewer to become involved in expanding the episode depicted. My second concern with Mr. Ames' approach deals with his comparison of the sketch for The Wounded Drummer Boy and with the finished painting of the same title. The author feels the sketch is much better. He states: "Just this unfinished quality can be found in the sketches which have been much admired in this century. Yet this same quality is painstakingly eliminated from the artist's finished works .. ." One can assume that Johnson felt differently and saw his finished painting as having desirable qualities which the sketch did not have. Certainly the sketch served a purpose different from that served by a finished painting and thus reflects nineteenth century needs as well as nineteenth century taste. We have to take into account the change in taste that has occurred in the past hundred years. Apparently there has been some change, as Johnson chose not
to use the unfinished character of the sketch in the finished work. And this decision was his to make. This of course does not have to affect the taste of a contemporary viewer such as Mr. Ames. I am pleased to see attention being given to some of the "lesser" American artists of the nineteenth century. I feel that we come closer to an understanding of them if we do not stress hidden meanings at the expense of a nineteenth century milieu which tended to stress fact more than conjecture.
THOMAS M. POSEY
Metropolitan Junior College Kansas City, Missouri Art Libraries Sir: Mrs. Elizabeth Folin, Fine Arts Librarian at the University of Pittsburgh was the chairman of the first official Art Libraries session at the College Art Association Annual meeting in Washington. That meeting was trendsetting in many respects, chief of which is that art librarians will now be officially represented at meetings of art historians. Communications will be possible on a professional level. There is much that needs to be discussed. I firmly believe that art librarians (assuming that they are well qualified and are given sufficient staff to be able to do their professional work) are essential participants in the teaching process. In his everyday activity of helping students and faculty to find the materials that they require, the subject specialist reference librarian is an intimate in the overall process of teaching and research. His expertise is necessary in helping the student in finding material in the catalog of his own university and in others. The librarian makes the student aware and teaches him how to use special bibliographies, special periodical indexes, and journals. Merely his performance in these activities should entitle the art librarian to full faculty status in deed as well as name.
HERBERTSCHERER
BARNETT NEWMAN The death of Barnett Newman last July deprives the nation of another of that small group of distinguished American painters of the mid-century. I still recall vividly the strange sensation of space and color extending into the environment, as generated by his exhibition at the Betty Parsons gallery in the early fifties. It seemed to me at the time that he was the first painter since Mondrian to have achieved that peculiar quality, and even today with all the development of acrylics, stained canvas and color-field painting, Newman's canvasses have a timelessness and monumentality that will keep his name in the art history annals for generations to come. Perhaps the ultimate irony in my long association with this publication resulted from publishing a piece by the late Ad Reinhardt who with his characteristic sarcasm assigned wildly caricatural expletives to a number of painter colleagues, one of whom, his hitherto close friend, Barnett Newman, brought suit against the author, this editor and our publishers. The suit was dismissed by the court, but the coolness between those involved never ended, and it is as a tribute to Barnett Newman that I inscribe these lines.
H.R.H.
Art Librarian, University of Minnesota Preservation of Southeast Asian Art Sir: A group of faculty and students of the Department of Art History, Northwestern University, finds it necessary to express its concern for the safety of cultural treasures in areas of Southeast Asia threatened by military action. We have written letters to congressmen, senators, generals, ambassadors, and the President urging that measures be taken in the spirit of the World War II Roberts Commission, that orders be prepared for commanders in Southeast Asia to protect cultural treasures so far as is possible in the progress of the war, and that a list of towns and their principal monuments and collections of cultural im-
84
This content downloaded from 182.178.239.129 on Sat, 29 Mar 2014 02:39:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Art Journal.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 182.178.239.129 on Sat, 29 Mar 2014 02:39:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Art Institute of Design, the New School for Social Research, and the Industrial Art School. He also studied privately under Jose de Creeft, Gutzon Borglum and U. S. Ricci. He had worked in the field of architectural sculpture from 1931-1942, when he came to Iowa. Professor Albrizio's interest in exploring the artistic potentialities of a wide variety of materials was evident in a retrospective exhibition of his works at the University of Iowa during the fall of 1966 which included 127 sculptures that he had made from 1929-1966, 27 drawings and 5 wood-block prints. He won numerous awards, including purchase prizes at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Joslyn Memorial Art Museum, Omaha, Neb.; the Des Moines Art Center and the Denver Art Museum. Upon his retirement, he received a sabbatical-leave grant from the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities, which was matched by Iowa. His works were shown in major museums across the country. Museums and art centers with Albrizio works in their permanent collections include the Walker Art Center; The University of Iowa; the Joslyn Memorial Art Museum; the Worcester, Mass., Museum; the Springfield, Mo., Art Museum; the Des Moines Art Center; the University of Northern Iowa; the University of Wisconsin; Montclair College, Montclair, N.J., and Colby College, Waterville, Me. Since his retirement he and his wife, Sonia, who survives him, lived in San Diego.
letters to the editor
On Eastman Johnson Sir: I've read Kenneth Ames' article on "Eastman Johnson: The Failure of a Successful Artist" (A.J., Winter, 69/70). The sketch reproduced in Mr. Ames' article of Johnson's "Sugaring-off" is stated "whereabouts unknown." If I'm not mistaken, I believe that this large sketch is in the collection of the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design.* P.S. The reproduction as it appeared in the article has been cropped at both the left and right sides. (Unintended by author and editor). ALVIN Ross Pratt Institute * Confirmed-Ed. More on the Johnson article Sir: It was with great interest that I noted the publication of the article, "Eastman Johnson: The Failure of a Successful Artist," by Kenneth Ames in the Winter 69/70 issue. While Mr. Ames has developed the importance of genre subject matter, during the last half of the 19th century, he introduces two concepts, relating to Johnson and his career, that tend to give us a false impression of the artist. I refer to Mr. Ames' development of Johnson as a failure and what we might call the aesthetic of the sketch. In his zeal to prove his concept that Johnson believed himself to be a failure, Mr. Ames develops a very complex and "freudian" interpretation of a number of the artist's selfportraits and genre paintings. What might be more to the point is to see these as evidence of Johnson's interest in "Rembrandt lighting" and the works of that Dutch master, or in his interest in "telling a story." Genre paintings were popular and did sell. The Embers or Not at Home can also be seen as permitting the viewer to become involved in expanding the episode depicted. My second concern with Mr. Ames' approach deals with his comparison of the sketch for The Wounded Drummer Boy and with the finished painting of the same title. The author feels the sketch is much better. He states: "Just this unfinished quality can be found in the sketches which have been much admired in this century. Yet this same quality is painstakingly eliminated from the artist's finished works .. ." One can assume that Johnson felt differently and saw his finished painting as having desirable qualities which the sketch did not have. Certainly the sketch served a purpose different from that served by a finished painting and thus reflects nineteenth century needs as well as nineteenth century taste. We have to take into account the change in taste that has occurred in the past hundred years. Apparently there has been some change, as Johnson chose not
to use the unfinished character of the sketch in the finished work. And this decision was his to make. This of course does not have to affect the taste of a contemporary viewer such as Mr. Ames. I am pleased to see attention being given to some of the "lesser" American artists of the nineteenth century. I feel that we come closer to an understanding of them if we do not stress hidden meanings at the expense of a nineteenth century milieu which tended to stress fact more than conjecture.
THOMAS M. POSEY
Metropolitan Junior College Kansas City, Missouri Art Libraries Sir: Mrs. Elizabeth Folin, Fine Arts Librarian at the University of Pittsburgh was the chairman of the first official Art Libraries session at the College Art Association Annual meeting in Washington. That meeting was trendsetting in many respects, chief of which is that art librarians will now be officially represented at meetings of art historians. Communications will be possible on a professional level. There is much that needs to be discussed. I firmly believe that art librarians (assuming that they are well qualified and are given sufficient staff to be able to do their professional work) are essential participants in the teaching process. In his everyday activity of helping students and faculty to find the materials that they require, the subject specialist reference librarian is an intimate in the overall process of teaching and research. His expertise is necessary in helping the student in finding material in the catalog of his own university and in others. The librarian makes the student aware and teaches him how to use special bibliographies, special periodical indexes, and journals. Merely his performance in these activities should entitle the art librarian to full faculty status in deed as well as name.
HERBERTSCHERER
BARNETT NEWMAN The death of Barnett Newman last July deprives the nation of another of that small group of distinguished American painters of the mid-century. I still recall vividly the strange sensation of space and color extending into the environment, as generated by his exhibition at the Betty Parsons gallery in the early fifties. It seemed to me at the time that he was the first painter since Mondrian to have achieved that peculiar quality, and even today with all the development of acrylics, stained canvas and color-field painting, Newman's canvasses have a timelessness and monumentality that will keep his name in the art history annals for generations to come. Perhaps the ultimate irony in my long association with this publication resulted from publishing a piece by the late Ad Reinhardt who with his characteristic sarcasm assigned wildly caricatural expletives to a number of painter colleagues, one of whom, his hitherto close friend, Barnett Newman, brought suit against the author, this editor and our publishers. The suit was dismissed by the court, but the coolness between those involved never ended, and it is as a tribute to Barnett Newman that I inscribe these lines.
H.R.H.
Art Librarian, University of Minnesota Preservation of Southeast Asian Art Sir: A group of faculty and students of the Department of Art History, Northwestern University, finds it necessary to express its concern for the safety of cultural treasures in areas of Southeast Asia threatened by military action. We have written letters to congressmen, senators, generals, ambassadors, and the President urging that measures be taken in the spirit of the World War II Roberts Commission, that orders be prepared for commanders in Southeast Asia to protect cultural treasures so far as is possible in the progress of the war, and that a list of towns and their principal monuments and collections of cultural im-
84
This content downloaded from 182.178.239.129 on Sat, 29 Mar 2014 02:39:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
