Alumni Magazine Summer 2003

The Visual Arts: Inspirations, Expectations

PETER ROCKWELL IN ROME I CLOISONNÉ CONNOISSEUR I RECLAIMING STOLEN ART All in the Interpretation In May, when we were considering our cover options for this issue, several appealing ideas came to mind. An early front-runner was The Dream Garden, the stunning 1916 mural based on a Maxfield Parrish painting. After a bitter legal battle, the mural remains in its original home, the lobby of the Curtis Building in Center City Philadelphia. The Dream Garden is composed of approximately 100,000 pieces of favrile glass to produce the effect of an oil painting and measures an imposing 15 feet high and 49 feet wide. What our graphic designer, John Maki, had in mind was to wrap the image around the magazine, using both front and back covers to present the mural. Was The Dream Garden the best image available for this magazine? Jill Sherman Maxfield Parrish, arguably the most famous artist ever to attend Vice President for Institutional Advancement Haverford, never received a diploma. Certainly, that was not reason Stephen Heacock enough to keep The Dream Garden from gracing the magazine’s cover. Editor, Executive Director of Or was it? When Maki pored over the dozens of images we collected for Marketing & Communications the magazine, one in particular caught his eye. The Interpretation of Tom Ferguson Production Manager, Color, Vincent Desiderio ’77’s 1997 Class News Editor oil painting, is moody and provocative— Brenna McBride an apt representation of the issue’s Staff Writer contents. Hilary Bajus The arts play a quirky role at Haverford, Office Manager leaving plenty of room for growth, both Acquire, LLC Graphic Designer in program and in general stature with- in the community and region. As Ed Contributing Writers Edgar Allen Beem Beem discovered when he spoke to Steve Manning ’96 alumni, administrators, faculty, and Rashidah Miller ’02 Detail, The Dream Garden (1916) Pam Sheridan students for his story (page 15), there Brendan Wattenberg ’06 are wide-ranging opinions on the role of the arts at Haverford. It might Jacob Weinstein ’01 take a long time for these views to coalesce into a full realization of the Virtual Communications arts. When it happens, people like Bruce Colburn ’86, who found his Committee Norman Pearlstine ’64, Chairman artistic self at Haverford (page 7), will be grateful. Editorial Advisory As for The Dream Garden, that’s another image, and another story, Committee for another day. Violet Brown Emily Davis ’99 J. David Dawson Delsie Phillips Jennifer Punt Willie Williams Stephen Heacock Haverford College Marketing Executive Director of Marketing & Communications and Communications Office 370 Lancaster Avenue Haverford, PA 19041 (610) 896-1333 ©2003 Haverford College The Alumni Magazine of Haverford College Summer 2003

19 FEATURES TheVisual Arts 15 Arts at Haverford Thinking about the future of the arts at Haverford. DEPARTMENTS by Edgar Allen Beem 19 Cloisonné Connoisseur 2 The View from Founders Stephen Fisher ’62 and his superb 3 Main Lines 22 collection of Japanese cloisonné. Notes from the by Brenna McBride 6 Alumni Association Stone Man 22 7 Ford Games A life sculpting in Rome. by Pam Sheridan 10 Reviews 28 Vincent Desiderio’77: 13 Faculty Profile Contemporary Realism, Historical Breadth 41 Class News The “poet-painter” and his latest work. by Brendan Wattenberg ’06 60 Moved to Speak 30 Nature Turned Loose The photography of Tim Loose ’68. 30 34 Carving Out a Life in Ceramics How Sara Baker ’87 has grown her pottery business. 34 35 The Art of Redemption Tracking down lost art with Ori Soltes ’71. by Steve Manning ’96

38 From Banks to Brushes On the Cover Charles Raskob Robinson ’62 left The Interpretation of Color (1997) oil on canvas, 82” x 71” Wall Street for the call of the canvas. Copyright Vincent Desiderio, courtesy of Marlborough Gallery, New York, and the artist. At Home with Their Art 39 Haverford Alumni Magazine is printed four 35 Nancy and Buster Alvord ’49 and times a year: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. their world-class collection of art. Please send change of address information to: Haverford College in care of Jeanette Gillespie, by Brenna McBride 370 Lancaster Avenue, Haverford, PA 19041, or via e-mail: [email protected]. C Haverford Alumni Magazine is printed on recycled paper. The View from Founders by Tom Tritton, President

On the Arts: Fine,Visual, & Rebellious

One humid, showery evening in Li is every bit as prolific a painter as her August, my wife, Louise, and I enjoyed a predecessor. In recent years, she has paint- walking exploration of the art galleries in ed landscapes of Umbria, Italy (where she the Old City section of Philadelphia. On the was a visiting faculty member at the first Friday of every month, 40-plus galleries International School of Painting, Drawing, along 2nd and 3rd Streets (between Race and Sculpture), landscapes of the green and Chestnut) open their doors from 5 to 9 countryside of Ireland, and blue water tion also includes Willie’s own studies of p.m. for browsing, ogling, and immersion. flowing in Vermont, to name just a few. A houses along the Underground Railroad, The display of invention and imagination is gifted teacher, Ying Li is able to find some- the Harriet Beecher Stowe house, and other magnificently impressive—burls of wood thing of value in every student’s drawings Civil War-era sites. Recently, we have been sliced to reveal curly patterns made into and paintings. Her students’ works around joined by Assistant Professor Hee Sook desks and beds; clay and glass sculpted into themes such as self-portraits, flags of Kim, who teaches printmaking, and whose teapots, mugs, and fanciful bowls; walls lined ancestral nationality, and reflections on work, Peace, hangs in my office and every with portraits, paintings, photographs, tap- Sept. 11 have been exhibited in the Magill day causes me to think about its subject estries, and digital prints; jewelry made of Library. Ying’s students are also encour- and what I might do about it. colorful metals, gemstones, wire, and wool— aged to write a brief prose piece about It’s hard to escape the visual arts in the to mention but a few of the genres on dis- their art, again uniting two types of cre- Haverford environs. In addition to the play. Likewise, the human array of clothing, ative expression. And her abstract paint- examples already mentioned, there is a con- hair, body decorations, styles, and personas ing, Sound, inspires me every day from its stantly changing exhibition in the Cantor is just as impressive, and made all the more proud location in my living room at 1 Fitzgerald Gallery, curated by artist Hilarie so in streets packed with people of all ages, College Circle. Johnston. Diana Peterson, librarian of the interests, and ethnicities. (Naturally, I ran Next time you explore the campus, take a Special Collections, chairs the committee into a Haverford alum there!) look at the figure of Saint Joan in the pocket that selects the exhibits in the gallery, and One hundred years ago, Haverford garden behind Magill, and the Angel With has similar artistic influence on the show- College would have reflexively shunned Nails figure hidden inside the small rectangle ings in Magill. Diana also catalogs and any association with the fine arts. Most of trees next to the Observatory. These sculp- maintains the College’s entire collection of 18th- and 19th-century Quakers regarded tures were fashioned by Professor Chris works of art, which includes many valu- the arts as dangerously close to the mak- Cairns, who teaches his craft to Haverford able pieces from Maxfield Parrish to Joan ing of icons forbidden in the Bible or, at and Bryn Mawr students. Watching Chris set Miró to Frank Stella. Even the scientists best, a waste of time that could be better a mold and pack it in sand, heat the bronze have joined the fun by creating a changing spent doing “good works.” Not until the to fiery liquid, and pour it into the mold read- display of student art in the Koshland 1960s were fine arts officially embraced by ily conjures images of Vulcan’s forge. In recent Integrated Natural Sciences Center. the curriculum. But, today, the arts thrive years, sculpture has caught on so readily at Luckily, my own skills in drawing or here, and we thrive, in good measure, Haverford that following the tragedy of Sept. painting are so meager there is no public because of them. Emeritus Professor of 11, students, faculty, and friends created a record of any attempts at such expression. Fine Arts Charles Stegeman, whose color- powerful display of hundreds of small clay Nonetheless, the visual arts animate my ful, intricate, and highly symbolic paint- sculptures titled “The Project for the Lost existence because they vividly show the ings were exhibited in the Cantor and Missing”; the resulting creation showed range of human imagination and creativ- Fitzgerald Gallery a year ago, was one of a huge range of themes and emotions and ity. The arts also demonstrate how won- the first faculty members in this depart- occupied one entire corner in the center stu- derfully diverse our world is, and the myr- ment. Three years ago, Professor of Music dio of the Fine Arts building. iad ways that people express themselves. Curt Cacioppo performed his piece for This tour of the fine arts at Haverford And the arts allow—in fact, encourage— piano, violin, and cello titled The Ancestors would not be complete without mention rebellion from the status quo, conformity, that was inspired by Stegeman’s painting of Professor Willie Williams, and the exten- and orthodoxy. As Henry James put it, “Art of the same name. Talk about collabora- sive historical collection of photographs derives a considerable part of its beneficial tive artistic efforts! he has assembled for the College’s teach- exercise from flying in the face of pre- Associate Professor of Fine Arts Ying ing and research. The impressive collec- sumptions.” I’m all for it.

2 Haverford Magazine Main Lines

Gardner Center Site Goes Live

The new Gardner Integrated Athletic Center Web site is up and running (http://www.haverford.edu/athletics/iac/). Fea- tures include the latest interior and exterior architectural renderings from Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, testimonials, gift and naming opportunities, FAQs, and campus siting illus- trations. The Gardner Center is slated for a spring 2004 groundbreaking; check the site for updated information and images.

Top left: Architectual rendering of Second Call for the Calvin Gooding Performance Court. Left: Fitness Center. Athletic Memorabilia Below: Northeast elevation of Thanks to Christoph Kimmich ’61, this the Douglas B. Gardner ’83 1959 Penn Relays Trophy will reside in the new Integrated Athletic Center. Gardner Center. Kimmich was part of Images courtesy Bohlin the winning one-mile relay team Cywinski Jackson with Jonathan Collett ’60, Mal- colm Goggin ’60 and Werner Muller, Jr. ’60. Lots of addi- tional interesting memorabil- ia has been coming out of the woodwork! If you have tro- phies, jerseys, or photos you’d like to donate, please contact Greg Kannerstein at (610) 896-1120.

Introducing the HaverCard Haverford is a Top 10 Fund Raiser A new card access system has been Card project,” says Safety and Security installed on campus to enhance dorm Director Tom King. “Very soon we hope In the August 29 issue of The Chron- security and convenience for all students. to add access to additional student serv- icle of Higher Education, Haverford placed This new system facilitates access control ices such as laundry and vending ninth in “Top institutions in alumni sup- for all outer doors of the dormitories– machines. In the future, students and par- port per student, 2001-02” (Source: most of which will have “proximity read- ents will be able to add money to a stu- Council for Aid to Education). ers,” enabling authorized card holders to dent’s HaverCard account using a secure At $9,399 per student, Haverford wave the card within a few inches of the Internet site.” came in ahead of both Bryn Mawr (10th, reader for activation. Doors $9,216) and Swarthmore (13th, $8,429). with proximity readers will also Pomona topped the list at $25,963 per have call boxes, allowing visi- student, followed by Antioch ($18,275), tors to contact residents for Princeton ($16,748), Trinity ($14,132), access. All of the outer dorm and Wellesley ($13,190). Yale was sev- doors will be equipped with enth on the list ($10,713). Other insti- propped-door alarms. Students tutions of note: Amherst (11th, $9,110), can also use the new card to Davidson (12th, 9,040), Cornell (14th, access their meal plans in the $8,155), Dartmouth (15th, $8,132), dining center and to borrow Kenyon (16th, $8,084), Smith (19th, books from the library. $7,918), and Bowdoin (20th, $7,626). “We’re excited about the Carleton, Middlebury, and Williams implementation of the Haver- did not make the list of 20 ranked insti- tutions.

Summer 2003 3 Main Lines

True Colors: Haverford Buildings Returned to Original Palette Each summer, a given number of the The third structure that underwent a Haverford’s campus and its buildings. As College’s 90 buildings undergo routine ren- partial restoration is the original portion the oldest institution of higher education ovation or repair. This past July and of Magill Library, constructed in 1863 in with Quaker roots, Haverford’s campus August, however, work on three of Haver- the form of a cruciform Gothic Revival houses what, arguably, is the most com- ford’s buildings was far from ordinary. By chapel with high arched windows. Its plete line of Quaker architectural com- late summer, the exteriors of two student sand-colored window sashes were replaced missions. Its original building, Founders residences, Drinker and the Ira DeA. Reid and finished in a dark brown color to more Hall, constructed in 1833, is considered House, along with a portion of the oldest closely approximate the dark varnish iden- to be one of the finest examples of Quak- section of Magill Library, were restored to tified on the original sashes. “This allows er academic architecture in the United their original historical colors. the window mullions to ‘disappear,’ show- States. The Henry S. Drinker Center, which casing the shape of the gothic windows as Currently, the exterior color scheme of was originally built for Haverford profes- well as the stone façade,” explains facili- all the academic buildings corresponds to sor William Comfort before he became ties project manager, Kathleen DiJoseph. muted, sandy tones of the original wood president of the College in 1917, has been With the support of a grant from the trim and barn-dashed stucco on Founders, restored to its 1903 colors. Its window Getty Grant Program, the College engaged imparting a uniform, “Quakerly” style to frames and sashes, currently both bur- the services of a professional team of archi- the campus. In fact, what could be iden- gundy, are being returned to their original tectural preservationists who, working tified as “Quaker aesthetic,” came in a vari- cream sashes with deep chocolate frames, with the staff of Haverford’s archives and while the existing creamy stucco is being Quaker Collection, have conducted an Drinker House returned to its original caramel color with extensive architectural survey of the dark brown trim. College’s core historic structures. The Ira DeA. Reid House, built in 1911 By next summer, they will have and later named after the internationally compiled an analysis of the original known sociologist who was Haverford’s finishes and mortars of nearly three first African American faculty member, was dozen buildings, which, over painted in shades of green. Its existing time, the College plans to restore cream siding and stucco with bright blue to their original appearance. windows and trim have been reverted to a The significance of this project grayish-green siding with dark green win- and its goals are rooted in the dow trim and a creamy stucco and sash. history of the development of

Faculty Notes

Three professors have been awarded the Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, rospective conversation with Bruce Prize for Innovation in Teaching, which Vol. 3; “Relationship between coping styles Herzberg” for the journal Reflections, recognizes an innovative course, a novel and hemispheric asymmetry” in Journal of Vol. 3 Issue 1. reconstruction of department curricula, or Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 84 Julio dePaula, professor of chemistry, any innovative technique used in one or Issue 5; “When two hemispheres are not attended the 25th Annual Business Meet- more classes. Stephen Boughn, professor of better than one: Effects of worry on inter- ing of the Council on Undergraduate astronomy, won for inventive pedagogical hemispheric processing” in Brain and Cog- Research at Ursinus College in Collegeville, approaches in Astronomy 152, “Freshman nition, Vol. 51; and “Selective attention to Pa., June 19-21. Seminar in Astrophysics”; Jennifer Punt, stressful distractors: Effects of neuroticism Professor of Philosophy Ashok Gan- associate professor of biology, received the and gender” in Personality and Individual gadean traveled to the Conference on Yoga award for her redesign of Biology 306; and Differences, Vol. 34 Issue 5. Philosophy in Sedona, Ariz., July 2-4. He Deborah Sherman, assistant professor of Doug Davis, professor of psychology, gave a keynote address to the graduating English, was recognized for her Joyce/Beck- wrote the article “Millennial Teaching” for class at Devi Yoga Institute titled “Global ett course, which now includes a Web site a special issue of the journal Academe con- Awakening as Key to Yoga Philosophy and featuring hypertext student projects. cerned with innovation in liberal educa- Practice.” He also participated in a pres- Assistant Professor of Psychology tion. entation with renowned yogi practitioner Rebecca Compton co-authored four arti- Thomas Deans, Nancy and Buster Rama Verdon, founder of the publication cles that appeared in four different aca- Alvord Director of College Writing and Yoga Journal. demic journals: “Paying attention to emo- Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Com- Maris Gillette, assistant professor of tion: an fMRI investigation of cognitive position, contributed the article “Com- anthropology, is one of the curators of the and emotional Stroop tasks” in Cognitive, munity service and critical teaching: A ret- exhibit, “Portraits from China, 1923-1946:

4 Haverford Magazine 2003 Silk Intern ety of exterior colors and architectural on the Vineyard styles over the 170 years since Founders Brendan Wattenberg ’06 has enjoyed Hall was constructed. many summer vacations on Martha’s Barclay Hall, which was built 44 years Vineyard. This past summer, however, he after Founders, reflects a completely dif- experienced a different side of the island ferent style in its combination of Second as an intern for This Week on Martha’s Empire and Collegiate Gothic architec- Vineyard, a 7,500-circ free weekly enter- ture. In the late 1800s, Lloyd Hall and tainment newspaper based in Edgartown. Brendan Wattenberg ’06 in Edgartown. Ryan Gymnasium were constructed in the Brendan’s experience was supported by style of Colonial Revival, which appeared the Andrew Silk ’76 Journalism Fund, Tisbury committed to preserving the botan- again at the turn of the century in the established 21 years ago by Leonard Silk ical and horticultural legacy of Polly Hill. He designs for Union and Hall Buildings, and his wife, Bernice, in memory of their also visited several restaurants for the paper’s Morris Infirmary, and Sharpless Hall. In son, Andrew, a respected journalist who “Anonymous Diner” column. many cases, the exterior colors of the died of lung cancer in 1981. This Week editor and independent wood trim, windows, or masonry on these Wattenberg spent his summer pro- publisher Leslie Hurd was impressed with buildings were distinctly different from ducing two or three articles per week, in Brendan’s work and hired him to write the pale tan on the College’s original aca- addition to working as a short-order cook, for her Martha’s Vineyard Weddings mag- demic building. leaving the island only briefly to attend azine. “Brendan is a hardworking writer, Over the course of the survey, the con- an intensive one-week creative writers’ very serious, and pays attention to detail,” sultants will identify and analyze a num- conference at Michigan State University. Hurd says. “He chose many of his own ber of the original masonry materials and “I did lots of writing for This Week,” he assignments, helped out with production, paint or surface finishes of these and the says, “I was sent out on assignment as soon and had suggestions for our graphic other major academic buildings. Once the as I arrived and stayed busy all summer.” designer. He did a fantastic job for us.” team has completed its work, the infor- Indeed, Brendan showed an ability to tack- “It was a very exciting summer and a mation will be permanently archived for le a wide variety of assignments, from cov- excellent opportunity,” Brendan says. “I’m future reference, making it possible for the ering opening nights at the Vineyard Play- very grateful to the Silks for their gen- College to gradually restore the variety of house to profiling organic farms to erosity.” exterior façades that more accurately rep- promoting local artisans. He wrote a story resent the “Quaker aesthetic” that has on and photographed the Polly Hill Arbore- Brendan’s article on painter Vincent come to define Haverford’s campus. tum, a not-for-profit organization in West Desiderio ’77 appears on p. 28.

Photographers and Their Subjects,” appear- Investment Model,” which appeared in Assistant Professor of Mathematics ing this fall at the Peabody Museum of the journal Personal Relationships, Vol. 10 Joshua Marc Sabloff co-authored “Invari- Archaeology and Ethnology in Cambridge, Issue 1. ants of Legendrian knots and coherent ori- Mass. The exhibit presents a pictorial tale Associate Professor of Computer Sci- entations,” which appeared in Vol. 1, Issue of early 20th-century China. ence Steven Lindell gave a presentation 2 of the Journal of Symplectic Geometry. Yoko Koike, senior lecturer in Japan- titled “Linear-time algorithms for Associate Professor of Psychology ese, attended JALT (Japan Association for monadic logic” at the Logic in Comput- Wendy Sternberg received the Lindback Language Teaching) CALL (Computer er Science Conference and Workshop on Distinguished Teaching Award. Funded by Assisted Language Learning) Conference Causality in Physics, June 22-26 in the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback June 7-8 at Kinjo Gakuin University in Ottawa, Canada. Foundation, the award recognizes a full- Nagoya City, Japan. She gave a paper titled Thomas Lloyd, associate professor of time faculty member with an excellent “CALL That Sits Well with the Curricu- music and director of the Bryn Mawr- teaching record. lum.” She also discussed students’ cyber- Haverford Choral Program, attended the Theresa Tensuan, assistant professor space collaborative projects for the com- Chorus America Annual Conference for of English, was a recipient of the Lindback ing semesters with colleagues from the professional choral conductors in Kansas Minority Junior Career Enhancement University of Colorado and Nihon Fukushi City, Mo., June 5-7. Award, funded by the Christian R. and University. Assistant Professor of Mathematics Mary F. Lindback Foundation. The award Benjamin Chinh Le, assistant profes- Robert Manning has been awarded a grant provides a stipend that allows Tensuan to sor of psychology, was a co-author for the from the National Science Foundation for pursue her research. article “Commitment and its theorized his project “RUI: Continuum Models of determinants: A meta-analysis of the DNA and Protein Coils.”

Summer 2003 5 Notes from the Alumni Association

Dear Haverfordians and Friends:

The visual arts at Haverford are often ciation for the humanities, and devotion considered by too many alumni to be dis- to exploring unique horizons that serve to tant and somewhat removed from the cen- educate and lead. One cannot help but ter of campus activity. Why? Simply put, recognize how many of those profiled we make no claim to be an artistic power- alumni appreciate how their Haverford lib- house, and as such, many students show- eral arts education aided them in their artis- case their artistic talents, but relatively few tic endeavors. Scholars of art, such as Ori major in the fine arts. Soltes ’73, and professional artists like It would be erroneous, however, to Bruce Colburn ’86 both reveal a keen pas- claim that the arts are ignored or unap- sion, not only for art, but for analyzing and preciated at Haverford. To the contrary; showcasing humanity as they see and inter- al giving an additional five percentage the artistic talents of Haverfordians remains pret it. points in the next year. It is an exciting both impressive, diverse and worthy of Finally, I wish to share my appreciation time to volunteer—for admission, for the acclaim. The Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery to all of you who have contributed gener- career planning office, or as a class chair. continues to host superb exhibits in the ously to the Haverford Campaign. I Alumni are an essential part of Haverford’s Philadelphia area. On a personal note, my encourage all of you who wish to partici- continued success. roommate John Smeltzer proved himself pate in Haverford alumni activities to con- a clever cartoonist for The Bi-College News; tact me, or Violet Brown, Director of Sincerely, another classmate, Nick Bruel, remains a External Relations. Haverford is on the talented artist to this day. move forward. We hope to have an on- This issue of Haverford focuses on these line alumni directory fully functional with- talented artistic alumni for good reason. in 12 months. I have made it a goal to find Robert M. Eisinger ’87 They personify Haverford’s creativity, appre- ways to bolster class participation in annu-

Alumni Association Executive Committee

President Members and Liaison Responsibilities: Anna-Liisa Little ’90 Robert M. Eisinger ’87 Ty Ahmad-Taylor ’90 Pacific Northwest Regional Societies Vice President Melissa M. Allen ’86 Jonathan LeBreton ’79 Southeast Bradley J. Mayer ’92 Alumni Awards Pacific Northwest Communications Committee Eva Osterberg Ash ’88 [ex officio] Christopher B. Mueller ’66 Central U.S. Sarah G. Ketchum Baker ’91 National Gifts Maine Admissions Ronald Schwarz ’66 Washington, D.C., Metro Paula O. Braithwaite ’94 Admission New England Multicultural Rufus C. Rudisill, Jr. ’50 Michael E. Gluck ’82 E. Pennsylvania Senior Alumni Washington, D.C., lambda Regional Societies Kate Irvine '86 If you would like to nominate Ryan Traversari ’97 Midwest an alumnus/a for the Alumni New York City Association Executive Garry W. Jenkins ’92 Career Development Committee, please contact New York City Career Development the Alumni Office at Student Representative: (610) 896-1004. Christopher J. Lee ’89 Chloe Caraballo '06 Washington, D.C. Athletics continued on page 12

6 Haverford Magazine Ford Games by Steve Heacock

Independent Thinker After 10 years in Paris, Bruce Colburn ’86 is beginning to hit his stride as a painter.

Professor of Fine Arts Chris Cairns and had good form so I talked him into remembers the first time he met Bruce pitching batting practice for us,” he says. Colburn. “He became a nice JV pitcher and I think “We were casting in the foundry behind the experience was rewarding for him. For Hilles on a hot September day,” he recalls, a batting-practice pitcher to throw strikes “and this lanky freshman just walks in and like he did and not get all wrapped up in starts to help out. We were always looking an ego trip—those are things you’re look- for help and Bruce ended up being ing for in a player. He’s going to do things Above: Self Portrait (1999). involved for four years, just like that.” to help the team. He threw strikes, unlike Below: Crowd Scene (1987). Athletic Director and Associate Dean some of our pitchers.” Greg Kannerstein ’63, was head baseball It’s ironic that Bruce Colburn ended up to begin with. The idea of fraternities and coach when Colburn attended Haverford. throwing strikes at Haverford—or at any four years of partying—I didn’t want any “Bruce comes from a baseball family. His college, for that matter. The idea of a formal of that. I visited for one weekend, though, father, Bob [Class of 1959] played here and education was not that appealing to him. and when I saw that there was so much has coached the team at St. Andrew’s School “I’m autodidactic by nature,” he says, “and going on, I loved it. If I was going to go to in Delaware for a long time. His mother, even though I knew what Haverford was college, Haverford was going to be it.” And Dorothy, went to Bryn Mawr. Bruce was tall about from my dad, I was against college the Colburn tradition at Haverford didn’t stop there. Kannerstein, Haverford’s richest source of athletic lore, points out that Bruce’s sister, Kathryn ’91, also a fine arts major, excelled at field hockey and lacrosse and later married Marc Melitz ’89, a math- ematics major and basketball player who came to Haverford from Paris. After Haverford, Colburn pursued a path that seemed to unfold organically according to what he deemed best for him at the par- ticular moment. “He takes control on his own terms,” Cairns explains, “and he does things that other people wouldn’t even dream of doing. He spent three years paint- ing in St. Croix, where people go for vaca- tion and do nothing but drink. Would you do that? But Pisarro came from St. Thomas, and Bruce knew that. It doesn’t matter where Bruce is. He enlivens the place.” “I went to the Virgin Islands because the American art scene was starting to get to me,” Colburn says. “Sometimes you need to drown out the other voices so you can hear your own. When you paint, you have your own world inside. It’s almost

Summer 2003 7 Ford Games

like your immediate physical surround- and Sculpture in Maine. For three years, What Colburn also discovered was that ings are not important. It is wrenching to he worked in Boston for the abstract he needed to have a job, something to pay be uprooted, yes, but if you are so well- painter Nell Blaine. Then came the three- the bills but still leave ample time for paint- rooted in an interior world you can do it.” year stint in the islands. None of that mat- ing. The trick is, he says, to do something The cleansing experience in St. Croix tered now; the American tradition of that “doesn’t take too much of your mind so prepared Colburn for a fresh start in Paris, resume-building was not going to work in you can get in the saddle and get to the where he moved to be with Agnes Paris. “It’s just a different world,” he easel with your head screwed on right.” He Couffinhal, who was working on her Ph.D. explains. “I came here mentally ready but started to teach English, then moved into in health economics. The two are now mar- I encountered a different code. I had done translation work. For four years now, he’s ried. What he didn’t realize was that the solid work. Skowhegan has the strongest been translating the nightly national news Paris art world did not value his education arts curriculum in the United States but for satellite receivers in the United States. or his experience. After Haverford, Colburn it’s unknown here. I was back at square This leaves him four to five hours for paint- attended the Skowhegan School of Painting one as an artist.” ing, six days a week. His studio takes up the largest room in his and Couffinhal’s 11th arrondissement apartment. In many ways, the one-man show Colburn mounted in late September in the Marais was a critical point in his career tra- jectory. “This show is the dividing line,”

Above: Sycamore Trunk (1997); Above, right: Whale Watch (1988); Right: Colburn in his studio.

8 Haverford Magazine he explains. “I’ve put everything up and like Cairns and Charles Stegeman (who like that. Guys would come back from I’m really taking stock of things. I go from now lives about 50 miles from Colburn) practice and knock off three or four hours show to show and sometimes I’m in big and found them to be completely studying astrophysics. There were no lim- collective shows. But this show marks a immersed in the moment, immersed in its—it was the closest I’ve ever come to the point for me. By the time I’m 40, I should their craft. “We did some weird stuff, like Greek ideal of healthy mind, healthy body.” be latched onto a gallery that will formal- working on a dig in Italy, thanks to a rec- “He just wandered around here for four ly represent me and my work.” years and got enmeshed in things,” Cairns Cairns feels a particular kinship with You know, when you put explains. “As a teacher, you teach an atti- Colburn. Both men are from Delaware and things up in your house, as tude as much as anything else. You get a take a decidedly intense approach to art and glimpse of people when they’re here and life. Cairns makes a habit of visiting Colburn an artist, the piece usually you never know what’s going to happen at in Paris. And he has encouraged his son, the other end. Cathy Koshland [Class of Pete, to spend time with Colburn while he’s ends up moving from the 1972] painted here and then she surfaced in Paris on a Watson Fellowship. “I think living room to the hallway 10 years later as an engineer. She’s so bright Bruce is going about this the right way,” but it was unexpected. It surprised me. Cairns says. “He’s not cluttering his mind to upstairs and then to the Mark Chehi ’78 was another one. A very with shit. He’s tenacious. It’s very reward- attic before I throw it out. bright art student here, now a lawyer who’s ing to spend time with him. He’s great to go done very well by himself. to museums with. He’s an eclectic listener But Bruce’s paintings are “I keep up with a lot of my students and of music and he reads. His reading intensi- beautiful.” Bruce turned out to be one of the most ty is different than mine but he’s dependent earnest and aggressive pursuers of his edu- on reading for inspiration. Literature is huge ommendation from [BMC] Professor cation. Bruce was looking for something and you can tear off a piece for yourself. I Brunilde Ridgway. She just had this aston- and I think he learned a ferocious inde- feel sort of guilty sending people to see him ishing memory and could recall a certain pendence from Stegeman and from me. when they’re over there—Swarthmore stu- roof tile she saw 20 years ago. I don’t know That’s the great thing about teaching at dents, Haverford students—but he’s good if that’s normal or not, but I’ve run into Haverford. I have two of Bruce’s paintings about it. He likes talking about stuff and he that kind of intensity repeatedly with and I give him sculptures from time to remembers what it was like here on cam- Haverford people.” time. You know, when you put things up pus and he gives it back.” Colburn also met up with people who in your house, as an artist, the piece usually Haverford remains for Colburn a place weren’t afraid to do what they wanted to ends up moving from the living room to where he discovered some tantalizing pos- do. “It was completely normal,” he says, the hallway to upstairs and then to the attic sibilities, where his eclectic approach was “if you wanted to play baseball and paint. before I throw it out. But Bruce’s paintings allowed to flourish. He encountered people You weren’t a freak if you did something are beautiful.”

Left: Otranto (1993); Above: Deluge (1987).

Summer 2003 9 Reviews

by Sarah Willie ’86

ACTING BLACK: College, Identity, and the Performance of Race ROUTLEDGE, 2003 In the great Haverford tradition of self-exploration, the Northwestern alums chose the prestige of their institu- Swarthmore College professor Sarah Susannah Willie’s recent- tion over racial comfort, while many Howard alums felt that ly published book, Acting Black: College, Identity, and the the security of being in a racially heterogeneous environment Performance of Race, offers a look at alums of color who have was a more important factor in their decision to attend. taken time to reflect on their undergraduate experiences at While most Howard alums found comfort in the racial two racially distinct universities. Willie’s study of identity composition of their school and in the sense they had of them- formation and the “performative” aspects of race at Howard selves, several Northwestern alums expressed dissatisfaction and Northwestern Universities provide constructive and con- with both. One alum even introduced the interesting notion ceptual tools for thinking about the malleability that only by establishing enough stereotypical or of identity for black students socially acceptable “associations” with “black- in higher education. While ness” would some African American students at the book reveals numerous Northwestern be more empowered and accept- sociological concepts and ed as “authentic” if they chose to “challenge” challenges various notions of these stereotypes by involving themselves in race, it also offered me an “non-black” activities. In other words, for some opportunity to revisit my own African American students, the ability to nego- undergraduate experience. tiate racial spaces at this predominantly white Through reading the text and institution was linked to the strength of their engaging in a few discussions identification with a larger, stereotypically black with Sarah, I have been able to community/culture. It was only through this use this study as a way to com- identification that some felt their own “black” pare and contrast the expecta- identities were authenticated. Reviewing this tions and encounters she and I concept and engaging in discussions with had as past and recent graduates Willie and other Haverford alums, I realized of Haverford College. that the influence of not only racial, but also Understanding the study’s rel- socioeconomic and educational upbringing evance to Willie’s and my own on how people read “performances” are all struggles with race and identity at important pieces to the identity puzzle. Haverford begins first with a look Taking a look at Sarah’s and my own per- at how Willie defines one of her sonal backgrounds, one may begin to see how major concepts in the text: “the per- it all comes together. formance of race.” For Willie, race is not merely a social con- Sarah Willie, associate professor of sociology and chair of struct ascribed to a person based on his or her skin color, it is black studies at Swarthmore. was born to a well-educated, “[a] way of behaving, a place to be entered and exited, a gar- middle-class, “interracially married” couple in the 1960s. She ment to be put on and taken off.” In short, race is “agency”…a was raised in predominantly white, suburban neighborhoods sort of power in how one defines oneself and chooses to be for most of her childhood. Attending predominantly white defined by others. According to Willie, it is the ability to schools not only prepared Willie academically, but also gave “perform” one’s race that shapes the racial negotiations black her a sense of what college life would be like. She ultimate- students make on both predominantly white and historical- ly enrolled at Haverford, with the expectation that “[she] ly black college campuses. would find both social comfort and intellectual challenge” Going further with her concept of “performance”, Willie here. While Willie mentions at a recent book signing that conducted the following ethnographic study contrasting the “[she] felt like [she] was really treated seriously as a bur- experiences of African American students at Northwestern geoning intellectual” at Haverford, she discovered early on and Howard University. By looking at sample populations that “it was very difficult to be a black student here.” from a predominantly white institution (Northwestern) and Questioning this difficulty, Willie realized that part of her an historically black one (Howard), Willie hoped to find struggle lay in students’ unwillingness to accept her as either answers to two major questions: “[w]hy [do] some African white or black due to the ambiguity of her racial background. Americans [choose] mostly white colleges and others [choose] While Willie strays away from this biracial factor in her book, historically black ones?” and “[was] the racial sense African she does highlight her need to better understand where she Americans had of themselves influenced by the college they fit in the racial picture at Haverford. This question led Willie attended [as undergraduates]?” After surveying 55 alums, to the decision to spend a semester at Spelman, a renowned, all graduates between 1991-1992, Willie found that in historically black, all-woman college in the South. There she response to the first question, an overwhelming majority of was exposed for the first time to a predominantly black edu-

10 Haverford Magazine Reviews

cational environment where her identity was not limited to her race but was, in fact, an extension of her upbringing and how she chose to perform aspects of it. For Willie, finding a more historical/cultural grounding at Spelman gave her the agency she felt necessary to “resolve some issues of authen- ticity and validity that [she] had encountered at Haverford.” In contrast to Willie’s experience, I was born to a working- class, black, married couple in the 1980s. One of my parents had received a partial college education. I lived and went to school in predominantly black, urban neighborhoods and was the first in my immediate family to go to a four-year institu- tion. While being a first- generation student afforded me less preparation, it allowed me the freedom to jump into the process with fewer expectations of what college life would be like. Having very little knowledge of the academic rigor or the racial demographics of Haverford before applying left me very open to whatever the school had to offer. While I struggled with issues of inferiority as well as social isolation at times here, being in a completely new and different environment allowed me to reevaluate myself in a much larger context. I now real- ize that while my “performances” as an undergraduate varied by Anne Harnwell Ashmead depending on my being in North Philadelphia with my fami- ly or in the Dining Center chatting with classmates, my core Haverford College Collection identity as a black woman remained unchanged. Comparing Willie’s and my own experience at Haverford, of Classical Antiquities: I noticed that while she and I both identified as “black,” our The Bequest of Ernest Allen backgrounds were quite different and our Haverford careers were far from mirror images of each other. The same can be UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA MUSEUM, 1999 said for respondents in her study who showed that while When Charles “Chud” Wolfinger ’40 discovered that we they shared the experience of being “black” on a college cam- were putting a special arts issue together, he brought our pus, how they chose to “perform” their race was loosely based attention to this book, published by the University of on the academic environment in which they found them- Pennsylvania Museum. The volume, now available from the selves, but largely on their comfort with their own identi- Johns Hopkins University Press (800) 537-5487, describes ties. Although Willie’s study provided some insight into to the in detail the collection of Classical vases and terracottas experience of black students in higher education, it raised bequeathed in 1989 to Haverford by Ernest Allen ’40. even more questions about how future studies should be “Ernest Allen’s vases were part of the Class of 1940’s 50th conducted to address the multi-layered aspects of these expe- Reunion Gift,” says Chud, who chaired the gift committee riences. with Bill McDevit ’40, who passed away six years ago. In these upcoming studies, one may consider pressing “Needless to say, the value of Allen’s gift made our Class gift alums a bit further and asking what they envision their alma look very impressive.” maters becoming in future years. While Northwestern and The collection of approximately 25 pieces resides today in Howard respondents may likely differ in their respective out- Magill Library’s Special Collections under the careful watch of looks, Willie has already shown that her outlook for Haverford Diana Peterson. One piece is currently on loan to Dartmouth’s is rather promising. In a recent interview, Willie stated that Hood Museum for a traveling exhibition, “Coming of Age in “one of the reasons [she] has remained involved with Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past.” Haverford is that it truly has the potential of becoming some- The other pieces, says Peterson, are currently in the library’s thing that its founders could never have imagined . . . and it vault, awaiting a suitable display space. doesn’t even realize it yet”. —S.H. —Rashidah Miller ’02

Rashidah Miller ’02 is an Admission Counselor at Haverford.

Summer 2003 11 Notes from the Alumni Association continued from page 6

Haverford on the Web Alumni Admission Family & Friends The Haverford website is a valuable Volunteers Needed Weekend resource for alumni. View photos of Alumni volunteers are needed in the October 24-26 recent events in the Alumni Photo following states to assist in interviewing “The Challenge of Excellence” Gallery, sign up for e-mail forwarding, prospective students and attending col- Meet parents, grandparents, siblings, update your address and contact infor- lege fairs. Send an e-mail to alumni, and friends—and learn more mation, obtain Career Development [email protected] or call about the Haverford experience. information, and see what your class- (610) 896-1002. For more information, contact the mates are up to on your class’s own web- alumni office: (610) 896-1004. page. Visit: www.haverford.edu and click Additional Volunteers Needed: on “Alumni.” California LAMBDA List-serve (Kent, Davis, Oakland, Berkeley) LAMBDA, the Alumni Association’s Regional Societies Colorado network of gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans- Great things are happening in your area! Connecticut gender, and interested alumni, has been “Welcome Freshmen” parties, infor- Delaware maintaining an e-mail list-serve. To sub- mal alumni gatherings, visits from faculty, Florida scribe, send the following message to staff, and President Tritton, campaign Illinois [email protected]: subscribe lamb- celebrations, and much more! For Indiana da-alumni, your name, and class year. complete information about these or any INTERNATIONAL For more information about this and upcoming alumni events, visit the online Iowa other LAMBDA activities, please contact Regional Events Calendar, accessible Kansas the Alumni Office or Theo Posselt ’94 at: from: www.haverford.edu. Click on Kentucky [email protected]. “Alumni,” then “Regional Events.” Michigan This calendar is updated frequently, New Hampshire Call for Nominations so be sure to check back often. New York Who is the most outstanding alum Also, the Haverford Alumni Office (Rochester, Staten Island, Long you know? The Alumni Office is accept- recently has been visiting several key Island, Bronx, Queens, ing nominations year-round for our cities around the country in an ongoing Queensbury, Pine Bush) annual Alumni Awards. For complete effort to recruit Regional Leaders to host Ohio information about the awards including future alumni events. Do you have an Oregon (Portland) their descriptions, who is eligible, and idea for a successful regional event? Are Pennsylvania how to complete a nomination, go to you interested in learning how to (Mechanicsburg, Doylestown, www.haverford.edu (click on “Alumni” become a Regional Leader? Contact the Allentown, Royersford, Bensalem) then “Awards”), or call the Alumni Alumni Office at: (610) 896-1004 for Rhode Island Office at: (610) 896-1002. details. Texas Virginia Regional Volunteers Wisconsin

Needed: Baltimore, No Current Volunteers: Boston, NYC, and Hawaii Mississippi Beyond Missouri (KC and StL) Regional volunteers plan events that North Dakota help alumni, parents, and friends keep in Oklahoma touch with Haverford and become active South Dakota members of their local Haverford com- West Virginia munity. Wyoming The alumni office is looking for help- ful regional volunteers, especially in the Baltimore, Boston, and New York City metropolitan areas. For more informa- tion, contact the alumni office at (610) 896-1004, or [email protected].

12 Haverford Magazine Faculty Profile by Brenna McBride

The Art of Individuality Ying Li survived the tyranny of China’s Cultural Revolution to find her own voice as an artist.

diers, she was thrilled to escape the heavy labor of her daily life. “I didn’t care what I was painting, I just liked to play with It’s Ying Li’s fourth summer teaching exhibits in St. Petersburg. She admired paint.” at the International School of Painting, works by Matisse and Picasso before she In 1977, after the fall of the infamous Drawing, and Sculpture in Umbria, Italy was aware of their fame. “I thought they “Gang of Four,” the tide began to turn in (where, this year, four students from were so beautiful and colorful,” she a positive direction as colleges and uni- Haverford and Bryn Mawr attended remembers. thanks to Li’s recommendation), and she When she was a young teenager in still finds new things to paint among the 1965, the Cultural Revolution began Ying Li familiar landscape of the small medieval under the leadership of Mao Tse Tung, hill town. “It’s breathtaking,” she says, who wanted to mobilize the country’s versities across China re-opened after 10 “looking down on the valley from up youth to effect policy changes in China years of darkness. At this point, Li was high.” Painting from the window of her that would make the educational and cul- back in the city to receive treatment for studio, she shields herself from the heat tural systems less elitist and “bourgeois.” a broken leg that couldn’t be healed in the of the Umbria summer and watches the In 1968, when Li was 16, her father was country. She was all too excited about the sunflowers change color over the course arrested and sent to a forced labor camp possibility of attending college; as stu- of six weeks, deepening from green to along with many artists and scholars dents were not allowed to apply anywhere lemon yellow. “My first year here, I was outside their home provinces, she was so excited I just wanted to paint every- fortunate that the school in her province, thing,” she says. “Now I’m finally getting “I didn’t understand the Anhui Teachers University in Hefei, had somewhere beyond the surface.” political turmoil, I just an art program. But the shadow of the Later in the summer, the associate pro- Revolution proved a bigger stumbling fessor of fine arts will spend four weeks knew the whole world block than she had anticipated: People at an art colony in the French town of was upside-down.” with “bad political backgrounds”—like Rochefort-en-terre, run by the French gov- Li, whose father had been arrested—could ernment and the Maryland Institute of Art. not even take the entrance exams. She’ll continue to create colorful, lyrical whose actions were deemed elitist. She Her first reaction to this news was grief. paintings in the fluid, abstract expres- would not see him for the next 10 years. “I had a breakdown,” she says. “I thought sionist style for which she has become Li and her mother were placed in the this was my only chance to study art.” known. For a woman who survived the country, where they lived and worked as Later, a boiling anger fueled her determi- oppression and chaos of the Chinese peasants. “I didn’t understand the politi- nation to right this injustice. She found Cultural Revolution, the freedom to paint cal turmoil,” she says. “I just knew the out where the exam for Anhui’s art pro- any subject she chooses, in her individual whole world was upside-down.” gram was being held and arrived at the style, is a hard-won and much valued gift. During these tumultuous and difficult classroom with sketchbook in hand, sat by Born in Beijing, Li spent her child- years, art was her salvation. “When I was the door, and started to draw. “I didn’t even hood and early adolescence drawing, painting or drawing something I could be care what I was drawing,” she laughs. “I painting and playing with color. She in my own world,” she says, “and forget was desperate. It was a protest.” The pro- used to page through the Russian mag- what was happening around me.” Even fessor administering the exam wandered azines of her father, a professor of though she was only permitted to create around the classroom observing students’ Russian literature, and was awed by the propaganda art, such as larger-than-life work; when he reached Li, he stopped and pictures of the Hermitage Museum portraits of Mao and the Red Army sol- watched her for a few minutes.

Summer 2003 13 Faculty Profile

“I thought he was going to throw me conference. He happened upon Li paint- went dark at eight o’clock!” The day after out, but he let me be,” she says. “And later, ing at Yellow Mountain, a spot she favored her arrival, she viewed original Western he changed my life.” The professor liked because “I think it’s the most beautiful art for the first time at the Museum of her work so much he fought to get her mountain in the world.” They struck up Modern Art. admitted to the university, braving a storm a friendship that deepened as they wrote She knew no English, so once she was of criticism from authorities and risking settled in her new home she enrolled in an his job. In the end, he won out. “It was a “I’d never seen so much ESL class at Manhattan Community miracle,” says Li. College and New York University. She later At the university, she painted only as light in my life, In China entered Parsons’ MFA program to further she was instructed, in the style of social everything went dark at her education and relearn her craft. “I had realism and with subjects that glorified a sensational feeling,” she says. “It was lib- socialism. She was trained to recreate exact- eight o’clock!” erating. I painted with huge brushes and ly what she saw in front of her, with little thick paint, with so much force and room for interpretation, and was told that to each other after his return to the States. action.” She was greatly inspired by a ret- the artist was secondary to the state. Still, A year later he came back to China, they rospective of William de Kooning, one of bits of Li’s own voice crept into some of became engaged, and they married after America’s greatest abstract expressionist her paintings, bringing them under fire a year-long wait to get marriage permis- painters. “I thought, ‘This is how I want from Communist party secretaries who sion from the government. When he flew to paint.’” were sent to the colleges to ensure political back home to teach, she followed a few Li received her MFA from Parsons in correctness. She recalls one painting in par- months later. 1987, and 10 years later she joined ticular that she considered “cor- Haverford as a visiting assistant rect” by party standards; it por- professor; she was promoted to trayed a group of recently associate professor in 2003. Her graduated students heading to paintings have been displayed work. She set it along the banks in galleries throughout the mid- of the Yangtze River and even Atlantic (including Cantor emphasized the Nanking- Fitzgerald Gallery) and in Yangtze bridge construction Ireland, Taiwan, Italy, France, project in the background as a and her native China. Last year symbol of the new nation and a she received a Lindback testament to China’s reconstruc- Minority Junior Career tion. However, in the foreground, Enhancement Award, and is a woman in a yellow dress raised using the funds to continue her authorities’ eyebrows. “They research on comparative reli- thought she looked too bour- gious art. “I want to compare geois,” she says. “They didn’t the portrayals of religious spir- know why she would wear a it and stories in Buddhist and dress to go to work.” She was Western art,” she says. She has forced to discard the painting already explored the sites of when authorities refused to show 484 Buddhist art caves in it in museums. She created an northwest China, in the midst entirely new portrait of a female of the desert along the old Silk electrician in a winter coat atop Road. The cave paintings are in a mountain, which assuaged her Window #2, oil on panel, 13” x 13” Dunhuang, once a major stop superiors. on the Silk Road, and span a After nine years at Anhui Teachers She left all of her paintings behind in period of more than 1,300 years, begin- University as both a student and a teacher, China. “For practical reasons, I only want- ning in the fourth century. Li felt dissatisfied with her work. “I knew ed to carry what I could use for making This project will be the focus of her I wanted to paint something,” she says, art,” she says, “but I also knew I could do 2003-2004 academic leave, and it will not “I just didn’t know what.” In China she better work.” conflict with her painting schedule. “In had no exposure to original Western When Li landed at New Jersey’s Newark fact,” she says, “its purpose is for me to paintings, which museums wouldn’t col- Airport, the abundant light emanating from express in paintings that I am doing my lect because it was considered too count- the New York City skyline overwhelmed interpretation and commentary on the reli- er-revolutionary. But in 1981, part of the her. She was even more awestruck as she gious art I studied in China, Russia, France, West came directly to her when she met and her husband drove straight into and Italy.” And the joy of painting and her husband, Chinese historian Michael Manhattan. “I’d never seen so much light studying subjects of her choice and hers Gasster, who came to the country for a in my life,” she says. “In China everything alone is what Ying Li treasures.

14 Haverford Magazine Haverford

by Edgar Allen Beem

A More Attentive Gaze on the Arts at Haverford Planning to be Creative, Imagining a Future for the Arts

Even as Haverford wraps up its historic $200 mil- thing more ambitious than that.” lion “Educating to Lead, Educating to Serve” capi- President Tom Tritton sees some future expan- tal campaign, some Fords are beginning to look sion of the arts presence on campus as a logical next ahead to the next major campaign, one that might step in the College’s efforts in recent years to inte- very well focus on expanding the College’s commit- grate its facilities and programs around comprehen- ment to the arts. sive academic centers. With the Marian E. Koshland Integrated Natural “We have a strong program in the visual arts and Sciences Center a reality and the Douglas B. Gardner music,” says Tritton, “but I think what we could do Integrated Athletic Center in the works, plans are is add a level of cohesion and visibility we don’t being laid on campus to renovate Stokes Hall and presently have.” perhaps Ryan Gymnasium to house Haverford’s While Tritton acknowledges that, at present, dis- Humanities Center and Peace & Global Citizenship cussions of the future of the arts at Haverford are Center. Discussions about what kinds of exhibition informal and preliminary, he does not believe they and performance space might be appropriate in a are premature. Inviting arts faculty and alumni to new Humanities Center have led College officials to begin imagining in these pages what a heightened begin considering the overall needs of the fine arts commitment to the arts might look like is one of the and performing arts spaces on campus. ways the College administration is encouraging an “The Humanities Center’s own thinking about arts dialogue. future space in a renovated Ryan Gym is going to “The way we work is to plant some ideas and let involve arts spaces,” explains Provost David Dawson, the community work on it,” says President Tritton. “but the long-term trajectory is pointing to some- “That way we’ll have a shared vision.”

Summer 2003 15 The Arts at Haverford

questions that will have to be answered as institution, but we need something deep- Create space? the College looks to expand the role of the er than that. We need to nurture the roots Though discussions of the arts needs arts—Is performance and exhibition space of the arts within the educational structure on campus surfaced with the Humanities what Haverford needs most? of the College, not just plant an ornament Center steering committee, Provost David Jonathan Holmes ’03, a painter and art on top of everything for all to see.” Dawson stresses that all stakeholders will teacher at West Nottingham Academy in “There was no fine arts building 25 be involved before the College Planning Maryland, isn’t so sure. years ago,” observes Williams, remember- Committee, which he chairs, begins to for- “The facilities were good, just small and ing when the Marshall Fine Arts Center mulate plans and make specific recom- not built with the same loving care as the went up. “We got one in 1987, but it was mendations. That said, David Dawson other buildings on campus,” says Holmes. almost immediately too small. Now it’s believes some of the needs should be obvi- “Senior fine arts majors didn’t have work overcrowded, so we can’t fit all of fine arts ous to everyone. space of their own, so they had to use the under one roof.” “Fine arts and music have basic build- Williams’ own wish list is quite similar ing needs,” says the provost. “The music to Cacioppo’s. Williams says the fine arts library is long overdue for expansion and department’s most pressing needs are more the performance space for music is not tenured faculty, more adjunct faculty, more ideal, to say the least. We also need theater “The music library is long studio space, an art library integrated with and dance space and a good sound system.” art studios and classrooms, and an audi- As Vice President for Institutional overdue for expansion and torium. But Williams is dubious about Advancement, one aspect of Jill Sherman’s the performance space for whether Haverford is prepared to make job is to look 10 years or more into the such investments in a fine arts program future to envision what might be at music is not ideal, to say that often has fewer than a dozen majors. Haverford. Noting that the campus master the least. We also need “It would take a real sea change to get a plan drawn up for the College by the archi- big space for art that would provide stu- tectural firm of Bohlin Cywinsky Jackson theater and dance space dios, classrooms, galleries, a library, and calls for eventually constructing a compre- an auditorium,” says Williams. “That hensive arts facility and sculpture garden, and a good sound system.” would be a real, real change. I would be Sherman can imagine Haverford building — Provost David Dawson amazed given what I know about the role something similar to Lehigh University’s of the arts at the College over the past quar- Zoellner Arts Center, a facility she helped ter century.” launch in Bethlehem, Pa. common area. There was no space to work Williams estimates that what he is talk- “They positioned it so the community outside the classroom, so I paid for a stu- ing about might cost between $20 million has easy access to it, added a performance dio in Havertown. If I were to spend and $25 million. series, connected to the community and money, the last thing I would spend it on is “The only thing Haverford College has built partnerships,” says Sherman. “It’s a more gallery space.” spent that kind of money on,” he notes, model that I think could really work well Traditionally, Haverford’s cooperative “is the sciences.” for us.” arrangement with Bryn Mawr College has Zoellner Arts Center is a 105,000- had Bryn Mawr offering programs and facil- Collect art? square-foot performance and exhibition ities in art history, dance, and theater with Though Haverford is not now a col- space featuring a 1,002-seat auditorium, a Haverford focusing on the fine arts and lecting institution and does not have an 307-seat theater, a 100-seat black box the- music. So if performance space becomes a art museum, one of the building blocks of atre, and a 2,500-square-foot gallery. major priority, Haverford’s relationship with a more ambitious arts agenda might well Catherine Koshland ’72, Wood-Calvert Bryn Mawr may have to be revised. be the 5,000-image photography collec- Professor in Engineering at the University Music professor Curt Cacioppo, who is tion that Williams has managed to put of California, Berkeley, and vice chair of chairing the fine arts department while art together over the past 25 years. Indeed, the Haverford Board of Managers, thinks professor Willie Williams is on sabbatical Haverford’s photography collection is a sur- Haverford might contemplate something leave with a Guggenheim Fellowship, rec- vey of the history of photography and similar. ognizes the need for “a reasonable size per- stands as one of the best small-college pho- “I see an integrated center with per- formance space” (“The audience pool at tography collections in the country. forming arts space, seminar rooms, a Haverford is maybe 450 people.”), but he Naturally, Willie Williams would like to gallery or perhaps two—one for perma- would prefer to see the College make ini- see the College promote and exploit the nent collection, one for current exhibi- tial investments in more music faculty, new potential of the photography collection tions—rehearsal space for music and the- rehearsal spaces, and a music library. more actively. atre and perhaps art studio space,” says “I’m afraid an arts center might go up “Visual imagery and what it takes to Koshland. as a kind of window dressing, a jewel in understand it,” argues Williams, “is at the The prospect of an integrated arts center the crown,” says Cacioppo. “It’s fine for heart of the liberal arts enterprise.” at Haverford, however, raises one of many the arts to shine and bring attention to the Despite the fact that starting an art col-

16 Haverford Magazine lection and art museum from scratch might lection or facility,” says Benston, “when we wider curriculum as the most important seem a daunting and impossibly expensive can build a site where more edgy, cutting- advancement the College could make. undertaking, Jill Sherman doesn’t think edge art can be seen and take more risks.” “I always felt the arts at Haverford were Haverford should rule it out as it contem- Nathan Suter ’95, a photographer and on the periphery,” says Tully. “People tend plates what might be. art teacher at East Side College Prep in East to get the feeling that to do fine arts at the “We have a number of alumni who have Palo Alto, Calif., agrees. College you need to be a fine arts major. significant art collections and art works,” “Haverford can do more daring con- There are a lot of links between the arts she says. “I’ve been asked about giving gifts temporary things than the Philadelphia and the other disciplines that would make of art to the College, but right now we Museum of Art,” advises Suter. And hav- it so you could draw in people who don’t don’t have facilities to house and display ing completed his MFA degree at the San think of themselves as creative.” art.” Francisco Art Institute last year, Suter If the College can offer a Chemistry of Sherman notes that Ursinus College only counsels that any new arts facilities at Food course, suggests Tully, then why not opened its Berman Museum of Art a decade Haverford should not be based on the tra- a Chemistry of Art course? Then, too, ago with a gift of the largest private collec- Haverford’s extensive photography collec- tion of works by British sculptor Lynn tion has historical, social, and spiritual Chadwick, 40 pieces of which are displayed “I think it would diversify dimensions that may not be appreciated, around its Collegeville, Pa., campus. not to mention the technology and science “I envision the same kind of thing hap- our student body if we that goes into photographic reproduction. pening here,” Sherman says. “I really do.” could attract more art Lindsay Turk ’02, who just completed The possibilities are exciting and open- a one-year internship at the Williamstown ended. Performance space? Studio space? students, the fine arts (Mass.), Art Conservation Center, says she Exhibition space? A museum? An art col- building is isolated from fell in love with the culture and campus of lection? And what should the focus of art Haverford at first sight and decided to at Haverford be? the rest of the campus attend despite misgivings about the fine Board vice chair Cathy Koshland ’72 and the gallery isn’t in arts program. Though art had been central believes “there is no question that a state- to her high school experience, she decided of-the-art theatre is really needed. Roberts the central place for to major in chemistry at Haverford. is woefully inadequate, really amateurish “I think it would diversify our student and many high schools have better the- students.” body if we could attract more art students,” aters—even public high schools. Studio —Lindsay Turk ’02 says Turk. “The fine arts building is isolat- space is less pressing for fine arts because ed from the rest of the campus and the we have the Marshall Fine Arts Center.” gallery isn’t in the central place for students.” In terms of Haverford becoming a col- ditional paradigms of painting, sculpture, William Wixom ’51, curator emeritus lecting institution, Koshland says, “My photography, and printmaking. The cut- and former chairman of the Department own experience in my first two years of ting edge is multimedia. of Medieval Art and The Cloisters at the college at Smith is that having a collection “The way art is going now, you need to Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, that is integrated with the teaching pro- build a facility that is multi-use and flexi- sees connecting the College with other cul- gram is an unbelievable asset. It’s not clear ble,” says Suter. “A new facility needs to tural institutions as the best way to advance that Haverford will ever develop the depth have project rooms, digital facilities, and the arts at Haverford. of the collection at Smith, but there are video editing spaces. Why would “I would like to see more interaction things to think about.” Haverford think it was moving forward by between faculty and students going out to One of those things, suggests Koshland, replicating tradition? We need to be as pio- existing art institutions,” says Wixom, is what the focus of a Haverford art col- neering in the arts as we are in astrophysics whose own distinguished curatorial career lection might be. or biochemistry.” began with a connection he made with the “A lot of hot stuff is occurring at the inter- Barnes Foundation in Merion while a stu- section of computer technology, perform- Make connections? dent at Haverford. ance art and graphics,” she says, “so think- If there is a consensus of opinion at this “The purpose of the humanities and the ing about where we really want to go will early stage in the thinking about the future arts at Haverford should be to encourage take some homework and exploration about of the arts at Haverford, however, it is that perception and thinking and sensitivity to pushing boundaries versus staying in a more the arts need to be better integrated into music and the arts,” says Wixom. “That’s classical and still quite viable tradition.” the wider intellectual mission of the how you would measure success in the English professor Kim Benston, direc- College—physically, philosophically, and future. Building some mammoth building tor of the Humanities Center, believes the pedagogically. with fieldstone isn’t necessarily going to College should focus on what’s happening Ellen “E.D.” Tully ’93, an object con- help that.” now with contemporary art. servator at the Smithsonian Institution’s “I would agree with William Wixom,” “I really feel our comparative advantage Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington, says Thomas Roby ’79, an architectural and need is not to build a conventional col- D.C., sees integrating the arts with the conservator with the Getty Conservation

Summer 2003 17 The Arts at Haverford

Institute in Los Angeles. “I think Haverford building is the sad stepchild on campus of how involved Haverford has been with could do a lot to expand its contacts with and the music spaces are unusually dire. the arts,” says Desiderio. “As a Quaker already-existing arts institutions. A lot They are not good places to work.” institution it has been suspicious of the could be done to improve without building “The programs are good, but they are graven image.” a new facility.” limited because there are too few voices of While there are a variety of elite small “Philadelphia has some of the best artists,” says Nathan Suter ’95. “Haverford liberal arts colleges that have made sub- museums in the world,” echoes Stephen needs an aggressive visiting artists program.” stantial investments in arts facilities, among Shapiro ’60, an art and antiques dealer in Suter, who has already said he would them Amherst, Williams, Skidmore, Smith, Short Hills, N.J. “The last thing Haverford like to see Haverford focus on new art Bard, and Colby, Desiderio is also skepti- needs to do is build a museum. I’d rather forms, argues that, whatever aesthetic cal of the wisdom of looking to other insti- not see another building. I’d rather see course the College embraces, it must do tutions for inspiration or precedents. money spent on programs and making so in a rigorous and focused manner. “The arts are involved on the cutting connections.” “We can only do a few things well, so edge of thinking. They are not restricted what are they going to be?” he asks. “If by social concerns, so they are able to think Expand faculty? you’re a school of Haverford’s type, if you’re in more fluid ways than those construct- Arts grads and faculty alike tend to going to do fine arts you need to be as ed by other rational disciplines,” insists agree that the strength of Haverford’s pres- excellent at it as you are at other small Desiderio. “Any program for the better- ent arts programs is the people who teach departments.” ment of the arts at Haverford would have and make art. They also agree that there to find an agenda on the brink of what’s are simply too few of them. For instance, Raise consciousness? happening in the arts, not what happened music professor Curt Cacioppo points out Ultimately, to achieve excellence in the yesterday at Yale or Cal Art. College is that Haverford has only three tenure-track arts may well entail a major investment in where you have the freedom to do that, music faculty serving a combined new faculty and facilities, but the subtext but it would take a real change of attitude.” Haverford-Bryn Mawr student body of of most conversations about the role of What that consciousness-raising change 2,500. When he compared that to peer the arts at Haverford is the desire to have of attitude would involve is a recognition institutions, he found “Our ratio was by both the visual and performing arts that what transpires in an art studio is a far the least favorable. On the other hand, assume a more prominent place in the pursuit of knowledge every bit as rigorous it’s amazing what we can do.” consciousness and culture of the College and meaningful as what transpires in a sci- Likewise, Willie Williams says that four as a whole. ence lab. fine arts faculty positions, only three of As Provost David Dawson observes, “There is no question in my mind,” says which are tenure-track, are not sufficient “We have a persuasive and compelling Cathy Koshland, “that the study of the arts to allow art teachers to well serve both stu- approach already in place. What we need is an essential part of the education of any dio art majors and students who take art is increased support for it and integration.” liberal arts student. To understand and courses as electives. “One of the things that will have to appreciate the arts is as important as being “Faculty is the most important thing, change,” says Willie Williams, “is that the able to critically evaluate literature or intel- because there are so few teachers to begin centrality of the arts as a function of what ligently decipher writings in science or pol- with,” agrees Jacob Weinstein ’01, a cartoonist the College does would have to have more itics. I think we neglect aesthetics at our and art director with The Philadelphia awareness.” peril. If we undervalue design, beauty, Independent. “I don’t think the money part of “Whatever else we share,” says expression beyond the mundane, we it is going to make a better art department. Humanities Center director Kim Benston, undervalue ourselves.” The facilities were fine for me.” “we share an interest in having creative Haverford President Tom Tritton, him- “In my mind what Haverford does and dynamic students at Haverford. I have self a scientist, agrees. exceptionally well is create an environment found more creativity among the students “The arts are central to the human expe- where you have a lot of interaction with in theater, music, and the visual arts than rience,” says Tritton, “so they should be teachers,” says Kevin Mulhearn ’97, a his- the College should expect.” central to a college education,” tory major now pursuing a Ph.D. in art his- Vincent Desiderio ’77, a figurative real- And that is why the next major cam- tory at City College of New York. But ist painter represented by Marlborough paign Haverford undertakes will seek to Mulhearn, who has worked at the Brooklyn Gallery, is one of the most successful work- elevate the arts to their rightful place in Museum of Art and the Metropolitan ing artists Haverford has produced. intellectual life of the College, providing Museum of Art, also supports improving Desiderio’s work was featured in the sum- what Kim Benston calls “a more attentive the College’s arts facilities. mer of 2002 in an exhibition at the gaze on the arts at Haverford.” “A legitimate museum space is not the College’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, but the best use of the resources out there,” says artist believes there is some historic bag- Edgar Allen Beem is a freelance writer and Mulhearn. “Willie Williams’ idea of a build- gage the College needs to jettison before art critic in Yarmouth, Maine. He is the ing that would incorporate an art library, the arts at Haverford become truly ascen- author of Maine Art Now and a contributor better exhibition space, and better studio dant. to Photo District News, ARTnews, Boston space is what I would do. The visual arts “I’ve always been incredibly skeptical Globe Magazine, Down East, and Yankee.

18 Haverford Magazine Haverford

Stephen Fisher ’62’s collection of Japanese cloisonné enamels from the Golden Age (1880 -1920) is impressive in its beauty, scope, and technological virtuosity.

by Brenna McBride Photography by Robert Visser Cloisonné Connoisseur The objects catch your eye as soon as you walk into the living room of his Baltimore townhouse. Some line open shelves and catch the full gleam of sunlight pouring through windows. Others appear behind glass and glow beneath cabinets’ soft lighting. Some are midnight blue or mirror black, others gray, aubergine, and sea green. A few depict delicate birds perched on tree branches; others limn quiet houses in an idyllic Japanese countryside; some are decorated with floral bursts of color or etch a single tendril bending in the wind. The pieces are vases, jars, plates, incense burners, trays, and boxes. Each reflects an indi- vidual splendor that invites a second look, then a third, and eventually calls for a lengthy gaze of inspection and admiration. At nearly 300 pieces, Stephen Fisher’s collection of Japanese cloisonné is one of the largest and most important in the world. The painstaking process of man- ufacture entails separating different colored glass pastes using thin wires of brass, silver or gold ribbon (cloisons), attaching them to a metal base, and firing the work multiple times in intense heat until the enamels melt and fuse. Japanese cloi- sonné enjoyed a short-lived and rare popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Because of their complexity, lost records, and the demise of great masters, it is virtually impossible today to create the high-gloss treasures includ- ed in Fisher’s collection, which underscores their unique stature. What began as a hobby has evolved into a passion for Fisher, who has immersed himself in all aspects of cloisonné techniques, style, workshops, companion wares like porcelain and metalwork, and related history.

Above: Stephen Fisher ’62 with Dominion of Worth painting by Brian Taylor, 1990. Left: Cloisonné vase (9 1/2"h) with peacock feathers by Kawade Shibataro, circa 1904.

Summer 2003 19 ALL PHOTOS © 2003 ROBERT VISSER ALL PHOTOS © 2003 ROBERT Cloisonné Connoisseur

The rise of cloisonné can be indirectly began to decline: “When it became avail- six on. He was introduced to Europe in traced back to 1854, when Commodore able to the masses, you could buy teacups high school as an American Field Service Perry arrived in Japan and forced the coun- and ashtrays for 25 cents at department exchange student to Belgium and later, as try, for the first time in more than 200 stores in the United States. Fewer artists a history major at Haverford, he became years, to open its doors to Western trade. found it beneficial to create great pieces fascinated with Japanese culture through “This inevitably led to the decline of the because demand for commercial items sup- his first-year Japanese roommate and a feudal system, and the restoration of the planted the market for masterworks.” course he took with then-president Hugh Meiji Emperor in 1868,” explains Fisher. Tensions between Japan and the U.S. prior Borton on modern Japan. After graduation, In the 1870s, Meiji and his followers to World War II eventually contributed to Fisher went to Vienna on a Fulbright fel- sought to modernize Japan, and the “Japan began marketing lowship, where he studied the Jugendstil Golden Age of Japanese ceramics, enam- art movement (known as Art Nouveau in els, metal work, and lacquer dawned, as traditional wares to the West) before it reached its later fame. artists, technicians, and scientists from reach a wider audience. At the beginning of his nearly 30-year Europe were enticed by the Japanese gov- career as a public school teacher, counselor, ernment to help update traditional art Most of the works from administrator, and principal in Baltimore, forms, allowing Japan to enter the mod- he was in the midst of furnishing a town- ern age by competing economically with 1876-1911 were made house and frequented flea markets and its Western counterparts. The artists cre- largely for Western clients.” house sales. He came across a Chinese ated works of highest quality for World’s toothpick holder and bought his first piece Fairs, beginning with the Philadelphia of cloisonné for five dollars. “That started World’s Fair in 1876 and continuing with the madness,” he laughs. He habituated a range of international exhibitions: Paris antiques shops on weekends and went in 1878, 1889, and 1900, Chicago in 1893, on to purchase 40 pieces of cloison- St. Louis in 1904, San Francisco in 1915, né in his first stage of collecting. and back to Philadelphia for the 1926 Fisher credits his longtime part- sesquicentennial, the last time important ner, Kenneth Willaman, a cellist cloisonné was shown on a global level with the Baltimore Symphony (until very recently). A number of Orchestra who died of cancer in 2000, prominent families, impressed with the with helping him refine his tastes and extraordinary refinement of the signed approach collecting with a more critical works, purchased cloisonné at those eye. Twenty-five years ago when Willaman fairs and also when they traveled to was playing with the BSO at Carnegie Hall, Japan. he phoned Fisher and told him about a “Japan began marketing traditional gallery on Madison Avenue dealing in rar- wares to reach a wider audience,” says ified and expensive cloisonné. The visit fol- Fisher. “Most of the works from 1876-1911 lowing that call caused a sea change in were made largely for Western clients.” diminished quality and production; it Fisher’s collecting habits: “I was ready to Demand for the art increased internation- became more difficult for artists to get sup- mortgage my house for several items.” He ally, and artists scrambled to plies because the Japanese government bought four pieces, put his other 40 up for meet the requests. “At its needed copper and other materials auction, and started to collect all over again. peak between 1905 and for its increasing military machinery. From then on, he tried only to acquire 1920, there was a village Postwar, Japanese artistic endeav- exceptional pieces of cloisonné. With a outside of Nagoya ors were slow to be revived, and growing reputation as a collector of the called Toshima where cloisonné-making suffered in finest available pieces, he traveled to New cloisonné became a such an environment. York, San Francisco, Miami, Germany, cottage industry,” says In the 1950s, Fisher was Switzerland, London, and Paris: “I left no Fisher. “Almost every growing up as an art enthusiast door unopened.” He became acquainted house manufactured in New York City, where the with other collectors of Asian art, and if he cloisonné for commer- Metropolitan Museum of Art was noticed among their treasures a piece he cial use.” Unfortunately, a stone’s throw from his house, wanted, he was prepared to wait as long as however, as the popular- and his mother, an amateur artist it took for the owner to sell. Several of his ity of cloisonné grew, and mentor, arranged for private art acquisitions he obtained after a 25-year wait. standards and quality lessons for her son from the age of “I set my artistic goals a long time ago,”

All-gold wire moriage (raised enamels) and wireless cloisonné fish vase (12"h) by Ando Jubei. The vase, made in 1912, is double-signed in gold underfoot. Detail above.

20 Haverford Magazine says Fisher. “When I became accustomed often used wires for wet-packing the enam- had admired at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. to finding great pieces, I didn’t want to el and then removed them prior to firing,” In this style, semi-opaque and transparent regress simply to good ones.” says Fisher. The result of lines and openly enamels fill cells created by wires. In one One artist well-represented in the Fisher shaded areas created a muted, painterly such vase in Fisher’s collection, gold wires collection is Namikawa Yasuyuki, who effect, particularly represented in trays, form birds descending to waves hammered flourished from 1872 through 1922. plaques, and vases. up in silver repoussé. Another vase is total- Regarded as one of the great cloisonné ly transparent because the body used to cre- artists of all time, he helped usher in the ate the vase was later etched away with nitric Golden Age in the 1870s by working with “I set my artistic goals acid. German scientist and metallurgist Gottfried a long time ago. When The exotic school often gives a three- Wagener. Together, they developed mirror dimensional effect: in one piece, both the black and transparent red enamels. They I became accustomed stalks of flowers and the fireflies lighting also found ways to span larger spaces with- to finding great pieces, on them seem to leap from the surface. out the need for wires or cloisons to hold Namikawa Sosuke, Kawade Shibataro, enamel in place. Pre-Golden Age, cloison- I didn’t want to regress Hattori Tadesaburo, and Ando Jubei are né lustres were duller and matte-like, colors simply to good ones.” prominent in this school. were less luminous, and surfaces more Western works of art also adorn the porous; enamels were often held in place Fisher house, such as European and by the requirements of wires or cloisons. Fisher divides his cloisonné collection American paintings from the 18th through The Golden Age featured surfaces of high into three schools: conservative, transpar- the 21st centuries. But Asian art holds reflective character, intense hues, and the ent, and exotic. The conservative school sway: Aside from the cloisonné, Fisher use of both razor-thin and sculpted wires is characterized by extreme and often owns a number of Japanese Golden Age to resemble brushstrokes, as in obsessive attention to detail and wiring, and postwar ceramics, baskets, textiles, Japanese paintings. These, along especially in the “diaper patterns” (geo- and woodblock prints, as well as Chinese, with a series of varying techniques metric patterns usually seen in fabrics) Korean, and Vietnamese ceramics dating of signatures, helped to iden- used at the necks of vases, which were from the 10th century to the present. Asian tify the work of Namikawa often treated like the borders of Japanese art frequently plays a signature role in the Yasuyuki. scroll paintings and screens. rooms he creates for clients of his interior Namikawa Sosuke, Namikawa Yasuyuki is considered design firm. also a name associated the author and ultimate exponent Still, cloisonné remains the focal point with the best in cloi- of the conservative school. of Stephen Fisher’s house and heart. He sonné, was a member The transparent school, accord- does not sell from his collection, although of the Imperial house- ing to Fisher, grew out of an he has lent works for exhibition at galleries hold guild (as was the attempt to imitate Chinese mono- such as Baltimore’s Walters Art other Namikawa, no chrome porcelains. It was influ- Museum. And he’ll continue to relation). He developed enced also by the European art scour the world for pieces of the method of creating glass of Emile Gallé and Fernand the finest quality. As he’s wireless cloisonné: “He Thesmar, which Japanese artists demonstrated before, he’ll wait as long as it takes to find the perfect addition to this already awe-inspiring repository of cloi- sonné.

Above: Three cloisonné vases by Namikawa Yasuyuki, circa 1910. Right: Fisher holds a prized vase with fireflies by Hattori Tadesaburo.

Summer 2003 21 Haverford

For artist Peter Rockwell ’58, carving holes into stone is “one of the purest pleasures in the world.”

22 Haverford Magazine STONE Peter Rockwell ’58 considers himself lucky to have carved out a successful career in the arts. MAN by Pam Sheridan When Peter Rockwell enrolled at Haverford College in 1954, he had no interest in pursuing a career in the visual arts. In fact, he intentionally avoided the arts alto- gether because he says, they were too much “in the fam- ily.” In addition to his famous father, one of Peter’s broth- ers was studying to be a painter, and the other, a poet. Peter instead chose to major in English literature. “My father thought I was going to be the sensible member of the family—that I was going to get a degree in English literature and become an English professor,” recounts Rockwell. “And then, I suddenly announced that I was going to be the least sensible member of the family.” Rockwell’s change of heart came in his first year at Haverford when he suffered a near-fatal fencing acci- dent. Up to that point, he had “enjoyed not taking art,” but following his recuperation and realizing he would not fence again, he looked for another extracurricular activity to take its place. His mother had once encour- aged him to take a sculpture course, so he decided to try it again. After the third class meeting Rockwell says he “fell head-over-heels in love with it.” “The instructor, Wallace Kelly, “was one of the most inspiring teachers I’ve had in my life.” The 62-year-old artist, who had also taught at the Philadelphia Museum School and Haverford Friends School, was a noted sculptor, several of whose works are in the Philadelphia area—on the East River Drive and at the east and west entrances of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Kelly studied at the Grand Chaumiere, and later exhibited at the Salon D’Antomne, the largest show in Paris at that time. His sculpture was also displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Whitney, and the Museum of Modern Art. At the time Rockwell studied sculpture, there was no fine arts major at Haverford, only non-credit cours- es in the College’s “arts and services” program. With

Summer 2003 23 Stone Man

the help of Kelly and others, he convinced ling fellowship from the Academy, sculpture and art history at the Forum the College to give him credit for the Rockwell, his wife and their infant son, School and St. Stephen’s. Always, though, course as an independent study project. It Geoffrey, went to Italy, where the raw mate- his priority and passion were working with was the first time the College had awarded rials for stone carving were plentiful and stone. credit for an art course in 75 years. inexpensive. What began as a six-month Peter Rockwell was born in New Rockwell completed his English degree, visit turned into a permanent residence. Rochelle, N.Y., the youngest of three boys. but realized that sculpture would be his “One thing or another happened,”says Unlike Peter, his father had always wanted life’s work. He loved the physical and men- to be an artist, and enrolled when he was tal demands of stone carving, and although “I associate monsters 14 in the New York School of Art. Eight he was never able to draw well, he quick- with playfulness. I’ve been years later he painted his first cover for The ly discovered that he could think “three- Saturday Evening Post. dimensionally.” told I am incapable of In 1939, the Rockwell family moved to Following his graduation from Arlington,Vt., where they lived for bulk of Haverford in 1958, he enrolled in the creating a frightening Peter’s childhood. The year before Peter Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts monster. I take that as entered Haverford, his family moved to and became completely immersed in the Stockbridge, Mass., which today is the world of art. “Art education at the a compliment.” home of the Norman Rockwell Museum. Academy was very different from a uni- Many of the paintings held there include versity education,” says Rockwell. “There Rockwell, “and we just never finished our one or more images of Peter, who modeled were no classes or grades. The studios were six months in Italy.” for many of his father’s Saturday Evening open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and when Peter and his wife, Cinny, raised their Post covers until about the age of 16 when, first-year students were brought together, daughter and three sons in Rome. The old- as he puts it, he ceased to be cute. the head of the school said, ‘ We have all est, Geoffrey, graduated from Haverford in While he has lived in Rome for more these facilities for you. If you want to work, 1982 and currently is an associate profes- than 40 years, most of Peter Rockwell’s work. If you don’t, stay out of the way of sor and director of the Humanities work has been shown in the U.S., where those who do.’ Computing Center, a teaching and research he has received the majority of his com- “The whole point of the program was facility at McMaster University in Ontario. missions. As a result, he has returned to to discipline yourself,” says Rockwell, “and To support his growing family, Rockwell the U.S. a number of times and has had I loved it.” at various times supplemented his income solo shows here frequently since 1968. His In 1961, with the support of a travel- with stints as a tour guide and teacher of work has been exhibited at several galleries

During his semester-long visit to Haverford in 1990, sculptor Peter Rockwell ’58 transformed a 10,000-pound block of Indiana limestone into a six-foot sculpture of monster faces and gargoyle figures that children could climb (see opposite).

24 Haverford Magazine including the Batholet in New York, Shore American Church in Rome. He has also from a copy that you’d made in another Galleries in Boston, Newman Galleries in done portraits of his father, sculpting a material.” As Rockwell was to find in his Philadelphia, and the Mickelson Gallery series of bronze busts, ranging from later research of archaic Greek sculptors, in Washington. His sculptures are in the abstract to realistic impressions of the cel- “direct carving,” wasn’t just a modern collections of the National Portrait Gallery, ebrated illustrator, which he titled Privately invention, but a technique that had been the Bridgeport Museum of American Art Cutting Up Dad. used in the past. Through his research in Bridgeport, Conn., and in the Norman Rockwell is one of a few artists today Rockwell came to realize that very little Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., who creates his sculptures by a technique had been written about the history of stone which has the largest single collection of known as “direct carving.” From the out- carving generally, and this piqued his inter- his sculptures. set, partly influenced by Wallace Kelly, est. Today, he lectures and writes exten- Many of Rockwell’s bronzes reflect his who, himself, was a direct carver, Rockwell sively on the subject and is considered a early fascination with the circus and acro- felt very strongly that it was the way to leading expert on the history of stone carv- batics, animals in motion, and with the make sculpture. ing. His reference guide for specialists and work of 19th-century English photogra- “The instructors in art school taught us non-specialists, titled The Art of Stoneworking pher Edward Muybridge. His sculpture in to make a statue in clay, cast it in plaster, (Cambridge University Press, 1993), is Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, called and by means of a measuring technique, considered one of the most important Family at Play, depicts children and adults copy the figure in marble,” he explains. books in the field. holding hands, dancing in a circle. “Wallace Kelly was part of a group of most- Rockwell also continues to do a great Since the early 1970s, when he was ly American and English carvers in the ’20s deal of consulting on historical stone carv- commissioned to design gargoyles for the and ’30s who believed that while you might ing techniques for various Italian state and National Cathedral in Washington, do drawings initially, you should carve city agencies and restoration firms, in par- Rockwell has also been intrigued by stone your stone directly rather than carving ticular for the Italian Superintendency of carvings of monsters and gro- Monuments, the National Museum tesques. Monsters were the sub- in Washington, D.C., the Getty, ject of one of his larger sculptures, and the Metropolitan in New The Climbing Stone,”which was York. Some of the restoration permanently installed on Haver- projects for which he’s con- ford’s campus in the spring of sulted include the carved 1990 alongside Magill Library. reliefs of the Orvieto Rockwell created the sculpture Cathedral, a Romanesque- as a gift to the College in memo- Gothic structure construct- ry of his teacher and friend ed between the 1200s and Wallace Kelly. 1500; the centuries-old Porta During his four-month cam- del Popolo in Rome; Trajan’s pus residency then, Rockwell with Column, a 125-foot monument the help of student apprentices surrounded by 2,500 sculpted carved over 30 monstrous faces figures; the Temple of and figures out of a six-foot, Vespasian in the Roman 10,000-pound block of Indiana Forum; and Bernini’s angels limestone to create a playful on the Ponte Sant Angelo, work of art that children could one of Rome’s oldest bridges. crawl through and climb. Over the years, Rockwell’s In an interview with The New consulting work has also taken York Times days before the sculp- him outside of Italy to other ture’s installation, Rockwell historically significant sculp- explained his choice of subject tures and archeological sites in for the climbing stone.”I associ- India, Pakistan, and Turkey ate monsters with playfulness,” where he examines the sur- he said.”I’ve been told I am faces of carvings for clues as incapable of creating a frighten- to how the pieces were made. ing monster. I take that as a com- “Carving tools haven’t pliment.” changed much in the last His sculpted monsters or acro- 6,000 years, but the way they bats can also be found in were used has” explains Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River Rockwell. “Often you can tell Park, at a children’s hospital in the date of a particular struc- Louisville, Ky., and at St. Paul’s ture or work by analyzing the

Summer 2003 25 Stone Man

busy. Currently, he’s completing a 10-foot- high bronze of the tree of life for Boston College. The monument to the Jesuit martyrs in El Salvador will be installed an open terraced area in front of the school’s main library . He’s also working on a number of small pieces for a show at Temple University’s facility in Rome; he is writing an article about the carving techniques used to make cer- tain kinds of Buddhist rock-cut carvings in northwest Pakistan, and toward the end of the summer, he is taking part in a stoneworking show. The week-long show is hosted every year in a small town which has a tradition of stonemaking. “Half of the stores empty out and display stone carvings,” says Rockwell. “ Stone Children among “play sculptures” in Plymouth, Michigan’s Township Park created on site carvers from all over Italy come. It’s won- in 1986 by Rockwell and one of his former students. Below: Peter’s father was one of the derful.” Collection speakers during his son’s time at Haverford. Today, Peter Rockwell, by all measures, considers himself very lucky, in part, marks of the carving tools. From the great cotta masks for the façade—a total of 108 because he found something he loves to many unfinished stone carvings that exist, pieces of sculpture. do and has made a successful career from you can identify different periods by the “Being part of a project of that kind and it. “When I think back on it…it was the way carvers used their tools then.” therefore, learning how a Roman sculptor or combination of just sheer good fortune and One of Rockwell’s current projects medieval or Renaissance carver had to func- a brilliant and wonderful person that made involves the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Begun tion in the context of a building project, was me aware of stone carving,” says Rockwell. around 1172, the Tower was completed in very exciting,” says Rockwell. “I worked with “I’m still amazed at how lucky I was to the 1300s, but, Rockwell notes, even before a number of different people and had to fit meet Wallace Kelly. the construction was finished, pieces of into their different rhythms and schedules stone had to be replaced. “They were and still be creative.” In the end, he carved Pam Sheridan is director of public informa- replacing capitals, the uppermost section over a third of the capitals atop the cloister’s tion at Haverford. She last wrote for the mag- of columns, as late as 1930,” he says. columns after they had gone up. azine about Keith Schneider ’78 and the Having the ability to date past damage At age 66, Rockwell continues to be Michigan Land Use Institute. and restoration of structures like the Tower, is very important in Italian restora- tion today. “This hadn’t been done in the past,” explains Rockwell, “so it’s now become an important part of restoration— to know if you’re looking at something whose damage occurred in 1500 or 40 years ago.” Rockwell’s consulting work has led to a number of commissions with the Catholic Church, the largest involving a building project commemorating the church’s jubilee which is celebrated every 25 years. Working in collaboration with architects and builders, Rockwell was asked to create all the capitals and decorations of a cloister constructed for the Chioggia Diocesan museum near Venice. When the project was completed in 2000, he had carved 42 capitals, a door- way, 38 grotesques and a series of terra-

26 Haverford Magazine Peter Rockwell, Sculptor

SOLO EXHIBITIONS* TEACHING, LECTURING, CONSULTATION

2001 al Ferro di Cavallo Gallery, Rome, Italy 1999 Rhode Island School of Design, Rome Campus, 1998 St. Stephen’s School, Rome, Italy “The Carving and Quarrying Technology of Easter Island,” Lecture. 1997 TriArt Gallery, Louisville, Ky. 1999 Scuola Normale Superiori di Pisa, Corso di Masters in Beni 1997 St. Paul’s American Church, Rome, Italy Culturali, “Technologie della Lavorazione della Pietra,” 1996 Churches of S. Pieretto and S. Martino, Chioggia, Italy Lectures. GROUP EXHIBITIONS (since 1990) 1998 University of Venice, School of Architecture, “Technologie della Lavorazione della Pietra,” Lecture. 2003 Fiera della Lavorazione della Pietra, Strada in Casentino, 1998 Provincia Autonoma di Trento, Corso sulla Conservazione Italy della Pietra, “Technologie della Lavorazione della Pietra,” 2002 Fiera della Lavorazione della Pietra, Strada in Casentino, Lectures. Italy 1997 Center for the Advanced Study of the Visual Arts, National 2000 Sette Artisti nel Casentino, Poppi, Italy Gallery, Washington DC. “Marble Carving Techniques from Michelangelo to Bernini,” Lecture. PUBLIC COMMISSIONS AND COLLECTIONS 1997 Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Marble Carving Techniques (total career) from Michelangelo to Bernini,” Lecture. Bridgeport Museum of American Art, Bridgeport, Conn. 1997 Wellesley College, “The Carving Techniques of the Casa Spirituale “Il Covolo,” Crespano del Grappa, Vicenza, Italy, 1997 Column of Trajan,” Lecture. Cathedral of the Pines, Rindge, N.H. 1996 Smith College, “The Carving Techniques of the Column of Trajan,” Lecture. Sarcophagus of Padre Raimondo Calcagno, Chiesa dei Filipini, Chioggia, Venice, Italy, 1994. 1994 IsMeo excavations in Swat Valley, Pakistan, consultant on quarrying technology. Holy water font, Christ Church, Tacoma, Wash., 1990 1992 University of London, King’s College, Piazza Sculpture, Comune di Meolo, Venice, Italy, 1997 Aphrodisias Colloquium IV. Lecture. War Memorial, Comune di Ortignano Raggiolo, Tuscany, Italy, 1995 1990-92 Adjunct Professor of Sculpture, Tyler School of Fine Art, Capitals, Gargoyles, Grotesques, Portale and decorative terracotta Rome Campus. masks for the Diocesan Museum, Chioggia (Venice), Italy, 1999-2000. 1980-99 Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Rome. Lecturer on stone Haverford College, Haverford, Pa., 1990 technology. 1980-98 ICCROM, Rome, Italy National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. Consultant to various Italian state and city agencies and restoration Grendel’s Folly, The Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, firms on historical stone-carving techniques. Projects outside of Stockbridge, Mass., 1994 Rome have included the façade of Orvieto Cathedral, the Bapistry Norton Childrens’ Hospital, Louisville, Ky. of Parma, San Nicola of Bari; and in Rome: the Column of Trajan, the Porta del Popolo, the Ponte Sant’Angelo, the Trevi Fountain, the Plymouth Township Park, Plymouth, Mich., 1986 Ara Pacis and the Villa Medici. 1981-91 Excavations at Aphrodisias, Sailer’s Grove, Fairmont Park, Philadelphia, Pa., 1978 Turkey. Consultant on ancient stone-carving techniques. 1977-99 Schuylkill River Park, Philadelphia, Pa., 1980. UNESCO/ICCROM International Course on Stone Conservation Eight Sculptures for the garden of St. Paul’s American Church, Rome, Technology. Lecturer on stone technology. 1974-98 ICCROM Italy, 1997. (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, Rome.) Lecturer on stone Washington Cathedral, Washington, D.C., 1994. technology. Monument for the Anglican House of Peace, Bethlehem, Palestine (was to be inaugurated in December 2000). *Since spring 1990 when Rockwell was a visiting professor of sculpture at Haverford.

Summer 2003 27 Haverford

VINCENT DESIDERIO ’77: CONTEMPORARY REALISM, HISTORICAL BREADTH by Brendan Wattenberg ’06

The Progress of Self Love (1990), oil on canvas, 3 panels overall: 111 1/2” x 341 3/4”. Copyright Vincent Desiderio, courtesy of Marlborough Gallery, New York, and the artist.

The last chapter in Donald Kuspit’s The a major in fine arts, while also taking cours- Returning to the United States, Vincent Rebirth of Painting in the Late Twentieth es in philosophy, literature, and religion. “I entered the Pennsylvania Academy of the Century, a volume of critical profiles includ- am grateful for my experience at Haverford,” Fine Arts. It was a significant four years in ing selections on Jasper Johns, Jackson Vincent says. “A liberal arts education was which his talents were cultivated and pol- Pollock, and Picasso, is about Vincent the best preparation for being an artist.” It Desiderio ’77. Titled “Vincent Desiderio: was not the fine arts experience that would “Virtually every one of his Postmodern Visionary Painting,” the piece have the most valuable influence on Vincent, begins with a detailing of three similar paint- but his intense study of art history at Bryn paintings shows, some- ings where art books are spread across the Mawr. “Overall [art history] had a profound where in it—somewhere floor, open pages revealing great works. Such effect on my ability to think critically, which a backdrop is appropriate for an artist who became increasingly important as I advanced quite centrally—an uneasy was and continues to be passionate about as an artist.” For Vincent, such knowledge history and precedence. became applicable to his own style as he truce or standoff between His was a career begun at age six. “The worked on expressing but not repeating uni- the experience of art and energy was there from when I was a little kid,” versal themes. Vincent says, remembering his earliest paint- Vincent was a challenge to the fine arts the experience of life.” ings. By 12, he was copying Renaissance mas- faculty at Haverford, and his senior thesis terpieces. Throughout high school, he inde- project, highlighted by paintings, assem- ished. With a certificate in hand, Vincent pendently explored mediums in oils and blages, and installations, did not culminate came to New York and found P.S. 1 in acrylics, carved marble, plaster, wood, and with acclaim. “I was learning how to paint Queens, a veritable paradise for the art clay. Even though his talent was sparked in in a way that was believable,” he says of his community. Spending two years at P.S. 1’s youth, Vincent believes that unlike mathe- work that followed a tide of redefinition and studio program, Vincent encountered a matic prodigies, visual artists acquire great- deconstruction in the modern art world. plethora of creativity and ideas, meeting ness with age and maturity and thus he has Refusing to back down, Vincent took off with prominent artists from the world over. “It continued to blossom. vigor to Florence after graduation from was a terrific place for exposure.” Leaving Coming to Haverford from Media, Pa., Haverford and studied at the Accademia di P.S. 1 after two years formed a solid trajec- Vincent set himself on a course in pursuit of Belle Arti for one year. tory for Vincent as he gained his own sense

28 Haverford Magazine Cockaigne (2003), 114” x 156”, oil on canvas. Copyright Vincent Desiderio, courtesy of Marlborough Gallery, New York, and the artist. of artistic identity. sumably Samuel, lies uncomfortably in bed, narratives, sometimes allegorical, sometimes Throughout the 1980s Vincent began respirator tubes connecting at his neck. Books intriguing and engaging as if they were showing at galleries in New York; his first are strewn on the floor near a fire extin- ripped from page 38 of a pictorial novel. show was at the Lawrence-Oliver Gallery in guisher and a cup of coffee, and in the next “Virtually every one of his paintings shows, 1986. Today he teaches at his second alma room light filters from a window arriving as somewhere in it—somewhere quite cen- mater, the Pennsylvania Academy for the layered shadows upon the boy. Such is the trally—an uneasy truce or standoff between Fine Arts, where he has been since 1990. premise for many of Vincent’s evocative the experience of art and the experience of Working also at the New York Academy for images. life.” the Fine Arts and living in Westchester, he Most often referred to as realist or post- Appearing on the walls of the lectures often at numerous art schools. In modern “history” paintings, his work is at Guggenheim Bilbao, the Denver Museum of addition to two National Endowment for the once intimately photographic in detail and Contemporary Art, the Walker Art Center, Arts grants, Vincent became the first luminous with sensitively painted colors. the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and American to win the International Prize of The scenes are raw, gathering many seasons Haverford’s own Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Contemporary Art in 1996, awarded by the of feeling. “Desiderio is not just a painter” among many others. Vincent’s work is now Prince Pierre Foundation of the Principality Kuspit writes, but “a poet-painter—a painter universally renowned. In January 2004, he of Monaco. who is able to condense into a single hallu- will be showing a series of new large paint- Family has a continual influence and takes cinatory work a contradictory variety of ings at the Marlborough Gallery in New York. many forms in Vincent’s work. In a classic emotions and ideas, in a way that makes it Currently he is hoping for a piece to be dis- Haverford fashion, Vincent married a woman clear that painting has a unique power of played in his hometown venue at the from Bryn Mawr, Gail Organist ’78. Together subliminal, imaginative communication.” Philadelphia Museum of Art. the couple has four children and the Many of Vincent’s paintings are triptychs, Vincent Desiderio has been setting his youngest, eighteen month-old Lilly, was multiple splices of a moment played out in own precedence as a contemporary artist and adopted from China. Ian and Oscar are the three differing venues. Figures are often inspiring professor. With his paintings con- boys in the middle, and Samuel, at 16, is the lying in the most human of positions—a tinuing to appear in the world’s most cele- oldest. It is Samuel, a boy with multiple hand- father sleeping on his side, a man squatting brated museums and galleries, Vincent has icaps, who remains a frequented subject of before a window, a woman propping her assured himself a splendid niche in the his- Vincent. In Elegy, a 1995 painting, a boy, pre- head up with her hand. The paintings are tory of art.

Summer 2003 29 Haverford

Tim Loose '68's painstaking work with long exposure times enables him to capture Nature nature in dramatic fashion. Turned Loose

30 Haverford Magazine Left: Coast: Lakie’s Head, Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia, Canada, July 2000. Above: Stream: Budd Creek, Yosemite National Park, California, June 1998

Summer 2003 31 "I've found that water and its flow are reason enough to make an exposure," he says. "The flow of water over rocks or down rapids creates patterns that are evident but not clear until the light from the repetition of that pattern exposes the film."

32 Haverford Magazine Loose uses platinum and palladium metals to form the image. He mixes his own chemicals and applies them by hand on paper. "This allows me to be more intimately involved with the final image," he explains.

Left: Waterfall: Black Brook Fall Detail, Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia, Canada, July 2001. Above: Oak and Redwoods, Old Coast Road, Big Sur, California, June 1998. Right: Aspens: Aspens Near Ashcroft, Colorado, August 1995.

Works by Loose were featured in the 2003 Alumni Art Show, featured in the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery from May 30 to September 21.

Summer 2003 33 Left: Baker works under Haverford the “supervision” of Maia and Jeremy. Below: Low- relief squared vase, 18”h, stoneware clay.

For potter Sara Baker ’87, art is a way of life. Carving Out a Life in Ceramics Unityville, in a corner of Lycoming County in pieces. After she throws the northeastern Pennsylvania, is a place where streams pieces on a wheel, she care- have names like Little Indian Run and Devil Hole fully carves the ridges before Run. This is where Sara Baker ’87 is pursuing a firing the piece in a kiln. lifelong dream: making a living as professional After glazing, the pieces are potter. As with most things that Baker does, fired again. Baker sells whole- her decision to live and work in Unityville sale to galleries. She also does was both deliberate and intentional. And retail shows. The pieces sell practical. She and her husband, Oren in the $100 to $165 range. Helbok (also a self-employed artist), Baker and Helbok have made a conscious decision and their two children are ensconced to live this independent life. Their children, Maia, 6, in this rural part of the world because and Jeremy, 3 1/2, attend a local Friends school. The it’s where they can afford to raise their two artists manage to work 25 to 30 hours each week, family and pursue their art. switching off childcare duties. “It’s cheap to live here, There also was serendipity in finding and we made a decision to be home with our kids,” this place in the country. Baker and Baker explains. “We really didn’t see the point in hav- Helbok saw an ad in Ceramics Monthly (the ing kids if someone else was going to raise them. There bible for potters), for a house and studio for are tradeoffs to pursuing an ideal. We are in a con- sale just when Baker was starting to look stant financial struggle—you have to sell a lot of $165 around for a new place. Touring the property pots to make a mortgage payment. with the owners, established potters David Stabley To address this issue, Baker has made changes to and Deb Fleck-Stabley, Baker and Helbok were her work, creating more larger, more elaborate pieces inspired by the possibilities—so inspired that they (requiring one to three hours of carving) and devel- overlooked details such as plumbing jerry-rigged oping a sophisticated new glazing process until she with a garden hose. In the end, inspiration won was convinced that her pieces’ aesthetic appeal had out and the domestic details were less wor- won out over function. The larger pieces command risome when the Stableys moved not far higher prices, in the range of $200 to $300 each. Part away and could be called upon for consul- of this process was driven by Baker’s desire to cut tation and advice, both with the eccentrici- back on wholesale and retail show travel to free up ties of the house and with the ins and outs of more time for Maia and Jeremy. The more elaborate producing, showing, and selling pottery. pieces, she has found, are in demand at juried shows. Helbok, a furniture maker, collaborates with Her functional pots, while providing Baker’s main one of the Stableys on some of his pieces. income stream, are rarely featured at these shows. The Stableys have since moved again, and “I am still learning and experimenting,” Baker again, another potter noticed the Ceramics wrote in the March 2003 issue of Ceramics Monthly, Monthly ad and moved into the growing circle “and I have a long way to go before the idea is of artists in Unityville. exhausted. If this work can sustain a reasonable stan- Baker’s signature pottery style is the unique dard of living (I don’t anticipate driving a Lexus, but wavy ridges she incorporates in all of her our children deserve choices when they reach col- lege age), my artistic aspirations will mesh with my Above: Low-relief platter, 17” diameter, financial needs, an ideal situation not yet achieved stoneware clay. Left: Low-relief storage jar, but desperately desired.” 15”h, stoneware clay. –S.H.

34 Haverford Magazine Haverford The Art of Redemption Paul Rosenberg saw what was com- scattered across the world, lost in a web ing when the Nazis swept across France. of dealers, auction houses, and galleries Ori Soltes ’71 explains how By the time his home city of Paris fell that neither asked about or likely want- under occupation, he had already secret- ed to know the tainted history of their the Holocaust shapes and ed away nearly 140 paintings from his dubiously acquired works. gallery and collection in a bank vault in Nearly 50 years later, the Seattle Art informs Jewish art—and his southern France and fled to the United Museum was contacted by a descendant States. Among the hidden paintings was of the timber magnate who had donat- restitution organization helps a work by one of Rosenberg’s favorite ed a Matisse to the museum. He had painters, the 1928 Henri Matisse piece seen the painting in a book on Jewish people trace and reclaim art- titled Odalisque. art stolen by the Nazis and wondered if Rosenberg was a formidable collec- it was the same piece. works stolen during WWII. tor and an early patron of painters like To find out, the museum turned to Ori Pablo Picasso and Matisse. But he was Soltes and his Washington-based by Steve Manning ’96 also a Jew and had underestimated the Holocaust Art Restitution Project, or scope of the systematic plunder of art HARP. Born out of his work with the B’nai the Nazis undertook during the war. A B’rith, Solte’s organization had been trac- tipster, possibly a bank employee under ing stolen works since 1997 as part of a pressure or someone trying to curry larger push by Holocaust survivors and favor with the new conquerors, revealed their kin to reclaim money and other pos- Rosenberg’s secret vault. Soon, the Nazis sessions purloined during the Nazi era. had taken much of his art and posses- Soltes pored through French and sions, as they had done to countless American archives from the late 1940s Jews across occupied Europe. and early 1950s, tracing the then- After the war, Rosenberg launched deceased Rosenberg’s correspondences an aggressive campaign to reclaim his with the Allied forces after the war as stolen collection. He found some, he tracked down his collection. He including several in the hands of a Swiss queried the gallery that sold the work dealer who had sold many paintings for to the timber magnate and found the the Nazis. In a likely dramatic con- painting had a hole in its provenance, frontation, Rosenberg walked into the about 10 years unaccounted for from dealer’s Zurich office and began pointing 1940 into the 1950s when it reappeared at paintings that used to hang in his in the Pacific Northwest. He presented Paris gallery. Through the courts, he got his evidence to the Seattle Art Museum, many pieces back. But others had been which then returned the Matisse the ALL PHOTOS © 2003 ROBERT VISSER ALL PHOTOS © 2003 ROBERT

Summer 2003 35 The Art of Redemption

Rosenberg’s heirs. son of the banker, Soltes is tracking down Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. He even took The museum had no legal obligation to a Degas. The man wants the painting back classes on midrash and the Talmud at Gratz return the painting. It had been legally mostly so that his son can have a physical College, a Jewish school in Philadelphia. bought by the donor and legally given to link to the great-grandfather who himself His dreams of professional basketball faded the museum. It is unclear whether the was stolen more than 50 years ago. after a season on Haverford’s junior varsi- gallery that sold it knew of its history and “Our interest is putting history back on ty, but he still managed to find time for probably never inquired even though evi- track. For 50 years no one worried about intramural basketball. dence pointed to theft, Soltes says. Perhaps this. That meant a large swatch of history “Haverford was a natural but exponen- fearing negative press from displaying a has been expunged or distorted,” Soltes tial expansion of my hunger to know work stolen by the Nazis, or struck by says. “If a family has been expunged, you everything,” he says. “I’d pore through the moral obligation, the Seattle Art Museum can’t do anything about that, but it would catalogue of courses with my tongue hang- chose to return it in 1999 to Rosenberg’s be nice to at least return that family’s con- ing out.” heirs without a legal fight. nection to a painting to its history.” After college, Soltes took a year off, Thousands of pieces of art were plun- Until he was in his late teens, Soltes working in New York as a building man- dered by the Germans during the war. This planned to become a rabbi, that is, if his ager before heading to Princeton for grad- insatiable desire for art fed the whimsy of dream of playing professional basketball uate work in classics. At Princeton, he regime leaders and art collectors like fell through. Judaism was a strong influ- found a system that valued rigid and dry Hermann Goering; the Nazis put forward ence in his family; his father was rabbi at a academic pursuit over intellectual curios- a myth that Germany was a defender of New York City Reform synagogue and later ity and passion for studying classics. He culture, albeit a narrowly and racially led a Long Island congregation. While the persisted, but had troubles with his thesis defined culture. Stolen art sold to dealers family held an important place in the advisors and eventually finished his doc- who chose to look the other way also Jewish community, as a rabbi’s son, Soltes torate at Johns Hopkins University. pumped cash into the German war felt pressure to act in a way that upheld his It was while he was working on his doc- machine. It wasn’t just paintings that were father’s image in the Jewish community. toral thesis that Soltes in effect returned to taken; furniture, sculpture, jewelry, and Unlike a doctor or professor’s kids, he felt his Jewish roots. He taught courses on anything the Nazis could steal was seized he had to behave like everyone thought Judaism in the classics even though he had from Jews before and as they were carted the rabbi’s boy should. no formal training in Jewish studies. To off to gas chambers. Soltes changed his plans when he went make up for that, he relied on his knowl- Some of those works were returned, but to Haverford in 1969. The academic rigor edge of the classics and “pushed it in a many were not. Most Jewish survivors of of Haverford appealed to him, and the Jewish direction.” the Holocaust were more concerned about advice of two alumni, Jim Katowitz ’59 and Soltes also discovered art history when rebuilding their shattered lives and families Joel Cook ’69, along with the desire to the sister of a former girlfriend called to than recovering their art. It wasn’t until the escape New York for a while, convinced ask if he would help translate French dec- late 1990s, when Holocaust victims sought him to enroll. orative arts material for the Metropolitan reparations and lost assets, that many Jews College fed the intellectual voracity and Museum of Art in New York. He found started seeking out their stolen works. drive to learn that had been with him since much of art history fit neatly into what he Often they rely on the Holocaust Art he was young. It also gave Soltes a different had already studied in classics. That led to Restitution Project to do the searching for perspective on his religion. Judaism was an offer to be the curator of the B’nai B’rith them. Many don’t know where to start, something that was passed to him by his Klutznick National Jewish Museum in Soltes says. Time and little documentation birth, but he realized he had never seen it Washington, a job he took in 1991 and often gives Holocaust survivors and their as an intellectual pursuit, only something held until 1998. During that time he boost- relatives little reference point on where to that he knew as a rabbi’s son. At Haverford, ed the museum’s fundraising, built up start. Often a claim to an artwork is a vague he decided he wanted to devote himself to membership, and put on about 80 exhibits memory from the mind of a 90-year-old or scholarship. over a seven-year period. a childhood recollection of a mother’s “I grew up with a strong sense of Judaism The exhibits he showed at the B’nai prized lithographs. but also a strong sense of interest and B’rith museum not only featured Jewish For some, the goal is to collect what inquiry. I always felt the need to be more artists but also strove to demonstrate how was theirs, an attempt years later to right a intellectually mature, not merely emotion- their Judaism affected their work. An small portion of the massive injustice they ally attached to Judaism by studying it. exhibit on Moroccan Jewish art, for exam- were subjected to. But for many, like the When I got to college, I felt like I had wast- ple, would also include a history of the descendants of a Jewish banker beaten to ed the first few years of my life,” he says. many centuries that Jews lived in Morocco death when he refused to sign over his art- He reveled in the academics he found to give context to the pieces. works to the Nazis, searching out a paint- at Haverford. Some semesters Soltes took “It asks ‘Is there a relationship between ing is a way of reclaiming a person who six or seven credits despite warnings from the fact that they are Jews and their art? disappeared long ago. Many Jews who died academic advisors that he was overwork- Does Judaism in any way inform the art?’” had almost all their physical presence ing himself. He double-majored in classics Soltes says. “The answer may be no, but erased, stolen, or destroyed. For the grand- and philosophy, writing his thesis on Hegel, you have to ask that question.”

36 Haverford Magazine It’s a question that Soltes explores in his homes where few people could see a work the work is stolen,” he adds. book, Fixing the World: American Jewish and ask questions. Others were sold by gal- The ability to actually get a work Painters in the 20th Century (Brandeis leries that asked little about the history of returned varies. Larger museums often University Press, 2002), which focuses on a piece and gave even less information to cooperate when pieces in their collections several Jewish 20th-century American buyers. Still more had been seized again are identified as stolen, he says, fearing bad artists. He concludes that the enormous by the Soviets, who took the stolen works publicity from holding looted work. Many upheaval in Jewish life, culminating with and locked them away in archives. Cold have identified works in their collections as the Holocaust, has profoundly affected the War politics prevented those in the West suspected Nazi plunder in an effort to work of artists like Mark Rothko and from searching behind the Iron Curtain for come clean. The task can be harder with Barnett Newman. stolen art. collectors and auctioneers who see the A non-Jewish artist like Jackson Pollock But in the 1990s, Holocaust victims and work as an investment they don’t want to responds to the chaotic 20th century with their families began seeking reparations lose. a painting that literally explodes on the for the horrors they had faced and resti- Frequently it is only a moral argument canvas, Soltes says, his splattered paint rep- tution for money taken from them. that can compel a piece to be returned, resenting the seeming explosion of socie- Germany eventually set up a fund to pay Soltes says. There is also little legal frame- ty by two world wars, the destruction of victims and Swiss banks paid a $1.25 bil- work to prevent art from being sold with- an old world order. lion settlement over deposits the banks out any questions on whether it might have By contrast, for the Jewish artist, the held after their owners died in concen- a tainted history. Unlike the title searches 1940s and 1950s were about trying to tration camps. required to buy a car or house, there is rebuild a culture that was nearly wiped out Anticipating that reclaiming art would nothing that obligates a seller to disclose in European death camps, Soltes said. The be next, Soltes helped organize a confer- if the work had been stolen in the past. question for them is how to put the world ence in Washington in 1997 that included Auctioneers and galleries are often guilty back together after it was nearly destroyed, members of Congress, art historians, and of passing on stolen art because they don’t how to put their lives back together. Stuart Eizenstat, the point man for President want to know if it was taken from Jews, “That question is being asked in the Clinton on Holocaust restitution. After that Soltes says. aftermath of the Holocaust,” he says, “their conference, HARP was created. “Up until the late 1990s, museums, gal- consciousness of being Jews and how do Soltes eventually left B’nai B’rith in 1998 leries, and auction houses had been cul- we as Jews respond to this most extraor- and now runs HARP in a Dupont Circle pable in not paying attention to prove- dinary event.” apartment crammed with books on art his- nance,” he says. “That might not be An estimated 6 million Jews perished tory, classics, and philosophy. He and three significant if not for the fact that everyone during the Holocaust. The Nazis created a other HARP researchers study the prove- who studies art history is taught to want highly organized system for this mass mur- nance of suspect pieces by going through to know everything about a work of art, der, creating a web of work and death archives, corresponding with museums, including its history.” camps across Eastern Europe fed by rail collectors, galleries, and the memories of Soltes splits his time now between lines emanating from ghettoes. They families. The families usually pay him for HARP and teaching courses in art history, employed this same sense of order to the the work, although HARP also receives Judaica, and the Holocaust at Georgetown plunder of Jewish possessions, Soltes says. grants. University. He also lectures frequently, with For example, when the Nazis seized Vienna Often it is a difficult task to find a piece regular presentations at the Smithsonian in 1938 as part of the unification between of art and link it to the original owner. Institute, Walters Art Museum in Austria and Germany, all Jews were Much of the stolen art is not by famous Baltimore, and the 92nd St. Y in New York, required to fill out inventories of their artists like Matisse, and would attract less among others. He lives with his wife, a doc- wealth. Bank accounts, investments, real attention hanging in someone’s living room umentary film producer, and their two estate, pieces of art, and household items or if on public display. Ownership records young children in Washington. all went onto the census of Jewish goods. were lost for many pieces, and often the HARP is currently working on a survey That way, the Nazis knew where every- only evidence of ownership is a photo- of the art stolen from Viennese Jews during thing was when they came to seize the graph or auction catalogue. Many works the war. It’s a project funded in part by one property. of art have holes in their histories during of the major auction houses, a sign, accord- “It would have been one basis for know- the 1940s and 1950s. The original owners ing to Soltes, that his work has made the ing what was out there,” Soltes says. often died during the Holocaust. But these art world much more aware of the prob- “You’ve got a whole bureaucracy just deal- factors, taken together, usually prove lem of art taken by the Nazis. ing with this, a fairly efficient means of beyond a reasonable doubt that a work was “At this point, no museum, gallery, or plundering.” stolen, Soltes says. auction house can make the claim that this After the war, Jews who survived faced “If someone can show that a work is not on their radar screen,” he says. “The several hurdles to recovering their art. entered into a Jewish family before the consciousness level has been raised.” Much of it, especially less famous pieces, early 1930s and its current owner has a couldn’t be easily traced. Some were in the provenance listing that picks up in the late Steve Manning ’96 last wrote for the maga- hands of private collectors, locked up in 1940s, it is usually well demonstrated that zine about Ralph Boyd ’79.

Summer 2003 37 Haverford

After 20 years in corporate finance, Charles Raskob Robinson ’62 left Wall Street for life as an artist. From Banks to Brushes The Duck Pond There was very little, if any, evidence of Managing Fellow, one of 23 Fellows at the top Charles Raskob Robinson’s artistic leanings dur- of the organization. ing his time at Haverford, where he studied polit- Works by Robinson and the 23 Fellows are cur- ical science and economics. After earning a mas- rently in a traveling exhibit, “The Everlasting Sea: ter’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Marine Artists Past and Present.” The show opened Advanced International Studies in Washington, at the Newport Art Museum, Newport, R.I., in Charles D.C., Robinson found himself working on Wall August and travels to the Maine Maritime Museum Raskob Street and living in Manhattan. It wasn’t until he (Bath, Maine) and then to the Connecticut River Robinson ’62 took an enrichment course that his artistic tal- Museum (Essex, Conn.). Robinson, who has been ents surfaced. Robinson was the sole male—and featured on the covers of Yankee magazine and US the only officer—enrolled in the weekly “Learn Art and in the pages of Architectural Digest, also to Paint” evening course offered by his employ- will appear in the forthcoming Bound for Blue er, Bankers Trust Company. After three years of Water: Contemporary American Marine Art painting at night in the company cafeteria, an (Greenwich Workshop Press). In 1997 Robinson experience he likens to “crawling up a rock face sailed a yawl across the Atlantic in preparation for with your fingernails,” Robinson summoned up a series of paintings titled The Crossing. the nerve to sign up for night courses at the Art Robinson’s studio, in a 1752 farmhouse in Students’ League in midtown Manhattan. There, Washington, Conn., belonged to the late Eric he spent five years developing his painting, with Sloane, the acclaimed New England artist, writer, additional work across the street in the Carnegie and sculptor. “People come to see Sloane’s studio Hall Studios. It was a steep learning curve. and my wife Barbara’s (BMC ’62) gardens, not to “I know precious little about art,” Robinson see Charlie Robinson,” he jokes. Another favorite admits, “even though I now travel in some rari- subject of Robinson’s is Haverford (A host of fied circles. What I know is from doing it, and Robinsons have attended Haverford, including back then, any little gleam of promise on the Robinson’s father, Charles A. ’28, his two brothers, canvas was a cause for rejoicing. I had no self- and his two sons, Charles P. ’89 and Torrance ’93); confidence, no reason to have any. There was no The Duck Pond (1985) and Founders Hall in Spring apparent genius that had been hidden for years.” (2002) are both examples of Robinson’s fine work— What Robinson did have was the conviction to and reminders of his business acumen. “It’s one of stay true to his craft and develop his skills. For 15 the oldest bankers’ tools,” he says. “I started put- years, he roused himself at 5 a.m. to paint for two ting out limited-edition prints to leverage my work hours before reporting to work. When he entered to meet a larger demand. And, although I am rep- the “amusingly formal” resignation appointment resented in galleries in different parts of the coun- with the chairman, he was asked which bank he try, the prints enable me to create a national presence was going to join. “I told him I’m going to do what I wouldn’t have had otherwise.” Both of these paint- taught me to do—paint!” By the time he left Wall ings were made into limited editions and donated Street, his paintings were being collected by Malcom to the College for fund-raising purposes. Forbes and IBM executive Thomas Watson. The Internet is but the latest example of lever- Robinson has been painting now for more age; anyone can see Robinson’s work at than 30 years. In March, he celebrated his 25th www.brushhillstudios.com. “Although visitors From top: Class A Catboats on anniversary as a member of the American Society no longer have to come to my studio to see my Barnegat Bay; Founders Hall of Marine Artists, a group of about 500 profes- work,” he notes, “they are always welcome— in Spring; Morning Star, sional artists who meet and hold exhibitions of especially those from Haverford.” Hangzhou, China. their work. Robinson is currently serving as the —S.H.

38 Haverford Magazine Haverford

Ellsworth and Nancy Alvord’s eclectic collection reflects their diverse tastes. by Brenna McBride At Home with The Alvords and Their Art Domestic Breakthrough.

Ellsworth “Buster” Alvord ’44 calls him- University of Washington Medical School. self a “late bloomer” when it comes to art Paintings, drawings, lithographs, col- collecting. He remembers when his wife, lages, and sculptures adorn not only the Nancy, brought home a six by eight paint- gallery, but also the living room, dining ing of green and blue dabs that could be room, bedroom and stairwell of the Alvord interpreted as ocean waves from a depart- abode. The couple rarely sells their pieces ment store. Alvord regarded it and told her, at auctions because, on a few such previ- “You can do better than that.” So, she pro- ous occasions, the art they sold invariably ceeded to do so. became the art they wanted back. Today, after 40 years of collecting art, “Collecting becomes an obsession over the Alvords have amassed approximately time,” says Alvord. 100 pieces. Their current house on the The couple claims not to gravitate shore of Lake Washington in Seattle was towards particular artists or styles—“We built 20 years ago for the specific purpose buy whatever catches our fancy at the of creating more wall space for their treas- time,” says Alvord—but roughly half their ures. A bona fide gallery was tops on the collection consists of lithographs by Marc list of architectural enhancements, since Chagall and Joan Miró. “We’re both drawn Nancy Alvord didn’t want a drafty wing to Chagall because he can’t stay within the in a distant corner of the house; she insist- lines,” says Alvord. “He’s whimsical, and ed the gallery be located between the mas- his figures are out of proportion from nor- ter bedroom and the kitchen. “She want- mal anatomy. My wife likes the fact that his ed to be able to walk past it every day,” heads are frequently upside-down.” In says Alvord, retired professor of patholo- 1976, the Alvords were fortunate enough gy and chief of neuropathology at the to purchase a set of 41 lithographs created

Summer 2003 39 At Home with Their Art

by Chagall for the French translation of trays a brown and green summer. York, San Francisco, or London to scope The Odyssey; 16 pieces of the set now frame The collection also contains small sculp- potential purchases. On a recent trip to San the fireplace, and the rest are scattered tures by Northwest artist Patty Warashima, Francisco they discovered an Israeli artist, around in other rooms. A few years ago who delights depicting nude women Calman Shemi, creating tapestries with a they loaned the works to a Seattle theater engaged in everyday activities like riding felt-like technique. One piece looks like a staging a nine-hour performance of Greek bicycles or driving cars. Alvord’s favorite sailing ship, a flying Dutchman, a blue epics. of these is Domestic Breakthrough, a furi- background with a giant black ship-like The Alvords also own a group of Miró ous naked woman throwing a knife form against a red sea framed by multi- lithographs painted in honor of the artist’s through a Plexiglass covering. “I just love colored clouds. It now hangs in the Alvord late friend Joan Prats. “They’re bizarre the look on her face,” chuckles Alvord. “It’s dining room, complementing the floor-to- shapes, mostly black and depressing, but like she’s saying, ‘Take that, you s.o.b.!” ceiling windows with their view of the a couple have nice bright colors,” says The sculpture was irresistible to both Sound. Alvord. “One looks like a series of musi- Alvords: “It seemed especially appropriate The house provides an ideal setting for cal notes tramping across the scene, and since we saw it during the week of our the art shows and fundraisers the Alvords another looks like a jumbled-up inch- wedding anniversary.” host. Alvord sat on Haverford’s Board of worm. They’re interesting to look at.” The single biggest piece of art in the Managers, and was president of the Seattle The rest of the Alvord collection show- house is a six-foot painting by Seattle-born Symphony Orchestra Board of Trustees 30 cases the style of the Pacific Northwest, John Franklin Koenig. It hangs on the liv- years ago. He is still president of the Alvord Foundation, established by his father in 1937 to support educational endeavors. “The acoustics in the house are near-per- fect,” says Alvord, who just recently enjoyed the visit of young Chinese pianist Lang Lang; he performed for a fund-raiser for Meany Hall, a 1,200-seat auditorium at the University of Washington. On other occasions Alvord has donat- ed a guided tour of his house to local auc- tions, bringing as few as three high school students and as many as 50 garden club members to see the art. Many Haverford and Bryn Mawr externs have stayed a week in the Alvord home and seem to have enjoyed the art as a break in their other- wise intense examination of a neu- ropathologist’s life at the medical school and in the associated hospitals. This long- term annual activity, usually held during the month of January, recently earned Alvord the William Kaye Award for exem- plary service to Haverford College in career development, given to him by the Alumni Art graces the walls throughout the Alvord home in Seattle. Association. Though retired, Alvord is still active as with works by regional artists like Mark ing room wall, rotated 45 degrees to resem- a professor emeritus at the University of Toby, Guy Anderson, Paul Horiuchi, and ble a diamond shape rather than a square. Washington, teaching a course on the George Tsutakawa. Alvord calls Horiuchi a “It had been framed so that it could also anatomy of the human brain at 6:30 every “master of collage”—he transforms torn be hung straight up, but it just doesn’t look morning during the summer. He remains pieces of paper into autumn leaves or a right that way. What was he thinking, mak- involved with research, working with an gathering storm. His favorite Horiuchi is ing it so it wouldn’t hang like an ordinary applied mathematician to determine how a scene from the Japanese city of Kyoto, painting?” laughs Alvord. certain brain tumors grow and infiltrate noted for its hundreds of temples, at least The couple’s “philosophy” of art col- the brain. But even with these commit- one of which the Alvords visited some lecting hinges on compromise. “Most of ments, he and Nancy find time to appre- years ago and actually saw the seven large our pieces are spontaneous joint approvals, ciate and add to their unique assortment rocks carefully placed in the even-more- but every now and then we challenge each of upside-down heads, tiny murderous carefully raked sand. Half of the collage is other on our preferences,” says Alvord. women, and paintings that just cannot washed in winter white, the other half por- They attend local shows or travel to New hang straight.

40 Haverford Magazine Class News Send your class news by e-mail to: [email protected]

Ronald Szabat was recently elected to the 79 Dwight Fowler writes, “Some of and pharmaceutical arenas. I have been Board of Directors of the American Asso- you may have caught the ‘60 Minutes’ seg- working for SAS since 1995, after com- ciation of Medical Society Executives. He ment by Morley Safer on SAS Institute, pleting my MBA at UConn in marketing, continues in his capacity as Chief Wash- the world’s largest privately owned soft- and have been managing technical sales ington Counsel for the American Medical ware company, in Research Triangle Park, professionals for SAS U.S. commercial Association. He writes, “The recent reunion outside of Raleigh, N.C. SAS is one of the sales unit. I work in the Hartford, Conn., was great. Thanks again to John Bartels few software companies that has contin- office of SAS where we enjoy some, but and Jean Mihelcic (BMC ’78) and the many uously turned a profit through the last not all, of the benefits that the North Car- others who planned so effectively. In vis- few tough years and, in fact, for the first olina campus offers. (The day after the iting with our classmates, I was encour- 26 years grew at a double-digit rate. The ‘60 Minutes’ show, SAS received 13,000 aged to find so many folks struggling with ‘60 Minutes’ segment highlights the qual- resumes). I currently manage a technical the complex issues of our health care sys- ity of life at SAS, and shows software presales team that sells and supports our tem.” developers playing lp records in their products in the pharmaceutical/biomed- office, getting massages, playing soccer at ical industry for the entire U.S. I travel lunch, having their laundry picked up at around the country quite a bit, and would the office, and onsite medical and day- love to hook up with my classmates. Drop care. Many of my classmates probably me a line!” have run into SAS either during their graduate school days, or in the medical

Ford Highlight

While most of us look through glass, Henry Richardson ’83 sees inside it to a world of images and emotions. The sculptor chisels glass the way other artists use stone, and for nearly 20 years he has crafted stunning representations of time, music, mem- ories, and the strength of the human spirit. He credits his Quaker upbringing and his Haverford educa- tion as influences on his artistic innovation. Although he gradu- ated with a degree in geology, Richardson took electives with pro- fessor of fine arts Chris Cairns and professor emeritus of fine arts Charles Stegeman. “They taught me to break down my under- standing of what was in front of me,” he says, “and to relate it Henry Richardson ’83 (shown here with his father, Burtt back to another form. They encouraged me not to think in parts, ’56) is philosophical about his art, which requires the but to consider all of the elements together.” He is grateful for breaking of glass before it is shaped and bonded into the continuing support of his former professors, and many other Haverfordians including Richard Glaser, Howard Lutnick, Jerry sculptural forms. Levy, John Perkoff, and Elon Spar, all from the Class of 1983. After graduating, Richardson moved to Washington, D.C., and During his time in Washington he worked with mixed media, took a case management job with a law firm, intending to devote creating glass sculptures embedded in concrete and studio furni- as much time as possible to his art. By making himself indis- ture made from glass, marble, and exotic wood. Once he was in a pensable to his employers, he negotiated an ideal schedule: He position to dedicate himself to his art, he turned to cold chiseled worked only three or four days a week and was still paid full glass as his primary medium. He breaks the glass, shapes it with salary. He had time for his art and could afford to buy materials, a chisel, and then bonds it together to create sculptural forms. as well as pay his bills. “It was an unusual situation,” he says. “I “The process has metaphorical value,” he says. “It reminds us had to be pretty entrepreneurial to work it out.” After several we’re all broken as human beings, rebuilding ourselves, fusing years, Richardson was approached by executives from the Hadron ourselves together.” His science background proved invaluable as corporation, who asked him to try to turn around a failing sub- he developed a new technique in vertically bonding plate glass. sidiary, Acumenics. He put Acumenics in the black in 11 months, “I use polymers to act as a flux,” he says, “and intense ultravio- advised managers to sell the company, and received a payout that let radiation to fuse glass to glass.” allowed him to open a studio in Massachusetts and become a When beginning a new piece, he has an idea of the message full-time sculptor. or theme he wants to convey, but is often surprised by how others

44 Haverford Magazine Doug Lobel writes, “I have left the D.C. Barry Schwabsky writes, “I would like to 81 Michael J. Olecki recently jumped office of Kelley, Drye, and Warren LLP and announce that my book, Opera: Poems headlong into an exciting new career path. in May 2002 I became a partner at the law 1981-2002, will be published by Meritage Forsaking his established niche as one of firm of Morgan, Lewis, and Bockius LLP, Press, San Francisco, in September 2003.” 10 partners in a Beverly Hills law firm, he in the Northern Virginia office. I continue joined with a colleague to form Grodsky my practice in complex commercial liti- & Olecki LLP (www.Grodsky-Olecki.com), gation with a focus on securities, banking, 80 Reid Blackwelder writes, “I’m con- a litigation boutique specializing in busi- and telecommunications.” tinuing to challenge the Halls of Medicine ness, entertainment, and intellectual prop- After two years with Intel’s Network Archi- to change how we practice and teach med- erty matters. Michael and his new partner tecture Laboratory, Craig Rodine has icine. My residency is becoming more and have represented clients ranging from For- joined the Intel Communications Group’s more integrative. I am blessed to be able tune 500 companies such as Emerson Elec- business development team. Craig is to lecture nationally and internationally tric Co. to entertainers such as Will Smith, responsible for deals around the compa- on complementary medicine and patient- Ed McMahon, and Destiny’s Child. With ny’s network processors and related com- centered hospital care.” his lawyer-wife (Karen Bodner), Michael ponents and software. lives in a Los Angeles historic district, where he chairs the Historic Preservation Design Board. They have three delightful four-legged children (Harry, Marly, and Chessie).

interpret the finished work. He fashioned a blue glass Celtic cross, prestigious place in a showing of professional level members of 16 feet in length, for a church in Florida where the parishioners the International Sculpture Center at the Grounds for Sculpture in viewed the work as a symbol of their fragility: “They saw it as a Hamilton, N.J. A smaller version, owned by David Schwimmer of metaphor for sin and salvation, the light moving through the glass New York, was part of Haverford’s summer Alumni Show at the like the spirit moving through them during worship.” Another Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery. “Viewers have strong emotional reactions sculpture, Emigration, touched a gallery visitor in unexpected to it because of the form, the radiance, and the metaphor,” says ways. “I meant to portray a boat coming from Europe to America, Richardson. “It appeals to people from all walks of life.” freezing a moment in time that was personal Richardson's work is currently represent- and permanent,” he says. “But a woman who ed by the Gallery Henoch in New York and saw it told me the story of her child who had several other galleries throughout the United died, and saw the work as a ship from life to States. In 2000 he co-founded the Wit Gallery death.” in Lenox, Mass., which also represents the Richardson has explored the concepts of sculpture of his former Haverford professor, time, relativity and music in his Sequential Series, Chris Cairns. Right now, Richardson is work- where glass represents the sequential elements ing on the fourth of an eventual collection of of our lives; the abstractions of the human spir- 12 angel sculptures, as well as a nine-foot col- it in the angel sculptures of his Reconstruction umn for a private collector. In addition, he is Series; and the essence of adulthood uniting looking for non-profit partners to create com- with childhood memories in Coming of Age, part munity outreach programs in disadvantaged of the Spheroid Series. But of all his works, he is areas such as Harlem. He envisions working proudest of Tikkun, a six foot, 5000-pound hol- with members of these communities to bond low sphere inspired by the Hebrew phrase the glass, co-creating public sculptures. “These “Tikkun Olam,” which means “repairing the projects have inherent risks, but I like the idea world.” According to the tradition of Hebrew of bridging worlds, both physical and spiri- mystics, when God created the universe, divine Tikkun tual, through art,” he says. “There would be a substance was infused into every aspect of the profound impact on people, both in creating material world, including every human being. Thereafter, when the art, transforming the community, and taking responsibili- people perform acts of kindness, they became part of a force that ty for preserving the work.” mends the universe. Tikkun is described as “hope that collective —B.M. acts of grace will contribute to a better world.” The work won a

Summer 2003 45 Class News Send your class news by e-mail to: [email protected]

82 John Duff writes that after work- Colin Harrison’s fifth novel, The Havana justice, and the reclamation of the envi- ing like a maniacal idiot for 19 years and Room, will be published by Farrar, Strauss, ronment. We definitely invite Fords who attaining the position of senior vice presi- and Giroux in January 2004. are traveling through the Bay Area to come dent with Bank of America Private Bank Daniel Stern writes, “I’m starting up my visit.” several years ago, his social conscience business as a fee-only certified financial inexplicably returned and he resigned his planner affiliated with the Garrett Plan- position to concentrate on volunteer work, ning Network (www.garrettplanningnet- 83 For news of Chuck Bryant, see family and to provide whatever assistance work.com). Life is good!” For further BIRTHS. he can to help remove the current Bush news, see BIRTHS. Administration (in D.C. and Fla.) at the Jorge Kirschtein married Carole Seborovs- next election. John is still married to wife Walter Hjelt Sullivan writes, “Last October ki on May 25, 2003. Carole, an artist, is an Susan and has two children, Emma and Traci ’85 and I marked 10 years as co- adjunct professor of art at Hunter College Timothy. He would love to meet up with directors of the Ben Lomond Quaker Cen- in Manhattan. Jorge is a medical director Ed and J.C. for a beer some time in the ter. The center is located on 80 acres of at the Sound View Throgs Neck Commu- future. Redwood Forest outside Santa Cruz. We nity Mental Health Center in the Bronx. have initiated a new effort to reach out and For news of Jerry Levy, see BIRTHS. support low-income community groups working for peace, racial and economic For news of Katherine (Schlegel) O’Con- nell, see note on G. David Schlegel ’53.

Ford Highlight

Judith Wolf ’90 sees beyond the surface “and I became more involved in Jewish of the ordinary. In her years as an artist she life.” As a graduate student at the Mary- has always been drawn to landscapes, land Institute-College of Art in Baltimore, nature, faces, and objects, things we may she used imagery, abstract symbols and take for granted in our everyday lives. She iconography to represent the mystical sto- has been finding inspiration in her sur- ries and interpretations of Hebrew letters. roundings since she began drawing and More recently, she created paintings and painting as an adolescent. collages based on verses from the Book of “I admired artists like Van Gogh,” she Ecclesiastes. “These texts deal with the Painter Judith Wolf ’90 draws on says, “with his unique passion for per- fragility and organic nature of life, the notion ceiving the world.” Her later influences are that there is a time for everything,” she says. 20th-century American artists, eclectic. “I am inspired by the composi- “I wanted to interpret this in a metaphorical Judaism, and the Far East for tions and color of Matisse and the work of way. It’s fulfilling to create art out of some inspiration. 20th-century American artists such as kind of idea.” She also illustrates ketubot, Philip Guston and Romare Bearden.” Late- Jewish wedding contracts decorated with making, as well as looking after her two sons, ly, she has been interested in the arts of the calligraphy and ornamentation. Lior and Ezra. She still carves time out of Far East, such as ancient Chinese pottery Besides being respected as an artist— her hectic days to devote herself to her paint- and painting and Japanese prints. her works have been exhibited in Balti- ing. “I work at home,” she says, “so my As an art major at Haverford, Wolf more, New York, Washington, D.C., Los schedule is flexible. It’s easy for me to get up regarded Charles Stegeman, professor Angeles, and Jerusalem—Wolf is also val- early or stay up late to paint.” —B.M. emeritus of fine arts, as her mentor. “He ued as an educator. At the Los Angeles constantly challenged me to bring my work County Museum of Art, and at the Jewish And the Sea is Never Full, acrylic and to a new level,” she says. “He allowed for Museum and Yeshiva University Museum collage on paper, 22” x 30,” 2001. an unlimited freedom in my expression in New York City, she designed educational and encouraged me towards the direction programs for children, school groups, and of my choice.” families. In D.C., she taught art classes for By her senior year, Wolf was turning seniors. “It was a lifeline for them,” she her attention to more personally mean- says. “It was gratifying for me to see the ingful subject matter and used her painting pride they took in their work.” to explore various themes in Judaism. “My Today, Wolf lives in Northampton, Mass., husband, Justin David, is a rabbi,” she says, with her family and is discovering print-

46 Haverford Magazine Moved to Speak by Jacob Weinstein ’01

60 Haverford Magazine Jacob Weinstein is art director of The Philadelphia Independent. “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” – Pablo Picasso Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Philadelphia, PA Permit No. 05115

HAVERFORD COLLEGE The Alumni Magazine of Haverford College Summer 2003 Haverford, PA 19041 Address Service Requested