Ivan Mestrovic in Syracuse, 1947-1955

Syracuse University SURFACE The Courier Libraries 1997 Ivan Mestrovic in Syracuse, 1947-1955 David Tatham Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/libassoc Part of the Art Practice Commons Recommended Citation Tatham, David. "Ivan Mestrovic in Syracuse, 1947-1955." The Courier, 1997: p.5-24. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Libraries at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Courier by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ASSOCIATES COURIER VOLUME XXXII· 1997 SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ASSOCIATES COURIER VOLUME XXXII 1997 Ivan Mestrovic in Syracuse, 1947-1955 By David Tatham, Professor ofFine Arts 5 Syracuse University In 1947 Chancellor William P. Tolley brought the great Croatian sculptor to Syracuse University as artist-in-residence and professor ofsculpture. 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Iocolano Recent Acquisitions: The Lewis Carroll Collection Addition to theJoyce Carol Oates Papers African Americans in the Performing Arts: Ephemera Collected by Carl Van Vechten Thomas Bewick Illustrations Library Associates Program for 1997-98 Ivan Mestrovic in Syracuse, 1947-1955 BY DAVID TATHAM IVAN MESTROVIC 's eight and a halfyears as a member ofthe Syracuse University faculty stand as a period ofexceptional historical importance for both the sculptor and the institution. For the University, the arrival in 1947 ofthis world-renowned artist marked not only the beginning ofa full-fledged sculpture program, one which rapidly gained national dis tinction, but also the beginning ofa postwar effort to bring to Syracuse scholars and creative artists already eminent in their fields. For MeS'trovic, appointment at age sixty-three to Syracuse's faculty as artist-in-residence and professor ofsculpture gave him an opportunity to rebuild a career shattered by World War II. It brought him personal stabil ity and security after wartime experiences that had included imprison ment and near-execution in his native Croatia in 1941, escape to temporary exile in Rome under the protection ofthe Vatican, and, after reaching safety in Switzerland in 1943, the onset ofnearly a year ofpro longed and debilitating illness. At the end ofthe war he had refused Mar shall Tito's invitation to return to Yugoslavia, believing fervently that communism was antithetical to individual liberty. He went instead to Rome, a city he knew well, to reside for awhile with his younger daugh ter Maritza (Maria) and to resume working as a sculptor. The American Academy in Rome provided him with a studio on the ]aniculum for a year. These were short-term arrangements, however. In 1946 he was in most respects a man without a country. 1 I. Biographical information concerning the artist has been drawn from the MeStrovic Papers in the Syracuse University Archives, as well as from Laurence Schmeckebier, Ivan MeltroviC, Sculptor and Patriot (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1959). While still a stu dent at the Vienna Academy ofArt, MeStrovic became a member ofthe Vienna Seces sion, first exhibiting with the group in 1903. In succeeding years he established himselfin Rome and Paris and was a leader ofthe Serbo-Croatian independence movement. Mter major exhibitions in London, Paris, and the United States between 1915 and 1925, and the completion of numerous large-scale sculptural and architectural projects, he estab lished his home and studio in Zagreb, with a summer residence in Split. He continued to David Tatham is professor offine arts at Syracuse University. He is the author ofbooks and articles concerning the history of nineteenth-century American art, including Winslow Homer in the Adirondacks (Syracuse University Press, 1996). Syracuse University Library Associates Courier Volume XXXII, 1997 5 In the autumn ofthat year it was clear that he would need to travel to New York during the early months of1 947 to oversee the mounting ofan exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art of his recent sculpture, paintings, and drawings. Scheduled to open in April, and sponsored by the American Academy ofArts and Letters, the exhibition was to include the major works of sculpture that he had created in 1945-46 in Rome, among them hisJob and Supplicant Persephone, two figures which since the 1950S have been a major presence on the Syracuse University campus. That the exhibition was held at the Metropolitan Museum was itself notable, for as a matter ofpolicy that institution did not hold exhibitions of .the work of living artists. It made an exception in this instance to oblige the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which had no ade quate gallery space ofits own. It may also have been moved to make the exception in response to the tenor ofthe times, that is, to pay honor to an artist ofmajor international repute who had openly defied fascism before and during the recently ended war, who now strongly opposed commu nism, and who had paid dearly for taking both stands. In this respect he had no close counterpart among other European artists displaced to America by the war. Unlike those painters, architects, musicians, and writers who had come to the United States in the 1930S and early 1940S with the rise ofHitler and the outbreak ofwar-Walter Gropius at Har vard and Arnold Schoenberg in Los Angeles, for example-Mdtrovic had experienced the brutality of the war in Europe firsthand. And unlike those who had spent the war in safety in America and returned to their homelands when hostilities had ended-W H. Auden and Benjamin Britten, for example-Mdtrovic saw no hope ofreturn.2 While he had every reason in late 1946 to be confident that the Metro politan's exhibition would confirm to the public that his creative powers as a sculptor were undiminished, he nevertheless had grave concerns about his future. He had no home for himselfand his family, virtually no likelihood ofsales or commissions for sculpture in a Europe still in ruins, and no source ofsteady income. From Rome he communicated with an old friend in New York, the distinguished American sculptor Malvina Hoffman, and asked her to look about for an academy or university work prolifically as a sculptor, and served actively as rector ofthe Art Institute ofZagreb until the onset of World War II. The major museum of the sculptor's work is the MeS'trovic Foundation ofZagreb and Split. 2. No catalog ofthe 1947 exhibition was published, but a list ofthe works exhibited and reviews ofthe exhibition is in the MeS'trovic Papers. 6 teaching position for him. He had, after all, taught steadily in the 1930S when he was rector ofthe Art Institute in Zagreb, and he had spent a year working in New York on American commissions in the mid-192OS. Her first efforts, concentrated in New York City, brought little hope. MdtroviC's limited knowledge ofEnglish prevented his consideration for a university lectureship. The few existing academy professorships in sculpture were occupied.3 Hoffman's spirits rose after a chance meeting with William Pearson Tolley, Syracuse University's chancellor and president. They met, proba bly in September or October 1946, while Tolley was a weekend guest at the home of Thomas J. Watson, president of the International Business Machines Corporation, and a benefactor of the University. Tolley later recounted that when Hoffman described the plight ofher friend, he im mediately saw an opportunity to bring to his faculty a sculptor of im mense reputation and accomplishment. He urged her to cable Mdtrovic: "You have appointment as Professor ofSculpture at Syracuse University effective September [1947].

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