Patrick J. Maveety and Darle Maveety
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PATRICK J. MAVEETY AND DARLE MAVEETY An Oral History conducted by Betsy G. Fryberger STANFORD HISTORICAL SOCIETY ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Stanford University ©2016 2 Patrick J. and Darle Maveety 3 4 Contents Introduction p. 7 Abstract p. 9 Biography p. 11 Interview Transcript p. 13 Topics p. 49 Interviewer Biography p. 51 5 6 Introduction This oral history was conducted by the Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program in collaboration with the Stanford University Archives. The program is under the direction of the Oral History Committee of the Stanford Historical Society. The Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program furthers the Society’s mission “to foster and support the documentation, study, publication, dissemination, and preservation of the history of the Leland Stanford Junior University.” The program explores the institutional history of the University, with an emphasis on the transformative post-WWII period, through interviews with leading faculty, staff, alumni, trustees, and others. The interview recordings and transcripts provide valuable additions to the existing collection of written and photographic materials in the Stanford University Archives. Oral history is not a final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a unique, reflective, spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it may be deeply personal. Each oral history is a reflection of the past as the interviewee remembers and recounts it. But memory and meaning vary from person to person; others may recall events differently. Used as primary source material, any one oral history will be compared with and evaluated in light of other evidence, such as contemporary texts and other oral histories, in arriving at an interpretation of the past. Although the interviewees have a past or current connection with Stanford University, they are not speaking as representatives of the University. Each transcript is edited by program staff and by the interviewee for grammar, syntax, and occasional inaccuracies and to aid in overall clarity and readability--but is not fact-checked as such. The approach is to maintain the substantive content of the interview as well as the interviewee’s voice. As a result of this editing process, the transcript may not match the recording verbatim. If a substantive deletion has been made, this is generally indicated at the relevant place on the transcript. Substantive additions are noted in brackets or by footnote. 7 All uses of the interview transcript and recording are covered by a legal agreement between the interviewee and the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (“Stanford”). The copyright to the transcript and recording, including the right to publish, is reserved by Stanford University. The transcript and recording are freely made available for non-commercial purposes, with proper citation provided in print or electronic publication. No part of the transcript or recording may be used for commercial purposes without the written permission of the Stanford University Archivist or his/her representative. Requests for commercial use should be addressed to [email protected] and should indicate the items to be used, extent of usage, and purpose. This oral history should be cited as: Maveety, Patrick J. and Darle Maveety (2016). Oral History. Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program Interviews (SC0932). Department of Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif. 8 Abstract In this oral history from 2016, Patrick J. Maveety, Curator Emeritus of Asian Art at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Center (previously the Stanford Museum of Art), and his wife, Darle, offer vivid memories of their long association with Stanford, beginning with their time as art students in the years immediately after World War II. Thinking back to his childhood in San Diego, Patrick recalls taking Saturday morning art lessons at the Fine Arts Gallery in Balboa Park. Darle, who grew up in Portland, Oregon, left high school with a passion for art and a plan to become an art teacher. Both paint vivid pictures of life at Stanford in the postwar years. Darle, for example, remembers wearing skirts, even to paint, and dressing for class in cashmeres and sweater sets. Early in their friendship, she helped Patrick create a model of a cabin for one of their art classes. Patrick recalls taking a figure drawing class as an undergraduate from John LaPlante, along with anecdotes of other early faculty members. In those days, the Department of Art had three classrooms near the chapel at the back of Memorial Church, Darle recalls, and each year the art students put on a costumed Beaux- Arts Ball. Although the Stanford Museum was virtually destroyed in the 1906 quake, Darle remembers doing housekeeping chores there, as well as the spooky feeling if she was caught after dark in rooms full of Indian remains and antique furniture--she took a flashlight because the building had no electricity. The two talk about their separate roads between acquiring bachelor’s degrees in 1951 and getting married at Memorial Church in 1958. Darle describes traveling to Europe in 1952 during her studies for a master’s degree, then returning to Portland to teach. Patrick tells colorful stories about his twenty-year career in the U.S. Navy, ending in 1972. Still interested in art history, and especially East Asian studies, Patrick says he decided to pursue a doctorate, and the couple describe the “revised” Stanford they found: a larger Art Department, near the restored and revitalized Art Gallery. Lorenz Eitner, who was 9 responsible for many of those changes, encouraged Patrick’s interest in further studies. Darle describes Eitner’s contributions and tells an interesting anecdote about Albert Elsen’s lecturing techniques. The Eitners also became friends; Darle remembers taking a Stanford Travel/Study trip in the Netherlands when Eitner was the faculty leader of the trip. Patrick describes his studies with Michael Sullivan, who was Christensen Professor of Chinese Art at the time. When Sullivan left unexpectedly, Eitner invited Patrick to become curator of Asian art in 1978, and he says he agreed to work as a volunteer in return for staff privileges. Patrick discusses his work at the center, including his favorite piece, an eighteenth century Qing Dynasty vase that is often mistaken for Japanese. In particular he remembers an unannounced gift of a Tang horse from Richard Gump, president of Gump’s, San Francisco; and an exhibition of blue and white ceramics from Thailand. 10 Patrick J. and Darle Maveety Biography Patrick J. Maveety, Curator Emeritus of Asian Art at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Art, curated at the Center as a volunteer from 1978 to 2000. He curated a number of important exhibitions, including blue and white ceramics of the Far East, Chinese opium pipes, Buddhist art, and Indonesian textiles. He and his wife, Darle, were also private collectors and owners of the Maveety Galleries in Portland and Salishan, Oregon. The couple met at Stanford University, where they received bachelor’s degrees in art history in 1951 and married in 1958 at the Memorial Church. She went on to receive a master’s degree at Stanford, and Patrick studied for a doctoral degree in art history there, as well. Between his times at Stanford, Patrick Maveety served in the U.S. Navy aboard the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and in Hamburg, Germany; Indonesia; and Washington, D.C. He retired in 1972 as a Lieutenant Commander, awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal. Patrick (1930-2016) and Darle (1929-2016) had two children: a daughter, Mary Helen Klassert; and a son, Matthew Hermann, who died in 2015. 11 12 S T A N F O R D U N I V E R S I T Y PROJECT: ARTS AT STANFORD ORAL HISTORY PROJECT INTERVIEWER: BETSY G. FRYBERGER INTERVIEWEES: PATRICK J. AND DARLE MAVEETY DATE OF INTERVIEW: FEBRUARY 16, 2016 Fryberger: This is February 16, 2016. My name is Betsy and I’m interviewing Pat and Darle Maveety at their home near the Stanford campus. We’re going to start by talking a little bit about your early life and background. I’m going to start with Pat, if you would tell us where you were born, and when, and your early schooling. P. Maveety: [00:00:24] I was born in 1930 and raised in San Diego, California. I went to elementary school there. Fryberger: Were you in Coronado? P. Maveety: [00:00:37] No, not yet. We lived in east San Diego. Later on my parents moved to Coronado. Fryberger: Did you have any early interest in art? P. Maveety: [00:01:08] Sure. I took Saturday morning art lessons at the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery in Balboa Park. Fryberger: I took a lot of art classes on Saturday mornings, too, at the Art Institute of Chicago, so I did much of the same thing. P. Maveety: [00:01:35] We just sat there on horses, if you know what a horse is. 13 [00:01:47] And looked at the picture that we were copying. I remember particularly copying a Goya that the San Diego Art Museum had. Fryberger: Was it a portrait? P. Maveety: [00:02:01] Yes. Fryberger: It wasn’t one of these really grim subjects. [laughter] P. Maveety: [00:02:03] No. They wouldn’t have shown that to elementary school students, I suppose. Fryberger: Darle, why don’t you tell us where you grew up? And then we’ll get you both to Stanford soon. How’s that? D. Maveety: [00:02:25] I was born in 1929 in Astoria, Oregon, but lived most of my young life in Portland, Oregon, except for a two-year stint at Newport, Oregon.