Curators at Work - College of William and Mary

Curators
at Work
16 Memoranda for
the Curatorial Files
CoNtrIButors
Chelsea Bell
Jessica Dupont
Caitlin Fairchild
kathryn Fay
kennis Forte
Jason gangwer
philippe Halbert
Christina Hecker
nora ives
Rusty Meadows
Mallory Meaney
simone peer
erin sexton
sarah stanley
Lenna Walker
kelsey Weissgold
ARTH330-06 | MuseuM seMinAR | spRing 2011 | DR. JoHn T. spike

MUSEUM STAFF
Aaron H. De Groft, Ph.D., Director
Elana Carpinone, Registrar’s Fellow
Christina Carroll, Manager of Institutional Advancement
Kevin Gilliam, Exhibitions/Operations Manager
Amy K. Gorman, Ph.D., Curator of Education & New Media
Cindy Lucas, Assistant to the Director
Rusty A. Meadows, Assistant to Development & Education
Ursula McLaughlin-Miller, Special Projects Administrator
Melissa Parris, Registrar
Elayne Russell, Education Specialist
John T. Spike, Distinguished Scholar in Residence
Bronwen Watts, Membership Manager
Printed on the occasion of the student-curated
exhibition Curators at Work, 16 Memoranda
for the Curatorial Files, Vol. 1, The College of
William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.
© 2011, Muscarelle Museum of Art
The College of William & Mary
Printed as part of an academic project, not
intended for commercial distribution. All rights
reserved.
Produced by the Muscarelle Museum of Art
Printed in the USA by Taylored Printing Co.,
Yorktown, Virginia
Production & Design by Amy K. Gorman

16 Memoranda for 16 artists
The works are arranged in chronological order by the year of execution.
1805 | gilles-Louis Chrétien
1893 | Henri-edmond Cross
1909 | Arthur Davies
1923 | Attilio piccirilli
1929 | Blanche Lazzell
1937 | Thomas Hart Benton
1945 | Max Weber
1953 | Marino Marini
1964 | Man Ray
1969 | pablo picasso
1972 | Claes oldenburg
1974 | Jim Dine
1978 | Jasper Johns
1988 | Donald k. sultan
1988 | Wayne Thiebaud
2003 | Jaune Quick-to-see smith
ARTH330-06 | MuseuM seMinAR | spRing 2011 | DR. JoHn T. spike

PrefaCe
Laboratory for Learning
This exhibition is the final project of the undergraduate students enrolled in Curating, Collecting & Connoisseurship,
a seminar taught by Dr. John T. Spike during the Spring 2011 semester. Since its construction in 1982, the primary mission of
the Muscarelle Museum of Art has been to educate William & Mary students in the visual arts by serving as a laboratory for
learning. All works of art were created within the cultural, political and social climate of their time, and thus are primary
source documents that lie at the crossroads of interdisciplinary studies. Faculty from across the campus use works of art on
view at the Museum to enhance and amplify classroom curriculum. In addition, the Museum itself hosts classes in museum
studies, such as the seminar that resulted in this exhibition. Students gain practical experience by serving as volunteers and
interns in all areas of the Museum’s work, from scholarly research to collections management, exhibition design, marketing,
programs, publications, and special events.
As always, I wish to express my deepest thanks and appreciation to the professional staff of the Muscarelle Museum
of Art for their constant efforts to create an artistically and academically stimulating environment. It is their dedication that
continues to strengthen the Museum’s role as the cultural hub of The College. I extend a special thanks to Dr. Amy Gorman
who organized and oversaw the publication of this, as well as many other Museum projects, and for her work with the
student volunteers and interns.
Aaron H. De Groft, Ph.D., Director, Muscarelle Museum of Art
INtroduCtIoN
Curating, Collecting & Connoisseurship - 27786 - ARTH 330-06
The sixteen memoranda in this booklet were researched and compiled by undergraduates enrolled in ARTH
330-06 at the College of William & Mary during the spring semester of 2011. The purpose of this museum seminar was to
provide practical experience in museum activities, including primary source research using the original works of art in the
permanent collection of the Muscarelle Museum of Art. The seminar took place in the Museum which allowed close and
frequent interaction with the professional staff. On behalf of the class, I would like to express our deep appreciation to Dr.
Aaron De Groft, the Muscarelle staff, and guest speakers Shelley Svoboda, Conservator of Paintings, Colonial Williamsburg,
and Alan Fausel, New York University, for sharing their talents and broadening our horizons.
A recurrent theme in the seminar was the need for museum professionals and art historians in particular to speak
and write with ease and clarity. The preparation of these memoranda was selected as a project that would both introduce
the students to reference writing and directly benefit the Muscarelle by providing basic information for the curatorial files.
During the seminar, the students were called upon to rise and comment on their chosen objects and to report on the progress
and problems in their research. Their findings and their writings were shared with one another to underscore the collegiality
and shared commitment of museum work. From the beginning, a small exhibition was planned to provide an opportunity to
share these works, most of them rarely exhibited, with the entire College community. Wall texts were compiled as a further
exercise in museum writing – this time from an educational perspective. We hope that you enjoy the results as much as we
did in making them.
John T. Spike, Ph.D., Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 5

1
8
0
5
Attributed to Gilles-louis Chrétien (French, 1754-1811)
Portrait of Charles François lebrun, Duke of Plaisance (1739 - 1824), ca. 1805-1810
Physionotrace portrait in black, white, and brown chalk on prepared pink paper
14 1/16 in. x 9 3/8 in.
Gift of the Frederick and lucy s. herman Foundation
1993.033
6 | Curators at Work

This work is a prime example of the style of physionotrace portraits in vogue in late 18th- and early 19th-century
France. The portrait entered the Museum’s collection with its present identification of Charles-François Lebrun, Third
Consul of the French Consulate of 1799 and imperial statesman created Duke of Plaisance in 1808. The basis of this
identification is unknown and requires confirmation in light of his age at the time of the work’s creation and what is
known about surviving portraits of Lebrun.
Shown in profile, the sitter is dressed as a courtier or official of the First French Empire. Although the powdered
wigs of the Ancien régime had been exchanged for more classically-inspired hairstyles by the turn of the 19th century,
lavish embroidered detail and expensive fabrics remained a mainstay at the court of Napoleon I. The gentleman’s collar
features some blue embroidery; although decoration like this was uncommon in fashionable male dress of the period,
which eschewed simplicity and republican virtue inspired by the French Revolution, it would not have been out of place
for formal court costumes which retained a decidedly monarchical air despite the events of 1789.
Regarded as a forerunner to modern photography, the physionotrace allowed for the quick and inexpensive creation of
portraits in profile. Unlike silhouettes- simple outlines of profiles and other objects which became popular beginning in
the mid-eighteenth century- the physionotrace included details such as dress, hair, and facial features. With the use of
a special apparatus similar to an easel on which a piece of paper was spread, the sitter’s profile would be captured with
an eyepiece or viewfinder. The eyepiece was connected to a vertical rod that simultaneously operated a stylus called a
pantograph, which captured the profile in miniature in addition to the larger portrait created on paper with the eyepiece.
The miniature portrait could be transferred to a copper plate, etched, and used to make multiple images. In this
the technique resembles photography, as the small copperplates, like photographic negatives, could be used to reproduce
the image on a wide scale. The resulting prints could even be colored, adding to the life-like qualities of physionotrace
portraiture. This portrait is not the miniature profile, but rather the larger rendition referred to as en grand trait. Fully
traced in a matter of minutes, the profile en grand trait could easily be colored with pastels or chalk, of which the latter
was used to enliven this portrait.
The physionotrace technique and apparatus were developed by court musician Gilles-Louis Chrétien (1754-1811)
in the mid-1780s. Chrétien began producing phsyionotraces professionally after growing financial deficit cost him his
position as cellist in the orchestra of the royal chapel at Versailles. Relocating to Paris, he opened a shop with partner and
portrait miniaturist Edme Quenedey (1756-1830) by 1788. As Quenedey traced the profiles of everyone from bourgeois
bankers to the dauphin of France, Chrétien reproduced them as aquatint miniatures. Obviously appreciated in Paris, eight
hundred and fifty physionotrace portraits were created between 1788 and 1789 by Chrétien and Quenedey. Quenedey
would open his own business a year later and continue until his death in 1830. Assisted by Jean-Baptiste Fouquet (circa
1761-1799), also a miniaturist, Chrétien maintained his atelier in addition to finding employment as musician to Napoleon
before his death in 1811.
The Salon would include an exhibition of one hundred physionotraces in 1793 and of six hundred new ones in
1795. Emigré turned physionotrace artist Charles-Balthazar Févret de Saint-Mémin would introduce them to the United
States in 1793, where they found a ready market. Completely novel in their manner and rate of production, physionotrace
portraits appealed to celebrities, revolutionaries, and presidents alike into the second quarter of the nineteenth century.
They are among the most realistic artistic representations ever produced of historic figures such as the marquis de La
Fayette, Paul Revere, Robespierre, Madame de Staël, Thomas Jefferson, and Stendhal.
Philippe Halbert ‘11
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 7

1
8
9
3
henri-eDMonD DelACroix, called henri-eDMonD Cross (French, 1856-1910)
Jeune Basque Debout (Young Basque standing upright), ca. 1893
Black crayon and red colored pencil on paper
11 1/2 in. x 7 1/2 in.
Purchase, Class of 1982 senior Class Gift
1983.021
8 | Curators at Work

Henri-Edmond Cross (born Delacroix but changed his name so that he would not be confused with Henri-Eugene
Delacroix) was born in Douai, France, in 1856 and spent his childhood and youth in Lille. In 1881, he moved to Paris and,
in 1891, he first exhibited his large body of Pointillist works under the English pseudonym of Cross. Over time he changed
his works from the small dotted technique used by Pointillists to a more broad stroke that is closer to Impressionism. His
later brilliant color contrasts and mosaic-like surfaces would influence many artists including Henri Matisse. 1 The work
in the Museum collection is from early in his career and is a study for one of his most famous Pointillist paintings.
The sketch in the Museum collection is a very good representation of the process used by Cross to create his
Pointillist paintings. This drawing is a rare and fascinating example of a figure study drawn from life with careful notes
of the color of his clothes. The young man, identified as a Basque, has been quickly sketched first in red crayon, and gone
over in black chalk. At lower left, the artist jotted the colors, for example, ‘beret bleu marin’, a ‘blue sailor’s cap’. The work
also displays the estate stamp of the artist.
The drawing was used as a study for the figure in the painting La Ferme (Matin) of 1893, which is in the Museum
of Fine Arts in Nancy, France. In the painting, the subject is present in nearly identical form and uses the color notes found
on the sketch. Furthermore, we can see the red used in the final painting in a similar, underlining method as in the work
from the Museum collection. La Ferme is considered one of Cross’ most important paintings and was in the collection of
the Fauvist master, Henri Matisse. 2
1 Art Institute of Chicago. Three Men, Half-Length (“Trois Hommes en
buste”), 1895/1900. Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol. 26,
No. 1, Maineri to Miró: The Regenstein Collection since 1975 (2000), pp.
Rusty Meadows ‘11
86-87+96. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4104445.
2Compin, Isabelle. H. E. Cross. Paris: Quatre Chemins - Editart, 1964.
Pages 131-132.
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 9

1
9
0
9
Arthur B. DAvies (American, 1862-1928)
nude, ca. 1909
White and black chalk on brown paper
10 in. x 8 in.
Gift of the Frederick and lucy s. herman Foundation
1993.022
10 | Curators at Work

This well-preserved study depicts a nude woman with her head in profile, rendered in black and cream-colored
pastel on dark brown paper. The woman is not realistically proportioned. Her small head and lengthened torso are
characteristic of Davies’ depictions of the female figure—elongated, tranquil, and pleasing to the eye. In fact, the idealized
female nude is central to Davies’ body of work. Bennard B. Perlman writes in his book The Lives, Loves, and Art of Arthur
B. Davies that the artist stressed, “symbolism and the supernatural, the imagination and erotic dreams. His canvases are
replete with idyllic visions of ethereal young women who appear to be twenty-something and never grow older.” 1
In the Museum files, the drawing is dated to 1909, however without explanation. Joseph S. Czestochowski, a
leading scholar on Davies and author of Arthur B. Davies: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Prints, believes the work should
be dated later. 2 Davies’ drawings are not easy to date precisely. If, indeed, the drawing was done around 1909, one can
speculate that the model depicted was Edna P. Potter, who began modeling for him in 1902 and who became his mistress
and later his wife. Potter was five feet nine inches tall, “just the sort of elongated figure Davies liked.” 3 A plate of Drawing
(retitled Reclining Woman) of 1911 is included in Perlman’s book mentioned above. This drawing, also pastel on dark
paper, is known to be of Potter, and this writer sees similarities in hairstyle and facial features to the model for Nude.
Arthur B. Davies is an artist best known for his involvement in the 1913 Armory Show, officially called the
International Exhibition of Modern Art, which for him was “a way of bringing art by living American and European artists
to a large segment of the population which was still unaware of, or looked askance at, any paintings by anyone more
recent than Millet.” 4 The show included works by the French Neoclassicists, Romantics, Realists, Impressionists, Post-
Impressionists, and, finally, the most gawked at, the Fauves and Cubists. 5 It attracted several thousands of guests over
the course of a week, and it is commonly thought that Davies, with this event, redirected the course of American art.
His friend and fellow artist, William Glackens, wrote at the time, “It seems to me that Arthur B. Davies stands alone in
America or even the world. He is the most important man in this country.” 6
Perlman points out that, while Davies is most remembered for this Armory Show, and also for being a member
of “The Eight,” the man had a “dark side.” 7 He had several different female lovers, and it was his lengthy affair with Edna
Potter that most influenced his life. Davies met Potter during the first few months of 1895 when she was a student at
the Art Students League, he employed her as his model in 1902, and they moved in together in 1905. Because he was
still married to another woman, he bought a second apartment and he and Edna even went by different names—Mr. and
Mrs. David A. Owen. Perlman writes, “to many it appeared as though Davies had had a personality change overnight.
He became secretive and aloof.” 8 For fear of being found out, the couple could not be seen in public places and new
friendships could not be encouraged. Davies even required a special knock to enter his studio, and his phone number
was unlisted. 9 Despite all of the anxiety the relationship must have caused, Davies continued to love Edna for twenty-five
years, as a partner and, as evidenced by this sketch and several other works, his muse.
1Bennard B. Perlman, The Lives, Loves, and Art of Arthur B. Davies
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998), xix-xx.
2Email correspondence with Joseph S. Czestochowski.
3Perlman, 128.
4Perlman, 208.
5 Perlman, 230.
6 Perlman, 219.
7 Perlman, xx.
8 Perlman, 130.
9 Perlman, 130.
Lenna Walker ‘11
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 11

1
9
2
3
Attilio PiCCirilli (American, 1866-1945)
Fragilina, c. 1923
Marble
28 1/4 in. h. x 8 1/8 in. w. x 16 in. d.
Bequest of Jay Johns
1975.137
12 | Curators at Work

This work is known by many names: Fragelina, Fragilina, Frageline. “Fragilina” means in Italian, “the little
delicate one.” This is the name used by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for their version of the work; however, Attilio
Piccirilli’s Biography by Josef Vincent Lombardo, refers to the work as Fragelina. 1 It is not known what the artist himself
called this piece. The Muscarelle acquired this work in 1975. It was bequeathed from the estate of Jay Winston Johns
upon his death in December of 1974. The Muscarelle has one of six known versions of this theme by the artist Piccirilli.
The original is considered to be the marble version owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There are also two bronze
versions and a marble one, all in private collections, and a marble maquette, which is currently for sale by Abby M. Taylor
Fine Art in Greenwich, Connecticut.
The Muscarelle version measures 28 1/4 x 8 1/8 x 16 in (71.8 x 20.7 x 40.7 cm) and is signed by the artist on
the lower right portion of the base, “Attilio Piccirilli.” It is generally dated to circa 1923, in reference to the date of the
Metropolitan example. The Metropolitan’s version is almost twice as large at 48.5 inches in height. It is signed and dated
on the base, “Attilio Piccirilli Fecit 1923,” and was acquired by The Metropolitan in 1926. The maquette, although similar in
size to the Museum’s version (23 3/4 x 7 x 14 inches), bears more resemblance to the realistic qualities of the work at the
Metropolitan. The maquette is generally dated to circa 1922. The Muscarelle’s version most resembles a marble version
depicted in Lombardo’s biography on Plate 38, page 239. This image is said to be from the collection of the sculptor and is
probably one of the two now housed in undisclosed private collections. 2
It is probable that the Muscarelle version was executed later than the Metropolitan work for several reasons. Its
graceful appearance distinguishes it from the greater naturalism of the maquette and Metropolitan pieces. Although the
carving has sensitivity, the forms appear generalized compared to the presumable prototype of the Metropolitan. There
is no doubt to the veracity of the signature, but the possibility of workshop assistance could not be ruled out. It is known
that Attilio was assisted by his five brothers: Ferruccio (ornamental sculptor), Furio (bas-relief/figural sculptor), Tomaso/
Masaniello (ornamental sculptor), Orazio/Horace (animal sculptor), and Getulio (marble sculptor).
Fragilina is one of several sculptures of idealized female nudes carved by Attilio. With one exception, The Flower
of the Alps, all of these nudes are seated and, again with one exception, Study of a Woman, his compositions represent
young maidens rather than fully mature women. Attilio’s earliest sculpture of a female nude, A Soul, was executed around
1909. After 1915 he began to address the theme more consistently. He created Fragilina in order to revisit A Soul with
which he “was not completely satisfied.” (152) The longitudinal axis of the body in Fragilina, in comparison to A Soul,
is noticeably inclined. The sculptor moved the right hand to underneath the chin, diminished the marble support and
background, and reduced the sharp definition of the hair and facial features. Piccirilli’s biography says: “By generalizing
the face so severely, which is not too consciously felt by the observer, the sculptor invites every spectator to substitute,
unconsciously, his own ideal of beauty ... This statue is an excellent example of Piccirilli’s modern-classical style.” 3
Attilio was born in Massa di Cararra, in Tuscany, Italy, on May 16, 1866. He was formally trained at the R.
Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. In 1888 the Piccirilli family immigrated to New York City and established their studio.
Attilio’s passing, on October 9, 1945, led to the end of the family business. While Attilio was head of the studio the
Piccirilli’s received the commissions for The Maine Memorial Monument in Central Park; Daniel Chester French’s Lincoln
in Washington, D.C., and The Fireman’s Monument in Riverside Drive, among many others. Attilio also co-founded the
Leonardo da Vinci Art School in New York City by providing inexpensive training in the fine arts to the working poor. The
biography published one year before his death gives a valuable window into the way Piccirilli’s works were thought of
during his lifetime:
“Piccirilli’s art stands out boldly for its discipline, simplicity, and dignity.... His sculpture was and is simply tailored, free
from adventitious detail and superficiality... Piccirilli’s style is distinctly personal and highly selective. Simplicity is his
gospel, restraint his creed.” 5
1 Lombardo, Josef Vincent. Attilio Piccirilli: Life of an American Sculptor.
New York: Pitman Corporation, 1944, 153.
2 Lombardo, 239.
Kennis Forte ‘13
3Lombardo, 154.
4http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/piccirilli/ 5Lombardo, 2.
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 13

1
9
2
9
BlAnChe lAzzell (American, 1878-1956)
Abstraction, 1929
Watercolor and pencil
9 in. x 5 7/8 in.
Purchase, Museum Acquisition Fund and Jean outland Chrysler Memorial Fund
1984.002
14 | Curators at Work

Abstraction is signed and dated ‘B. Lazzell. 29’ in the lower right corner, and inscribed with the title, location of
composition, and the date on the reverse. In this work, Blanche Lazzell reveals the influence of her Parisian teachers from
her time spent in Europe, most notably Albert Gleizes. During her trip to Paris in 1923, she began to examine principles
of Cubism which would affect her oeuvre for much of the remainder of the decade. This work from 1929 appears to be
composed bearing a sense of familiarity with principles taught by Gleizes in the early 1920s, after he had formulated his
definitive system of composition in 1921 and when he began teaching. His book, La Peinture et ses lois, written after his
time spent with two Irish artists, Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett, expressed many of these principles which surely affected
the work of Blanche Lazzell.
Albert Gleizes “insisted that the painting was first and foremost an organization of shapes and colors within a
given space”, 1 denoting that in an abstract work, figurative forms lost their importance. His tendency to favor “the use of
shapes compatible with the two-dimensional nature of the picture plane” is evident in Lazzell’s Abstraction. 2 Her shapes
are non-figural as well as very flat and planar. Lazzell uses a variety of angles and shapes which surround the central axis
of the canvas to compose her work, as can be seen in many of her paintings during this period. 3
Blanche Lazzell was hailed an important modern artist during her time, and seemed to embrace her identity
as a pioneer in modern art movement. Many of her works during the 1920s are titled only by numbers, lending a “nonobjective
quality” to her paintings which contributed to her artistic goal of total abstraction. 4 One critic cited her work
as being a part of “the transitional phase between the academic and the ultra modern” after an exhibit at the Berkeley
League of Fine Arts. 5 In Abstraction there is a clear reflection of the modernist principles of the importance of shape and
the movement away from figuration.
Blanche Lazzell was an American artist born in 1878 in West Virginia. A graduate of West Virginia University,
she would call Morgantown, West Virginia, her hometown throughout her life, although much of her career centered
in Provincetown, Massachusetts, an artist’s colony on Cape Cod. Lazzell is recognized as an early twentieth-century
innovator for her work in printmaking, painting, and the decorative arts. After two voyages to Europe to study painting
before the mid-1920s, Lazzell experimented with the Cubist ideas that informed the style of her 1929 watercolor work
Abstraction, painted in Provincetown.
1 Robert Bridges, Kristina Olson, and Janet Snyder, Eds,
Blanche Lazzell: The Life and Work of an American Modernist
(Morgantown, West Virginia University Press, 2004) 210.
2 Ibid, 208.
3 Ibid, 217.
4 Ibid, 37.
5 Ibid, 37.
Jessica Dupont ‘11
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 15

1
9
3
7
thoMAs hArt Benton (American, 1889-1975)
Goin’ home, 1937
lithograph, edition of 250
sheet: 15 1/4 in. x 17 1/2 in.; image: 9 1/2 in. x 12 in.
the Clare and Arthur W. Jones Collection; gift of Clare Jones
1997.110
16 | Curators at Work

Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) is one of three artists who pioneered the Regionalist movement at the
beginning of the twentieth century. Born in Missouri, Benton’s Regionalist movement was focused on visualizing the
American landscape as well as the tribulations its citizens faced. 1 Benton began his career at the Art Institute of Chicago.
He later studied in Paris at the Académie Julian where art was becoming very abstract and political. After studying in Paris
he decided that he wanted his art to have political references without being non-representational. 2 Regionalists tried to
recreate the ideals of the American Dream by avoiding the dawn of the Great Depression. Benton was greatly influenced
by the New Deal and the changes that it would implement for Americans. The Associated American Artists (AAA) allowed
for the marketing and mass production of Benton’s lithographs and etchings. 3 Benton later taught at the Art Students’
League in New York where he trained Jackson Pollock. He moved to the Kansas City Art Institute in the mid-1930s where
he continued teaching, drawing, and painting until his death.
Although most remembered for his murals in the Missouri State Capitol and the Truman Library, Benton produced
several lithographs in his lifetime. Goin’ Home was made in 1937 on the basis of a 1928 drawing, which was preparatory
to a painting of 1929 in a private collection in New York City. Riding as a passenger in another cart, through the Great
Smokey Mountains of North Carolina, Benton followed these people until he completed his drawing. The lithograph
follows the typical style of Benton’s drawings and painting. 4
Similar to his other lithographs, Benton places an emphasis on landscape and the people that maintain and live
by the land. The people are drawn much like caricatures or cartoons. They appear almost faceless to show that they are
representative of all American people. The large wheels of the cart may represent the turning wheels of time and the cutoff
view into the distance perhaps alludes to the unknowable future that lies ahead. The twisted figures seem to wilt away
with the background.
1 Jane Rohman, “Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975),” Museum of
Nebraska Art, http://mona.unk.edu/modern/benton.shtml.
2 Earle Davis, “Benton’s Contribution to American Art,” in An American
in Art, ed. Thomas Hart Benton (Kansas City: University Press of
Kansas, 1969), 1-6.
Chelsea Bell ‘13
3 Erika Doss, Twentieth Century American Art (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2002), 108-113.
4 Creekmore Fath, ed., The Lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton, 2nd ed.
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), 48-49.
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 17

1
9
4
5
MAx WeBer (American, 1881-1961)
Blue and red, 1945
oil on canvas
13 3/8 in. x 20 1/4 in.
Gift of Maynard J. and Dorothy F. Weber
1994.153
18 | Curators at Work

A prolific artist with a lengthy career, Max Weber chose still life as one of his primary directions. While Weber is
recognized today as the first American to seriously paint in the Cubist style, he is known as an Expressionist who touched
on virtually every phase of Modernism throughout his career. 1 Throughout the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, working in different
styles, Weber created many signature still life works for which he was praised and became famous. Many of the artist’s
still life variations feature a scalloped bowl like the one featured in the work Blue and Red, (1945) in the collection of the
Muscarelle Museum of Art. The image of the scalloped bowl is taken from an actual white vessel owned by the Weber family.
The colonial bowl – as it is called in other paintings – is now in the possession of Weber’s daughter, Joy. 2 Weber was
fascinated by certain objects he repeatedly painted throughout his life. The colonial bowl probably served as a touchstone
of sorts for him. 3 Blue and Red is a characteristic work of the 1940s when Weber looked back to his earlier career and addressed
cubist forms in new ways. This still life is noticeably more aligned with Synthetic Cubism than his earlier work. 3
In addition to a vessel, Blue and Red also represents apples and a loaf of bread. These are the typical motifs found
in Weber’s still life compositions. Similar motifs in a simple arrangement are found in a 1908 still life by Pablo Picasso that
Weber bought directly from him in Paris. 5
During Weber’s four years of study and travel in Europe between 1905 and 1909, he came into contact with, and
was very much affected by, the Parisian avant garde. 7 The artist briefly studied under Matisse and became acquainted
with Henri Rousseau and Pablo Picasso. He also was introduced to Paul Cézanne’s work in the 1906 Salon d’Automne. 8
These modern artistic perspectives had an immense impact on the rest of Weber’s career. He was most influenced by
Cézanne, whom he revered as the “father of modern painting”. In Blue and Red this influence is especially apparent in the
strategically tilted table top that allows the viewer to see the objects on top more clearly. Blue and Red is representative
of Weber’s tendency toward abstractions in which the subject matter remains largely recognizable. According to Weber
expert Dr. Percy North, Blue and Red is among a group of paintings that reflect Weber’s return to the investigation of cubist
strategies after 25 years of exploring other pictorial avenues. 9
1 Percy North email correspondence March 23, 2011; Alfred Werner, Max
Weber (New York: Harry Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1975), 15; Cecilia
Bonn, “Max Weber: Paintings from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s,” (New York:
Gerald Peters Gallery, 2008).
2 Percy North email correspondence March 23, 2011
3 Percy North email correspondence March 23, 2011
4 Percy North email correspondence March 23, 2011
5 Percy North, “Bringing Cubism to America: Max Weber and Pablo
Erin Sexton ‘11
Picasso,” American Art 14 (2000) 65.
6 Sylvan Cole Jr., foreword to Max Weber: lithographs New York: Associated
American Artists, 1970.
7 Bonn, “Max Weber: Paintings from the 1930s, 40s and 50s.”
8 Gail Stavitsky, “Cézanne and American Modernism,” in Cézanne and
American Modernism, ed. Gail Stavitsky and Katherine Rothkopf (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 24.
9 Percy North email correspondence March 23, 2011
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 19

1
9
5
3
MArino MArini (italian, 1901-1980)
horse and rider, 1953
ink and gouache on paper
24 in. x 16 15/16 in.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. ralph lamberson
1987.034
20 | Curators at Work

Marino Marini was an Italian sculptor, painter, and graphic artist who specialized in equestrian sculptures
rendered in an expressive Cubism. Born in Pistoia, Italy, he enrolled at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence in 1917.
As a student, Marini was influenced by the art of Mediterranean antiquity, International Gothic style, and the medieval
renaissance; his work throughout the rest of his career continued to draw on these styles. 1 His favored subjects of focus
were the equestrian theme, the myth of the knight, the Pomonas, portraits, and circus characters. 2 Marini’s first major
solo exhibition showed in Milan in 1932, followed by exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, the Milan Triennale, and the Rome
Quadriennale. 3 During the 1950s and 1960s, a series of his exhibitions opened throughout Europe and in New York City,
bringing him international acclaim, as well as several prestigious prizes. The Museo Marino Marini opened in Florence
in 1973, and today contains a permanent collection of 182 works that includes sculptures, paintings, drawings, and
engravings. 4 Marini died in Viareggio, Italy, in 1980.
Marini’s 1953 Horse and Rider is ink and gouache on paper. The painting is composed of an underlying green layer
covered by a rapidly brushed field of blue, laid over by a warm ochre field whose shape evokes an ancient tablet. Before
the blue paint dried Marini went over it in ochre, creating a layered look between colors that calls to mind a palimpsest of
antiquity. He initially formed the main body of ochre using short, horizontal brushstrokes before adding longer, sweeping
strokes around the edges. The figures of a horse with a mounted rider are centered, drawn in fine lines of black pen.
Marini’s original signature is scratched into the paint between the horse’s forelegs, but was later redone in more visible
ink in the lower right corner. A swath of yellow was added to the bottom of the main field to make space for the signature,
with the date signed above his name; this singular wide stroke is spontaneous in its positioning and application.
The horse and rider were initially outlined in pen, but Marini returned with a brush to add shadows to the figures
for relief in a manner that is telling of his background and training as a sculptor. The horse has only three legs, with one
rear leg missing, but still strikes as a strong figure. In contrast, the man, whose body is boxy and unrefined, sits clutching
one arm in a suggestion of weakness or injury, possibly connected to sexual potency. His face, though drawn in crude
lines, shows an unsmiling expression. The rider’s leg shares a line with the horse’s left foreleg, combining the figures and
signifying a close association between the two.
Another Marini painting, Cavallo e Cavaliere from 1952, is done in gouache and India ink on paper, employing a
similar arrangement of a horse and rider in profile, again showing only three legs of the horse. The two figures are set on a
field of beige with an underlying muted brown that shows around the edges of the figures. As in his 1953 Horse and Rider,
the body of the rider is more geometric than the organic shape of his mount, but the man is faceless and his expression
indecipherable, whereas the horse’s face is detailed.
Both paintings belong to a group of Marini’s works in the early 1950s executed in gouache and lithograph that
are reminiscent of ancient drawings rubbed by time. The “horse and rider” is a characteristic archetype of Marini, and his
style in the early 1950s comes away from strongly cubist pieces—the horses are more attenuated, with almost stick-like
legs. Marini’s work of this time period often depicts a chaotic world, in which man has little control over his steed, which
grows wilder and more stubborn in each rendition. Marini’s style uses vivid, contrasting colors, and graphical elements
like lines and dashes of color to convey Marini’s feelings about the future, which he expressed as the belief that “we are
approaching the end of the world.” 5
1Marino Marini Biography, Art Directory, http://www.marini-marino.
com/.
2Museo Marino Marini – Foundation – Permanent collection, Marino
Marini Museum, http://www.museomarinomarini.it/section.
php?page=fondazione&sezione=10.
Simone Peer ‘12
3 Marino Marini Biography.
4 Museo Marino Marini – Foundation – Permanent collection.
5 Marino Marini (1901-1980) | Piccolo cavaliere, Christie’s, http://www.
christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObje
ctID=5313318.
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 21

1
9
6
4
MAn rAY (American, 1890-1976)
il reale Assoluto (the real Absolute), 1964
lithograph, 42/100,
sheet: 12 13/16 in. x 9 1/8 in.
Purchase
1973.021
22 | Curators at Work

This lithograph was printed by Man Ray (1890-1976) 1 in 1964 to be used as an illustration in Arturo Schwarz’s book
of surrealist poetry, Il Reale Assoluto, published in Milan. The image represents a hand that has been drawn with added
details to resemble the figures of two nude women. The printed image also includes the numbers “17-3-64” printed upside
down at the top right of the page-which is thought to be the date that Man Ray created the print-and an unexplained
number “11112” at the bottom left. Although unsigned, this print is numbered 42/100, which is written in pencil in the
bottom left corner of the page. 2
The image of a hand in this print is significant as hands are a motif that appear frequently in Surrealist art and
literature. 3 Kirsten Powell, Professor of Art History at Middlebury College, comments in her essay, “Hands-On Surrealism,”
how hands appear in different guises and embody a multiplicity of meanings. Powell also asserts that some Surrealist
artists were interested in palm reading, “[b]ut in general, artists were more taken with the idea of the palm as a metaphor
for surfaces whose unexpected transparency reveals something hidden.” 4 This idea of the “transparent hand” is echoed in
the poem, “La Curva” that is on the page facing Man Ray’s illustration in Il Reale Assoluto.
The motif of hands was also notably meaningful for Man Ray, whose chosen name resembles the French word for
hand, main. Man Ray was known to appreciate the pun and often included hands or handprints in his own self-portrait
photographs or constructions. The fact that the image of the hand can also be read as two nude women in a close embrace
also suggests erotic potential of the body and a rethinking of the female form, two subjects that reoccur frequently
over the course of Man Ray’s artistic career. Along these lines, Francis Naumann, a scholar who specializes in Dada and
Surrealist art, humorously quipped: “In 1964, Man Ray was 74 years old, but some things never get off a man’s mind (pun
intended).” 5
Yet, while hands and nude women were frequent motifs in Man Ray’s photography and sculptures, the print does
not fit into a neat timeline of his work but appears as an example of experimentation and rethinking of similar motifs in
another medium. This is arguably characteristic of Man Ray, as the author Merry A. Foresta asserts in her essay, “Lost in
Translation: Man Ray and the Shifting Milieu of Modernism”: “For most of the twentieth century Man Ray sampled from
a variety of aesthetic ideas and critical precepts, including American modernism, Parisian Dada, and Surrealism on both
sides of the Atlantic. As a result his art had no linear progression that would give it stylistic cohesion. He compensated by
offering a body of work based on ideas rather than form, producing art in various media that could accommodate a range
of interpretations.” 6 Moreover, this would also give reason as to why characteristically Surrealist themes and motifs were
being reconsidered and used as an illustration decades after the artistic movement had ended.
1-2This book also contains other illustrations by Man Ray and Marcel
Duchamp, including Duchamp’s Certificat de Lecture, a lithograph that
depicts Four Readymades as noted by Professor Francis Naumann,
email to author, February 15, 2011.
3Kirsten H. Powell, “Hands-On Surrealism,” Art History 20.4 (1997): 517,
accessed February 16, 2011.
4Kirsten H. Powell, “Hands-On Surrealism,” Art History 20.4 (1997): 517,
Kathryn Fay ‘11
accessed February 16, 2011.
5Professor Francis Naumann, email to author, February 15, 2011;
Kirsten H. Powell, “Hands-On Surrealism,” Art History 20.4 (1997): 523,
accessed February 16, 2011.
6Merry A. Foresta, “Lost in Translation: Man Ray and the Shifting Milieu
of Modernism” in Mason Klein’s Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention,
(New Haven, Yale University Press, 2009), 107.
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 23

1
9
6
9
PABlo PiCAsso (spanish, 1881-1973)
visage, Picasso edition Madoura Pitcher, 1969
White clay with glaze and paint
12 1/2 in. h. x 3 in. diam.
Gift of rene A. henry
2010.024
24 | Curators at Work

This Picasso Edition © original print of Picasso’s 1969 pitcher entitled Visage, or Face is a cream colored glazed
turned clay pitcher with a handle and pouring spout decorated with an abstract women’s face in the artist’s characteristic
style. 1 The eyes, eyebrow, nose and mouth of the female face are defined by a wide green lines. Wavy red-brown lines
cascading down the side of the vase suggest hair on either side of the women’s face. The tall slender pitcher with curving
sides has a round pinched spout and an attached right angled handle. Picasso used this same form in other works, often
decorating pitchers with figures of women or women’s faces.
This pitcher is an authentic Madoura Edition Picasso work, as indicated by the painted inscription on the bottom
that reads, “EDITION Picasso, 282/500, MADOURA”. The inscription of the authentication is emphasized with black paint.
Directly below the handle is another inscription that reads “9.1.69”, the date the original pitcher was created by Picasso.
On this same day, January 9, 1969, Picasso created two similar pitchers of male faces using the same colors. 2
Pablo Picasso was sixty-six years old in 1947 when he made his first ceramics. Suzanne and Georges Ramie
maintained a well known workshop in Vallauris, located in the south of France, near Picasso’s residence there. In return
for the use of their workshop, Picasso authorized the Ramies to make and sell copies of his works. The Madoura Workshop
produced both replicas of originals by Picasso and authorized reproductions, called “prints”. Original prints of Picasso
were made using the transfer from an original subject engraved on a hardened plaster matrix and applying a fresh sheet
to take the clay impression. All original prints of Picasso, for example this Visage pitcher, are inscribed with the label
Edition Picasso to authenticate the work. 3
This original print of Picasso was purchased directly from the Madoura Workshop on February 23, 1976 by the
donor. Since its purchase from the Madoura Gallery the pitcher has never been on display in any exhibition but remained
in the donor’s private collection before giving it to the Muscarelle Museum of Art in 2010.
1 Pablo Picasso, Face, 1969, in Picasso: Catalogue of the Edited Ceramic
Works 1947-1971, by Alain Ramie (n.p.: Galerie Madoura, 1998), 293, no
611.
2 Pablo Picasso, Face with points, and Face with Circles,1969, in Picasso:
Catalogue of the Edited Ceramic Works 1947-1971, by Alain Ramie (n.p.:
Mallory Meaney ‘12
Galerie Madoura, 1998), 293, nos 610, 612.
3 Alain Ramie, “Pablo Picasso and Ceramics,” Galerie Madoura, Editions
Picasso, accessed April 2, 2011, last modified 2007, http://www.
madoura.com/foreword.html.
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 25

1
9
7
2
ClAes olDenBurG (American, b. 1929)
Baked Potato with Butter, 1972
Color lithograph, 1/100
sheet: 30 3/16 in. x 39 5/8 in.
Purchase, Museum Acquisition Fund
1987.028
26 | Curators at Work

Oldenburg’s Baked Potato with Butter is a lithograph print of a cooked potato, sliced open with a piece of butter
protruding from the center. The bottom of the potato is parallel to a curving line which appears to represent a ground or
base line. The potato is set against a field of yellow with a brown patterning that crosses outside the lines designating the
colored background.
The baked potato is a recurring image in much of Oldenburg’s work throughout the 1960s and 1970s in both print
and sculpture media. He began with soft sculptures of potatoes in the 1960s (Baked Potato #1 in 1963), but by 1964 was
developing hard plaster versions (Baked Potato in 1967). In regards to his multiple sculptures of potatoes, Oldenburg
states that “the multiple object for me was the sculptor’s solution to making a print.” By 1971, Oldenburg began making
lithographic prints of potatoes produced by Petersburg Press. There are also numerous sketches of the baked potato
as an imaginary colossal monument; colossal monuments were one of Oldenburg’s most noted products. In describing
his fondness for the potato motif, Oldenburg states that “the pleasure of the baked potato, apart from its mass, is in the
sitting of the potato – east, west, north, south – compressing its sides and then laying into the slit a geometrical shape
of butter and watching it melt.” Oldenburg appears to be making a playful comparison between the baked potato image
and the female sex, thus updating a comic tradition of visual puns that was common in antiquity and the Renaissance.
Oldenburg similarly referenced phallic imagery in another lithograph in the Museum collection, Soft Fire Plug Inverted,
1973.
Oldenburg’s early prints, such as Baked Potato with Butter, feature “interplay between the paper surface and
the image.” Thus, the paper was often handmade and textured. Here, corrugated cardboard was used in the printmaking
process to give the background a fractured appearance. Oldenburg used the pattern created by cardboard to convey the
character of his studio: “The corrugated look was influenced by what I saw on boxes in the studio.” The lithograph print
seen here is constructed in eight colors on white, thick, moderately textured Hodgkinson handmade paper. The work is
signed and dated with graphite in the lower right corner. The edition number is found in graphite in the lower left corner;
the copyright blind stamp is located in the lower right. Published by Petersburg Press, the work is of an edition of onehundred.
The eight zinc plates used in printing include tan, light brow, blue-grey, yellow, brown, black, red-brown, and
black. The work was exhibited in 1973, and multiple times throughout the early 1990s.
References:
Axsom, Richard H., and David Platzker. Printed Stuff: prints, posters,
and ephemera by Claes Oldenburg: A catalogue raisonee 1958-1996.
New York: Hudsom Hills Press, 1997.
Kelsey Weissgold ‘11
Ramkalawon, Jennifer. “Claes Oldenburg.” Simmons & Simmons .
http://www.simmonscontemporary.com/artistinformation/_17/.
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 27

1
9
7
4
JiM Dine (American, b. 1935)
Piranesi’s 24, 1974-1976
etching with hand-coloring, edition 11/30
sheet 39 1/4 in. x 27 3/4 in.; Plate: 26 in. x 24 in.
Purchase, Acquired with funds from the Gene A. and Mary A. Burns Bequest
2011.002
28 | Curators at Work

Piranesi’s 24 is one of more than 60 prints by Jim Dine representing tools. It is one of three prints of essentially
the same arrangement of a series of six tools. Dine derived three separate prints from the same plate with a series of
modifications: for example, more tools with each new edition. Piranesi’s 24 differs from the two other prints pulled from
this plate in the row of the 24 watercolor brush marks, personally added by Dine below the etching. These prints are
described and catalogued in Jim Dine Prints: 1970-1977. Piranesi’s 24 is 11/30 on wove paper and is signed and dated in
pencil by the artist. The work is executed in etching that has been worked with a variety of tools in addition to the needle.
For example, according to Riva Castleman, the handprint at the lower right was obtained “by pressing a glove into the
heated hard ground on the plate surface, thereby by removing some of the ground and exposing the copper to the action
of the acid.” Piranesi’s 24 refers to the mid eighteenth-century Italian etcher, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78), who is
famous for his black-and-white etchings of Rome and prisons. Scholars suggest that the reference is an ironic comparison
between Piranesi’s ancient monuments and Dine’s hieratic tools. 1
Jim Dine is well known for using ordinary objects as a stand-in of himself (such as a robe). During the 1960s and
1970s, he began using objects as a way of illustrating his version of his autobiography. He has stated that his images of
tools were inspired by the hardware store that his father and grandfather owned and managed in Cincinnati. The store
sold hardware tools, painting tools, and even plumbing supplies. For Dine, tools are a symbol of what the modern man
has accomplished and what man can do, and they also express his admiration of his father and grandfather and their
expertise on such tools. The emotional importance of these objects is expressed through the eye-level perspective: the
tools are of exact size but they seem to loom larger.
From left to right, the tools have been identified as follows: (1) pair of diagonal pliers, (2) unknown, (3) unknown,
(4) pair of scissors, (5) unknown, (6) monkey wrench, (7) unknown, (8) unknown, (9) mallet, and (10) a kind of drill. Other
presences are seen amid the hardware. On the far left side, in front of the pair of diagonal pliers, there is an impression
that looks to be of a feather. Dine also adds the glove (mentioned above). The tools vary in purpose, but all show signs of
use. An expert would know them all.
A rich variety of textures, scratch marks, and false biting give the etching its spontaneous character. The row of
single brushstrokes of different hues of watercolor evoke a painter’s palette or the color swatches in a hardware store.
They also emphasize the artist’s personal involvement in the image. 2
1 Dine, Jim. Jim Dine Prints, 1970-1977. New York: Published in
Association with the Williams College Artist-in-residence Program by
Harper & Row, 1977. Print.
2 Dine, Jim. Jim Dine Prints, 1970-1977.
Christina Hecker ‘12
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 29

1
9
7
8
JAsPer Johns (American, b. 1930)
Periscope, 1978-1981
Color sugar aquatint on rives buff mould paper, 35/88
sheet: 41 3/8 in. x 29 1/2 in.; Plate: 34 1/4 in. x 24 3/8 in.
Purchase, Museum Acquisition Fund
1986.013
30 | Curators at Work

Jasper Johns is considered a forerunner of Pop Art. He is sometimes labeled a Neo-Dadaist for his use of
newsprint and other ephemeral materials paired with subjects gleaned from popular American imagery, such as flags
and targets. 1
Periscope by Jasper Johns, acquired by the Muscarelle Museum of Art in 1986, is a color sugar aquatint on
Rives Buff Mould Paper, printed at the Petersburg Press, Inc. in 1981. Edition 35/88, it is 41 3/8 x 29 1/2 ins. (105.1 x 74.9
cm), while the plate dimensions are 1/4 x 24 3/8 ins. (87.0 x 61.9 cm). The abstract composition is dominated by three
horizontal blocks of red, yellow and blue, overlaid with text. In the upper right, the artist’s handprint lies within a dark
yellow semi-circle which breaks the red and yellow blocks. Scattered texts overlaying the three blocks, “red,” “yellow,” and
“blue,” the three primaries misidentify the areas of color, although the blocks are largely discolored.
He explored this composition in earlier works of the 1960s including Field Painting, Lands End, and Periscope
(Hart Crane), all oil on canvas. These pieces, especially Periscope (Hart Crane), help explain the philosophy behind the
museum’s aquatint. “Hart Crane” refers to the American modernist poet (1899-1932). Crane’s poetry focused on optimism
despite his despairing personality. In one quatrain, he writes:
“A periscope to glimpse what joys or pain
Our eyes can share or answer—then deflects
Us, shuting to a labyrinth submersed
Where each sees only his dim past reversed…” 2
Crane committed suicide by jumping overboard from a ship in the Gulf of Mexico in 1932. 3 Critic Phillip Fisher states that
the works use of color emphasizes:
“These are paintings from the winter of the history of color. The great painting, Periscope (Hart Crane) of 1963 devotes
its 3 vertical bands almost to the funeral of “RED,” then “YELLOW,” and finally, “BLUE.” A skeletal hand sweeps the
paint into a semicircular target or eye, or dark entrance to a tube at the top right of the work. The words refer to what
has been foregone. He has made of painting a practice that can be itself effaced, yet carried out triumphantly as an act
of making and effacing art. The museum strategies are part of the melancholy of art.” 4
Johns has been influenced by existential philosophy. His work often expresses a deep skepticism regarding the
authenticity of the concept of Art. Critic Rosalind Krauss referred to it as “Romantic Irony”
“It is a type of irony often called Romantic, in that it expressed the deep skepticism of 19th century artists about the
Classical canons of form, their sense that authenticity derived only from the speculative or imaginative act, and the
inevitable fact that this was all transitory.” “With the emptiness of the notion of pictorial space there comes as well a
radical leveling of the concept of genre—the variousness of pictorial types through which to express or embody that
space.” 5
The text featured in the composition, the phrase yellow, is boldly stamped in a dark navy on a ground of blue, calling
attention to the blatant lie told on the canvas. The hand print, slapped onto the spreading circle is a signature frequently
used by Johns. Its prominence within the invasive circle perhaps alludes to the struggle and desperation felt by both Crane
and Johns in their pursuit of artistic truth.
1 Anthony Mason, A History of Western Art: From Prehistory to the
Twentieth Century, ed. John Spike (Florence: McRae Books, 2007), 120.
2 Richard Francis, Jasper Johns, Modern Masters (New York: Abbeville
Press, 1984), 54.
3 Poetryfoundation.org
4 Philip Fisher, “Jasper Johns: Strategies for Making and Effacing Art,”
Critical Inquiry, Vol. 16, no. 2. 1990
5 Rosalind Krauss, “Jasper Johns: The function of Irony,” October Vol. 2,
(1976): 92
Caitlin Fairchild ‘11
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 31

1
9
8
8
DonAlD K. sultAn (American, b. 1951)
Morning Glories, 1988
silkscreen, 6/100
sheet: 23 in. x 22 in. image: 12 in. x 12 in.
Purchase, Joseph and Margaret Muscarelle Art endowment Fund
1989.006
32 | Curators at Work

Sultan’s Morning Glories is a silkscreen print of two blue morning glory flowers on a black background. The larger
flower has a red center, and both flowers have undertones of red beneath their blue petals. Both flowers also have green
leaves. Along the left vertical margin of the composition it is titled and signed by the artist in graphite “Morning Glories
July 1988 DS.” The edition number is found in the lower right corner, it is six of one hundred.
Sultan references a vast history of still life and vanitas themes in his work. 1 His famous lemons series is a clear reference
to Manet’s Lemon 1880-1881. Morning Glories are also a prominent theme of Sultan’s. He did a later series in 1990 of
etched black and white morning glories Morning Glories I, II and III . In a lecture at the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art
where a retrospective of his work was being exhibited Sultan said of his morning glories, “I wanted to own the image of
the morning glory. I want people to think of me when they see the image of the morning glory.” 2
Sultan has taken one of the most traditional themes in art history, still life compositions, and brought it into the
21st century. He allows lemons, or in this case morning glories, to fill all of the composition space, rendering the still life
subject monumental in scale. The subject is also abstracted and almost iconic because of the scale of the composition.
There are specific references in this piece as well. The smooth edges made by the silkscreen technique, as well
as the contrast between the cool blue and green, and the dramatic red and black recall the paintings of the German
expressionist Emil Nolde. And the mystery endowed by the red layer beneath the blue petals is very reminiscent of the
still life flower compositions of the symbolist Odilon Redon. 3
1 Ian Dunlop, Donald Sultan (New York: Museum of Contemporary Art,
Chicago and Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1987), 16.
http://artbrokerage.com/artist/Donald-Sultan/Morning-Glories-I--II-
-III-579 April 13,2011.
Nora Ives ‘12
2 Donald Sultan, Genesis of Morning Glories (Fort Worth Museum of
Modern Art: Donald Sultan Retrospective, March 27th 2009).
3 Antony Mason and edited by John T. Spike History of Western Art (New
York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2007).
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 33

1
9
8
8
WAYne thieBAuD (American, b. 1920)
eight lipsticks, 1988
Color drypoint and etching, 53/60
14 1/16 in. x 12 in.; Plate: 6 15/16 in. x 6 in.
Purchase, Jean outland Chrysler Fund
1988.084
34 | Curators at Work

Eight Lipsticks, 1988 by Wayne Thiebaud is one of 60 prints created at Crown Point Press in San Francisco,
California. Two rows of four lipsticks in various colors, sizes, and shapes appear to be arranged as if on display in a store’s
cosmetics department. The print is on Somerset Satin and contains ink colors of Cobalt Blue, Thalo Blue, Black, Golden
Yellow, and Yellow Ochre Medium. The sheet is 14 1/16 x 12” and the plate size is 6 15/16” x 6”. The artist has signed his last
name and the date 1988 in pencil near the lower left hand corner of the image. 53/60 has also been written in pencil near
the image in the lower right hand corner. A blind stamp from the publisher in the lower right corner of the sheet features
the name and logo of the printing company, Crown Point Press, and the name of the print maker, Lawrence J. Hamlin. The
original copper plate was also used for a second edition printed in black titled Lipsticks – Black. This second edition was
printed in an edition of 15 with 10 artist’s proofs. The plates were cancelled in May 1988 after both editions were pulled. 1
The technique is almost entirely drypoint, although some sources mention etching as well.
Thiebaud often repeated subjects and compositions in different mediums. Two earlier Thiebaud works that
feature the same subject in similar compositions to Eight Lipsticks: an oil painting Lipsticks, 1964 (12 x 9”) and a work in
pastel on paper Lipsticks, 1964 (10 x 9”). Both works feature two rows of four lipsticks and were sold from the Alan Stone
Gallery in New York where Thiebaud first had an exhibition in 1962. 2 All three works share many characteristics, but the
1988 Eight Lipsticks print is a reverse image of the earlier works as a result of the drypoint printing process. The shadows
in the print are cast in the opposite direction and the front and back row of lipsticks line up differently.
Thiebaud’s focus on the form of objects allows for visual analogies between his subjects and other unrelated
items. For example in Eight Lipsticks, one can recognize the correlation between the lipsticks and skyscraper or bullets.
Visual analogies such as the one seen here are common in both Thiebaud’s landscape and still life works.
Thiebaud’s depiction of lipstick compares well to Andy Warhol’s Pop Art images such as Marilyn Diptych, 1962
and Marilyn Monroe’s Lips, 1962. Warhol’s works highlight the sensuality of the celebrity’s kiss through lips, lipstick,
and mouths in the same way as Thiebaud’s print. The lipsticks also highlight a contrast between individuality and mass
production.
Thiebaud’s printmaking at Crown Point Press in 1988 was publicized in the April issue of San Francisco Magazine
and in the Fall 1988 Crown Point Newsletter. A California native, Thiebaud was in residence in San Francisco at Crown
Point Press from January 5-17, 1988 when he completed the plates for this image and Country City, a landscape scene. 3
Thiebaud’s works almost always include a direct, fluorescent light source that defines the forms, yet also
purposefully keeps certain parts of the forms undefined in order to mimic effects of halation around forms. 4 This can be
seen in Eight Lipsticks as each lipstick is defined by a combination of lines in various colors rather than any single line or
shape.
1Crown Point Press Certificate on Eight Lipsticks.
2Karen Tsujimoto, Wayne Thiebaud, (Seattle: University of Washington,
1985) pp. 38.
3 Crown Point Press Newsletter, Fall 1988
4 Tsujimoto, 1985, pp. 49.
Jason Gangwer ‘12
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 35

2
0
0
3
JAune QuiCK-to-see sMith (native American, b. 1940)
Wine speckled Water, 2003
Charcoal and pencil
24 x 20 in.
Purchase, Gene A. and Mary A. Burns Art Acquisitions Fund, Julian W. Fore Muscarelle
endowment, and vinyard Acquisitions and Conservation endowment
2008.200
36 | Curators at Work

These two drawings by Native American artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith belong to a group of six purchased by the
Muscarelle Museum of Art in 2008. They are representative of many major themes which continually appear throughout
Smith’s career. Concepts such as the importance of land and effects of its loss, heritage, politics, and the evolution of
cultural identity play key roles in these six drawings and illustrate many of the cultural issues Smith communicates
through her works. A good introduction to her ideas is found in the wall texts that accompanied Smith’s exhibition, “Jaune
Quick-to-See Smith: Contemporary Native American Paintings and the Response to Colonization…Anniversary of the
Beginning…Beginning of the End”, at the Muscarelle Museum in 2007. “To contextualize Quick-To-See Smith’s work, is
to consider the processes and impact of the colonial encounter and the resulting displacement, land loss, resistance, and
survival of indigenous people.” 1 While these themes are based in Native American culture and addressed from a Native
American viewpoint, Smith is able to visually extend these ideas to a much broader cultural audience. She was quoted in
the exhibit as saying,
Culture is our identity
It makes us different one from another.
Culture is our history, yours and mine.
Culture tells who we are.
Robots and computers will never have it.
If you take your Soma Pill you won’t have it either. 2
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith makes it clear from her own words that culture is what makes us human. Smith’s works
are created from an inside Native American perspective on the ancient origins of American history and look outward into
what America has become. Because Smith and other Native American artists hold a unique position in their knowledge
of the history of this land, their work resides in a liminal space between cultures. Smith uses this unique perspective
to try “to enlighten people” and educate them of past and present issues within Native American culture. Because
culture is such an important aspect of these works it is necessary to be familiar with Native American traditions and
history in order to more fully understand their meaning. Without the historical context and cultural code it is difficult to
comprehend the multiple levels often presented within Smith’s works whether they be serious, humorous or both.
The simple, outlined forms in these six drawings resemble the symbols and styles used by Native Americans,
particularly those in the plains, to decorate and record events or biographies on items such as tipis, clothing, shields,
and ledgers. Particularly relevant for Quick-to-See Smith would be items such as The Five Crows Ledger, which is
directly associated with the Flathead people. 3 The influence of both modern and ancient artists is particularly apparent
in these six charcoal and pencil drawings which reflect “the physically shallow buy psychologically open space” often
associated with Smith’s earlier works as well as early primitive drawings. 4 These elements create a “multidimensional
and compressed view of space and time” which relates directly to the Native American concept of the mythic present. 5
The mythic present is a cultural way of thinking in which events happening in the past are also believed to be taking place
currently. Of this concept, Smith herself has said, “Unlike Euro-Americans who have a linear form of time and whose
stories have a beginning and an end, we have a horizontal sense of time often compressing history and present reality…
my paintings describe the dichotomy of life between the Indian and the white world…” This idea of the mythic present is
central to Native American culture and also to an understanding of Quick-to-See Smith’s work. 6
In these drawings Smith combines images which are culturally significant for the past and the present, such as
the salmon in “Salmon Moves Upriver” which is a symbol of reliance on nature for sustenance but also the potential loss
of that way of life. Similarly, the images of flora and insects, such as bees and dragonflies, which appear in five of the six
drawings, excluding “Salmon Moves Upriver”, also reference the important interconnections and interactions found in
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 37

2
0
0
3
JAune QuiCK-to-see sMith (native American, b. 1940)
salmon Moves upriver, 2003
Charcoal and pencil
24 in. x 20 in.
Purchase, Gene A. and Mary A. Burns Art Acquisitions Fund, Julian W. Fore Muscarelle
endowment, and vinyard Acquisitions and Conservation endowment
2008.202
38 | Curators at Work

nature. Many of the figural representations within these works, particularly those seen in The Ancestors Speak of Death
and Laughter, Wine Speckled Water, and Salmon Moves Upriver, directly relate to the traditional pictographs originally
produced as petroglyphs and later found in ledgers and winter counts. The image of the horse, such as the one seen in
“Wine Speckled Water”, is also one which appears frequently within Smith’s works. This motif is typically viewed as a
stand-in for the artist herself and “a form through which she expresses the narrative of her personal life as well as the
collective memory of her Native American ancestry”. 7 Through the cohesive combination of symbols and varied meaning
Smith references her rich artistic heritage and creates a visual representation of “the mythic present on paper”. 8
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith was born in 1940 on the Flathead Indian Reservation near St. Ignatius, Montana. Due
to her father’s profession as a horse-trader, Smith moved numerous times during her childhood. Much of the inspiration
for Smith’s works come from her experiences and her father’s manner of observation “that was less about gathering
information and more about sharing the realities of others”. 9 Smith decided she would be an artist at a very young age.
She received her BA in Art Education from Framingham State College in Massachusetts where one of her professors told
her that she could never be a successful artist as a woman. She experienced similar discouragement as she attempted
to pursue a Master’s degree. After several attempts, Smith was admitted into the MFA program at the University of New
Mexico and holds four honorary doctoral degrees. While studying at the University of New Mexico Smith was greatly
influenced by the works of artists such as Picasso, de Kooning, Klee and Rauschenberg. Although these men came from
very different backgrounds than Smith, she responded to their seeming familiarity with “primitive” art. Their influence
is evident in the many cohesive elements which come together through the high energy compositions of her work. Her
interest in combining modern and primitive elements within a work of art is well suited for Quick-to-See Smith’s message
of the constant push and pull between modernity and preservation of Native American tradition. Although many of the
artists who inspired Smith took their inspiration from African art, Smith was able to draw upon her own heritage for
many of the symbols and techniques featured in these drawings. 10
1 Taken from “All was Virginia” wall panel from exhibit: Jaune Quick-to-
See Smith: Contemporary Native American Paintings and the Response
to Colonization…Anniversary of the Beginning…Beginning of the End,
Muscarelle Museum of Art, 2007.
2 Words of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith relating to exhibit: Jaune Quick-to-
See Smith: Contemporary Native American Paintings and the Response
to Colonization…Anniversary of the Beginning…Beginning of the End,
Muscarelle Museum of Art, 2007.
3 For a detailed analysis of the Five Crows Ledger see: Keyser, J. D.
(2000). The Five Crows Ledger: Biographic Warrior Art of the Flathead
Indians. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press.
4 Zorn, D. E. (2008). Encyclopedia of Native American Artists: Artists of
the American Mosaic. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. (204).
5 Roger Matuz, e. (1998). St. James Guide to Native North American
Sarah Stanley ‘11
Artists. Detroit, MI: St. James Press. (528).
6For a more complete description of the mythic present see: Farrer, C.
R. (1994). Thunder Rides a Black Horse: Mescalero Apaches and the
Mythic Present. Chico, CA: California State University. (1-14).
7Roger Matuz, e. (1998). St. James Guide to Native North American
Artists. Detroit, MI: St. James Press. (528).
8A special thanks to Buck Woodard and Dr. Danielle Moretti-Langholtz,
Director of the American Indian Resource Center at William & Mary for
taking the time to talk to me about Smith’s works and for providing this
particularly applicable description of her artistic style.
9Zorn, D. E. (2008). Encyclopedia of Native American Artists: Artists of
the American Mosaic. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. (203).
10Zorn, D. E. (2008). Encyclopedia of Native American Artists: Artists of
the American Mosaic. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. (204).
16 Memoranda for 16 Artists | 39