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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, March 17, 2002

ART REVIEW
Exhibit showcases the work of former UH art faculty members

By Victoria Gail-White
Special to The Advertiser

Once upon a time, 15 years ago, the director of the University of Hawai'i-Manoa Art Gallery, Tom Klobe, wished for an exhibit of work from retired art faculty. He was aware of the amazing contributions that some art professors had made to the development of art education in Hawai'i and envisioned it as an opportunity to document and venerate them. On the 25th anniversary of the gallery, his wish has been granted with the work of 25 retired art faculty members.

A TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE

University of Hawai'i-Manoa Art Gallery

Through April 12

Open: 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 12-4 p.m. Sundays

Closed: Saturdays and Tuesdays; March 26, Prince Kuhio Day; March 29, Good Friday;

March 31, Easter Sunday

956-6888

The realization of this wish required remarkable coordinating efforts and a year of planning. Klobe was determined, and for this grand exhibit, "A Tradition of Excellence," four retrospective artworks were gathered from both living and dead, local and Mainland retired art faculty, as well as from the collections of the State Foundation for Culture and the Arts, The Contemporary Museum and the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

What a feast of visual history it is! The exhibit was installed as an educational chronicle of the creative energies that have nourished the art department. As you enter the exhibit, you are greeted by the art works of the founding fathers, Huc-Mazelet Luquiens and Ben Norris. Both men were pivotal in elevating the vision of the Art Department.

Luquiens was hired to teach painting and printing in 1924 after teaching at Punahou for six years. He was the third faculty member, along with Minnie E. Chipman, who taught ceramics, and Anna von Balzer Dahl, who taught textiles and design. His classic works, such as "Hawaiian Heads" (1925), illustrate his affection for the Islands and his mastery of printmaking. Luquiens was instrumental in founding the oldest active professional arts association in the Islands, the Honolulu Printmakers, in 1928. In 1936 he created their annual gift print (see last week's review on our web site, www

.honoluluadvertiser.com, for details of their 74th Exhibition now at The Academy Art Center.)

Ben Norris joined Luquiens in 1937 after teaching at the Kamehameha School for Boys. Norris reached for the sky and brought in the stars: Jean Charlot, Max Ernst, Joseph and Annie Albers and Dorothea Tanning. His efforts established a tradition of excellence and a foundation for progressive ideas in Hawai'i. His powerful abstract, "The Pali" (1950), and his delicate watercolor "Inside the "Rain Forest, III" (1996), illustrate the internal changes in Norris' life. At 91, with work in the deYoung, San Francisco, Metropolitan and Whitney museums, he is still painting in Philadelphia.

Norris' efforts changed the way people looked at art in the then-territory, and in 1950 Gustav Ecke, an eminent Chinese art scholar and author, inspired intellectual development by initiating art history classes. Ecke brought with him his wife, Tseng Yuho, named a living treasure. She published books and developed a highly personalized style of brush painting and "dsui" — a mounting and piecing-together technique. Similar to Norris, her work in the exhibition shows a softening of color palette, from the dynamic "Song of the Roots" (1961) to the poetic "Wonder Line" (2000).

"There is a great power in art, but you have to feel it. Art affirms our faith in ourselves," she said. To gaze at her work is to hear her clearly.

Murray Turnbull began teaching in 1954. He was not only chairman of the department twice but also assistant to the president of the university. Most importantly, he was responsible as the initiator, interim director and first chancellor of the East-West Center. As an innovative thinker and painter, his painting "Acrobatic Rituals of Existence" (1948), revels in a motion of bodies, strong lines and colors.

A leading teacher inspiring the exploration of sculptural forms, Claude Horan's "Standing Woman" (1953) is ageless. He was also instrumental in establishing the university's reputable glass program. Horan taught Toshiko Takaezu, Henry Takemoto — both acclaimed ceramists — and Harue McVay.

McVay's recent "Seven Sisters — Coming and Going" is evidence of her whimsical and inquisitive nature. It was inspired by her reaction to the male Buddhas in China. Skillfully conveying the havoc age bestows on the female body, Allyn Bromley's "Dubious Designation" is a poignant political statement.

Major works by outstanding artists Ron Kowalke, Kenneth Bushnell, Lee Chesney, Ed Stasack, Sueko Kimura, Helen Gilbert and the ever-popular Jean Charlot grace the exhibition walls.

There are photographs by Prithwish Neogy, who conceptualized the flow of the building and classrooms, as well as by Kenneth Kingrey and Duane Preble. Preble's "Introduction to the Visual Arts" classes were so popular in the '60s that they had to be taught at the Varsity Theater.

The weavings of Marian Everson and Hester Robinson add bold texture while the works of J. Halley Cox focus controlled lines and quiet colors. Webster Anderson, Jon Carter Covell, Clemente Lagundimao and Jeff Dunn round out the show.

The exhibit is a rare opportunity to see how artists grow and change. One hundred pieces on exhibit echo a visual history both personal and professional. The Art Department grew and changed, the art faculty grew and changed. It wasn't magic, and similar to the painstaking installation of the exhibit, life is hard work. But there is magic in the miracle of growth and in wishes that come true. And as McVay says, "If you can get your life flowing through your body and into your work — that's magic."

Victoria Gail-White is an artist and former gallery owner.