13APR15_Departments_Alumni_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013
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Draft 5 (08APR15)
ALUMNI IN THE NEWS
The Discovery of Things Not Seen Jonathan Sherman ’95 and Emilie Lee ’99 The paintings of Jonathan Sherman ’—and those of Emilie Lee ’—open windows into a new (and also very old) way of seeing. “Painting,” wrote Cennino Cennini, one of the masters of the Italian Renaissance, “calls for imagination, and skill of hand, in order to discover things not seen.” Cennini and such brethren as Raphael and Leonardo Da Vinci were dedicated to close observation and the precise representation of the visible. But that is exactly where the unseen is to be found, believes Jonathan Sherman, who lived in Florence for six years, studying not just the techniques of these masters, but their lives and philosophies. For the better part of a century, painting at its highest levels has been dominated by the modes of abstraction and expressionism. An Edwards Art Gallery exhibit in April, however, celebrated the work of two alumni artists— Jonathan and also Emilie Lee—who are challenging that orthodoxy in portraits, stilllifes, and landscapes whose commitment to naturalism harks back not just to earlier times, but to a different way of seeing and experiencing the world. It’s not coincidental, perhaps, that Emilie left Holderness with not just a precocious talent for art, but also a passion for rock climbing. Jonathan also had a hunger for the outdoors, but in his case it was focused on snowboarding. “I went to Lewis and Clark for two years, where I started a major in studio art,” says Jonathan. “Then I went to the University of Vermont for a year—and then I dropped out.” He moved to Squaw Valley, hoping to snowboard professionally, training there with such other alumni shredders as Andrew Parkhill ’ and Kip Garre ’ (who would die in an avalanche in ). By , however, Jonathan’s passion for studio art won out—
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which required another radical change of address, this time to Florence. “I wanted to learn the language of the art that was practiced in the th century in Italy,” he says, “and there was no one in this country who knew that language.” It was a language whose grammar was built from the physical world, whose syntax was the interplay of light, shade, texture, and proportion. And each of the great painters of that time and place gazed so deeply into the physical that the result was not only a glorious catalogue of art, but also, Jonathan believes, a sort of spiritual illumination. “Raphael was a perfect example of the transformative effects that the proper practice of art has on a human being,” Jonathan says. “His being was so radiant and gentle that it was said that all people who were in his physical presence were uplifted and freed from negativity. People said the same for Leonardo and Michelangelo. They were playful and joyous and laughed a lot.” Jonathan returned to the United States in and established a studio in Marblehead, MA: “The various aspects of the craft within the studio, such as making or preparing paper, are designed to awaken the individual and connect them to the source of what lies beneath the materials, allowing them to create works of art in alignment with this source—God.” The craft in itself—Cennini’s “skill of hand”—is crucial to this awakening. What’s even more essential, however, is passion, as he told Holderness students in an assembly after the exhibit had opened. “It has been my experience that once you are aligned with your passion,” he said, “your thirst for learning increases, and you begin to absorb information easily, and to thoroughly enjoy it.” Then, as you explore that passion, whether it’s bound to art or something else, you also learn more about yourself. “And what has been true for me,” Jonathan continued, “is that the more I learn and know about myself, the
Jonathan Sherman’s “Portrait of a Young Girl.”
more I am able to value other people and their experiences.” And here lies the discovery of “things not seen”—the capacity for empathy, beauty, and knowledge, when mixed together in a human soul, to kindle a radiance that bathes the world. Jonathan showed slides of the work of Raphael et al. to the students and said, “I can assure you that the artists who created these magnificent works had the well-being of others held in their hearts. That is one of the key ingredients that makes these works so special and powerful, and allows them to endure for centuries.” Will the works of Emilie Lee and Jonathan Sherman endure that long? Well, they share in common a sense of joyousness, and a radiant breath of well-being, that spans space and time, which suggests indeed that they might.
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SPRING 2015
Holderness School Spring 2015 Holderness School Today magazine. F