UMUC Unveiled Exhibition, 2014

WORKS FROM THE UMUC ART COLLECTIONS February 9–March 30, 2014

Arts Program Gallery

Š 2014 University of Maryland University College. All rights reserved.

Copyright credits and attribution for certain illustrations are cited internally proximate to the illustrations. All rights reserved.

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Welcome

Welcome to the latest exhibition of the Arts Program at University of Maryland University College (UMUC), Unveiled: Works from the UMUC Art Collections.

This exhibition, showcased in the university’s newly renovated galleries, mirrors UMUC’s diversity, featuring works in a variety of media and styles by artists from Maryland and abroad. Many of the pieces are recent acquisitions being exhibited for the first time. These exciting additions to UMUC’s collections—including those devoted to Maryland artists and the Art of China—continue a long tradition at the university.

Katherine Lambert

Dear Patrons of the Arts,

From the first collection put on public display in the UMUC Inn and Conference Center more than 30 years ago to this exhibition in today’s renovated galleries, the Arts Program has remained committed to its mission of collecting, preserving, and exhibiting artistic treasures from around the world.

We at UMUC are honored to share this exhibition with our many university stakeholders and with the local community, and on behalf of our Art Advisory Board and all who play a role in our Arts Program, I thank you for your interest in and support for the arts.

Sincerely,

Javier Miyares President University of Maryland University College

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Arts Program Overview at UMUC

Steven Halperson

Eric Key Director, Arts Program University of Maryland University College

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Among the highlights of the Maryland Artist Collection are large bodies of works by Baltimore artists Herman Maril, Gladys Goldstein, and Selma L. Oppenheimer.

The Arts Program was established in 1978

by Bylee Massey, the wife of Chancellor T. Benjamin Massey. Her first project included purchasing original prints for the two VIP suites at the UMUC Inn and Conference Center and acquiring a collection of modern Japanese woodblock prints for the Mt. Clare Café. Looking at the bare walls of the Inn and Conference Center, Bylee thought it would be an ideal place to showcase works of Maryland artists. Having just arrived in Maryland after a long stay overseas, Bylee had an interest in art but few connections in the Maryland artists community. She contacted several people, including Doris Patz and Herman Maril, who solicited donations from artists and collectors throughout the state. The new collection focused on works by established and emerging artists who were born or trained in Maryland or who lived, taught, or worked in the state. The collection was first put on public display in 1981. As new works were added, the Maryland Artist Collection—with more than 350 paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs from the 1920s to the present—became one of the largest of its kind on permanent exhibition in the state. UMUC now has two collections dedicated to Maryland artists—the Maryland Artist Collection and the Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists.

Maril, who has approximately 71 works in the collection, taught at University of Maryland, College Park, for 30 years and had a national reputation as an artist. Maril was one of the Maryland artists whom Bylee Massey had approached about exhibiting his works in the Inn and Conference Center, and he introduced her to his community of artists.

After Maril’s death in September 1986, the paintings on loan to the Arts Program became a permanent donation to the university by his wife, Esta Maril. UMUC now has the largest single collection of Maril’s paintings, spanning more than 50 years of his career. In 2001, a gallery at the Inn and Conference Center was named the Herman Maril Gallery in his honor.

Baltimore writer and musician Doris Patz studied music at the Carnegie Technical School of Fine Arts (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was a member of the Baltimore Women’s Symphony and the Gettysburg Symphony Orchestra. She also provided violin instruction, wrote and produced musical shows in Baltimore, and was an art collector. In 2000, to recognize Patz for her efforts in acquiring works by Maryland artists for UMUC and for her family’s financial contribution for the preservation and promotion of those artworks, part of the UMUC Maryland Artist Collection was renamed in her honor.

Selma L. Oppenheimer (1898–1988) was called “The Dean of Maryland’s Women Artists” and is remembered for her long-lasting contributions to the Baltimore art community. She graduated from Goucher College in 1919 and went on to study costume design and portraiture at MICA. Her artistic career included painting portraits, landscapes, and Baltimore street scenes. Throughout her career, she continued to elevate her painting style by experimenting in different mediums. In 1989, UMUC and the Oppenheimer children, Joan Weiss and Martin Oppenheimer, established the Selma L. Oppenheimer Collection.

Gladys Goldstein studied art at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), the Art Students League of New York, and Pennsylvania State University. She was an abstract artist who spent her life in the arts community of Baltimore. Her works are a reflection of her life, including her travels, and focus on nature, light, and space.

UMUC became the recipient of one of Goldstein’s paintings through a donation from an arts patron more than 15 years ago. According to Goldstein, at the time she preferred to sell rather than donate her works. However, shortly thereafter, Goldstein decided to give a painting to UMUC in memory of her mother. Marilyn Hart, a member of the acquisitions committee, offered her a gallery, and the committee began selecting works. Thus the Art of Gladys Goldstein Collection was born.

FACILITY DEVELOPMENT, APPLIED EDUCATION RESEARCH, AND THE ARTS FURTHER CONTRIBUTED TO UMUC’S UNIQUE IDENTITY WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND AND TO ITS REPUTATION AS ONE OF THE LEADING INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION FOR ADULTS IN THE UNITED STATES. —Chancellor T. Benjamin Massey

Other large bodies of works within the Maryland Artist Collection are the Sy Gresser and William “Bill” Taylor Collection and the Reini Maters Collection. In the fall of 2014, UMUC will establish the Raoul Middleman Collection.

To expand its Maryland holdings, in 2010 the university opened The Leroy Merritt Center for the Art of Joseph Sheppard. The center is a 5,500-square-foot structure housing permanent exhibitions of sculptures, paintings, and drawings by Maryland artist Joseph Sheppard.

The center also features a study center with more than 2,000 books about Sheppard and art in general.

Additional UMUC collections include the International and Asian Collections. The International Collection is composed of artworks by artists other than Maryland artists, including Kevin Cole (Atlanta, GA), March Avery (New York, NY), Ed Clark (New York, NY), Tim Davis (Fairfax, VA), Andy Warhol (Pittsburgh, PA), Victor Ekpuk (Nigeria, West Africa), and Kwabena AmpofoAnti (Ghana, Africa).

Emory T. Trosper was instrumental in assisting UMUC in starting and shaping the Asian Collection, which includes the Japanese Art Collection and the Art of China Collection. The Japanese Art Collection began in 1986 when Yoshitoshi Mori donated two prints to the university. Trosper introduced Mori to UMUC and was the key figure in the negotiations for Mori’s artwork.

Over the years, the collection has become the largest of Mori’s works in the United States.

Trosper also was the first curator of the Japanese Print Collection for UMUC and gifted a large portion of his Japanese prints and Balinese art collection to the university. In 2000, UMUC received a gift of ancient Chinese paintings and artifacts valued at $1.6 million from Maryland businessmen Thomas Li and I-Ling Chow. They selected UMUC for their donation because of the university’s excellent Asian Collection and

its strong historical connection to Asia through its education programs for U.S. military servicemembers stationed in that part of the world.

As the Arts Program began to take root, it became apparent that the staff needed a body of art professionals, educators, activists, authors, artists, and collectors to assist with its development. In 1993, the Art Advisory Board was formed to provide professional advice and support to UMUC’s Arts Program. At the time, the Board consisted of six members; now the board consists of 18 members. The mission of the Art Advisory Board is to assist in the identification and solicitation of gifts and grants from individuals, corporations, and foundations as well as to provide direction for the program.

The Arts Program at UMUC continues to flourish and has taken on a new burst of energy to advance the mission of the program. From the research and study uses of the artwork in the collections to the teaching implications of all the exhibitions, the Arts Program plays an increasingly central role in the academic life of the university. For nearly four decades, UMUC has been dedicated to cultivating and developing an impressive permanent art collection. With a collection emphasis on its Maryland Artist Collection and Asian Collection, the Arts Program attracts visitors from around the world to experience one of the largest collections of art by Maryland artists and to see up close artistic wonders from the Far East. The permanent collection at UMUC now numbers approximately 2,600 works representing various cultural groups from around the world. This body of work also represents the university’s commitment to collecting and preserving artistic treasures for the next generation.

The Arts Program at UMUC is pleased to present selected works from the UMUC collections and to introduce to many our steadfast commitment to art and artist.

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WORKS FROM THE UMUC ART COLLECTIONS

March Avery

Patricia Tobacco Forrester

Tom Miller

Ralph Baney

Jane Frank

John Blair Mitchell

A. Aubrey Bodine

Peter Gordon

Yoshiko Oishi-Weick

Al Burts

Grace Hartigan

Joyce J. Scott

Elizabeth Catlett

Palmer Hayden

David Smedley

Ed Clark

Kristin Helberg

Carroll Sockwell

Kevin Cole

Ellen Hill

Nelson Stevens

Patrick Craig

Jacob Lawrence

Alma W. Thomas

Richard L. Dana

Charles Levier

Andy Warhol

Tim Davis

Keith M. Martin

Mindy Weisel

Richard Dempsey

Reini Maters

Unknown Chinese Artists

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MARCH AVERY

INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION

March Avery, born in 1932, is the daughter of two well-known artists, Milton Avery and Sally Michel. Despite her lineage, the younger Avery studied philosophy at Barnard College and remained largely self-taught as an artist. Although she developed a personal style, there are traces of influences of her parents’ work and that of their acquaintances, including Mark Rothko, Marsden Hartley, Karl Knaths, and Herman Maril.

Avery’s style derives from a common element seen in the aforementioned artists’ work, namely expansive, open spaces. Paris Park II shows figures at leisure, a familiar theme from French and American painting dating back to impressionism and the mid-nineteenth century. Like her parents, Avery favors figures in respite, almost frozen in time. Her works of seated figures, still lifes, and beach scenes are at once momentary and timeless.

As Avery weaves her seated figures into the vast expanse, she is able to balance a traditional subject with a modern approach that emphasizes shape and color. Her output is a stylistic hybrid: she blends the figurative element of contemporary American realists with an unmodulated setting favored by the abstract school.

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March Avery Paris Park II, 1995 watercolor on paper 22 x 30 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of John and Doris Babcock 2012.022.003

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Ralph Baney Three Piece Form, 1971 maple, 24 inches high UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists Gift of the artist 2012.006.001

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RALPH BANEY

DORIS PATZ COLLECTION OF MARYLAND ARTISTS

Ralph Baney was born in 1929 in Trinidad. There he attended Naparima College and Naparima Teachers Training College. He received a government art scholarship to study at Brighton College of Art (now Brighton University) in England, where he earned two degrees. After nine years as an art officer in the Ministry of Education and Culture for Trinidad and Tobago, Baney embarked on graduate studies at University of Maryland, College Park, earning his MFA and PhD. During a half-century career as an artist and instructor at Dundalk Community College, Maryland, Baney’s style and approach to art has evolved from his art school years in the early 1960s to his Trinidad years from 1962 to 1971, and then repeatedly during his time in Maryland from 1971 to the present.

Three Piece Form (1971) falls into a transition period that reflects his early work from Trinidad. Yet one might also see an affinity with the multiform wooden sculpture of Henry Moore, England’s most formidable sculptor of the twentieth century. As a result, the work combines Baney’s appreciation and skillful combination of abstract forms and the figure.

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A. AUBREY BODINE

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

A. Aubrey Bodine (1906–1970) was a fine art photographer and photojournalist for the Baltimore Sun’s Sunday Sun Magazine for fifty years.

He was recognized for his black-and-white images of Baltimore and Maryland landmarks and traditions, including cathedrals, watermen, duck hunting, the Chesapeake Bay, and Johns Hopkins University.

Books of his images include My Maryland, Chesapeake Bay and Tidewater, The Face of Maryland, The Face of Virginia, and Guide to Baltimore and Annapolis.

Bodine was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and went to work at the Baltimore Sun newspaper at the age of 14 as a messenger boy. His formal schooling ended at the eighth grade. For a brief period in the early 1930s, he studied general design at the Maryland Institute Evening School, now the Maryland Institute College of Art. In Commercial Typing Department (1928) and Helios (1969), we see the range of Bodine’s work across four decades. Despite the constraints of scale, the use of black and white, and proscribed subject matter, Bodine is able to capitalize on his choices. In Commercial Typing Department, the earlier piece, we see rich tones, notable contrasts, and the observation of geometric organization. Bodine forces the viewer to see the scene in rectangular units, such as the desks, windows, notepads, etc.

In Helios, a much later work, his development of the image is more sophisticated, employing light, reflections, and an understanding of contemporary architecture and art.

In 2007, UMUC added six Bodine photographs to its permanent collection. In 2012, UMUC purchased an additional 39 of Bodine’s images from the Baltimore Sun’s repository.

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A. Aubrey Bodine Commercial Typing Department 1928, gelatin silver print 7ž x 95⠄8 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection 2011.029.20

A. Aubrey Bodine Helios, 1969 gelatin silver print 10 x 13 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection 2011.029.001

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Al Burts Dignity, 2008 ballpoint pen on board 36 x 32 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of the artist 2013.019.001

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AL BURTS

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

Al Burts, born in 1967, is a native Washingtonian and studied fashion illustration at Virginia Commonwealth University and drawing at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, D.C. He is also an alumnus of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., and a Gulf War veteran.

Growing up, Burts was influenced by his grandmother and mother.

He states that he is “inspired by religious themes and the beauty of Americans whose roots are African” and that his work “seizes upon the range of emotions emanating from the absolute innocence of youth with color, texture, shape, and lines at the core of my artistic expressions.”

In Burts’s work, including Dignity (2008), drawing is the primary medium. For many artists, drawing is a preliminary step. With Burts it is the final step, built up through countless strokes. Dignity is economical with broad expanses of open space. This effect focuses the viewer on gesture, pose, and the associations of the necktie. Details are largely omitted. The figure that is left has a certain power of expression that contrasts with his easy pose and demeanor.

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ELIZABETH CATLETT

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) was an American-born Mexican sculptor and printmaker best known for her socially charged sculpture and prints.

Catlett attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she studied design, printmaking, and drawing. She received an MFA from the University of Iowa, where she studied with famed regionalist Grant Wood, noted for his American Gothic painting. Catlett took additional courses at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League of New York. After finishing school, she worked as a high school teacher in North Carolina for two years before relocating to Harlem, New York, where she was briefly married to Charles White, an influential Works Progress Administration muralist. In 1947, Catlett married Mexican artist Francisco Mora, moved to Mexico, and became a citizen of that country.

Her linocut Survivor (1983) was inspired by Dorothea Lange’s photograph Ex-Slave with a Long Memory, Alabama (1937).

In 1983, Catlett remarked on her choice of subjects.

Because I am a woman and know how a woman feels in body and mind, I sculpt, draw, and print women, generally black women. Many of my sculptures and prints deal with maternity because I am a mother and a grandmother. Once in a while I do men because I love my husband and sons, I share their sorrows and joys and I fear for them in the unsettled world of today.1 1 Catlett, Elizabeth, Handwritten Manuscript for Lecture and Slide Presentation, New Orleans Museum of Art, 15 October 1983, p. 2, Elizabeth Catlett Papers, Amistad Research Center, New Orleans.

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Elizabeth Catlett Survivor, 1983 linocut, 11 x 8½ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection 2010.004.002

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Ed Clark Mainstream I, 1975 acrylic on canvas 1195⁄8 x 188¾ inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of the artist 2012.021.001

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ED CLARK

INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION

Born in the Storyville section of New Orleans in 1926, Ed Clark studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1947 to 1951 and L’Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris in 1952. While he was influenced by the instruction of Louis Ritman in Chicago and Edouard Goerg in Paris, his strongest affinity was for the work of Nicolas de Staël, an artist known for his thick impasto and evidence of pigment moved by a palette knife.

After five years in Paris, Clark moved to New York and became a notable member of the Brata Gallery on Tenth Street, where the works of fellow abstract artists George Sugarman, Al Held, John Krushenick, and Ronald Bladen were shown. It was around this period that Clark began his celebrated shaped canvases, which appeared in the Brata Gallery in 1957. This work was later described in a 1972 Art News article by Lawrence Campbell as the first of its kind. Stylistically, Clark is also singled out for using a push-broom technique to move the pigment across large stretches of canvas, such as Mainstream I (1975). This variation on “action painting” allows him to move the paint swiftly across the surface, creating broad, bold strokes.

With its monumental scale, lush surface, and of course vibrant juxtaposition of color, Mainstream I is a quintessential work by Clark.

Within the vast canvas and organic pigment is a rigid oval. Those two characteristics put Clark at the crossroads between abstract expressionism and hard-edged painting, as seen by Al Held, for example.

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KEVIN COLE

INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION

Kevin Cole was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in 1960 and is a resident of Atlanta, Georgia. He received a BS in art education from the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff, followed by an MA in art education and painting from the University of Illinois and an MFA in drawing from Northern Illinois University. Cole gives additional credit to Sam Gilliam, renowned Washington, D.C., colorist, for being an artistic mentor.

On his website, Cole states, “When I turned eighteen years old, my grandfather stressed the importance of voting by taking me to a tree where he was told that African Americans were lynched by their neckties on their way to vote. The experience left a profound impression in my mind. While evolving from a more expressionistic place to one of abstraction, the tie has also evolved.�

While the ties, a recurring motif for Cole, were born out of lynching imagery, they also serve as an artistic vehicle for the interplay between painting and sculpture, music, and the exploration of color. In Chasing Laughter (2010), Cole uses a limited palette. It is as if his earlier wood ties, with their exuberant color, have been pared down to their essence. The shiny and polished look has additional allusions, possibly to wealth or adornment, while still retaining the original sinister associations.

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Kevin Cole Chasing Laughter, 2010 aluminum and copper 52 x 20 x 11 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of Preston Sampson 2010.061.002

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Patrick Craig Trapeze, 2011 oil on canvas 61 x 111 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of the artist 2011.022.001

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PATRICK CRAIG

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

Patrick Craig received a BFA from Western Michigan University and an MFA from the University of Cincinnati. He joined the art department at the University of Maryland, College Park, in the late 1970s and is an associate professor specializing in painting, drawing, and mixed media.

This latest acquisition shows the artist’s typical exploration of complex spaces. While the piece is large (more than nine feet across), it can be seen as a baroque universe with rich coloring and energetic shapes or as an allusion to the microscopic world with its own exquisite vocabulary.

The artist explains that Trapeze (2011) “features dramatically lit abstract forms in an animated, precariously balanced space. The composition rolls left and right, upsetting the central balance point.

Radical movements in space, from close up to deep plunges in landscape vistas, further unsettle the point of view. Extreme scale shifts in the various forms exacerbate this unsettling. Distortions of windows, portholes, and interior floorboards discomfort the foreground and the seeming stability of the main form resting on the painting’s bottom edge. The color reads as cinematographic; strong pure oranges, blues, and greens compliment the earth tones and organic patterns.

It is a vivid, wide-awake, break of day lucid dream, a fascination with an implausible narrative of constant steadiness versus freedom.”

Trapeze is the artist’s third major work to enter the permanent collection at UMUC.

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RICHARD L. DANA

DORIS PATZ COLLECTION OF MARYLAND ARTISTS

Richard L. Dana received an undergraduate degree in Russian studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1975 and a master’s degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 1977. He worked as an economist and Soviet affairs expert in Washington, D.C., from 1977 to 1984.

Although self-taught, he decided in 1984 to become a full-time artist specializing in painting and digital media. Incidentally, in 2011, Dana was a co-organizer of the collective exhibition Take Me to the River, hosted by UMUC’s Arts Program.

In creating a specific series of work, Dana addresses one or more of three formal concerns: the combination of abstract and representational imagery, narrative structures (or different ways to tell a visual story), and non-representational narration (in part, a synthesis of the two other concerns). Applying these concerns to Girl Is Father to Humankind (2006), one pieces together the combination of abstraction and narration. In this particular diptych, on the right, realistic figures abound in a manipulated environment. On the left, outlines of posed girls dominate, while the background of both panels is a repeated grouping of horizontal bands. The resulting diptych straddles whimsy and serious propaganda.

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Richard L. Dana Girl Is Father to Humankind (diptych), 2006, oil on panel 83 x 80 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists Gift of the artist 2012.020.001

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Tim Davis Why You Waiting, 2007 acrylic and photography collage on canvas 30 x 30 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of the artist 2012.005.001

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TIM DAVIS

INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION

Tim Davis earned a BA from Eastern Illinois University and an MA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently the artist lives in Washington, D.C., and is the founder of International Visions Gallery.

Trained as a sculptor, Davis utilizes the tactile nature of collage, such as fabric or plaster, in his two-dimensional works. In Why You Waiting (2007), Davis has subtly laid down photographs of arms for his foreground figures. Why You Waiting is also typical for Davis and his implementation of an ambiguous setting.

On his website, Davis states that “In my exploration of transparent imagery, 3-D textures, photography, and multiple layering of paint, I try to create tension in my compositions. My focus has been to utilize themes that represent interactions of relationships between people. In most of my painting and mixed media compositions, there will be the presence of a person or stylized figures that represent people.

I create a mysterious environment or a mysterious portrait so the viewer becomes part of the interaction within the painting and hopefully engages in a conversation or dialogue with themselves.”

By leaving the faces blank in Why You Waiting, Davis ensures that viewers aren’t as likely to study the figures. Instead the artist invites the viewer into the bleak setting through the empty space in the foreground between the figures. Once past the group, the viewer is met with a brick wall and possibly a question via graffiti.

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RICHARD DEMPSEY

DORIS PATZ COLLECTION OF MARYLAND ARTISTS

Richard Dempsey (1909–1987) was born in Ogden, Utah, and spent his youth in Oakland, California, where he attended Sacramento Junior College as an art major. He then studied at the California School of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, the Art Center in Los Angeles, and Howard University. At the latter, he studied sculpture with Sargent Johnson, printmaking with James Wells, and painting with several other faculty members.

In 1946, along with Elizabeth Catlett, Dempsey was awarded a Julius Rosenwald fellowship for a series of paintings of outstanding African Americans. While Dempsey’s work from the 1940s shows an affinity for regionalism and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) aesthetic, his later works reveal a shift to brighter colors and abstraction, traits influenced by his travel to the Caribbean, including Haiti.

Bleecker Street (circa 1940s) relays the energy and color of Dempsey’s past influences as well as the sense of place emphasized by the regionalists and WPA artists. The result is a scene in which the movements and overall atmosphere of the city have come into focus, so to speak, while the more mundane details of place are abstract.

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Richard Dempsey Bleecker Street, circa 1940s oil on masonite board 14 x 18 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2010.041.002

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Patricia Tobacco Forrester Royal Flush, 1990 lithograph, artist’s proof, 1⁄15 29½ x 46 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Stephen B. Hameroff 2011.023.001

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PATRICIA TOBACCO FORRESTER

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

Patricia Tobacco Forrester (1940–2010) was a Washington, D.C., watercolorist whose watercolors and nature prints are unmistakable in their large scale and lush coloring.

Forrester studied art with Chuck Close and Janet Fish, two noted realists, at Yale University. From the mid-1960s to 1981 she lived in San Francisco and often returned to the region to paint the rocky coast of Santa Barbara or the rolling vineyards of the Napa Valley. In the winters, she frequently travelled to the Caribbean, throughout Central and South America, and in France and the Mediterranean.

At a time when realism did not always catch the eye of the New York establishment, New York Times art critic Hilton Kramer said in 1981 that Forrester “brought a fresh eye and an accomplished technique” to watercolor and a “vein of lyric feeling that is obviously felt as a personal imperative.” Washington Post critic Benjamin Forgey wrote in 1984 that Forrester’s “images of trees, flowers and grasses, so strong in color, hold the wall like bold abstract paintings.” This would be an apt description for Royal Flush (1990), which was created six years later.

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JANE FRANK

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

Jane Frank (1918–1986) was born Jane Schenthal in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned a diploma in commercial art and fashion illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1935 and graduated from what is now the Parsons School of Design, New York, in 1939. After a period in which she worked in the commercial art field and raised a family, she studied with Hans Hofmann, the renowned abstract expressionist painter, in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in 1956.

This particular untitled piece was created shortly after her private study with Hofmann and around the time that her work was beginning to gain professional acclaim. Frank employed the use of a rich impasto (or heavy pigment), evidence of Hofmann’s influence on her work. The result is a square painting arranged in rough but balanced segmented sections of olive, maroon, yellow, and so on. It further impresses viewers by its somewhat surprising tactile nature.

Around the time that Frank completed this untitled work, she enjoyed one-person exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art (1958) and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1962).

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Jane Frank Untitled, circa 1958 oil on board 34 x 34 inches Maryland Artist Collection Promised gift

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Peter Gordon Fall Turnover 2006, oil on canvas 48 x 48 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of the artist 2013.018.002

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PETER GORDON

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

Peter Gordon, 35, is an artist and musician in his hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

In 2000, Gordon studied painting and

art history in Florence, Italy, for six months. In 2002, he received a BFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and in 2007, he earned his MFA from the University of Maryland, College Park.

From 2002 to 2004, Gordon was active in the Storefront Artist Project, an arts initiative in downtown Pittsfield. From 2008 to 2010, he was a member of Sparkplug, a small group of artists supported by the District of Columbia Arts Center in Washington, D.C., where he also taught color theory, drawing, and graphic design at several colleges.

As a practicing artist, Gordon is adept in collage, drawing, installation work, and conceptual work. Fall Turnover (2006) comes out of a series of works that focuses on the physical settings that our natural environment provides. The end result is a body of work that has a brooding quality with a tinge of darkness, as evident in the sober tones of Fall Turnover.

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GRACE HARTIGAN

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

Grace Hartigan (1922–2008) is often cited as an innovator among the abstract expressionist artists in New York City, along with Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. She is also recognized in Maryland as a longstanding faculty member at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She began teaching at the famed Baltimore art school in 1965 as the director of the Hoffberger School of Painting, a post she held until her retirement in 2007.

Watteau’s Musicians (2001) is the fourth piece by the artist to enter the permanent collection at UMUC. Although Hartigan was active in American abstract expressionism, she never relinquished her penchant for figurative painting, as seen in her works in UMUC’s collection, including the colorful piece seen here.

This painting’s title alludes to the 18th-century French artist JeanAntoine Watteau, whose works often referenced a fête galante, a contrived setting, usually reserved for aristocrats posed in a lush landscape. In Hartigan’s updated version, the musicians, presumably gathered for a private concert, are bathed in rich colors with roots to the pinks and light blues of the 18th-century rococo style.

Hartigan’s strong linear style, coupled with broad expanses of color, may also reference 20th-century masters such as Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.

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Grace Hartigan Watteau’s Musicians, 2001 oil on canvas 60 x 78 inches Maryland Artist Collection Promised gift of the Ronald Lubcher Estate

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Palmer Hayden Woman with Cat (Yellow Flowers) not dated watercolor on paper 16 x 20 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2010.027.002

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PALMER HAYDEN

DORIS PATZ COLLECTION OF MARYLAND ARTISTS

Palmer Hayden (1890–1973) was born Peyton Hedgeman in Widewater, Virginia. He changed his name to Palmer Hayden after enlisting in the army during World War I. Hayden moved to Washington, D.C., to find work when he reached adolescence. He became an errand boy and porter and started to draw fishing boats and sailboats, which were constants during his workday. While it might be theorized that Hayden was self-taught as an artist, he did eventually enroll at the Cooper Union in New York City, practiced independent studies at Boothbay Art Colony in Maine, and studied art in Paris.

Some qualities in Palmer’s work, such as the flatness of space and slight liberties with anatomy, contribute to the naïve or primitive elements that viewers detect. These can be seen in the watercolor Woman with Cat (Yellow Flowers) [not dated]. His signature style includes a rich handling of color, perhaps owing a debt to modern French painting, which gives his work its charm and appeal. Nor is his work without sophistication. Hayden portrays vibrant patterns simultaneously, such as the wallpaper alongside the busy bouquet, which is made palpable by the flattening of the rest of the image. This execution can also be seen in the studio paintings of Henri Matisse.

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KRISTIN HELBERG

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

Kristin Helberg was born in 1947 in Syracuse, New York. Her formative years were divided between the Finger Lakes area and the southern town of Eldorado, Arkansas. On trips north to Syracuse, the family would pass through Eagle Bridge, New York, in hopes of catching a glimpse of Grandma Moses, a fascinating figure for Helberg.

As a college student, Helberg did not like the formal structure of art classes, choosing instead to study journalism at Boston University.

She later created a series of small naïve paintings based on the stylistic distillation of Grandma Moses in particular. Helberg was eventually represented by Frank Miele, who specialized in naïve artists and showed Helberg’s painted furniture as well as her paintings.

The Arabber (2004) is a particularly appropriate subject for the selftaught painter. For many Baltimorians, the Arabbers, or street merchants, represent a nostalgic part of their town, along with the harbor docks, painted screens, Baltimore Colts, and row houses.

Helberg reinforces this with the friendly nature of the inhabitants as they greet their visitor. Their collective cheerfulness is matched by the bright colors and stable composition.

In May 2011, the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution chose Helberg’s portrait of Grandma Moses, the very figure who inspired her, to become part of its permanent collection.

40

Kristin Helberg The Arabber, 2004 acrylic on canvas panel 16½ x 20½ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of the Steven Scott Gallery in honor of the artist 2013.013.001

41

Ellen Hill DPI Series #6, 2011 acrylic, ink, and carved birch on panel, 10½ x 11½ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of the Steven Scott Gallery in honor of the artist 2013.012.001

42

ELLEN HILL

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

Ellen Hill was born in 1960 and grew up in Rocky Hill, New Jersey, and Athens, Georgia. She spent much of her childhood exploring the surrounding forests and fields of northern Georgia. Her elegant abstractions in birch and paint reflect her strong respect for nature.

My artwork is a personal response to my experiences and my natural environment. I work with wood because it has a warmth and history that it carries with it, and it reflects my strong respect for nature. I like that it comes out of the ground and has a textural and tactile energy to it.

In creating my work, I take an evolutionary approach, responding to the physical materials involved and making use of different media for their individual strengths and their combined expressive power. Typically this involves building layers of mark making, painting and carving images that resonate with me emotionally, and combining them over time in the studio.

Hill, who received her MFA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, currently teaches two-dimensional design at Montgomery College, Maryland.

43

JACOB LAWRENCE

DORIS PATZ COLLECTION OF MARYLAND ARTISTS

Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000) is recognized as one of the most important figures in 20th-century art. As a pioneering narrative painter, Lawrence is best known for his work chronicling eventful moments in African American history.

Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. As a child he spent time in Pennsylvania before moving to Harlem at the age of 13. He dropped out of high school as a teenager but took classes at the Harlem Art Workshop with Charles Alston, another significant figure of African American art. Lawrence was drafted into the U.S. Coast Guard and completed his basic training at Curtis Bay, Maryland. Although Lawrence did not finish his formal education, he went on to teach at Black Mountain College in North Carolina; later, Lawrence was an instructor at Pratt Institute, the New School for Social Research, and the Art Students League, all in New York. In 1971, he accepted a tenured position at the University of Washington, where he stayed until 1986.

As a painter and printmaker, Lawrence’s most recognized works are the pieces he created for different series, including those on Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass (both Maryland-born figures), the migration of African Americans, and Toussaint L’Ouverture. Lawrence was only 21 years old when he completed the monumental 41 panel Toussaint L’Ouverture series in 1938. The Toussaint L’Ouverture series provided African Americans with a sense of pride and hope during an era when many blacks were experiencing extreme difficulties. In 1986, the series was published in a limited printed edition, including Dondon (1992) and The Opener (1997). The narrative relates the life events of Toussaint L’Ouverture, who was born a slave but emerged as a leader of the Haitian slave rebellion (1791–1804) that freed his country from centuries of European rule.

44

Jacob Lawrence The Opener, 1997 silkscreen 223⁄16 x 323⁄16 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2013.009.001

Jacob Lawrence Dondon, 1992 silkscreen 187⁄16 x 285⁄16 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2013.009.002

45

Charles Levier Ships at the Harbor not dated, oil on canvas 15 x 30 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of Stephen Stein 2011.018.002

46

CHARLES LEVIER

INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION

Charles Levier (1920–2003) was born in Corsica to a French father and an American mother. An early fascination with color and form led him, at age 17, to the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, in Paris, for private studies. During World War II, Levier served in the French army in North Africa and later became a liaison officer with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services.

Following the war, Levier divided his time between the United States (New York and California) and France, where he had a one-person show in Lyons in 1949, followed by an American debut in Los Angeles in 1950. In 1955, he exhibited in Paris and then returned to New York to show his paintings.

In terms of style, despite his international arrangements, Levier’s spiky black outlines and the quiet setting in the UMUC piece are reminiscent of the collective style of fellow Frenchmen Bernard Buffet and Maurice Utrillo. Given Levier’s birthplace and artistic influences, including Picasso, it is fitting that Levier painted traditional French subjects such as landscapes, harbors, still lifes, and the female figure.

47

KEITH M. MARTIN

DORIS PATZ COLLECTION OF MARYLAND ARTISTS

Keith M. Martin (1911–1983) was a notable abstract artist. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, he lived in Baltimore, Maryland, for the majority of his career. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Nebraska. Martin travelled extensively throughout Europe and Iceland in the 1930s and early 1940s.

In 2013, UMUC acquired White Collage (1959) by Martin to supplement two works already in the collection. Martin completed his first collage in 1954. Collage was an important medium for Martin, and this was recognized in the larger artistic community. In 1977, the Baltimore Museum of Art held an exhibition of 56 collages by the artist.

White Collage is typical for the artist in that he impresses through understatement and uncertainty. The shapes that occupy space within the white background at times appear to be protozoan, not unlike the motifs and elements found in the paintings of earlier surrealists Roberto Matta or Arshile Gorky. Other passages in White Collage hint at diagrams, the movements of dance, camouflage, or cryptic messaging. The end result is a subtle mystery braced by formal arrangements.

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Keith M. Martin White Collage, 1959 collage on canvas 18Âź x 26Âź inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2013.007.001

49

Reini Maters Late Afternoon in Summer 1986, acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of the artist in honor of Dr. Susan C. Aldridge 2012.010.006

50

REINI MATERS

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

Reini Maters was born in the 1930s in Hengelo, Holland, and began his formal art studies in 1949 in Amsterdam before moving to England in the 1950s. In 1958, he moved to the United States and has been a resident of Baltimore ever since. While Maters is best known for his impressionist style, he remained more of a realist until a trip to the South of France in the 1970s. His subject of choice remains nature, including sunlit fields, meadows, harbors, and even bales of wheat.

Late Afternoon in Summer (1986) is typical for one so immersed in the impressionist tradition. The strokes are lively and lush while the color is vibrant. The overall effect is one of immediacy with a deep understanding of the countryside.

Maters has been represented in UMUC’s permanent collection for more than 30 years. In 2012, UMUC became a significant repository of Maters’s work with a gift of 31 additional paintings. He is one of a handful of artists so deeply represented in the collection.

51

TOM MILLER

DORIS PATZ COLLECTION OF MARYLAND ARTISTS

“I use objects as my canvas. I only record what I see and feel based on my experiences as an African American living in Baltimore. . . . Artistically, I’m influenced by the greats—Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and Henri Matisse.”

—Tom Miller, date unknown

Tom Miller (1945–2000) was a prolific printmaker, but his most prized works are brightly painted pieces of furniture. These typically revolve around a theme, as seen in the vanity acquired by UMUC descriptively titled Philodendron (1988). This vanity and a painted wardrobe by Miller represent the first pieces of contemporary furniture in the UMUC Arts Program’s collection.

Miller reclaimed discarded furniture and lavished it with layers of glossy, electric acrylic or enamel paint to breathe new life into a forgotten, utilitarian object. It might be stated that Miller used the furniture as a vehicle to present an arrangement of color and playful shapes. The end result was always bold and characteristic of Miller’s signature aesthetic sense, one he called “Afro Deco.” Jack Rasmussen, currently the director of American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, once cautioned, “It’s not correct to call him a decorative artist. [Miller’s work was] always tied to the life around him.” Miller’s transformations have long, historical roots. Educated at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Miller was keenly aware of the tradition of painted furniture among Southern plantations, including pieces repurposed by slaves and freedmen in the mid-19th century. In Miller’s modern hands, with his dazzling approach, the artist blurred the lines between fine art and folk art and between mass production and individual work.

52

} Tom Miller Philodendron (detail) }

Philodendron, 1988 vanity desk and mirror enamel on wood 30 x 45 x 19½ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2013.003.002

53

John Blair Mitchell Bioglyph VI, 1973 acrylic and mixed media 48 x 33 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of Leslie and David Glickman 2013.014.001

54

JOHN BLAIR MITCHELL

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

John Blair Mitchell (1921–1999) was born in Brooklyn, New York, and studied art at the Pratt Institute. He earned his BA and MA from Columbia University and his PhD from New York University. In 1949, not long after serving in World War II, Mitchell joined the faculty of Towson University and twice served as chairman of the art department.

He retired in 1991 after 42 years of service. In addition, he was deeply involved in Baltimore’s leading art organizations. He was a founding member of both the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Print and Drawing Society and the Maryland Printmakers. He was also a member of Maryland Art Place and served on its board.

When Towson University honored the artist with a retrospective of his work, they included paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, ceramics, and sculpture. UMUC has several Mitchell works in its collection. The first piece came in 1981, and in 2013 the program received Micro-Bioglyph (1971) and Bioglyph VI (1973). The piece in this exhibition, Bioglyph VI, is marked by its tactile surface treatment rather than a tightly bound visual vocabulary. The work shares a style that traverses between abstraction and the biomorphism practiced earlier by Jean (Hans) Arp, Jean Tinguely, and Isamu Noguchi. Whereas Mitchell shares the earlier pioneers’ predilection for amorphous, rounded shapes, Bioglyph VI has a more crystalized structure that hints at the building blocks of life-forms.

55

YOSHIKO OISHI-WEICK

INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION

Yoshiko Oishi-Weick is a Japanese artist who was born in Daegu, Korea, in 1945. She began her study of traditional Asian ink wash paintings, called Sumi-e in Japanese, in 1980. This method of painting was believed to have begun as a Chinese tradition and was likely introduced to Japan at the end of the 14th century by the Chinese immigrant Josetsu, known as the father of Japanese ink painting. To those accustomed to Western painting, Sumi-e ink painting is closely related to calligraphy, with bold, visible strokes and expanses of space to create the essence of the subject rather than pure visual likeness. Orchid and Plum (2004) exemplifies that notion. The vast horizontal expanse allows the viewer to both isolate the organic elements and see them as a synthesized whole. As for color, the palette is typically limited.

Oishi-Weick once explained, “Variations in black and gray brushstrokes are used to create detail. The flow is interesting and creates tone. The painting comes to life as if the colors are there.�

Oishi-Weick moved to the United States in 2004 and has been working as an artist-in-residence at the Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., since that time. She is currently a resident of Arlington, Virginia, and has shown her work at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C.

56

Yoshiko Oishi-Weick Orchid and Plum, 2004 India ink on paper 28 x 54 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of the artist 2011.003.002

57

Joyce J. Scott Have You Seen This Child?, 2010 glass, beads, thread, wire, and wood, 19 x 12 x 16½ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2013.001.001

58

JOYCE J. SCOTT

DORIS PATZ COLLECTION OF MARYLAND ARTISTS

“There are few artists within the Mid-Atlantic region who have gained the unconditional respect of their peers, critics, and community. . . .

[Joyce J. Scott] functions as a catalyst of change, a champion of all art forms and artists.”1

—Dr. Leslie King-Hammond, graduate dean emeritus and founder of the Center for Race and Culture at the Maryland Institute College of Art

Joyce J. Scott (born 1948) is a Baltimore, Maryland, native who earned a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1970 and an MFA from Instituto Allende, Mexico, in 1971. She received additional training from Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Maine. Despite her rich formal education, Scott credits her mother, the artist Elizabeth Talford Scott, with passing on to her the knowledge and craft of needlework as well as inspiring the emphasis on storytelling within her work. Scott is now seen in numerous roles including fiber artist, sculptor, performance artist, jewelry maker, art educator, glass artist, and printmaker.

Have You Seen This Child? (2010) is a typical work for the artist, but perhaps more poignant than the usual narrative found in traditional art forms such as painting or marble sculpture. Scott’s work invariably deals with issues of class, race, gender, sexuality, social commentary, and stereotypes. While some see her subject choices as confrontational, others see the work as a reflection of society’s unequal treatment of individuals and groups that have been underserved historically. In Have You Seen This Child?, it is clear that Joyce is addressing something known by social scientists as the “missing white woman syndrome,” a phrase often credited to Sheri Parks, a professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. In short, the phenomenon is characterized by the notion that young white women and girls in distress garner more attention than their male, Latino, and African American counterparts.

1

King-Hammond, Leslie. “New Paradigm: The Art of Joyce J. Scott.” In Joyce J. Scott: Breathe.

Baltimore, MD: Goya-Girl Press, 2007. Exhibition catalog.

59

DAVID SMEDLEY

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

Since 1994, David Smedley has been the head of the sculpture program for Howard University, in Washington, D.C., where he teaches a variety of courses, including stone and wood carving, figure modeling, metal fabrication, welding, and casting. In 1985, he received a BFA from Binghamton University–SUNI, and in 1992 he earned an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Much of Smedley’s work is abstract, but he is skilled in figurative work as well, as evidenced by this carved work and his bronze bust of Charles H. Wright, the namesake for a museum of African American art in Detroit. Smedley’s piece, Homage to Bill Taylor (2008), references William Taylor, an African American artist whose specialty was direct carving. Taylor studied with Alma W. Thomas, another artist represented in this exhibition; was an artist-in-residence at Howard University; and was a long-time instructor at the University of the District of Columbia.

In Homage to Bill Taylor, Smedley displays the skilled carving necessary to pay homage to Taylor, and he captures the warmth and tonal qualities inherent in polished wood. Smedley’s nearly armless, headless figure has additional associations of eroticism and classical allusions to the elegant, ancient carvings of the goddess Venus (or Aphrodite).

60

David Smedley Homage to Bill Taylor 2008, cherry wood 39½ x 10 x 8 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection 2010.031.001

61

}

2012.022.002

}

Carroll Sockwell Fione #4, not dated pastel on paper 2Âź x 5Âź inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of John and Doris Babcock

Carroll Sockwell Untitled, (ID JH 45), not dated mixed media on paper 31 x 39 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of James and Margaret Hilleary 2013.004.001

62

CARROLL SOCKWELL

MARYLAND ARTIST COLLECTION

Carroll Sockwell (1943–1992) was a complicated figure whose life’s tragic narrative ended in financial instability and suicide. Despite this, his artistic innovations and presence in the Washington, D.C., art scene in the 1960s and 1970s were strongly felt.

Sockwell was born in Washington, D.C. His career as an artist can be said to have begun when Elinor Ulman, an art therapist and instructor at the Corcoran College of Art + Design took note of his work and offered encouragement. Sockwell set off for the New York City art scene in the early 1960s but returned to Washington, D.C., in 1963.

Eventually he became part of the local art life and enjoyed the attention of Roy Slade, Walter Hopps, Alice Denney, Harry Lunn, and other gallery owners, artists, and curators in the area. While Sockwell was committed to abstraction, it cannot be said that he was a part of the Washington Color School. However, he did form friendships with Jim Hilleary and Sam Gilliam, two artists linked to the movement.

Whereas the Washington Color School was notable for its large, colorful canvases by Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Gene Davis, and others, Sockwell’s works were smaller in scale, often less colorful, and created on paper. One may observe that his work more closely resembles that of Cy Twombly than Gene Davis.

63

NELSON STEVENS

DORIS PATZ COLLECTION OF MARYLAND ARTISTS

Nelson Stevens, born in 1938 in Brooklyn, New York, is a leading figure in the AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) movement of contemporary art. Stevens received a BFA in painting from Ohio University in 1962 and an MFA in studio art and art history from Kent State University in 1969. From 1972 to 2003, Stevens was an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the department of art and the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American studies.

Stevie Wonder (1982) is the embodiment of Stevens’s work. It depicts the famed musician and Motown phenomenon with a boundless sense of energy that might be said to mimic the musical richness of Wonder’s work. More broadly, though, Stevie Wonder reflects the AfriCOBRA aesthetic of pure, vivid colors such as reds, yellows, blues, and purples. The fact that Stevie Wonder is easily identifiable is also consistent with art that is meant to be relatable to large groups of African Americans. The work becomes a celebration of African American history and achievement.

64

Nelson Stevens Stevie Wonder, 1982 mixed media 30 x 26 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2013.010.001

65

66

Alma W. Thomas Untitled, 1969 watercolor on paper 16½ x 135⁄8 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists

Alma W. Thomas Untitled, 1969 watercolor on paper 16½ x 135⁄8 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists

2011.024.001

2011.024.002

ALMA W. THOMAS

DORIS PATZ COLLECTION OF MARYLAND ARTISTS

Alma W. Thomas (1891–1978) was born in Columbus, Georgia, and relocated with her family to the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in 1906. She was the first student to enter and graduate from Howard University’s studio art program. In 1924 Thomas began teaching at Shaw Junior High School, where she remained until her retirement in 1960. She then dedicated herself full-time to her own work.

She had her first one-person show at the age of 68, and despite her belated start, she went on to have retrospectives at Howard University, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the National Museum of American Art (all in Washington, D.C.). Perhaps more noteworthy, she was the first African American woman to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. In 2009, two of her works were selected to be on view during the Obama presidency.

Thomas’s earliest work was representational, but according to art historian Sharon Patton, she eventually became influenced by the abstract expressionists and the color field artists including the Washington Color School.1 The two untitled pieces in this exhibition are perfect embodiments of her work from the late 1960s. In their organically aligned daubs of saturated watercolor, one can see an affinity to Morris Louis, Jacob Kainen, and others, including the French pointillists Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, the latter a noted watercolorist. The two pieces in the UMUC collection are modest in size but symphonic in their color rhythms and organization.

1

Patton, Sharon F. African-American Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

67

ANDY WARHOL

INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) was born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Warhol attended Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and earned a BFA in pictorial design before moving to New York City to pursue a career in commercial illustration. In the late 1950s, he shifted his focus to painting and shortly thereafter began to develop his signature pop art style featuring his Campbell’s soup cans, Brillo boxes, and so on.

Beginning in 1962, Warhol began to create silkscreens, including a memorable Marilyn Monroe based on an earlier publicity photograph.

Employing a light-sensitive emulsion, Warhol and his studio produced numerous images based on photographs.

In 1983, Warhol created a series of ten color screen prints that portrayed endangered animals from around the world: a Siberian tiger, San Francisco silverspot butterfly, orangutan, Grevy’s zebra, black rhinoceros, bighorn ram, African elephant, Pine Barrens tree frog, giant panda, and bald eagle. The Endangered Species (1983) portfolio was commissioned by Ronald and Frayda Feldman, long-time political and environmental activists who support innovative art projects and installations through their art gallery.

68

}

Andy Warhol Endangered Species (Pine Barrens Tree Frog), 1983 screen print on Lenox Museum Board, 38 x 38 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. 2013.017.005

} Andy Warhol Endangered Species (Giant Panda) 1983, screen print on Lenox Museum Board, 38 x 38 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. 2013.017.003

69

Mindy Weisel The Travelers, 1986 oil on canvas 64½ x 56½ inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of Mrs. Gaylord Neely 2012.023.001

70

MINDY WEISEL

INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION

Mindy Weisel, born in 1947, was one of the first babies born in a displaced persons camp in Bergen-Belsen after World War II. Her parents were Holocaust survivors, and her cousin, Elie Weisel, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for writing about his experiences during the war.

Mindy Weisel studied at California State University, Los Angeles, and Otis Art Institute and received a BFA from George Washington University. She also did postgraduate work at American University, followed by extensive training in fine-art glass work.

Much has been written and observed about the manner in which Weisel’s work alludes to horrors and destruction despite their ostensibly innocuous subjects, such as this still life with flowers. Certainly the scale of The Travelers (1986) relays a powerful punch. Paul Richard of the Washington Post described her work in a more upbeat manner, writing, “These improvised, heartfelt abstract paintings . . . are as shiny and stylish as a Charlie Parker solo. Lights and high-key colors twinkle in their darkness. Their swing is almost jaunty.”

Currently Weisel divides her time between Jerusalem, Israel, and Washington, D.C.

71

UNKNOWN CHINESE ARTISTS

ART OF CHINA COLLECTION

Considered a golden age of Chinese civilization, the Han dynasty is notable for its peace, imperial expansion, growing prosperity, and— artistically speaking—organized ceramic production. Through the use of molds and advances in glazing, ceramics became more advanced and more abundant.

During this period spanning several centuries, the production of ceramics served both the living and the dead. As such, the hu, a vessel originally intended for wine, was just as likely to have been produced for a funerary tomb. The same might be said for the ding, a footed vessel or cauldron used for cooking, storage, and ritual offerings.

Despite their age and the effects of their burial, an incredible sense of the color, pattern, and design of both works remains.

Both the ding and the hu form part of a remarkable gift made by Iver Nelson to UMUC in 2011. In total, Nelson gave 15 works representing several dynasties including the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming. These now help round out the impressive Chinese holdings made by earlier donors, which include ceramics, snuff bottles, silk scroll paintings, and jade and lacquer ware.

72

Unknown Chinese artist Ding (part of a funerary ritual set) Western Han Dynasty Circa 206 BCE–220 CE 7 x 7¾ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Art of China Collection Gift of Iver Nelson 2011.008.015

Unknown Chinese artist Hu (a vessel) Western Han Dynasty Circa 206 BCE–220 CE 11 x 15 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Art of China Collection Gift of Iver Nelson 2011.008.005

73

Exhibition List March Avery Paris Park II, 1995 watercolor on paper 22 x 30 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of John and Doris Babcock 2012.022.003

Ralph Baney Three Piece Form, 1971 maple, 24 inches high UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists Gift of the artist 2012.006.001

A. Aubrey Bodine Commercial Typing Department 1928, gelatin silver print 7¾ x 95⁄8 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection 2011.029.20

A. Aubrey Bodine Helios, 1969 gelatin silver print 10 x 13 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection 2011.029.001

Al Burts Dignity, 2008 ballpoint pen on board 36 x 32 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of the artist 2013.019.001

Elizabeth Catlett Survivor, 1983 linocut, 11 x 8½ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection 2010.004.002

Ed Clark Mainstream I, 1975 acrylic on canvas 1195⁄8 x 188¾ inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of the artist 2012.021.001

74

Kevin Cole Chasing Laughter, 2010 aluminum and copper 52 x 20 x 11 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of Preston Sampson 2010.061.002

Patrick Craig Trapeze, 2011 oil on canvas 61 x 111 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of the artist 2011.022.001

Richard L. Dana Girl Is Father to Humankind (diptych) 2006, oil on panel 83 x 80 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists Gift of the artist 2012.020.001

Tim Davis Why You Waiting, 2007 acrylic and photography collage on canvas, 30 x 30 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of the artist 2012.005.001

Richard Dempsey Bleecker Street, circa 1940s oil on masonite board 14 x 18 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2010.041.002

Patricia Tobacco Forrester Royal Flush, 1990 lithograph, artist’s proof, 1⁄15 29½ x 46 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Stephen B. Hameroff 2011.023.001

Jane Frank Untitled, circa 1958 oil on board 34 x 34 inches Maryland Artist Collection Promised gift

Peter Gordon Fall Turnover, 2006 oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of the artist 2013.018.002

Grace Hartigan Watteau’s Musicians, 2001 oil on canvas 60 x 78 inches Maryland Artist Collection Promised gift of the Ronald Lubcher Estate Palmer Hayden Woman with Cat (Yellow Flowers) not dated watercolor on paper 16 x 20 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2010.027.002

Kristin Helberg The Arabber, 2004 acrylic on canvas panel 16½ x 20½ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of the Steven Scott Gallery in honor of the artist 2013.013.001

Ellen Hill DPI Series #6, 2011 acrylic, ink, and carved birch on panel, 10½ x 11½ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of the Steven Scott Gallery in honor of the artist 2013.012.001

Jacob Lawrence Dondon, 1992 silkscreen 187⁄16 x 285⁄16 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2013.009.002

Jacob Lawrence The Opener, 1997 silkscreen 223⁄16 x 323⁄16 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2013.009.001

Charles Levier Ships at the Harbor not dated, oil on canvas 15 x 30 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of Stephen Stein 2011.018.002

Keith M. Martin White Collage, 1959 collage on canvas 18¼ x 26¼ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2013.007.001

Reini Maters Late Afternoon in Summer 1986, acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of the artist in honor of Dr. Susan C. Aldridge 2012.010.006

Tom Miller Philodendron, 1988 vanity desk and mirror enamel on wood 30 x 45 x 19½ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2013.003.002

John Blair Mitchell Bioglyph VI, 1973 acrylic and mixed media 48 x 33 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of Leslie and David Glickman 2013.014.001

75

Yoshiko Oishi-Weick Orchid and Plum, 2004 India ink on paper 28 x 54 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of the artist

Alma W. Thomas Untitled, 1969 watercolor on paper 16½ x 135⁄8 x inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists

2011.003.002

2011.024.002

Joyce J. Scott Have You Seen This Child?, 2010 glass, beads, thread, wire, and wood, 19 x 12 x 16½ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists

Andy Warhol Endangered Species (Giant Panda) 1983, screen print on Lenox Museum Board, 38 x 38 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

2013.001.001

David Smedley Homage to Bill Taylor 2008, cherry wood 39½ x 10 x 8 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection 2010.031.001

Carroll Sockwell Fione #4, not dated pastel on paper 2¼ x 5¼ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of John and Doris Babcock 2012.022.002

Carroll Sockwell Untitled, (ID JH 45), not dated mixed media on paper 31 x 39 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Maryland Artist Collection Gift of James and Margaret Hilleary 2013.004.001

Nelson Stevens Stevie Wonder, 1982 mixed media 30 x 26 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2013.010.001

Alma W. Thomas Untitled, 1969 watercolor on paper 16½ x 135⁄8 x inches UMUC Permanent Collection Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists 2011.024.001

76

2013.017.003

Andy Warhol Endangered Species (Pine Barrens Tree Frog), 1983 screen print on Lenox Museum Board, 38 x 38 inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. 2013.017.005

Mindy Weisel The Travelers, 1986 oil on canvas 64½ x 56½ inches UMUC Permanent Collection International Collection Gift of Mrs. Gaylord Neely 2012.023.001

Unknown Chinese artist Ding (part of a funerary ritual set) Western Han Dynasty circa 206 BCE–220 CE 7 x 7¾ inches UMUC Permanent Collection Art of China Collection Gift of Iver Nelson 2011.008.015

Unknown Chinese artist Hu (a vessel) Western Han Dynasty circa 206 BCE–220 CE 11 x 15 inches UMUC Permanent Collection Art of China Collection Gift of Iver Nelson 2011.008.005

ABOUT UMUC Serving Busy Professionals Worldwide University of Maryland University College (UMUC) specializes in high-quality academic programs that are convenient for busy professionals. Our programs are specifically tailored to fit into the busy lives of those who wish to pursue a respected degree that can advance them personally and grow their careers. UMUC has earned a worldwide reputation for excellence as a comprehensive virtual university and, through a combination of classroom and distance-learning formats, provides educational opportunities to more than 95,000 students. The university is proud to offer highly acclaimed faculty and world-class student services to educate students online, throughout Maryland, across the United States, and in 25 countries and territories around the world. UMUC serves its students through undergraduate and graduate programs, noncredit leadership development, and customized programs. For more information regarding UMUC and its programs, visit www.umuc.edu.

ABOUT THE ARTS AT UMUC Since 1978, University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has proudly shown works from a large collection of international and Maryland artists at the UMUC Inn and Conference Center in Adelphi, Maryland, a few miles from the nation’s capital. Through its Arts Program, the university provides a prestigious and wide-ranging forum for emerging and established artists and brings art to the community through its own collections, which have grown to include more than 2,600 pieces of art, and special exhibitions.

UMUC’s collections focus on both art by Maryland artists and art from around the world. They include the Maryland Artist Collection, the Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists, the Asian Collections, the Education Collection, and the International Collection. The university’s collection of Maryland art includes approximately 2,000 works and provides a comprehensive survey of 20th- and 21st-century Maryland art. The university’s Asian Collections consist of nearly 420 pieces of Chinese art, Japanese prints, and Balinese folk art, dating from the Tang dynasty (618–907 ad) through the 19th century—a historical reach of 13 centuries. The UMUC collection of Japanese prints includes more than 120 prints by 35 artists.

Artworks are on display throughout the UMUC Inn and Conference Center and the Administration Building in Adelphi as well as at the UMUC Academic Center at Largo. The main, lower-level gallery in Adelphi is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week, and the Leroy Merritt Center for the Art of Joseph Sheppard is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. More than 100,000 students, scholars, and visitors come to the Adelphi facilities each year. Exhibitions at the UMUC Academic Center at Largo are open to visitors from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

UMUC ARTS PROGRAM MISSION STATEMENT The Arts Program at UMUC creates an environment in which its diverse constituents, including members of the university community and the general public, can study and learn about art by directly experiencing it.

The Arts Program seeks to promote the university’s core values and to provide educational opportunities for lifelong learning. From the research and study of works of art to the teaching applications of each of our exhibitions, the Arts Program will play an increasing role in academic life at the university. With a regional and national focus, the Arts Program is dedicated to the acquisition, preservation, study, exhibition, and interpretation of works of art of the highest quality in a variety of media that represent its constituents and to continuing its historic dedication to Maryland and Asian art.

CONTRIBUTORS Project Manager: Donna Grove Curator: Brian Young Editors: Barbara Reed and Sandy Bernstein Designer: Jennifer Norris Production Manager: Scott Eury Fine Arts Technician: René A. Sanjines Administrative Assistant: Denise Melvin

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UMUC ART ADVISORY BOARD Javier Miyares

Mark J. Gerencser, Chair

President University of Maryland University College

Chairman of the Board CyberSpa, LLC

Michèle E. Jacobs, Chair Managing Director Special Events at Union Station

Evelyn J. Bata, PhD

Anne V. Maher, Esq., Vice Chair

Richard F. Blewitt

Attorney at Law Kleinfeld, Kaplan & Becker, LLP

Myrtis Bedolla

Owner and Founding Director Galerie Myrtis

Joan Bevelaqua

Artist, Art Faculty, University of Maryland University College

Collegiate Professor University of Maryland University College

Member Emeritus President and Chief Executive Officer The Blewitt Foundation

Joseph V. Bowen Jr.

Senior Vice President, Operations, and Managing Principal, Ret. McKissack & McKissack

David W. Bower

I-Ling Chow, honorary member

President and Chief Executive Officer Data Computer Corporation of America

Patricia Dubroof

Founder and Chief Executive Officer CyberPoint International

Regional President and Managing Director, Ret. Asia Bank, N.A. Artist/Consultant IONA Senior Services

Nina C. Dwyer

Artist, Adjunct Professor of Art, Montgomery College

Karl R. Gumtow

Michèle E. Jacobs

Managing Director Special Events at Union Station

Donald S. Orkand, PhD (Former Chair)

Jeannette Glover

Member Emeritus Founding Partner DC Ventures and Associates, LLC

Karin Goldstein, honorary member

Vice President of Operations, Ret. Department of Defense/Intelligence Services Lockheed Martin Information Technology

Artist, Program Manager, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Collector and Patron of the Arts

Pamela Holt

Lt. Gen. Emmett Paige Jr., U.S. Army Ret.

Charles E. (Ted) Peck

Consultant Public Affairs and Cultural Policy Administration

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ret. The Ryland Group, Inc.

Eric Key

President and Chief Executive Officer The Pinder Group

Director, Arts Program University of Maryland University College

Sharon Pinder

Brig. Gen. Velma Richardson, U.S. Army, Ret.

Thomas Li, honorary member Chairman and CEO, Ret. Biotech Research Labs, Inc.

Vice President, DoD IT Programs and Special Projects IS&GS Lockheed Martin Corporation

David Maril, honorary member

Gen. John (Jack) Vessey Jr., U.S. Army, Ret.

Journalist President, Herman Maril Foundation

Barbara Stephanic, PhD, Past Vice Chair,

Member Emeritus Former Chairman U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff

honorary member Professor of Art History, Ret. College of Southern Maryland

William T. (Bill) Wood, JD

Dianne A. Whitfield-Locke, DDS

Joyce M. Wright

Collector and Patron of the Arts Owner, Dianne Whitfield-Locke Dentistry

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UMUC BOARD OF VISITORS

Attorney at Law Wood Law Offices, LLC

President, The Wright Company

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