|
|
 |
|||||
|
|
MC Square | Search | |
||
|
|||||
Content Navigation:
|
|
 Remembering Bill Whiteby Theodore L. Presscott Distinguished Professor of Art I first met Bill White through my friend David Dewey, who spoke highly about Bill and his work. After meeting him and seeing his sculpture, I understood David’s enthusiasm. Thus I arranged for an exhibition of Bill’s work the very first year Messiah’s Aughinbaugh Gallery was open, in March of 1982. We bought the beautiful bronze St. Sebastian then, along with a preparatory drawing. My wife Cathy and I sometimes visited Bill and his friend Lois Dodd on our trips to New York. Bill and Lois shared a studio right off the Bowery. They were generous with their time, encouraging us in our work and discussing the artists, movements, and ideas they knew and loved. Daniel Finaldi, a student of Lois’ who painted Bill while he sculpted, said his visits to the studio were “an amalgam of politics, art history, history, and laughs.” Bill was a natural raconteur, and told keenly observed stories about his travels and what he’d seen and done. He told with particular relish of once being expelled from the limousine of an automotive baron who’d offered the poor young art student from Cranbrook a ride to Detroit. It was during the Depression, and Bill’s enthusiasm for the politics of Franklin Roosevelt evidently provoked the baron to reconsider his hospitality. Sometimes Bill and I would go around Manhattan visiting the museums, galleries, art supply stores, and other places he enjoyed. I was struck by how many people Bill knew. He seemed to have a gift for making people enjoy the moments they shared with him. Perhaps that was because he savored the beauty he found in diverse people, artifacts, and places. Bill’s love of art from the past is evident in his work, and one can find references to both historic and contemporary art throughout. As I’ve gone through his papers and sketchbooks, I’ve been impressed by the number of studies he made of other artists’ work. But his work was grounded in life observation. He was part of a group of artists that included Charles Cajori, Lois Dodd, Diane Kurz, Mercedes Matter, and Philip Pearlstein who met weekly to draw from the model. His idea of the artist was not Promethean, and his artistic goals had an essential humility, favoring the subject over the artist. Bill worked within the long, demanding tradition of the human figure. It was his legacy to master that tradition, and leave us a body of work that is by turns simple, keenly felt, beautiful, and profound. |
|
|
