Drawings by Morgantown native and WVU alumna Blanche Lazzell, along with photographs by WVU Associate Professor of Social Work Neal Newfield, are the new exhibitions opening the Mesaros Galleries in the Creative Arts Center beginning Thursday, March 4. Both exhibits will be open though April 3.
Blanche Lazzell: The Hofmann Drawings,featuring Lazzell drawings from the 1930s when she joined the classes of Hans Hofmann, will be in the Laura Mesaros Gallery. It is curated by Robert Bridges and Kristina Olson. The exhibition kicks off a year of celebration of this West Virginia artist who is known as one of America’s foremost modern artists and one of the first women to create abstract paintings in America. The celebration will culminate with the large exhibitionBlanche Lazzell: The Work of an American Modernistin the Mesaros Galleries during Sept. 9-29.
There will also be a series of lectures on Lazzell in conjunction with the Women and Creativity Conference to be held at WVU Oct. 13-15.
We are very excited about this exhibition of rarely seen charcoal drawings, all from 1937 and 1938,said Bridges, who is curator of the Mesaros Galleries.I view these works as evidence of an important turning point in Lazzell’s career. After a decade of making realist informed art for the WPA , she once again became invigorated by abstraction, due to her association with Hans Hofmann.
Blanche Lazzell (1878-1956) was born in Maidsville, graduated from WVU in 1905 with a degree in fine arts and went on to study in New York and Paris with notable artists of her day. Her reputation is based on her role in the development of the Provincetown white-line woodblock print and on the prints and paintings she made using the abstract vocabulary of cubism.
In the summer of 1937, Lazzell, at age 59, joined German-born modernist Hans Hoffmann’s Provincetown drawing class. The drawings in the WVU exhibition come from the WVU Art Collection and are a record of Hofmann’s mentorship of Lazzell and of the two artists’passion for invigorating abstract compositions thorough movement and spatial tension.
Lazzell participated in Hofmann’s classes in the summers of 1937 an 1938 and attended his New York school in the spring of 1938. In the early 1930s she was creating some highly regarded abstracted still-life prints. However, the American art scene of the thirties was more conservative and due to high demand by the Works Project Administration officials for Lazzell’s white-line woodblock prints, she spent much of her time from 1934 to 1939 creating art for the Federal Art Projects. The imagery was mostly popular landscapes from her native West Virginia and around her studio in Provincetown. Her involvement with Hofmann helped return her to abstraction. Lazzell became friends with Hofmann and his wife and later attend many of his exhibitions in New York.
According to Bridges, who is also curator of the WVU Art Collection, the drawings in this exhibition represent only a small portion of the Lazzell holdings at West Virginia University. The entire collection spans her career and includes paintings, prints, decorative items, and drawings that come largely from the artist’s bequest to the University. Lazzell’s relatives, James and Janet Reed, were responsible for bringing the portfolio of 67 drawings from Hofmann’s classes into the collection. Other donors, including relative Frances Sellers, have helped make the WVU Art Collection the largest public holding of Lazzell’s work.
Bridges and Olson will present a lecture about the exhibition Tuesday, March 23, at 5 p.m. in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall (Room 200A). Olson is assistant professor of art history at WVU and former curator of the Mesaros Galleries.
Making Ends Meet: West Virginia Community Voices,an exhibition of photography by WVU Associate Professor of Social Work Neal Newfield, will be in the Paul Mesaros Gallery. The photographs were originally part of the projectMaking Ends Meet: What Should We Do to Support West Virginia’s Working Families?
The project grew out of concerns about the many families in West Virginia who are struggling due to lay-offs, low-wage jobs, lack of health insurance, or loss of public benefits. Forums were held throughout West Virginia from October through December 2000 in an effort to better understand the problems and explore possible actions. The project was completed with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Community Voices Initiative, and a WVU Public Service Grant. Photographic consultants for the project were Young Kim, assistant professor of art in the WVU College of Creative Arts, and William Seymour, professor emeritus of the WVU School of Journalism.
Since March is Social Work Month, this exhibition is being presented in recognition of social workers. The black and white photographs document the lives of West Virginians struggling to make ends meet-everyday people with everyday problems. It was previously on view at the Stifel Fine Arts Center in Wheeling last October.
Newfield will present a visiting artist lecture about his work Wednesday, March 3, at 5 p.m. in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall (Room 200A). A reception will follow at the Galleries.
Managed and programmed by Curator Robert Bridges and the WVU Division of Art, the Mesaros Galleries organize a diverse and exciting schedule of exhibitions throughout the year. The galleries are committed to showing experimental work that is innovative both in terms of media and content. The Mesaros Galleries also host contemporary artists of important or growing reputation who work in all media in the Visiting Artist program. All the gallery events and receptions are free and open to the public.
The Mesaros Galleries are open Monday through Saturday from noon to 9 p.m. They are closed Sundays and on University holidays. Special viewing times may be arranged upon request.
For more information, contact Robert Bridges, curator, at (304) 293-2140 ext. 3210