October 15 – November 15, 1976
Art Gallery, Eugenia Fuller Atwood Library
Glenside, Pa. – Merle Spandorfer of 8012 Ellen Land, Cheltenham, local artist, will exhibit her one person show of her recent work at Beaver College, Easton and Church Rds., Glenside, in the Atwood Gallery of Art. The exhibition will open Friday, October 15 from 7:30 to 10:00 p.m. and will extend through November 15. The public is invited to attend the opening reception.
The exhibition at Beaver College will be of paintings, photography and photo-collages. The artist’s work deals with the oneness of man with the universe; man’s portrait as it fuses into oneness with the artist’s finger print and other natural phenomena of its ambiance.
Ms. Spandorfer’s paintings and prints are in numerous permanent collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Library of Congress, California College of Arts and Crafts, U.S. Information Service in Japan, and National Bank of Washington. She has had solo shows at Marian Locks Gallery, Philadelphia Art Alliance and University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; Richard Feigen Gallery and Louis Meisel Gallery in New York. Her work has been included in group exhibitions in U.S. and Europe including the San Francisco Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Baltimore Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Delaware Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Moore College of Art, Expo, U.S. Pavilion, Osaka, Japan, Hundred Acres Gallery in New York, Henri Gallery in Washington and International Biennial, Segovia, Spain.
The announcement of the show is a photograph taken of an environmental piece that Spandorfer executed in the Azalea Gardens of the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the 1976 Bicentennial Sculpture Exhibition. The art work consisted of the words: “I am you You are me” handwritten on a piece of gauze wrapped around a tree. Surrounding the tree yet hidden in the woods was a quadrasonic sound system playing a tape recording of Spandorfer’s heart-beat.
1976 BEAVER NEWS
“Spandorfer exhibits work in Atwood Gallery” by Nora O’Dowd
“My work deals with man and his oneness with nature,” said Merle Spandorfer, whose art exhibit will open this Friday at 7:30 PM in Atwood Gallery. The exhibition consists of paintings, photography and photo-collages. Four of the paintings show the metamorphosis of a man’s portrait as it fuses into oneness with the artist’s finger print and other natural phenomena of its ambience.
Ms. Spandorfer’s philosophy of man’s unity with nature is clearly evidenced by the announcement of the show: a photograph taken of an environmental piece that she did in the Azalea Gardens of the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the 1976 Sculpture Exhibition. The art work said, “I am you You are me” handwritten on a piece of gauze, wrapped around a tree. Surrounding the tree, yet hidden in the woods, was a quadrasonic sound system of a tape recording of Ms. Spandorfer’s heartbeat.
Ms. Spandorfer’s paintings and prints are in numerous permanent collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Penna. Academy of Fine Arts, Library of Congress, California College of Arts and Crafts, U.S. Information Service in Japan, National Bank of Washington, etc. She has had solo shows at Marian Locks Gallery, Phila. Art Alliance and University of Pa. in Philadelphia; Richard Feigen Gallery and Louis Meisel Gallery in New York[.] Her work has been included in group exhibitions in U.S. and Europe including the San Francisco Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Baltimore Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Delaware Museum, Pa. Academy of Fine Arts, Moore College of Art, Expo, U.S. Pavilion, Osaka, Japan, Hundred Acres Gallery in N.Y., Henri Gallery in Washington and International Biennial, Segovia, Spain.
The exhibit will continue until November 15 and is open Monday through Friday, 1:00-5:00 PM.
“Man’s Unity with Nature” by Paula Oram
On Friday, October 15, Merle Spandorfer’s show opened in the Atwood Gallery at 7:30 p.m. I took a quick look around at the prints and then perseveringly pounced upon Merle Spandorfer for her personal interpretation of the work.
Her featured four print series is entitled “Pitriyana.” “Pitriyana is defined as a path back to birth,” she explained. “Man is on earth, spiritually dying, and becoming one with the universe.” There is a fingerprint on each print in the series. The fingerprint represents her philosophy of “I am you, you are me.”
The print series is based upon old-fashioned tintype photograph. The picture was blown up and placed onto photosensitive canvas from Germany as a print. Each print is placed at a different angle to get the various effects. The last print in the series is named “Lunar Light,” in which man becomes one with God. It has been placed so that it is reflected in the sun. As a last printmaking technique, the different markings on the picture surface is a result of the photographic aging.
Why does Ms. Spandorfer use old photographs in her work? “It is based upon my philosophy. It’s the idea of reincarnation. It may have been me in another [life].”
Another series of prints which was based upon “Man’s oneness with nature.” The series consists of a man’s face that was covered over with real tree bark. “I sprayed developer on to show man fragmenting. I was more concerned with the universality the man portrayed rather than the man,” Ms. Spandorfer commented.
A big print is entitled “Knower in the Field.” The title is a direct quotation from the [Bhagavad] Gita. It is covered with gauze, owing the “[philosophical] life-death process and after-life.”
The last series had some prints covered with gauze and others remained uncovered. Entitled “[Transients] in Pain,” it is symbolic of a man’s phases of life, in a philosophical way. In the veiled sections, man is veiled from life, hidden from reality.
I had pushed Ms. Spandorfer into her last corner as I finished my questioning. All in all, it was a fascinating show and fascinating artist.
