Eastern Pennsylvania Regional Drawings Exhibition

Juror: Robert Godfrey, Director, Westminster College Art Gallery

PURCHASE AWARDS

Margarete Heuges, Two Squares, c. pre-1977, varnish, pigment on paper.
Carla Tudor, Housing Development in Great Falls, Va., c. pre-1977, charcoal on paper.

Glenside, Pa. – Fifty-five winning drawings selected from 160 entries in a juried contest will be on display at Beaver College in the Eastern Pennsylvania Regional Drawing Exhibition to be held from November 11 through December 8. Funded by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Beaver Fine Arts Department, the exhibition will be held in the Richard Eugene Fuller Art Gallery in the Atwood Library on the college campus, Easton and Church Rds., Glenside. According to Judith K. Brodsky, acting chairwoman of the Fine Arts Department, “drawing was defined for this exhibition as work on paper, and the variety of entries showed that what is considered drawing today is far from the traditional modes.”

Opening with a reception to honor the winners in the Fuller Gallery on Friday evening, November 11 from 7 to 10 p.m., the exhibition will feature a symposium on drawing on November 16 at 4:30 p.m. when the award winners will discuss “Drawing Today.” Both events are open to the public. 

Purchase winners were Margarete Heuges, of 2039 Jenkintown Rd., Glenside, for her varnish and pigment drawing entitled “Two Squares,” and Clara Tudor, of 716 S. 16th St., Philadelphia, for her charcoal drawing of a housing development in Great Falls, Va. All purchase award drawings will become part of the permanent collection of Beaver College. 

Prize award winners were Doris Staffel, of 104 W. Mermaid Lane, Chestnut Hill, for her watercolor “The White Remainer,” and Boris Putterman, of 7865 Spring Ave., Elkins Park, for his watercolor “Four Pears.”

Mr. Robert Godfrey, director of the Westminster College Art Gallery was the juror for the exhibition. Mr. Godfrey, a 1966-67 Fulbright-Hays Scholar to Denmark, is the author of “The Figure in Recent American Painting” and “In Praise of Space: The Landscape in American Art.” His most recently exhibited works appeared in “Artists Choice: Figurative Art in New York,” selected and exhibited by Green Mountain, Bowery, Prince Street, and First Street Galleries in New York City. 

In discussing his choices, Mr. Godfrey said, “the methodology of selecting the exhibition was to arrange the work according to different systems in which individual artists seemed to be working. The individual works selected were felt to best represent the mode or system, and no mode was dismissed as lacking credibility. This exhibition of drawings in a sense reveals the thinking process – a private view – of the [regions] established as well as younger artists.”

The exhibition is the third drawing show to be held by Beaver College. According to Mrs. Brodsky, “most shows are devoted to painting, sculpture, or prints; drawing exhibitions provide a chance to emphasize visual ideas across a wide spectrum in a way painting or sculpture shows can not.” In 1974, the art department mounted a juried regional show of work by women artists in connection with “Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts.” In 1976 Beaver College held an invitational drawing exhibition entitled “Drawing: Philadelphia in the Bicentennial Year.”

1977 BEAVER NEWS
“Drawing Redefined” by Molly Murray

When we think of drawing, most of us have a preconceived notion of penciled lines on a flat surface. If this is your conception of drawing, you will be pleasantly surprised by the Drawing show which is now on display in the Eugene Fuller Art Gallery. Everything from color, to line, to value and texture is explored in this exciting and vibrant exhibit. 

The show will be on display until December 8, 1977. The criteria for the show defines drawing as “work on paper.” The show is a testimony to the changing definition of drawing in the world of art. 

Some of the most fascinating works in the show deal with texture. Dan Miller’s “[Segmented] Circle” looks like an [embossing] from a distance. But close inspection indicates that the wok is composed of many different pieces of cut paper placed in a defined picture plane. 

“Blind Crossing,” by Michael Willse also deals with texture. This work, however, manipulates color as well. A series of three panels, the work is composed of earth colors and seems to depict a new perspective on “Washington’s Crossing the Delaware.” “American Ming,” by Susan Swinard creates a textured effect by the application of fabric on the work. 

It is worth going to the show just to see the drawings that were selected as award winners. Though two of these pieces are strictly black and white, the posters that have been placed around campus do not do justice to [Margarete] Heuges’ work, “Two Squares” and Doris Staffel’s drawing, “The White Remainer.” Both of these drawings are alive with color. After seeing the posters, in fact, it is a surprise to see that the character of both of these pieces is drastically altered by the addition of color. 

“The White Remainer” is a mass of bright and active colors that have been subdued by white. Lurking among these colors is the one white remainer. A sense of anomaly is created by the use of tone against color. 

“Two Squares” is special because of a bright red square which is placed beneath a larger semi-transparent square. The drawing consumes the wall with these two very diverse, but similar, squares; the juxtaposition is fascinating. 

Two works which are most interesting, however, but [were] not award winners were, “Fan Study,” by Maureen Gawin is a fan made of masking tape, string, and painted materials that resemble mother of peal. “System: Three-eighths in four,” by Linda Weintraub is interesting because of the tonal areas that are created through repetition of a similar object. 

The Drawing Show represents the fifty-five winning drawings selected from 160 entries in a juried contest. There is something for everybody. 

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Maureen Gawin, Margarete Heuges, Dan Miller, Boris Putterman, Doris Staffel, Susan Swinard, Carla Tudor, Linda Weintraub, Michael Willse