April 11 – 30, 1966
Art Gallery, Eugenia Fuller Atwood Library
1966 BEAVER NEWS
“Creative Art Exhibit by Mr. Hathaway; Experimental Techniques in Graphics” by Susan Wood
“Watercolors and Graphic Works of John W. Hathaway” currently showing in the Library Gallery is a unique exhibit – not only in its pervading mood of experimentation but in its display of the tools of printmaking, which enables the layman to more fully understand techniques involved in the creative process.
This is the first time such a display has been presented, and it is a valuable supplement to preceding exhibitions. Browsing through the woodblocks and cardboard reliefs reveals the varied expressions to which wood, collage, and linoleum prints may be put. “Galapagos Tortoise” appears as a black and white print, yes, but is also shown in combination with color aid paper – “Truth Will Out” unites woodcut with collage by the use of tissue paper.
Expression through Watercolors
However, Mr. Hathaway’s creative inquiry is not confined to his graphic work. His watercolors employ a variety of approaches. In “Cross Over” and “On theDock” bold brush strokes are combined with magic marker on dry paper, and in “Snowbound Patio” and “Cold Spring Harbor” both brush and paper were used wet. Their excitement and freshness emerge from not only technique but from subject matter as well. Here beauty is found in the commonplace.
The vibrant quality of concentrated watercolor is investigated perceptively in two manners – in the brilliant brush “Impressions” of the color patterns of stained glass, and in the monoprint of “Zinnias” pulled from a second surface to which the color was applied.
The cardboard relief “Up for Painting,” which stresses the importance of “spaces between” in a distribution of shapes that evolve into its accompanying “Abstraction,” Culminates this exhibit’s special quality of allowing the observer to participate in the development of an idea.
Although many media are explored in this show, all bear the personal style of Mr. Hathaway; the strength and boldness of brushstroke and composition, the outspoken color, and the thorough enthusiasm of an artist who loves all that he sees around him and can find beauty in the seemingly incidental.
