Philadelphia in the Bicentennial Year: Drawings by Philadelphia Artists

Juror of selections: Larry Day, Professor of Painting, Philadelphia College of Art
Juror of prizes: Grace Hartigan, Chair of the Graduate Painting Department, Maryland Institute of Art

PURCHASE AWARDS

John E. Dowell Jr., String Quartet for ’76, 1976, black ink and water color, 22″ x 30″
Paul Keene, Bicentennial Pawn Shop N. Philly No. 15, 1976, pencil, 30″ x 22″
Michael Rossman, Untitled, 1976, pencil, 30″ x 40″
Charles Schmidt, Euclidian Landscape, 1976, graphite, 24″ x 38″

This exhibition was funded by the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts.

Glenside, Pa. – In the spirit of the Bicentennial, Beaver College is sponsoring a drawing show featuring drawings reflecting Philadelphia in the Bicentennial year. 

The show, “Philadelphia in the Bicentennial Year,” will open Friday evening, September 10 in the Art Gallery of the Atwood Library on the Beaver campus with a reception from 7 until 10:00 p.m. in honor of 39 of Philadelphia’s outstanding artists who were included in this show. The public is invited to attend the opening reception. 

John E. Dowell, of 253 N. 3rd St., Philadelphia, has been awarded the first purchase prize for his work on a bicentennial theme entitled “String Quartet for ’76” done in black ink and water color. Other purchase prizes go to Charles Schmidt, of 347 Harrison Ave., Elkins Park, for his graphite drawing, “Euclidian Landscape”; to Paul Keene, of 2843 Bristol Rd., Warrington, for a pencil drawing “Bicentennial Pawnshop,” and to Michael Rossman, of 2020 Locust St., Philadelphia, for his untitled drawing in pencil.

A number of the participating [artists’] work deal directly with a Bicentennial theme, while others show the state of the art of drawing during the Bicentennial period. All purchase prize drawings will become part of the permanent art collection of Beaver College. 

Selection of the participating artists was made by Larry Day, of 310 Myrtle Ave., Cheltenham, well known Philadelphia artist and processor of painting at the Philadelphia College of Art. Judging the entries for purchase prize winners was done by Grace Hartigan, one of America’s outstanding artists and head of the graduate painting department of the Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, Maryland. 

A native of Philadelphia, Mr. Dowell received his B.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art and his M.F.A. degree from the University of Washington (Seattle). He received a grant to study advanced lithography at the John Herron Art Institute in a program conducted by the Tamarind Lithography Workshop under the auspices of the Ford Foundation. 

He has been a visiting professor in art at the Indiana State University, the Tyler School of Art and the University of Illinois.

Mr. Dowell has held one-man exhibitions at Galleria Schwarz, Milan, Italy, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Lunn Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Between 1964 and 1973 his works have also been shown in numerous group exhibitions both in the United States and Europe. Some of the public collections including Mr. Dowell’s works are Museum of Modern Art, New York; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Philadelphia Museum of Art, and National Collection, Washington, D.C.

Mr. Schmidt is associate professor of painting and drawing at the Tyler School of Art. 

For two years he served as head of the painting department of Temple Abroad, Tyler School of Art and as artist-in-residence at Sarah Lawrence College’s summer art program in France. He became a member of the White House Social Stuff during the Kennedy Administration as a calligrapher. 

Mr. Schmidt received his B.F.A. degree in painting at Carnegie Mellon University and his M.F.A. degree in painting at Cranbrook Academy of Art. 

Winner of several prizes, his work is represented in numerous national and private collections. Affiliated with the Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, Mr. Schmidt’s works have been included in many group exhibitions. 

A native of Philadelphia, Mr. Keene is a member of the faculty of Bucks County Community college. 

He received his B.F.A., B.Se.Ed. and M.F.A. degrees at the Tyler School of Fine Arts and studied for two years in Paris at the Academie Julian. 

A recipient of a John Hay Whitney Fellowship, Mr. Keene taught at the Centre d’Art in Haiti. He also taught at the Philadelphia College of art from 1954-1968. 

Mr. Keene has exhibited in the United States and abroad and is included in important collections both private and public. 

Mr. Rossman is associate professor at the Philadelphia College of Art and co-chairman of the foundation program. 

He received his bachelor of industrial design and his master of fine arts degrees from Pratt Institute. For several years he worked as an industrial designer with International Home Furnishings, New York City, and with General Electric Co., Phoenix, Arizona. 

Affiliated with the McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, Mr. Rossman’s works have been shown in numerous group exhibitions. 

This show was made possible by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Beaver College Department of Fine Arts.

The show will run through October 10 and the Atwood gallery will be open from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily. 

This is the second drawing exhibition mounted by the Beaver Fine Arts Department in two years with the purpose of increasing the opportunities for the exhibition of drawings. The first was an exhibition of drawings by women artists in the Philadelphia area, held in 1974. 

1976 BEAVER NEWS, SEPTEMBER
“Drawings of Philadelphia Artists in Atwood” by Paula Oram and Mary Miles

The Beaver Fine Arts Department has stated the year with an exhibition entitled “Philadelphia in the Bicentennial Year: Drawings by Philadelphia Artists.” The opening and reception was September 10 in the Atwood Gallery. The show will continue until October 10. The exhibit is sponsored by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the art department and represents support by the State for art in areas outside of center city Philadelphia, attempting to reach a wider audience. 

Jack Davis, chairman of the Fine Art department, said, “The art department wants to have as many drawing shows as it can. Few places emphasize drawings and it remains one for the most interesting ways to discover the ideas of an artist.”

“The Bicentennial theme was one in which the artists could work directly; it simply indicated the direction of drawing in Philadelphia [200] years after independence,” he added.

Rather than dealing directly with the Bicentennial, the pieces concerned American themes and scenes. Ranging from the realistic to the abstract, the drawings displayed a variety of techniques; water color, graphite, conte, pencil and mixed media. Judith Brodsky, professor of Fine Arts, noted, “The only limitation was that it had to be on paper, because today a drawing takes a variety of forms.”

“String Quartet For ’76” by John E. Dowell received first prize for a drawing on a Bicentennial theme. Done in black ink and water color, the drawing has a flowing rhythmic quality, reflective of Dowell, a self-taught jazz pianist. 

Other winners were Paul Keene, Michael Rossman, and Charles Schmidt, who were among 39 artists invited to participate in the show. Faculty members Jack Davis, Judith [Brodsky], Jean Francksen, and Ann Williams, also displayed drawings, though they were not eligible for prizes. 

Larry Day, professor of painting at the Philadelphia College of Art, selected the artists whose work appeared in the Show and Grace Hartigan, chairman of the graduate Painting Department at the Maryland Institute of Art, selected the prize winners. 

On September 29 at 3:30 p.m., there will be a panel discussion of the Show in the Atwood Gallery, featuring the prize winners. Everyone is cordially invited to attend. 

1976 BEAVER NEWS, OCTOBER
“Art Show Discussed” by Paula Oram

On Wednesday, September 29, the purchase prize winners led a discussion on their work at the Bicentennial Art Show. The discussion informally began at 3:30 with refreshments in the Atwood Gallery. After everyone had some cider and donuts, Mr. Davis, Chairman of Fine Arts, opened the discussion. He introduced the four artists: John E. Dowell Jr., Paul Keene, Michael Rossman, and Charles Schmidt. “By having them here, we have the intimate experience of the people,” Mr. Davis explained. 

Each artist described his drawing beliefs. John E. Dowell Jr., first prize winner, is undergoing “an intense search for order and structure through music. I use music in my search to understand what puts it together.” Paul Keene has a “fatal fascination for making marks on a page and weeing what happens. From this, an idea develops.” Michael Rossman “uses drawing as a research tool.” He works in a sequence and is interested in slow change. In this way, he discovers through his drawing. Charles Schmidt feels that “drawing is my major work.” He has combined a fascination with machinery and an interest in ancient ruins to produce drawings of ruined machinery. 

Each artist gave further insights into drawing as they discussed an aesthetic drawing question. A question and answer period ended the discussion.