Artist: John Arruda (American, b. 1947) Title: The Blind Leading the Blind Audio: Date: 1993 Dimensions: 34″ x 40″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Gift of John Arruda and Sally Bowdoin. © John Arruda Description: Exceedingly imaginative and dramatic, Arruda creates compelling portrayals of all facets of human emotions. His probing of the human soul results in raw psychological portraits, and often violent imagery. Disturbing and dreamlike, this painting appears to be a murder scene but is also intriguing for its ambiguity. Is this about a physical death or psychological death? Where are the hands on the central figure? The split images give a sense of movement and fragmentation, enhancing the unsettling feeling.
Painting
Artist: Harold Baumbach (American, 1904-2002) Title: Untitled Audio: Date: 1980 Dimensions: 50″ x 40″ Location in Library: Fourth floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Gift of Harold Baumbach. © Artist’s Estate Description: A self-taught painter, Baumbach became well known in the 1930’s for his densely patterned street scenes and Brooklyn interiors. He later turned to landscapes, which were less figurative and more impressionistic and expressive. A review in ARTnews explained, “His real subject was not the world outside of himself but the stuff and texture and light of paint.” This painting, which contains dreamlike trees in an abstract setting, explores color and spatial relations. Baumbach taught painting at Brooklyn College from 1946 to 1966. Related Websites– Harold Baumbach at PicassoMio– Harold Baumbach at Julie Heller Gallery
Artist: Harold Baumbach (American, 1904-2002) Title: Aspen Audio: Date: 1983 Dimensions: 50″ x 28″ Location in Library: Fourth floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Gift of Harold Baumbach. © Artist’s Estate Description: This work, which references no specific subject matter, reflects Baumbach’s experimentation with abstraction. His use of bold, dissonant colors evokes a dynamic yet mysterious and ambiguous feeling. Related Websites– Harold Baumbach at PicassoMio– Harold Baumbach at Julie Heller Gallery
American, 1879-1961 Hills, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 16” x 20” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Vincent Canadé was born in San Giorgio Albanese, Italy, and is mainly known for his landscape paintings. He was active during the 1920s and 30s. In this painting, a Federal Art Project commission, Canadé depicts two lonely houses. They are calmly situated under a cloud-streaked sky, surrounded by fields, trees, boulders, and a lake. The image exudes a sense of tranquility with its muted blues, greens, and browns. The gentle, undulating movement encircling the houses provides this painting with its aptly descriptive title: hills. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
American, 1897-1989 Autumn Woods, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 24”x 29” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Before arriving in the U.S. during the Great Depression, Stephan Csoka was considered one of Hungary’s most talented young artists. In America he worked as a housepainter with his father-in-law before becoming an art teacher at both Hunter College and the National Academy of Design. His works can be found in institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum and the Library of Congress. In this painting, created for the WPA in 1937, Csoka creates a scene of rich autumn foliage with a muted palette of orange, brown, green, and purple. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
American, 1896-1981 Flowers, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 30 1/4” x 24” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Vincent D’Agostino studied at the Art Institute of Chicago in the city where he was born, and later with the renowned American artists George Bellows and Charles Webster Hawthorne. While employed by the WPA, D’Agostino participated in the Federal Art Project (FAP), which lasted from 1935-1942. Throughout the duration of the FAP, approximately 2,500 large-scale public murals were produced. However, prints, sculptures, and smaller easel paintings such as D’Agostino’s Flowers eventually emerged as the division’s main focus. The FAP gave American artists an opportunity to develop and practice their craft. Federal Art Project (FAP) Living New Deal
Artist: Elizabeth Delson Title: Celestial Spheres Audio: Date: 1974 Dimensions: 30″ round Location in Library: Lower level Media: Acrylic relief with gold leaf with built-up center on wood panel Owner: Gift of Sidney L. Delson. © Artist’s Estate Description: Delson was a painter and printmaker whose works reflected her exploration of nature and spiritual moods. Delson described her artistic philosophy this way: “Through painting and graphics I explore images to uncover the dynamic forces behind their appearance: emergence, growth, decay, metamorphosis. I try to capture the process of change in time and space, to crystallize a living moment and convey its vitality.” These paintings, completed midway through her career, reflect her unique forms, energy, vibrant color, and light. Related Website – Online Catalogue Raisonné of Elizabeth Delson
Artist: Elizabeth Delson (American, 1932-2005) Title: Fiery Fields Audio: Date: 1968 Dimensions: 30″ x 30″ Location in Library: Lower level Media: Oil on canvas Owner: Gift of Sidney L. Delson. © Artist’s Estate Description: Delson was a painter and printmaker whose works reflected her exploration of nature and spiritual moods. Delson described her artistic philosophy this way: “Through painting and graphics I explore images to uncover the dynamic forces behind their appearance: emergence, growth, decay, metamorphosis. I try to capture the process of change in time and space, to crystallize a living moment and convey its vitality.” These paintings, completed midway through her career, reflect her unique forms, energy, vibrant color, and light. Related Website – Online Catalogue Raisonné of Elizabeth Delson
Artist: Elizabeth Delson (American, 1932-2005) Title: Garden of Allah Audio: Date: 1971 Dimensions: 34″ x 36″ Location in Library: Lower level Media: Oil relief on wood panel Owner: Gift of Sidney L. Delson. © Artist’s Estate Description: Delson was a painter and printmaker whose works reflected her exploration of nature and spiritual moods. Delson described her artistic philosophy this way: “Through painting and graphics I explore images to uncover the dynamic forces behind their appearance: emergence, growth, decay, metamorphosis. I try to capture the process of change in time and space, to crystallize a living moment and convey its vitality.” These paintings, completed midway through her career, reflect her unique forms, energy, vibrant color, and light. Related Website – Online Catalogue Raisonné of Elizabeth Delson
Artist: Elizabeth Delson (American, 1932-2005) Title: Magic Circle Audio: Date: 1975 Dimensions: 30″ round Location in Library: Lower level Media: Oil relief on wood panel Owner: Gift of Sidney L. Delson. © Artist’s Estate Description: Delson was a painter and printmaker whose works reflected her exploration of nature and spiritual moods. Delson described her artistic philosophy this way: “Through painting and graphics I explore images to uncover the dynamic forces behind their appearance: emergence, growth, decay, metamorphosis. I try to capture the process of change in time and space, to crystallize a living moment and convey its vitality.” These paintings, completed midway through her career, reflect her unique forms, energy, vibrant color, and light. Related Website – Online Catalogue Raisonné of Elizabeth Delson
Artist: Elizabeth Delson Title: Painted Desert III (Green Sky) Audio: Date: 1971 Dimensions: 24″ x 24″ Location in Library: Lower level Media: Oil relief on wood panel Owner: Gift of Sidney L. Delson. © Artist’s Estate Description: Delson was a painter and printmaker whose works reflected her exploration of nature and spiritual moods. Delson described her artistic philosophy this way: “Through painting and graphics I explore images to uncover the dynamic forces behind their appearance: emergence, growth, decay, metamorphosis. I try to capture the process of change in time and space, to crystallize a living moment and convey its vitality.” These paintings, completed midway through her career, reflect her unique forms, energy, vibrant color, and light. Related Website – Online Catalogue Raisonné of Elizabeth Delson
Artist: David Deutsch (American, b. 1943) Title: Rotunda Audio: Date: 2002 Dimensions: 64″ x 71″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Oil on linen Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Purchased with Dormitory Authority of New York Art Acquisition Funds. © David Deutsch Description: By painting scores of miniature, indecipherable, framed portraits in a tightly formed grid, the artist creates the illusion that the portraits are installed along the curve of a vast, architectural rotunda. The painting engages the viewer in a search for the details of each tiny portrait while simultaneously giving the impression of standing in the grandeur of a dome such as the Pantheon. His use of sepia tones further enhances this sense of antiquity. Deutsch has said, “I’m attracted to shadows, to the psychological presence cast by the face.” Related Website David Deutsch’s website
Artist: Asya Dodina, Slava Polishchuk Title: Cones Audio: Date: 2003 Dimensions: 100″ x 116″ Location in Library: Second floor Media: Oil/mixed media on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Gift from the artists in honor of Professor Anthony Cucchiara Description: Two artists, in collaboration, have combined these natural shapes, cones and shells. The interconnections, the twists and turns of these shapes with one another, seem to reflect the very essence of human relationships. The scale and interplay of the shapes are enhanced by the use of paper and textiles, which imbue the painting with a rich, powerful texture and feeling. Related Websites – Interview with Asya Dodina & Slava Polishchuk, Studio International – Asya Dodina& Slava Polishchuk ” What Remains”, NY ART BEAT
Artist: Asya Dodina Title: Window I Audio: Date: 1999 Dimensions: 92″ x 56″ Location in Library: Lower level Media: Oil on canvas Owner: On loan from artist. © Asya Dodina Description: Related Websites – Interview with Asya Dodina & Slava Polishchuk, Studio International – Asya Dodina& Slava Polishchuk ” What Remains”, NY ART BEAT
Artist: Asya Dodina Title: Window II Audio: Date: 1999 Dimensions: 50″ x 56″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: On loan from artist. © Asya Dodina Description: Related Websites – Interview with Asya Dodina & Slava Polishchuk, Studio International – Asya Dodina& Slava Polishchuk ” What Remains”, NY ART BEAT
Artist: Nicolas Evans-Cato (American, b. 1973) Title: Bridge Audio: Date: 1999 Dimensions: 36″ x 54″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Oil on linen Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Purchased with Dormitory Authority of New York Art Acquisition Funds. © Nicolas Evans-Cato Description: Evans-Cato portrays gritty urban scenes with great reverence. His predilection for painting in the rain creates moody studies in naturalistic light, thereby softening the strong geometric lines of the city. In Bridge he presents a unique, panoramic view of the Manhattan Bridge. His vantage point magnifies its majestic grandeur, but it also places brightly colored litter and debris in the foreground which is seen in sharp contrast to the muted colors of the sky, water, and buildings. The artist eliminates elements that reflect a specific era, thus giving the painting a timeless quality. Related Website – Nicholas Evans-Cato at George Billis Gallery
American, 1894-1963 Lewis Street, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 23 1/2” x 29 3/4” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Ben Galos emigrated from Belarus to the U.S. in 1913. Galos’s bustling industrial environment is reminiscent of the Ashcan School. The influence of the American Realists of the early 1900s such as Robert Henri and George Sloan is apparent in this painting, down to Galos’s inclusion of the distinctive New York streetlamp. During the Great Depression Galos worked for the WPA. Two of his paintings from that era are on view here: this one, and a very different one entitled Old Farmhouse. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
American, 1894-1963 Old Farmhouse, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 23 1/2” x 29 1/4 ” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Ben Galos was born Berel Goloschin in Vitebsk, Belarus, and immigrated to New York with his family at the age of nineteen. He studied at the National Academy of Design and although he exhibited his work widely in New York, he appears to have remained poor and single his entire life. Best known for his cityscapes, Galos’s work also includes portraits and landscapes. Galos painted this pristine farmhouse while in the employ of the WPA. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
Artist: Luke Gray (American, 1961) Title: Smart Paint #1 Audio: Date: 1998 Dimensions: 66 x 65 “ Location in Library: First floor Media: Acrylic on canvas Owner: Gift from Luke Gray. © Luke Gray Description: Luke Gray lives in Brooklyn and has been exhibiting in the New York area since the late 1980s. Major commissioned works include TransMission 1998, a ceiling mural in Times Square at 1500 Broadway, and Universal Health, a monumental wall painting for the The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey.
Artist: Maria Hartmann Title: Skylight Audio: Date: 2000 Dimensions: 60″ x 90″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: On loan from artist. © Maria Hartmann Description:
American, 1913-2004 Jean, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 39 1/2” x 25” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Born in England in 1913, Allen Hermes came to the United States at the age of sixteen. An outstanding art student, Hermes attended Syracuse University on a full scholarship. He was also awarded a fellowship to study art and architecture in Germany. Later he served in Europe in WWII with the Corps of Engineers. In this portrait, Hermes captures the expression of a pensive young woman standing in front of a velvet curtain. She is leaning on the balustrade of a balcony, two white flowers in her hand. A peaceful countryside can be seen from a dizzying height behind her, while a stormy sky perhaps reflects her anxious thoughts. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
Artist: Charles Hine (American, 1827-1871) Title: Walt Whitman Audio: Date: 1860 Dimensions: 27″ x 22″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Description: Charles Hine painted this portrait of Walt Whitman, the great, iconoclastic poet, when Whitman was forty-two years old and living in Brooklyn. Whitman loved this portrait and included an engraved version of it in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass, the first edition that he did not self-publish. Even though this portrait was Whitman’s favorite — he said it portrayed him “in full bloom” with “not a thing amiss” — he sold it in 1873 to his friend and benefactor John H. Johnston. Whitman had suffered a stroke and needed money to move from Washington, DC to his brother’s house in Camden, NJ. Related Website The Walt Whitman Archive
Artist: J. Redding Kelly (American, 1868-1939) Title: Dean Mario Cosenza Audio: Date: 1934 Dimensions: 50″ x 35″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. © Artist’s Estate Description: Professor Cosenza, a classical scholar, was the first provost of Brooklyn College and the first Italian to serve as dean of an American college. In 1938, Professor Cosenza became acting president of Brooklyn College, stepping in for an ailing President Boylan. Mr. Kelly, a renowned portrait painter, taught at Brooklyn College for over 33 years.
American, 1891-1985 The Apple Tree, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 23 1/2” x 29 1/2” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Laufman studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Art Student’s League in New York. Robert Henri was his most important teacher. From 1920 to 1933, Laufman lived in Paris where he was friendly with Henri Matisse and in contact with other artists of the Modernist movement. Laufman painted in both traditional and modern styles and consequently his work is extremely varied. Primarily a painter of landscapes, trees were among his favorite subjects, as can be seen in this lush portrayal of an apple tree in late summer. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
Twilight, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 24” x 29 1/2” The Brooklyn College Library Collection A woman with a basket and cane makes her way down a snow-packed path. The landscape is filled with barren trees, silhouetted against a pastel sky. Pink, blue, mauve, and gold –the colors of a winter’s twilight– are reflected on the snow-covered ground. Landscapes, cityscapes, and farmland scenes were popular themes for FAP artists who typically avoided controversial subjects. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
Artist: Joseph Loguirato Title: Everything and Nothing Audio: Date: 2006 Dimensions: 24″ x 36″ x 16″ Location in Library: Media: Acrylic on masonite Owner: On loan from artist. © Joseph Loguirato Description:
Artist: Joseph Margulies (Austrian, 1896-1984) Title: President Harry D. Gideonse (1901-1985) Audio: Date: 1949 Dimensions: 44″ x 36″ Location in Library: First Floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. © Artist’s Estate Description: Harry D. Gideonse was Brooklyn College’s second president, serving from 1939 to 1966. During his 27 years as president, the college saw unprecedented growth and was viewed as a prominent liberal arts institution with a faculty of distinguished scholars. In 1966, during a dispute with the Board of Education over a planned $400 tuition charge, Gideonse resigned. Known as a portrait and landscape painter, Joseph Margulies always strove for realism.
Artist: Vik Muniz (American, b. Brazil, 1960) Title: Ad Reinhardt Audio: Date: 2000 Dimensions: 44″ x 66″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Cibachrome Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Purchased with Dormitory Authority of New York Art Acquisition Funds. © Vik Muniz Description: Muniz collected dust and detritus from the galleries and offices of the Whitney Museum of American Art and arranged these substances into a drawing based on a photograph from the Museum’s exhibition Collection in Context: Ad Reinhardt.* He then photographed the drawing and enlarged it, creating a representation of a representation. Muniz’s use of dust is in keeping with his practice of incorporating unusual materials, such as chocolate syrup, ashes, and wire, into his work. His use of these substances hints at his offbeat sense of humor. * The abstract artist Ad Reinhardt taught in the Brooklyn College Art Department from 1947 to 1967. Related Websites– Vik Muniz’s Website– Vik Muniz at P.S.1 MoMA– Vik Muniz on PBS Suggested Readings– Muniz, Vik. Vik Muniz: Seeing is Believing, 1998. Call Number: Folio TR654 .M8x 1998– Muniz, Vik. Reflex: A Vik Muniz Primer, 2005. Call Number: TR647 .M857x 2005– Sullivan, Edward J. Brazil: Body and Soul, 2001. Call […]
Artist: Elizabeth Murray (American, 1940-2007) Title: Rescue Audio: Date: 1996 Dimensions: 118″ x 136″ x 7″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Oil on canvas, wood painting Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Purchased with Dormitory Authority of New York Art Acquisition Funds. © Elizabeth Murray Description: Elizabeth Murray is known for her large, distinctively shaped canvases that playfully blur the line between paintings as objects and paintings as depictions of objects. In Rescue she uses multiple canvases, allowing the viewer simultaneously to look down on, into, and beneath a gigantic upside-down cup. The cup sits precariously on a table whose legs extend from either side of the main canvas adding a sculptural touch. Bright colors and bold patterns give this work a sense of swirling movement and make this one of Murray’s most exhilarating paintings. Related Websites – Elizabeth Murray at PaceWildenstein – Elizabeth Murray at PBS – Elizabeth Murray at Artchive Suggested Readings – Storr, Robert. Elizabeth Murray, 2005. Call Number: N6537 .M87 S76 2005 – Murray, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Murray: Paintings and Works on Paper, 2002. Call Number: Reserve Loan – ND237 .M923 A4x 2002 – Murray, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Murray: Recent Paintings, 1997. Call Number: Reserve Loan – […]
Artist: Graham Nickson (British, b. 1946) Title: Red Towel Audio: Date: c. 1990 Dimensions: 37 1/2” x 73 1/2” Location in Library: Third floor Media: Acrylic on canvas Owner: Brooklyn College Library Collection Description: A solitary figure holds up a beach towel in a grassy field, under a blazing sun. Nickson intensifies the foreground of this painting with the complimentary colors of green and red, as he purposefully contrasts its vertical and horizontal planes. Subtle details add interest: a blue hue of the sky is repeated in the sunbather’s shadow on the grass, while her taut, muscular body is outlined in darker red on the towel. The banal action of Nickson’s sunbather is imbued with mystery, as the artist seeks “a vehicle for the human figure in a very particular environment, as a metaphor for a larger range of human experience.”
Artist: Ferdie Pacheco (American, b. 1927) Title: Advice Audio: Date: 1984 Dimensions: 72″ x 40″ Location in Library: Lower level Media: Oil on canvas Owner: Brooklyn College Library Collection. Gift of Noreen Andreoli. © Ferdie Pacheco Description: After having the self-proclaimed “Greatest of All-Time” Muhammad Ali’s ear for fifteen years as his doctor, the artist is well aware of the magnitude of the title of this piece. It is a wonderful example of not only the artist’s impeccable ability to speak volumes within the borders of a single frame, but also his habitually prodigious use of color. Le Musée du Luxembourg awarded Pacheco Best Colorist in 1990.
Artist: Ferdie Pacheco (American, b. 1927) Title: Marciano Victorious Audio: Date: 1983 Dimensions: 48″ x 30″ Location in Library: Lower level Media: Oil on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Gift of Noreen Andreoli. © Ferdie Pacheco Description: As the only Heavyweight Champion to retire undefeated (with 43 knockouts), perhaps it is not a single bout but his entire career that is the subject of this piece. The fact that the fighter appears unblemished at the fight’s conclusion is a beautiful and apt translation of the dominance Rocky Marciano exhibited in the ring throughout his 49 career fights.
American, 1911-1972 Untitled (Landscape), c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 16 1/2” x 24” The Brooklyn College Library Collection After immigrating to New York, the Russian born Pantuhoff lived in Greenwich Village where he came into contact with the emerging Abstract Expressionists. Pantuhoff, however, followed a different path. Although he first painted portraits of distinguished individuals such as Princess Grace of Monaco and Laurence S. Rockefeller, he eventually became best known for his big-eye portraits in the 1960s. In this eerie landscape, Pantuhoff uses abstract forms to create the swirling patterns of an uneven hillside. The uncanny, delicate trees evoke movement and emotion. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
American, 20th century A Day in June, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 19 3/4” x 23 1/2” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Although an artist from the American Midwest, one can see the influence of Impressionism in this work by Claude Patterson. It shares affinities with Camille Pissarro’s painting of 1872, Orchard in Bloom, Louveciennes, evident in the gentle way Patterson depicts his blossoming tree. Patterson’s palette of blues and greens, his rendering of depth, and his inclusion of buildings also call to mind the works of Paul Cézanne. Like Cézanne’s paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire, the background of Patterson’s landscape is dominated by the grandeur of a distant mountain. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
Artist: Philip Pearlstein (American, 1924-2022) Title: President Francis P. Kilcoyne Audio: Date: 1968 Dimensions: 44″ x 36″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. © Philip Pearlstein Description: President Francis P. Kilcoyne (1903-1985) was Brooklyn College’s third president, serving from 1966 to 1967. A lifelong liberal, Kilcoyne spoke at a college antiwar rally in 1935, and as college president asked for leniency for antiwar protesters arrested in a clash with police on campus. In 1976, Kilcoyne resigned from the city’s Board of Higher Education, protesting plans to impose tuition at the colleges in the City University of New York system. In 1980, after his wife’s death, Kilcoyne was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in the Brooklyn Diocese. The artist, Philip Pearlstein, enjoys an international reputation as a leading figurative painter. In the early 1960s, Pearlstein formulated a new American realism by painting the human body in a highly objective manner, breaking with the Western tradition of idealizing figures. He advocated painting images the way the eye actually sees them, including optical distortions and perceived anomalies. Pearlstein taught at Brooklyn College from 1964 to 1989. Related Websites Philip Pearlstein at MOMA Philip […]
Artist: Slava Polishchuk Title: Wall Audio: Date: 2002 Dimensions: 90″ x 448″ Location in Library: Second floor Media: Oil and paper on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Gift of Slava Polishchuk. © Slava Polishchuk Description: Human suffering and its inevitability has long been a theme in Polishchuk’s work. Inspired by Jeremiah’s Lament in the Bible, this work has a box-within-a-box motif that echoes the rhythmic and repetitive phrasing of Jeremiah’s text. Polishchuk states: “Repetition is similar to the idea of memory, which is essentially an endless repetition of something that once happened . . . all we have in our struggle against time is memory.” An arresting canvas, this mural-like painting combines 10 to 15 coats of paint with Japanese paper, creating innumerable hues of black and white as well as rich and haunting textures. Related Websites – Interview with Asya Dodina & Slava Polishchuk, Studio International – Asya Dodina& Slava Polishchuk ” What Remains”, NY ART BEAT
Artist: Archie Rand Title: Dinah Washington Audio: Date: 1970 Dimensions: 18″ x 72″ Location in Library: Second floor Media: Acrylic and enamel on canvas Owner: On loan from artist. © Archie Rand Description: Related Websites – Archie Rand’s Biography – Archie Rand, Presidential Professor of Art at Brooklyn College
Artist: Olindo Mario Ricci (American, b. Italy, 1904-1982) Title: Famous Libraries of the World: The Augustan Library and The Alexandrian Library Audio: Date: 1936-1939 Dimensions: 9 feet Location in Library: Second floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: Provenance: Funded by the Works Progress Administration, Federal Art Project. © Artist’s Estate Description: Gracing the Library’s grandest reading room are murals of two of the ancient world’s greatest libraries: Egypt’s Alexandrian Library and Rome’s Augustan Library. Muralist Olindo Mario Ricci wanted students to “feel as if they are in the company of the greats as they read the classics” and thus included many illustrious figures, including the mathematician Euclid and the poet Virgil. The panel represents a corner of the Alexandrian Library at the height of its cultural splendor. Euclid appears in the foreground, compass in hand, and surrounded by students. Young Archimedes is behind them at study. Ptolemy Philadelphus, patron of the library, enters at right, accompanied by a scribe bearing papyri. Suspended from the ceiling is a model of an Egyptian galley. Ricci began the murals as a WPA artist and completed them as a Brooklyn College professor, doing much of the work in a studio in the Library’s clock tower.
Artist: Alfred Russell (American, 1920-2007) Title: Autumn Audio: Date: 1968 Dimensions: 50″ x 40″ Location in Library: Third floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. © Artist’s Estate Description: During the 1940’s and early 1950’s Russell painted in the Abstract Expressionist style, but he later turned to the figure and the classical world. His work was a major force in the re-emergence of figurative painting in America. Russell has said, “My inspiration has always been a nostalgia for some nonexistent golden age. . . . I have always believed that the reality of art is unique . . . that art is the reality underlying the unreality of the everyday world.” Russell taught painting at Brooklyn College from 1947 to 1975. Related Websites – Alfred Russell’s Biography at Net in Arcadia – Alfred Russell’s Works at Net in Arcadia
American, 1888-1960 Flowers, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 29 1/2” x 23 1/4” The Brooklyn College Library Collection In 1913, Allen Lee Swisher studied with Jean-Paul Laurens at the renowned Académie Julian in Paris, and later in New York with Harry Mills Walcott. He is known predominantly as a portrait painter. Swisher painted this lush and abundant bouquet of wildflowers with confidence and verve. His exuberance perhaps reflects the optimism the WPA engendered in many aspiring American artists. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
Labor Strike, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection During the Great Depression (1929-1939) picket lines and worker strikes were a common occurrence in cities across the United States. Rising worker militancy during hard times, strikes, as well as the passage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 known as the “Wagner Act,” fueled the rise of labor unions. In this painting, set in front of an imposing but nondescript factory, picketers evoke empathy with their facial expressions of hope and fear. A man in the foreground holds a strike placard and wears a fedora, which is different from the other workers’ caps. His confident demeanor, and what appears to be a union button on his jacket, suggests that he is a union leader. The painting style is in keeping with Social Realism — a movement that flourished between the two World Wars in response to the hardships and social and political turmoil of the time. Social realist artists often portrayed everyday workers as heroic symbols of persistence and strength in the face of adversity.
Murdered by the Company, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection Five white men with expressions of fear and horror are carrying a dead Black man. The picket sign being carried by one man and another sign on the ground suggests the men were picketing one of the factories in the background. Was the brick in the right foreground thrown at the workers and then killing the Black man? Or was he killed in an industrial accident where there were unsafe working conditions? The surging shapes, churning rhythms, ominous clouds, including tornado-like funnel clouds, convey an unsettling mood of force and violence. Placing the dead African American man front and center in the painting draws attention to the fact that no group during the Great Depression was harder hit than African Americans. By 1932, approximately half of African Americans were unemployed. In some Northern cities, many whites called for Black men to be fired from any jobs as long as white men were out of work. Racial violence became more common, especially in the South, and the large tree branches in the upper […]
Picketed, Beaten and Jailed, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection This painting provides a dramatic portrayal of jailed striking workers, two with bloodied bandaged heads, holding their picket signs and with facial expressions of despair but also some degree of resolve. The exaggerated forms, undulating shapes and sculpted faces adds visual force to to the painting. It’s also significant for its depiction of Black and white men working together for better wages and working conditions. Note the small tear on the right shoulder of the green jacket worn by the worker with brown hair, which resembles a paint brush—perhaps an emblem of the artist’s solidarity with labor. Also, the smoke from the cigarette seems to form the cloud hovering over the men. Historically, striking workers had risked their lives on the picket lines. Though unions often formed in response to dangerous working conditions, going on strike exposed workers to lost wages but also to the danger of arrest or physical violence from hired thugs or police that served as companies’ strong-arms.
After Work and Before Supper, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection In this painting, Tipperman uses a distorted aerial perspective to focus on a sleeping worker depicted in the relative comfort of his working-class home. A steam-heat radiator, a cast aside pipe, a wooden chair, a standing lamp, a rumpled rug, and a single bed with visible mattress springs suggest a working-class environment. Tipperman in his own very unique way, is at once offering us images that are misshapen and distorted and yet also charming detailed shapes and forms that often appear quite beautiful. The viewer is able to palpably understand the effort required to maintain this man’s modest lifestyle. The angles of his body are twisted and misshapen suggesting discomfort. We share in his extreme sense of exhaustion, still in work clothes with shoes off, belt unbuckled curvaceously like a snake, tie pulled down, and shirt unbuttoned as he briefly naps before his supper. Perhaps dreaming of an easier life.
Untitled (Still Life with Chair), c. 1935-1943 Oil on canvas 29” x 23 3/4” The Brooklyn College Library Collection The effects of Modernism have evidently inspired the artist who painted this enigmatic still life. The bowl of fruit has been rendered as if the artist is looking at it from various angles, and the simultaneous, multiple perspectives of the shell and open box recall Braque and Picasso’s early experiments with Cubism. The jacket with a ruffled pocket square, and the portrait propped up against the chair-back enhance the painting’s sense of mystery Federal Art Project Living New Deal
Artist: John Walker (British, b. 1939) Title: Clammer Audio: Date: 2003 Dimensions: 96″ x 84″ Location in Library: Second floor Media: Oil and mixed media on linen Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. Purchased with Dormitory Authority of New York Art Acquisition Funds. © John Walker Description: John Walker captures the ebb, flow, and changing light of a muddy cove near his home in Maine. His expressive brush strokes, dynamic composition, and freedom of execution evoke the feeling of a swirling tidal pool. Walker’s combination of materials, including mud, sand, and oil, creates gritty yet luminous textures. Explaining his use of these organic materials, Walker states: “It seemed obvious to get a bucket of [mud] and mix it in with the paint, to get the feel for how the tide comes in and out and the patterns that are caused by that constant changing tide on that particular cove where I work.” Related Websites – John Walker at TATE – John Walker’s website
Artist: G. W. Waters (American, 1832-1912) Title: Walt Whitman Audio: Date: 1877 Dimensions: 27″ x 22″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. © Artist’s Estate Description: Walt Whitman’s friend and benefactor John H. Johnston commissioned G. W. Waters to paint this portrait of Whitman, who by 1877 was one of America’s most celebrated poets. Waters, best known for his New York landscapes, captures Whitman as he is most often remembered: as the “good gray poet.” In 1955, Professor John Valente and his colleagues in the Brooklyn College English Department scraped together $1400 to buy both this portrait and the earlier Whitman portrait by Charles Hine.
Artist: Samuel J. Woolf Title: Fiorello LaGuardia Audio: Date: 1945 Dimensions: 41″ x 31″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. © Artist’s Estate Description: Fiorello LaGuardia, the namesake of the Library building, was Mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945. Charismatic and popular, he was called “the Little Flower,” the translation of his first name. Rejected in 1946 as the commemorative portrait for City Hall, this painting was purchased for Brooklyn College a few years later with donations from private individuals, various labor unions, and the Class of 1949. Woolf, a noted artist and journalist, gained national recognition for capturing his subjects as they looked, not as they wished to look.
