Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Art
An American portrait
Two collections at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art let us trace our past through artists' drawings and catalogs.
By LENNIE BENNETT
Published May 25, 2006
TARPON SPRINGS Two exhibitions at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art take us back to a time not so long ago when collecting art was more about the sheer joy of it instead of what we see so much of today: a rapaciousness and steely-eyed focus on Investment Potential. Dr. August L. Freundlich, a retired arts educator, is an old school arts patron. Through his work with museums and universities, he met and befriended many artists. "Drawn from Life" and "Richard Florsheim: An Art Legacy" are the fruits of those relationships. Freundlich and his wife, Tommie, began buying the work of mid-20th century artists, mostly American. The couple was especially partial to drawings because, he writes, "The most direct way to observe their thinking is to study the artists' drawings." "Drawn From Life" is a lovely and lively excerpt from the Freundlichs' personal collection, 59 works on paper, including a few prints, that range from the carefully wrought to the spontaneous dash. None could be called a masterpiece but the gathering as a whole is masterful. It's a history lesson in the seminal period when America was developing its own vernacular and a survey of drawing as a vast interpretive medium. Wreck of the Ole '97 is unmistakably Thomas Hart Benton, its landscape compressed and skewed into a rural surrealism. As is Coney Island Beach from the hand of Reginald Marsh. A number of the works, such as William Gropper's The Senior Members, deal with social issues, a common practice for American realist artists of the 1940s and 1950s. Most are simply charming. One of my favorites is Peggy Bacon's Umbrella Lady, a perfectly observed character study. This is a collection in which many of the names are famous but the works themselves are not. It has the elegance of an expensive designer accessory minus the flashy logo. We can thank Freundlich for "Richard Florsheim," too. Unlike the former show, which is on loan, this one is a permanent gift to the Leepa-Rattner Museum as a bequest from the Richard Florsheim Art Fund, whose president is Freundlich. The Florsheim name has been synonymous with shoes for decades, and Richard Florsheim (1916-1979) is a distant relative of that family branch though he shared in none of its wealth. He grew up in affluence, however, but broke with his father's wishes for him to study business. He didn't like studying art much either, preferring to let the world and its museums be his teachers. He was talented, not brilliantly so, a sensitive man who translated his observations into personal meditations. The War Series, 35 lithographs, deals with the horrors he saw during World War II as a cartographer with the Navy. The recurring use of stakes and barbed wire looming over arid landscapes have a dark urgency but are visually ambivalent. Is he working toward some abstract universality or realistic specificity? I asked that question a lot in viewing what amounts to a mini-restrospective of Florsheim's work. I never felt he answered that question for himself. But he was a successful artist who made a lot of money during the 1950s and 1960s. His lithographs were especially popular, stylized harbor scenes and city skylines that seemed sophisticated at the time but now look dated. Florsheim may always be considered a minor artist but he was a major help to many fellow artists. His will established a trust fund (mostly from money he inherited from his father but never spent on himself) to assist artists 60 and older who continued to work. Friends and associates administered the trust until recently when it was dissolved (part of Florsheim's plan) and the balance transferred to a fund that helps artists pay for studio space. The most tangible result of his trust fund was the group of artists' catalogs it underwrote, several hundred, that have also been given to the Leepa-Rattner. They contain a wealth of information about artists and their work that might otherwise have been lost and are Florsheim's greatest legacy. A few of them are on display among his prints and paintings. Lennie Bennett can be reached at (727) 893-8293 or lennie@sptimes.com. "Drawn from Life: Works on Paper from the August L. and L. Tommie Freundlich Trust" and "Richard Florsheim: An Art Legacy" are at the Leepa-Rattner Museum, 600 Klosterman Road, Tarpon Springs, through June 25. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday with extended hours to 9 p.m. Thursday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $5 for adults with discounts for others. Free Sunday. 727 712-5762 or www.spcollege.edu/museum.
[Last modified May 24, 2006, 13:57:25]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
