Josephine Lutz Rollins

You’re Invited: Grace Hartigan Paintings, 1957-1963

By wilso952 June 17, 2012
Exhibitions, University Gallery

On September 23, 1963, the opening of an exhibition of the works of artist Grace Hartigan was held at the University Gallery in Northrop Auditorium. An invitation to the exhibition, found in the Gallery press books from the 1960s, is one of many clues found within the archives that can begin to describe the details and events surrounding exhibitions during this decade.

In addition to the opening invitation, an exhibition poster was created to announce and promote the exhibition–which ran through November. Posters were folded and mailed out to friends of the Gallery to publicize the exhibition. A Hartigan poster was found in the back room of the Weisman’s in-house storage, a duplicate is also preserved within the WAM exhibition poster collection at the Archives.

From the exhibition folder, contained in Box 9 of the WAM records at the University Archives, a draft list of exhibition hostesses was found that outlined the schedule for which “Mrs.” or “Miss” was assigned to welcome visitors. The list includes female faculty members (Jo Rollins, Katy Nash), the wives of male faculty members, as well as Liz Cless (Mrs. Howard), the daughter of former Gallery Director Ruth Lawrence, who was the co-director of The Minnesota Plan for the Continuing Education of Women at the University, and Mrs. Wilson, wife of University President O. Meredith Wilson, among others.

(click on the thumbnails below for a larger photo…)

In addition to attending the opening of her exhibit, the artist Grace Hartigan also gave a seminar to University students and artists the following day, as reported in a Minnesota Daily article from September 23, 1963, which was found in the Gallery press books from the 1960s (at left). The article also provided a brief description of Grace Hartigan’s work, and indicated that at the opening of the exhibit, University students and artists, “milled around, viewing and discussing the show over cookies and coffee.” Several photographs, also found within the press books, portray the milling, viewing, and discussing of the show over cookies and coffee…

Additional photographs from the press books also likely capture the seminar that was held for students and artists the day following the exhibition opening. Though as the photographs are adhered with rubber cement to pages within the press book, and contain no captions or descriptive material, it is hard to distinguish which photographs capture which event. (Is Hartigan pictured in two different outfits within the photographs, or was she photographed with a jacket on at the same event?)

Correspondence between the artist and University Gallery Director Sidney Simon was also found within the exhibition folder. This letter from Simon to Hartigan expresses Simon’s thanks for her attendance at the exhibition opening, and comments upon the success of the exhibit:

*In a collections related note, the personal papers of Grace Hartigan are preserved at the Syracuse University Library.

About Spring

By wilso952 May 15, 2012
Exhibitions, University Gallery

The green grass, blooming flowers, and recent temperature increase in Minnesota has me thinking a lot about spring. Thoughts about the season were interpreted at the University Gallery in June of 1955 in an exhibit simply titled, “About Spring.”

An exhibition poster promoted the seasonal exhibition:

An exhibition publicity release from June 1955 (left) found in the gallery press books from the 1950s-60s provided a description of the exhibition:

About Spring – to July 15. A group of 40 paintings, prints, and drawings from local sources are being shown in the fourth floor gallery. Landscapes, flower still lifes and other subjects related to the season are accompanied by evocative stanzas from English and American poets. Among the artists represented are: Adolf Dehn, Leon Hartl, Louis Eilshemius, Kurt Roesch, B.J.O. Nordfeldt, Milton Avery, Marsden Hartley, and Sue Fuller as well as members of the Department of Art: Cameron Booth, Robert Collins, and Josephine Lutz Rollins. Other paintings were loaned by the Minneapolis Institute of Art and Walker Art Center.

In searching through the links to the artists’ works as represented in WAM’s collection on the Digital Content Library, I found a variety of landscapes and works of still life that could capture the essence of spring. But it wasn’t until I came across a series of landscapes by B.J.O. Nordfeldt that I found a visual representation that matches what I think spring is all about…

Revealing Rollins

By wilso952 October 15, 2011
University Gallery

My eyes widened this week after I came across an online article from the Star Tribune, which reported upon the recent uncovering of lost artwork of the Minnesota artist Josephine Lutz Rollins: “Unburied treasure in Stillwater”

Rollins joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota in 1927 and continued as an instructor until 1965. Her legacy as a Minnesota artist spreads far past the University, however. A 2007 exhibition organized by the Minnesota Historical Society and the Minnesota Museum of American Art titled, “In her Own Right: Minnesota’s First Generation of Women Artists,” placed Rollins alongside other female artists that contributed to the arts and culture of the state. A biography of Rollins can be found in an article on the exhibit from MPRnews.

The name “Rollins” has appeared several times in the WAM collection, specifically in folders and catalogs that document two exhibitions that were held at the University Gallery:

Historic Buildings in Minnesota: Jo Lutz Rollins, 1949

“Mrs. Rollins has never for a moment forgotten that her task as an artist is not merely to record certain historical monuments, but somehow to translate these buildings into works of art which will exist and have value in and of themselves. She has never at any time lost sight of her task of organizing a two-dimensional area through the application of water color pigment. And not only do these paintings exist as fine formal statements of a most exacting medium, but a comparative study of the works illustrates how effectively and sensitively she has responded to the particular quality, the specific mood of the subject she was portraying. The paintings thus become not only a most illuminating mirror of Minnesota history, but more important, a fine interpretation and translation into an artistic medium of a century of Minnesota.” – H. H. Arnason, Chairman, Department of Art, Exhibit Catalog

Josephine Lutz Rollins: Retrospective Exhibition, 1962

“Mrs. Rollins appreciates what time does to man’s environment; she is attracted to a world that is not new and shiny. In her paintings the viewer finds few people; but they are not missed; for their trace is everywhere, in the way an old historic house sits on the land, in the look of a familiar river bank, in the enchantment of a foreign city. It has been her distinction to have reaffirmed the familiar in such a way as to have translated it into works of art of lasting merit.” – Sidney Simon, Director, University Gallery

WAM’s permanent collection contains many works by Rollins. View her water colors, drawings, and other works at the Digital Content Library.

Josephine Lutz Rollins

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