University Museum collection adds 25 new works

University Museum collection adds 25 new works

By Sam Blackwell ~ Southeast Missourian

The unpoetic title of the new exhibit at Southeast Missouri State University Museum does not describe the 25 new works but rather pays tribute to the organizations and individuals responsible for adding them to the museum's permanent collection.

"A Gift from the Tamara Kerr Art Bank/New York Artists Equity Association, Inc. Honoring Placide and George A. Schriever" is the name of the show consisting of paintings, prints and sculpture. A reception will be held today.

To explain the title:

The Tamara Kerr Art Bank is named for a benefactor of the New York Artists Equity Association. They left her New York co-op to the organization, which sold the property and established the art bank to distribute works of art to organizations lacking acquisitions budgets. The value of the gift is just under $100,000.

The New York Artists Equity Association Inc. was founded in 1947 to represent artists as cultural workers much the same as Actors Equity functions.

n Placide and George A. Schriever are longtime benefactors of the university whose gifts have included art books, furniture and money. They established the Daues Scholarship Fund in the name of Mrs. Schriever's father, Charles Henry Daues, presiding judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals. Daues was an 1898 graduate of the Third District Normal School, predecessor of Southeast Missouri State University. The couple also is responsible for a $100,000 endowment to the University Museum.

Mr. Schriever worked for the Kennedy Art Gallery in New York and was the curator of the Anschutz Collection in Denver, where he was a recognized authority on the art of the American West.

The Schrievers lived on New York's lower East Side for nearly 50 years. Mrs. Schriever died in 1996. Southeast honored Mr. Schriever with the designation "Friend of the University" in April.

The creators of this work are not stars of the New York art scene, but their work is respected. Some are highly regarded. Jose De Creeft, who was born in Paris and worked in the same building as Picasso, is credited with reintroducing direct carving in stone as a sculptural technique. Violet Baxter's work will be the subject of a solo University Museum show later in the year.

"The thing that is so amazing and why New York since World War II has been the art capital of the world is because there is so much depth," Stanley Grand says.

The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and from noon until 4 p.m. on weekends. It will be closed Aug. 31 to Sept. 2 for the Labor Day weekend.

A 52-page catalog has been published with photographs of the art, a foreword about the Schrievers by history professor Dr. Frank Nickell and Grand's essay on the Artists Equity Association.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

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