|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
It all began in 1985.
The economically struggling private Swain School of Design, then 103 years old and under the aegis of then-president Bruce Yenawine, brought aboard the PIA (Program in Artisanry) from Boston University. Ceramics, fiber arts, woodworking and metalsmithing / jewelry were added to the traditionally offered fine arts majors of painting, printmaking, sculpture and graphic design in an attempt to increase the student body.
But the financial situation did not improve, and in 1988, after much debate and hand-wringing, Swain merged with Southeastern Massachusetts University, which would officially become the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 1991.
At first, it was a difficult marriage. Different raisons d’etre, institutional cultures and educational agendas led to bickering and antagonism among a number of faculty from both sides.
After all, there is an old saw, with many variants, that states that the arguments in academia are so vicious because they matter so little. Be that true or not, clearly professional rivalries can lead to petty squabbles and mean spirited snubs.
For all involved, the early days of the merger were not easy, as two distinct sets of faculty with differing backgrounds and philosophies worked (sorta) to function as a cohesive unit.
But that was certainly not the case between Willoughby (Bill) Elliott, who had been teaching at SMU since 1967, and Marc St. Pierre, a faculty member at Swain since 1979. They were both printmakers, and worked together in the printmaking studios at the Purchase Street facility and later, at the Star Store Building. They became amiable colleagues and then, good friends.
Nor was it the case for Elliott and Severin (Sig) Haines, bonding, at least in part, over landscape painting. Haines — a former Swain graduate who went on to receive an MFA from Yale University — joined the Swain faculty in 1975, where he taught painting, drawing and color theory.
The fellowship and camaraderie among the three men also sparked a friendship with their wives (Lisa Elliott, Cindy Haines, and Nicole St. Pierre), then all young mothers, who shared babysitting, meals, and an active social life. Oddly enough, both Haines and St. Pierre are now the grandmothers of blond boy twins in first grade, named, respectively, Henry and Obed and Henri and Jacq.
Bill Elliott died on April 12, 2016 at 72. Marc St. Pierre died on Dec. 2, 2019 at 67. Sig Haines died June 30, 2023 at 77.
The passing of the three men has further strengthened the friendship among the women, as their shared losses have given them even more in common, and to a certain degree, a mission: to celebrate the interwoven memory of their late husbands and their longstanding impact on the local art community, as mentors, friends and torchbearers.
Referring to themselves as “The Art Widows,” they worked with Suzanne de Vegh, executive director and curator of the New Bedford Art Museum, to secure an exhibition worthy of their threefold legacy.
She noted, “Their collective influence not only established a model of artistic and educational excellence but also significantly shaped the South Coast’s creative identity. This legacy continues through successive generations of artists.”
The New Bedford Art Museum has done an outstanding job with the layout of the exhibition, which takes up the vast majority of the main floor and continues in the basement level gallery space, accessible by both staircase and elevator.
Elliott, Haines and St. Pierre each have an alcove or broad corner area in which they each effectively have an intimate one-man exhibition that highlights their own unique and powerful visions without distraction.
However, there is something rather thrilling to see the work of the trio be allowed to engage in conversation, that may have you traversing the space to take it all in.
There is a visual dialogue, sometimes coming across as a quiet whisper; at other times, it is a respectful debate, or then idle chatter. Or it’s a joke, or a soft-spoken curse, maybe a simple nod of acknowledgment.
The work of Bill Elliott
Elliott, who received a BFA from the Chouinard Art Institute (now the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles) and an MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design, has said:
“I have always had an interest in light and how it is affected by atmosphere. I think it is one of the reasons I started painting landscapes. Unlike the traditional Impressionist painter, however, who also shares these same interests, my own involvement is less with the observational and scientific and more with the emotive and sensual.”
His paintings seem to exist in a dreamstate, filled with the melancholy and yearning of an earlier era; all the while being held in check by a modernist’s sensibility. A good friend and colleague noted that Elliott’s work was somewhat reminiscent of the 19th century American painter George Inness. I can’t say I disagree.
The work of Sig Haines
Haines is best known for his detailed and intricate landscape paintings, done on the South Coast and in his native-born Norway. Many will be familiar with his paintings of beaches, marshlands, pastures and fields, and villages on hills fronting the sea.
He once told me that he was influenced by the abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock and I could hardly wrap my head around that revelation. A realist’s realist was inspired by Jack the Dripper? What? How? Why? And then he explained that he was taken by his commitment to the canvas itself, to somehow filling it all at once. And he decided to try that, while remaining committed to the landscape. During the same conversation, he told me teal was not a color. His eldest daughter Liv later told me that when she was 5, she asked him for a maroon crayon and he told her, “There’s no such thing as maroon.”
St. Pierre’s work is largely about the relationships between visual elements: a curve against a straight line, opacity against translucency or a deep space versus a shallow one. There is a density of form within all of his work, be it a painting, encaustic, assemblage or serigraph. It would be a mistake to say any of it is without narrative. The stories he tells are about space, process, articulation and deconstruction.
The work of Marc St. Pierre
He was a master technician, in virtually every printmaking discipline — chine colle, lithograph, etching, engraving, aquatint, and screenprinting — as well as an accomplished photographer, carpenter and mixed media artist.
I spoke at St. Pierre’s memorial service and said, “His curiosity became focus, which became knowledge, which became work, which became achievement, which became legacy.”
I had known St. Pierre and Haines for my entire adult life. They both were teachers at Swain and seven years or so later, when I attended graduate school, they both served on my thesis committee. I did not know Elliott as well, although he was in the printmaking department in the Purchase Street building (then run by SMU) where I had my studio. He would often pop in to formal reviews or just poke his head in to see what I was working on.
I have nothing but tremendous respect, admiration, and yes, love for those guys.
I am grateful to the Art Widows — Lisa, Cindy and Nicole — for making this exhibition happen. And I am delighted to be one of the many who are the beneficiaries of that dynamic threefold legacy.
“Artistic Luminaries: Three Local Icons” is on display at the New Bedford Art Museum, 608 Pleasant St. until Feb 23.
Don Wilkinson has been writing art reviews, artist profiles and cultural commentary on the South Coast for over a decade. He has been published in local newspapers and regional art magazines. He is a graduate of the Swain School of Design and the CVPA at UMass Dartmouth. Email him at dwilkinson@newbedfordlight.org
I was curious about this show and now, after reading Don’s review, I’m even more interested in seeing the work by these three local masters.
An excellent review of these nature observers and their amazing virtuosity. I wanted to walk right into one of Sig Haines wooded scenes!
There was no information about the schedule for the exhibit!! The addition of detailed information about the Museum’s upcoming exhibits would be of interest to the Lights readers!
Let’s have it!