ENTERTAINMENT
The University Daily
KANSAN
September 16, 1983 Page 6
English prof exhibits paintings
By PAMELA THOMPSON Staff Reporter
Stuart Levine says he first became interested in art while doodling in the margins of his high school notes.
"My art was as crazy then as it is now," he said. "My wife calls my drawing mature doodling."
However, Levine, professor of English, said that he had been resisting the impulse to pursue a career in art ever since he was a graduate student at Brown University in Providence. R.J.
When an artist friend of his stole some or no "therapeutic" watercolors and sold them at a local gallery, Levine became aware of his artistic talent, he said.
"I DIDN'T EVEN notice that the paintings were gone until my friend brought back a check for them," he said.
He had completely forgotten about the income until just recently when his wife Susan "teased and coaxed" him into displaying 50 of his pieces in a 30-year retrospective of his work at the Regents Center Gallery in Overland Park, he said.
His wife gathered his stack of artwork from around the house, had them matted and framed in gold. He kept it on display.
The exhibit started Sept. 4 and already he has said some of his artwork, which ranges in price from $25 to $300.
"I'm flattered and flabbergasted that I have sold some," he said.
THE EXHIBIT WILL run until the end of September and features paintings and drawings in acrylic, pastels, watercolor and charcoal. The artwork ranges in subject matter from sports
Although he has never had any formal training in art, Levine said that "like a poem that hasn't been written" his painting is there before he even begins to paint it.
scenes and portraits to complex abstracts and semi-abstracts.
"I just have to dig for it," he said. "Most of my art comes out of whimsy and impulse."
A number of Levine's works refer to academic
subjects, such as classes, conferences and lectures, while several concerns people and
He said his favorite work from the exhibit was a romantic self-portrait, done as an undergarder.
MANY CRITICS HAVE told him that his "colorful, strange and visionary art" is similar
But even in his abstract series called "Essences" and "Conferences and Lectures," Levine said he had established a set of rules he applied to his fractured images.
to that of New Yorker magazine illustrator, Saul Steinberg. he said.
"Certain shapes and colors become either three-dimensional, or two-dimensional, so that when they intersect, certain forms will outrank others in opacity." he said.
Levine said that his art mixed humor with compulsion and was most compatible with the literary school of Romantic Irony, of which Edgar Allen Poe was a member.
LEVINE HAS ALSO been the recipient of four
Fulbright educational grants, as well as
their own awards.
He is not a stranger to the work of Poe because of his background in American literature. Since coming to the University of Kansas in 1958, Levine has been the founding chairman of the American Studies department and the founding editor of the journal, American Studies.
Besides art and literature, Levine is also very interested in music.
During the mid-'50s, he supported himself as a professional musician with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and he now plays the horn with the Lawrence Woodwind Quintet.
At the same time, he worked for WPFM, WXCN, Providence, and the Concert Network in New England as a broadcast music commentator.
Before his exhibit moves to Dodge City, Before he gives that he and his wife will photograph the show.
SUA head says 15-hour film'a treat'
"It really hasn't sunk in yet that it's my own show," he said.
By ANA DEL CORRAL
Staff Reporter
Sitting on a chair for 15 hours is a treat for some people, providing they get some breaks and are watching a movie such as Berlin Alexanderplatz.
Jim Colson, chairman of the Student Union Activities film board, said, "People go to get out of it what they would get out of listening to Beethoven. They go for artistic reasons. So many people are so much into film that they would not consider it an ordeal."
The 15 and one-half hour production, considered by many to be a masterpiece by its creator Rainer W. Fassbinder is the late director's last movie.
SUA will show the movie in parts starting at
7:30 p.m. today in Woodruff Auditorium in the
Kingston Theatre.
The SUA presentation of the movie will be the film's Midwest premiere.
"I DON'T KNOW of any place it has been "
*down this side of New York." Colson said.
Charles Berg, associate professor of radio-
television film, will have seen several films,
but this one is the moment it going to see.
The movie, an adaptation of a 1929 epic novel by Alfred Doblin about postwar Eralin, will run in four sections; Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and evening, and Sunday afternoon.
"It is something you are going to have to dedicate your whole weekend to," Colson, Mankato senior, said this week.
The production will wrap up the first SUA movie festival, which began Sept. 12.
"I THINK IT WOULD draw a lot of people if it wasn't so long." Colson said.
However, he said that on the whole there had been a positive response to the festival's movies.
We tried to reach a wide variety of people." he
he "I felt really good about the attendance."
He said that one of the main purposes of the festival was to give students a chance to see movies through SUA that they wouldn't find anywhere else in Lawrence.
He said SUA was trying to bring movies to the University that were both intellectually stimulating and educational.
TIME MAGAZINE stated in its Aug. 15 issue that, "In the past, Fassbinder had seemed a master without masterpieces, teasing with his outsize talent but never quite delivering. And now, posthumously, a glorious surprise. Berlin Alexanderplatz is the goods."
The festival has included a variety of shows, such as a Three Stooges tri-dimensional production and some Warner Brothers cartoons and specials that interested in lighter entertainment, Colson said.
Because the movie is so long, SUA will give people the opportunity to buy separate tickets
The tickets for each section cost $2.50 for students and $3 for non-students. A ticket for the total presentation costs $6.50 for students and $10 for non-students.
He said SUA had paid about twice as much for moving Alexanderplatz as it usually did for other movies.
"It costs about twice as much as a popular film because it is long and unique." he said.
Kansas sculptor Dale Eldred no longer uses huge pieces of steel for his sculptures as he did with his controversial "Salina Piece," which is still seeking a resting place in Lawrence.
The first section of the movie will start at 7:30 p.m. today and will last approximately three hours. The second section will begin at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow. From 5:45 to 7:15 viewers will get a dinner break. The third part will last approximately 4 hours. The last section will run at 1:30 p.m. Sunday and will last approximately three and one-half hours.
Instead, he is working with much larger material — the sun.
There will be one intermission during each of the four sections.
Eldred will discuss his recent works of art using light structures at 4 p.m. Sunday in the Auditorium.
Jan Howard, acting curator of prints and drawings at the museum, said that Eldred used mirrors on his structures to monitor the different light patterns of the sun.
"His work shows the relationship between the sun and the earth," she said. "He thinks of the work as celebrations of life because it makes you aware of cycles and seasons."
Some of the drawings, photographs and models that Eldred uses as project proposals are now on exhibit at the Spencer Museum. One exhibit shows the detailed planning that was made for the exhibition he done in 1882. He put mirrors on strategic public structures that reflected light all over the city.
Show features housewives
Howard said that Eldred was now working on a light structure exhibit in Minneapolis, Minn., and that he would begin a new project in Munich, Germany after leaving the University of Kansas.
"We wanted to get away from that star stuff," said Mitchell.
"We want guests who women at home can look and say, 'Hey, that one's me.' That one has problems with her teenager like I do. Or, boy, her husband sounds just like me."
Each week, the daily program will feature 10 women guests gleaned from searches of the community. As a community extension courses, civic groups and other organizations across the country.
"You can imagine how much time they spend on the phone," she said. "But booking and finding guests is absolutely the most part of the show because they are the show."
The guests are flown to Los Angeles by "Boman to Woman" and provided lodging for four days — three tapping days preceded by one "tea," or get-acquainted by one
Mitchell, former co-host of "Hour Magazine," said that producer Mary Muldoon and she got the idea for the show when they were working together on "Hour Magazine."
In addition to the 10 guests, a different expert on the subject of the week appears on the show each of the five days.
Mitchell said that though the program is primarily aimed at women at home, "that doesn't mean they didn't once work or aren't intending to go back to work."
Some of the topics the women discuss, while seated in a living room-type set, are housework, finding time for yourself, coping with infertility, and dealing with in-laws.
"Just hearing another woman describe her feelings of frustration, joy, anxiety, accomplishment, fear or confusion can make each of us feel less alone in our similar feelings." Mitchell, the mother of an 18-year-old son, said.
Production began in mid-July. Five weeks worth of shows already have been taped.
PARE TIME
THE SOCIETY OF Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi, will sponsor a speech by Arthur Brisbane, a columnist for the Kansas City Times. Time is up, p.m. today in Room 100 of Friar-Fulton Hall.
"SHARING AND Conversation" will take place in m. today in the Canterbury House, Leighland.
SALVADORANS WILL speak at 10:30 a.m.
Sunday at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries.
The speech is sponsored by the Lawrence
Mennonite Fellowship.
THE SUNDAY evening gathering at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Center will begin with supper at 5:30 p.m. followed by a CROP film and a worship service.
STUDENT CREATIVE Anachronists will meet at 8 p.m. Monday in the Kansas Union.
JACK WINEROCK, will give a faculty recital at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Swarthout Recital
STEPHEN GLASSMAN will give a lecture on "The Alexander Technique" Monday at the Swarthout Recital Hall.
EILEEN MURPHY, associate professor of textile design, will show her paisley and cashmere shawls in the Art and Design Building Gallery through Sept. 23. The gallery is open 1:4:30 p.m. Sunday and Monday and 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.
THE KU FOLKDANCE Club will feature folkdancing from 7:30 to 3:00 p.m. today on the second-floor drill deck of the Military Science Building.
THE UNDERGRADUATE Biology Club will meet at 4 p.m. today in the Sunflower Room of the Union.
THE SPENCER MUSEUM of Art will exhibit "Eldred and Nevelson: Another Dimension" through Sept. 25. "Influences: Antique and Contemporary Quilts," through Oct. 16, and "Early Modern Art From the Guggenheim Museum" through May 20.
THE UNIVERSITY Counseling Center is sponsoring a Thesis and Dissertation Support Group for master's and doctoral students. Call Joan Cesari at 864-3931 for more information
A WORKSHOP TITLED "Push, Full and Pop:
Summertime with Amy" will be at 2 p.m.
Sunday at 10 a.m.
A WORKSHOP TITLED "SketchWalk" will be
offered p.m. Sunday at the Natural History
Museum.
have a Life Issue Seminar on the *Committed Marriage Christian Perspective* at 4:30 p.m. m Friday, November 28th.
THE GENERAL meeting of the Computer Club of Lawrence and KU will be at 7:15 p.m. Monday at the Computer Center Auditorium.
REGION
THE FRIENDS OF Jazz will have its opening concert of the season at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Kuhn theater in Kansas City, Mo. The great guitarists - John McLaughlin and Charlie Byrd - will be required, during the concert, to
AN AMATEUR COUNTRY and Western Band contest will be conducted at Worlds of Fun, Kansas City, Mo. tomorrow and Sunday. For more information call 816-459-9222.
THE ECUMENICAL Christian Ministries will
ROGER WHITTAKER will perform at 8 p.m.
tighten at the Midland Center (for the Performing
Art Center) at 10 a.m.
AIR SUPPLY will perform at 8 p.m. today at the Starlight Theatre, Kansas City, Mo
Stanford Studies (AABAABA)
Stephen Phillips KANSAN
Stuart Levine, professor of English, is an accomplished musician, artist and writer. He will exhibit some of the paintings and drawings he has done over the last 30 years, through September in a show at the Regents Center Gallery in Overland Park.
THE LITTLE RIVER Band will perform at 8 p.m. tomorrow at the Starlight Theatre.
MOVIE REVIEWS
Rating System
草草草
ONE FROM THE HEART
When people say "they don't make them like they used to" it's usually as a derogatory remark. But in the case of Francis Ford Coppola's film "One From The Heart," showing until Saturday in Dyche Hall, that statement can be a compliment.
This film is a breakthrough in the return of the sound stage. It was filmed entirely on the stages of Zoetrope Studios and features some of the most beautifully designed, lighted and photographed sets to appear on the screen in many years. So now it can be said that "they don't make them like they used to, but they aren't making them any worse."
Although this film is beautiful to look at on screen, it has some problems in the screenplay. Written by Coppola and Armyn Bernstein, this movie does not make for a good boyfriend. Boy meets girl, boy loves girl, boy loves girl.
The problem is that in this film, the boy shouldn't get the girl back. The writers have provided some very witty and well-written dialogue. But they have also provided a male character who doesn't seem to have much to offer his girlfriend.
Their relationship is presented as being on the
rocks and in very bad shape. But when the girl leaves the boy, the boy finally tries to act as if he cares for the girl. That's great on the screen, and it happens all the time in real life. This film starts out to be fantastic and light-hearted and then turns into a heavy, syrupy Hollywood love story, that all works out for the protagonist at the end.
But what if you want more for the female character? What if you want her to follow her dreams, to find someone more like herself, to be happy and excited about life? If that's what you want, you don't want to see her go back to her relationship with the boy. Even if she doesn't stay with the other guy in the film, you don't want to see her make the mistake of going back to that same old dreary relationship and that guy who only cares about her when she leaves.
If you can forgive Coppola for this, "One From The Heart" might be one of the most important Hollywood films made in recently. Even the credit roll at the beginning is beautiful and may be the best in a film. You have no serious care and effort that was put into this short introduction makes it extremely pleasing.
This is also a musical. Again, the old statement holds true. This musical isn't made in the manner of the old musicals, but that's not necessarily bad. This musical features the music of Tom Waits, performed by Waits and Crystal Gale. It fits the mood of the film perfectly and counterpoints the action very well throughout the movie.
Due to a falling-out with Paramount, the original distributor of the film, "One From The Heart" is only now reaching the American public. It was finished in 1981. Columbia pictures has picked it up for distribution and is releasing it to college campus theatres reportedly with the hope that college students may understand and like the movie, thus promoting it further by word of mouth. This is the first college campus to show the film.
— Mike Cuenco
BLOOM COUNTY
BY BERKE BREATHED
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