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University Daily Kansan
Friday, May 9, 1958
Don't Miss The Chance
Over a year of planning and work has consummated into one of the finest and most popular art exhibitions ever to be presented at the University.
This is the exhibit of 70 original works by one of the most colorful and dynamic figures in modern American art, Thomas Hart Benton. After May 18 these paintings will be sent back to their respective artists, museums and to the artist's own collection, perhaps never to be brought together again in one place. And many KU students will have missed a once-in-a lifetime opportunity.
For if you miss this exhibition you will have to travel to at least a score of cities in almost as many states to see all the pictures now being shown in the Museum of Art.
Benton is the sole survivor of the three regionalist painters who created such a furor in the field of art in the 1930's. The other two were John Steuart Curry, a native-born Kansan, and Grant Wood of Iowa. These men believed in painting reality and believed that reality is what one experiences at the moment.
Some of the most widely known of Benton's painting on display include "Persephone," a highly publicized nude which used to hang in
Billy Rose's Diamond Horse Shoe in New York City, "Custer's Last Stand," the "Negro Soldier" and his latest set in the Grand Teton Mountains in Wyoming, the "Sheepherder."
As Thomas Craven, American art critic and writer, said, "This exhibition should be an occasion for great rejoicing. Presented in retrospect, comprehensive in scope and scrupulously authorized by the artist himself, it brings home to the audience the power and glory of the art of painting as practised by a master."
Mr. Benton does more than work with brush and canvas. He begins with nature, making first-hand studies of the American environment from the great industrial centers to the shacks of hillbillies, from the hustle-bustle of Hollywood to the quiet grandeur of the Teton Range. Then he proceeds to make detailed models in clay, sketch these models and finally transfer all this to the canvas in realistic vigor and dramatic fury.
If you haven't seen this exhibit, don't miss the experience. You will enjoy this art which is in some way related to your own life and experiences. You will feel a certain measure of local pride in this Midwest artist. It will be an important phase of your University education.
Pat Swanson
Communications Important
The field of written communications supplies a foundation for many occupations and professions. Knowing something about the field is essential to our way of life.
Some people, however, prefer to devote their entire lives to this basic field. At KU these persons may choose majors in either English or journalism.
In the one field, study is made of current and past literature, with emphasis on critical examination of rhetorical forms. In the other, study is made of the techniques of research and the practical job of putting words together, techniques which are essential in the training
of writers. Some attempt is made to apply scientific principles to writing.
For a long time, there has been an antagonism between the two schools of thought. English majors tend to snub the crude attempts of budding journalists. They believe that the journalism students are too willing to settle for mediocrity.
On the other hand, journalism students sometimes ridicule the "long-haired Bohemian" English majors because they are too willing to discuss fine literature instead of devoting their time to writing.
In contrast to these beliefs is the
tact that the more literary a journalist's style, the more his writing is admired. On the other hand, no one can possibly write a good novel without first devoting several years to practical experience in writing. Many of our famous writers were newspaper-trained; Mark Twain, Edna Ferber, Rudyard Kipling are a few.
It seems apparent that the well-trained writer cannot ignore either field. He must be trained in both literature and journalism. It is also apparent that our writers must be well-trained, since the products of their work inform and set the moral and cultural tone for the world.
—Carol Stilwell
For The Birds
. . . Letters To The Editor
It certainly is an amazing fact that when an individual goes to school for approximately 18 years and finally achieves the distinction of becoming a graduating senior, he and his classmates with all their combined intelligence and abilities seem to lose their imagination. They become bogged down in the complex problem of what to leave the University that will always shine as a memento to their presence at KU.
. . .
Past classes have left a bronze statue, a canopy, and now a new fountain is being proposed. The group that will get the most use from these gifts are our fine feathered friends, the birds.
They will have a resting place on the canopy and on their flight to quench their thirst at one of our fine fountains, they can whitewash the bronze statue. All these gifts are for the birds.
Why don't our graduating seniors devote their energies to a gift that will benefit all the students? Possibilities could be establishing a loan fund or a scholarship. And finally, a gift that would meet the approval of every student on campus would be paying off that parking lot for a year or two.
Ed Prelock
Cleveland, Ohio senior
Fountain Foolishness
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
Editor:
It seems to be that Evelyn Hall has voiced some rather unfortunate opinions in her editorial, "Fountain Foolishness."
"OH·OH—GUESS TO MANY OF US' SKIPPED 'TODAY — HE
FOLLOWED US OVER HERE"
I agree with her idea that we don't especially need another fountain. However, we really don't need more trees, shrubs or flowers on the campus for we have so many. Still one can't help but notice how many more are set out each year. Each plant set out does its part to make the campus more beautiful.
Perhaps a fountain isn't the most practical gift the class of '58 could give the University. On the other hand, the fountain will be a beautiful addition to an already beautiful campus. It will be something new for the University to take pride in when it has visitors in Lawrence. I applaud the senior class of which Miss Hall is a member. I wonder if Miss Hall attended the class meeting at which time the fountain was chosen for the '58 gift, and if she did, did she get to her feet then and voice a protest or did she decide it would be more fun to waste space in The Daily Kansan?
Junction City, sophomore
Preston Craft
The claim is out that the new women's styles and increased sales of Detroit automobiles will break the recession. It seems the two will go hand-in-hand—can you imagine a chemiseuse getting in and out of a sports car?
Twice a day the world's highest tides funnel into Nova Scotia's Minas Basin, the eastern branch of the Bay of Fundy. The waters may rise 53 feet.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
1904,
trweekly 1908, daily Jan. 10, 1912.
www.universityofkansas.edu
Telephone VIkling 3-2700
Festivalen 251, www.viikling.de
Extension 251, news room
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days, and examination periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan. post office under act of March 3, 1879.
Member Inland Daily Press Association
Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. N. News service, 83 a semester or $4.50 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan. every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holl-
NEWS DEPARTMENT
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Dick Brown ___ Managing Editor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Del Haley ... Editorial Editor
Evelyn Hall, Marilyn Mermis, Leroy
Zimmerman, Associate Editors.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT Manager
Fed Winn Clarke, Advertising Manager;
John Clarke, Advertising Manager;
Carol Ann Huston, National Advertising Manager; Bill Irvine, Classified Advertising Manager; Tom McGrath, Circulation Manager; Norman Beck,
Promotion Manager.
THE ENGINEERS HAVE HAIRY EARS
Today in this age of technology when engineering graduates are wooed and courted by all of America's great industries, how do you account for the fact that Rimbaud Sigafoos, who finished at the very top of his class at M.I.T., turned down hundreds of attractive job offers to accept employment as a machinery wiper at the Acme Ice Company at a salary of $20 a week with a twelve-hour day, a seven-day week, and only fifteen minutes for lunch?
... Engineering Grads are wooed and courted...
I know what you are thinking: "Cherchez la femme!" You are thinking that Mr. Acem, head of the Acem Ice Company, has a beautiful daughter with whom Rimbaud is madly in love and he took the job only to be near her.
Friends, you are wrong. It is true that Mr. Acme does have a daughter, a large, torpid lass named Claudia who spends all her waking hours scooping marzipan out of a bucket and staring at a television set which has not worked in some years. Rimbaud has not the slightest interest in Claudia; nor, indeed, does any other man, excepting possibly John Ringling North.
No, friends, no. Rimbaud is not allowed to smoke on the job, and when he finishes his long, miserable day, he has to buy his own Marlboros, even as you and I, in order to enjoy that estimable filter, that incomparable flavor, that crazy flip-top box.
Well, friends, you might as well give up because you'll never in a million years guess why Rimbaud works for the Aeme Ice Company. The reason is simply this: Rimbaud is a seal!
He started as a performing seal in vaudeville. One night on the way to the Ed Sullivan show, he took the wrong subway. All night the poor mammal rode the B.M.T., seeking a helping hand. Finally a kindly brakeman named Ernest Thompson Sigafoos rescued the hapless Rimbaud.
So how come Rimbaud keeps working for the Acme Ice Company? Can it be that they provide him with free Marlboro Cigarettes, and all day long he enjoys that filter, that flavor, that flip-top box?
He took Rimbaud home and raised him as his own, and Rimbaud, to show his appreciation, studied hard and got excellent marks and finished a distinguished academic career as valedictorian of M.I.T.
Rimbaud never complained to his kindly foster father, but through all those years of grammar school and high school and college, he darn near died of the heat! A seal, you must remember, is by nature a denizen of the Arctic, so you can imagine how poor Rimbaud must have suffered in subtropical New York and Boston, especially in those tight Ivy League suits.
But today at the Aeme Ice Company, Rimbaud has finally found a temperature to his liking. He is very happy and sends greetings to his many friends.
© 1958 Max Shuiman
Any time, any clime, you get a lot to like with a Marlboro, whose makers take pleasure in bringing you this column through the school year.