Tuesday, April 15, 1986
Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan
3
News Briefs
Fire causes $10,000 in damages at school
A fire yesterday morning at Schwegler School, 2201, Ousdahl Road, caused an estimated $10,000 damage but no injuries.
The fire occurred in a portable classroom. No students were in the building at the time of the fire, Jim McSwain, Lawrence fire chief, said.
The fire, which started about 9 a.m., was the result of a malfunctioning gas heater that had been started because of the cool weather. McSwain said.
McSwain said the malfunctioning heater set a panel behind it on fire. The blaze then spread up the wall in a storage area and into the attic of the building.
The fire was confined to the center of the building, but there was water and smoke damage to the entire classroom, McSwain said.
KUAC delavs budget
The University of Kansas Athletic Corporation will not release its budget today as planned because the Kansas Legislature failed to decide on appropriations including any money for KU women's athletics before adjourning, Susan Wachter, assistant athletic director, said yesterday.
The KUAC board is scheduled to meet at 3:30 p.m. today in the Burge Union.
The Legislature adjourned Saturday and will reconvene on Monday to make a final decision on appropriations.
Wachter said she would have a budget ready about 30 days after the Legislature made a final decision. However, some figures on total expenditures and income will be released at today's meeting.
IDI to show movie
The Jayhawk Defense Initiative is sponsoring a special showing of "Atomic Cafe" at 7 p.m. tomorrow in the theater of Hashinger Hall.
The movie is open to the public, and the sponsors will be dressed as atomic survivors. Refreshments also will be served.
The movie contains 1950s film clips of Russian atomic bomb scares.
Art lecture tonight
Art historian David Rosand will deliver the 1866 Franklin D. Murphy Lecture in Art at 7:30 on tuesday at the Spencer Museum of Art.
Rosand, historian at Columbia University, will lecture "On Drawing A Line."
He is known for his scholarship of Venetian Renaissance Art and for his critical reviews of a variety of art. Rosand is a member of the executive board of the Renaissance Society of America.
The speech is in conjunction with two exhibits at the museum: "The 'Odex Hammer' of Leonardo da Vinci" and "In Leonardo's Shadow: Drawings by his followers."
The lecture is free and open to the public.
Correction
Because of a reporter's error, Michael Davis, dean of law, was incorrectly identified in yesterday's Kansan.
Weather
Today will be mostly sunny but cool with highs around 50. Northwest winds will gust at 15 to 25 mph. Tonight will be clear and cold with lows in the lower 30s. Tomorrow should be mostly sunny with highs in the upper 50s.
From staff and wire reports.
Detailed art is dean's pastime
By Leslie Hirschbach
Meticulous detail, Robert Zerwekh's specialty in his work as a metallurgical engineer, carries over into his picture-precise works of art.
Staff writer
in the lab. But Zerweck, associate dean of engineering who paints in his spare time, said yesterday that he didn't paint with scientific precision because he was a scientist.
"I'm not absolutely sure that the work I do reflects on the art," he said. "But there probably is some cross-over." Zerwek said he began painting in 1970 when he came to the University of Kansas to teach metallurgical engineering. He was 31 years old.
By the late 70s, he said, he had begun to sell his art for commission.
After he had been painting for a few years, he said, he completed his only art class — a two-hour painting course at the Kansas City Art Institute in the summer of 1972.
"It kind of evolved," he said. "I didn't make a deliberate attempt."
People from Lawrence and Kansas City who saw his work, he said, were interested enough to buy it.
Zerwekh said he now sold his smaller paintings for about $200 and the larger ones, which usually are no bigger than about 2 feet by 3 feet, for about $2,000.
Zerwekh also has exhibited his art at over 40 local and regional art shows and has received numerous awards.
His painting career started with the influence of his mother and grandmother, both artists, he said.
his mother and grandmother, our art teacher, he said "One of my early recollections is my mother sitting at an easel doing a landscape," he said. "She always thought I had an inclination."
Robert Zervek, associate dean of engineering and professor of mechanical engineering, sits in his studio, Zervek, who has had only one art class, paints in his spare time.
When he started painting, Zerwek said, he dabbed in many different mediums and styles.
Precision art works resembling those from 19th-century American realist painters, he said, were what he painted best and felt comfortable doing.
"A painter can go beyond realism to hyper-
realism," he said.
Zerwek's realistic paintings sometimes make for an abstract feeling.
realism, he said.
In a hyper-realistic painting, he said, absolute fidelity to reality can often fool the eye, taking a viewer beyond photographic realism.
Zerwekh said he liked to paint different subjects but often was influenced by his daily experiences. He has painted musical instruments, scientific equipment and children's toys
"The toy paintings started appearing when I had children." he said.
salsa can be used in:
In one painting, a jug of pure Kaw Valley cider and vinegar sits directly and purposefully in a prominent position.
He also likes to include things in his art that people will find humorous and subjects that only Kansans can understand.
ment position.
Zerwek said he didn't use models for his work
"Most of my stuff is done from memory," he said. "I don't do much from a formal setup."
He said he made a sketch and then worked it to its full size.
"My work is a synthesis of pure invention and real objects," he said.
Zerwekh, who has been associate dean of engineering since 1980 and an active member of
the university Senate Executive Committee this year, said he painted on weekends or whenever he had a free moment and wanted to keep his art as just a hobby.
"It's a lot more fun to paint enjoying the subject matter rather than relying on the market," he said. "I think that would take all of the fun out of it and make it cease to be a pleasant pastime."
Sagging budget hurts national museum
By Grant W. Butler Staff writer
Start Writer
Directing the National Museum of National Art in the age of federal budget cuts is a difficult job, the director of the museum said last night.
"As of March 1, we lost 5 percent of our budget, which amounted to over $200,000," said Charles Eldredge, the director. "Next year the worst case scenario would take over $40 million, which is about 22 percent of our budget."
about 22 per cent. Eldredge, a former KU professor of art history and former director of the Spencer Museum of Art until 1982, spoke to about 60 people on "American Art at the Smithsonian (Life After Lawrence)," in the Spencer Museum Auditorium.
The large budget of the National Museum used to be something which made other museums envious, Eldredge said. But now the budget tables have turned.
The budget for acquiring new works of art at the National Museum has been substantially cut, Eldredge said. But recent increases in donations of works has offset this cut.
work has often increased."
"We've been fortunate to enjoy the support of a number of organizations, so our donations budget has actually increased," he said.
The $200,000 budget cut also has been absorbed in salary cuts for workers at the museum, Eldredge said. While this was a difficult decision to make, the concern now is how future budget cuts will affect the museum's operations.
"I don't know what the ultimate effect on the budget will be," he said. "The government, of course, keeps the lights on and the building heated, but we don't know where the cuts will go."
During his speech, Eldredge showed slides of works in the National Museum and discussed the history of the museum, which is located in the former U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C.
But the works in the museum and the institution's history are only the surface of the operation.
"The galleries and the collections constitute the outer museum," he said. "But there's another important aspect that you should be able to appreciate — the inner museum."
The inner museum, he said, represents the efforts to restore works of art and the preservation of the images of photographs and drawings which otherwise might be lost.
Since becoming the director of the National Museum in 1982, Eldredge has worked on the renovation and reinstallation of the galleries, he said, as well as try to increase the museum's holdings in folk and contemporary art.
Novelist condemns machines
By Tom Farmer
Staff writer
The impending replacement of literature by machines will result in the vanishing of the culture of freedom, Spanish-language novelist Mario Vargas Llosa said last night.
Liosa, a Peruvian novelist, said mankind was headed toward passive minds and a loss of freedom if it continued its course of scientific innovations, lessening the importance of language skills.
Lleisa spoke to a crowd of about 500 people in Woodruff Auditorium at the Kansas Union as the final lecturer for the academic year in the Humanities Lecture Series.
What was done in the past by reading and writing is done today with gadgets, he said.
"The written word is becoming more and more expendable," Llosa said. "We must be appalled at this. If it does come true, it will be a disaster for humanity."
The use of audio-visual equipment is becoming prevalent in modern societies, but endangers freedom because it is more easily manipulated than the written word, he said.
"Writing is the last bastion of freedom in a lot of places." Llosa said. "Unlike books, audio-visual products limit creativity and create passive minds."
The means of avoiding a complete takeover of the written word by gadgets is an expression of discontent by the masses, he said. But this is possible only where these masses enjoy freedom.
"Our fate is linked to freedom," he said. "When freedom doesn't exist, literature and art become poor."
The establishment of freedom is difficult, Llosa said. Only through the rise of the individual will it be possible for more people to enjoy freedom.
Once achieved, freedom allows the individual his choice of expression, he said. For the most part, this choice is writing.
Liosa noted that mankind's reliance on gadgets had resulted in the presence of nuclear weapons capable of ending the world.
If people ever get a second chance to choose between creative writing and gadgets, he said, they should bear in mind the destruction gadgets may cause.
Lloisa has written seven novels, two volumes of short stories, two plays, a collection of essays and three books of criticism. He won the Ritz Paris Hemingway Award of 1985 for his book, "The War of the End of the World."
He is also an active journalist and political commentator. Last year he spent two months in Central America on special assignment for the New York Times.
Five-year state scholars to get more money
By Abbie Jones
"The fifth year's been tough." Paul Haack, acting dean of education, said yesterday. "Every bit of help we can get is going to count."
scholarships for an extra two semesters to those students enrolled in five-year programs. The University of Kansas and Kansas State University are the only two Board of Regents schools that have five-year programs. The Board of Regents schools are the six state universities and the Kansas Technical Institute in Salina.
Staff writer
Stan Witne
Special scholars in education, pharmacy and architecture can expect relief from the financial woes of their fifth year.
The proposed law was approved by both chambers of the Senate. It is awaiting Gov. John Carlin's
On its last day of its regular session the Kansas Senate unanimously approved a bill that would grant state
"That's recognition of the fact that extended programs are now the current trend." he said.
signature.
Haack said there were not many state scholars in the education department but that the bill had acknowledged the growing importance of five-year programs.
signature.
State scholarships are awarded to high school seniors from Kansas based on their ACT scores and financial need. Those who graduated before
1985 receive $500, and those who graduated after 1985 receive $1,000 a year.
Chantha McCurdy, associate director for student financial aid for the Board of Regents, said fewer than 500 students in Kansas were enrolled in five-year programs and no more than 30 of those were state scholars.
Although the numbers are low, the measure will have more significance as five-year programs develop and enrollment increases, she said.
McCurdy said she was opposed to the change because it took scholarship money away from four-year students, when the intent of the state scholarship was to give money to as many students as possible.
The measure only includes the students in five-year programs and not those who may stay an extra year to even out tougher course loads or those who stay longer for medical reasons, she said.
ATTENTION GRADUATES!