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University Daily Kansan
Arts/Entertainment
Thursday, Jan. 23, 1986
Wilfredo Lee/KANSAN
Artists' desires to interpret and communicate their impressions of the past, present and future are reflected by the exhibits in the Spencer Museum of Art.
Exquisite art draws acclaim
By Dawn O'Malley Staff writer
While walking through the corridors of Museum of Art, one can see 19th century Lawrence through James Hess' "View of Old North," or can be swept away to a "Moonlit scene with Castle Ruins" by Carl Spitzwig.
Works by these artists, along with those of Monet and Bassetti, hang in the galleries of the Spencer Museum of Art.
Eleven galleries, which display 17th to 20th century art, occupy the fourth floor of the museum. The third floor consists of Medieval, Renaissance and oriental exhibits and the White Gallery. The central court features the Bechstein grand piano which belonged to Liszt, a Hungarian composer and pianist.
Since the museum began its collection in 1878, it has evolved into one of the most comprehensive art museums in the state, Carol Shankel managing editor of museum publications, said recently.
"We are one of the top five or six university museums in the country because of our collections, faculty and art library," she said.
Kathleen Scheirman, Overland Park freshman, said, "I was impressed with the variety. I didn't expect so much from a college museum."
Brian Lange, Blue Valley sophomore, said, "I like the museum because I am an art history major. I would be able to detect it if it wasn't good."
The museum originally was called the Spooner Museum of Art. Amos Lawrence, often called the founding father of Lawrence, donated the first exhibit—a bust of himself. However, the basis of the collection did not begin until 1917 when Sallie Casey Thayer, a resident of Kansas City, Mo., started donating art works. By the time she died in 1924, she had donated about 9,000 works.
"The most important probably were the Winslow Homer paintings," Shankel said.
Spooner Hall was built in 1894 and originally served as the University's main library. In 1928, the hall became the Spooner Museum of Art. By 1976, the museum needed more space for its 25,000 art objects.
Helen Spencer provided funds for a new building and was involved in advising the construction. The next year Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art opened its doors.
Stephen Goddard, curator of European prints and drawings, has helped to obtain several works dating between the 16th and 20th century. The most recent of these works are included in the exhibit "A Flemish Workshop: Understanding a 16th century Triptych." It will be on exhibit until March 2.
The triptych, a three-panel painting that is hinged to fold inward, depicts Christ's descent from the cross. It is about 500 years old and was severed at its hinges in the 19th century to keep it from warping, Goddard said.
"Hendrik wud Uwelue is the artist," Goddard said, "but it is probably a collaborative effort by members of his workshop."
Wueluwe is thought to be the artist because there are two other significant paintings in Frankfurt with similar styles and brocade patterns, which indicates his recurring design pattern.
Also showing now is the exhibit, "Old Master Drawings from Bowdoin College." These masterpieces were done by Peter Paul Rubens, Jan van der Straet, Marcantonio Bassetti and others.
Stephen Addiss, professor and chairman of art history, said the museum had an extensive ongoing collection of Japanese art from the Edo period, 1600 to 1868, and modern Chinese paintings.
"The Edo period was a time the Japanese culture expanded and flowered," he said. "A marvelous time in the history."
Last fall the museum opened the exhibit "Japanese Ghosts and Demons: Art of the Supernatural." The show was based on the museum's collection but some works were borrowed from the Asia Society Galleries and George Braller.
The museum's collection, "Diane Arbus: Magazine Work 1960-1971," now is circulating throughout the country on a three-year tour. It was organized by Thomas Southall, curator of photographs. The exhibit will travel to Miami, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Akron, Ohio, Philadelphia and Portland, Ore., this year.
The museum also organized a show of Thomas Hart Benton's works. The exhibit, "Benton's Benton," was collected from the artist's estate and will travel throughout the midwest.
Also, the museum plans to exhibit a 36 page manuscript of notes and drawings titled "The Codex Hammer of Leonardo da Vinci."
"The way we have established our reputation, is we circulate exhibitions on a rental basis and publish books on the prints." Shankel said.
Indifference blinds view of fine arts
KU students' indifference towards the arts is clearly reflected by their low attendance at Concert Series and Chamber Music Series performances. The series attracts worldrenowned artists, and concerts use inexpensive tickets to attract students. Student tickets rarely cost more than $7.50.
The series gives students the opportunity to hear performances by such outstanding performers as the New York City Opera, Izhak Perlman, Philip Glass, Alvin Alley and Sarah Vaughan.
Jill White
Only a university could offer these concerts to students at a price they
Arts/Entertainment Editor
could afford. Students could buy tickets for the Philip Glass concert for as little as $5.25. In Glass' most recent concert in New York, 75 percent of the house bought tickets for $20. Tickets for the New York City Opera recently cost $39 for performances on the East Coast. But when the opera company performed at the University, student tickets cost from $5 to $9.
Two years ago only 57 students attended a Tokyo String Quartet performance. Izhak Perlman's performance in 1985 drew a larger student crowd, but attendance slacked again for the Guarneri String Quartet. Only 167 students attended.
Experiments with student tickets have shown that lowering the prices will greatly affect student attendance, but not for the better. Davis tried offering a free summer series in 1980. No one came. Raising prices also discourages attendance, a trend unacceptable in light of recent indifference.
Philip Glass' performance drew
the largest number of students, 544,
since Perlman. Yet when compared to
the number of students who attend
KU sports events, rock concerts or
even movies, the attendance is
pitiful.
How to attract more students to these opportunities remains a continual dilemma for those who schedule fine arts for the University. Making students aware of the programs available, they agree, is the first step.
SUA films attract thriftv enthusiasts
So here's to cultural enlightenment and the University's wealth of fine arts programs, perhaps one of the best opportunities offered to KU students.
By Lori Polson
Where else could you go to see a movie for $1.50?
The Student Union Activities' film series has long been regarded by KU students and Lawrence residents as one of the best bargains in town.
Since the early 1960s, SUA has offered an array of old, new, popular, foreign, controversial and comic films at low prices. The movies are shown in Woodruff Auditorium of the Kansas Union.
Students agree that SUA movies are bargain-priced.
Jeanne Travalent, Burnsville,
Minn., sophomore, said recently that she was attracted to SUA movies because she could afford them.
"It is a good price for a movie," she
said, and it's close since it is right on
gamble.
Jodi Coulter, Cedar Vale senior,
also likes the low price, but she goes
to see SUA films for another reason.
"They are a lot of fun," Coulter said. "Usually the audience has seen the movies before, and there is some crowd participation."
Ben Froideaux, Neuchatel,
Switzerland, senior and SUA film
projectionist, said that sometimes
the crowd participation got out of
hand and that students occasionally
got rowdy.
"We had an all night showing of punk films last semester where the crowd did about $300 damage," he said. "But usually they're okay. They just get rowdy at midnight shows and we expect that."
Gary Mackender, Lawrence senior and chairman of the SUA film committee, said that midnight shows were the noisiest. The shows cost $2 and are shown only on Friday and Saturday nights.
"Midnight is the only time where people tend to get a little vocal and involved in the movie," he said.
Mackender said the reason SUA could show movies for such a low price was that it did not try to make a profit.
"We don't have much of an overhead," Mackard said. "We're not a profit seeking organization. When we do make some money, it goes straight back into other SUA-sponsored activities."
Katherine Giele, assistant director for programs at the Kansas Union, said that even though SUA charged $1.50 for most of the movies it showed, it had to pay more to distributors for certain movies.
"None of our movies are the same price," she said.
Giele said that sometimes the film distributors required SUA to pay a percentage of the money made for a certain film. They do this for recently released popular films, she said.
After Mackender was chosen to be the chairman of SUA films in April, he selected a committee of volunteers to help pick out movies. Members of the committee usually are majoring in film, he said.
"Each person is assigned to a special committee or night," Mackender said. "They get together and pick out movies and then submit the lists to me and we go over them."
Mackender said ordering films from distributors was not a problem if the movies were selected early enough. SUA works with about 15 to 20 different film distributors.
"There are several" distributors that carry just about any film we want." he said.
The committee began choosing films in September that are scheduled to be shown this semester.
Fantasy jostles reality in Allen's Purple Rose
By Monique O'Donnell
Staff writer
Woody Allen breaks new ground in cinema with his most recent film, "The Purple Rose of Cairo." Yet in the end this movie may break your heart.
The Purple Rose of Cairo, directed by Woody Allen. 3:30 p.m., 7 p.m., 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in Woodford Auditorium in the Kansas Union. Rated PG_8, 6in microfilm.
It is Allen's second film that he has written and directed, but not appeared in. Unlike "Interiors," "The Purple Rose of Cairo" is a hilarious force between screen life and real life.
Allen cast Mia Farrow as the main character, the fragil and vulnerable Cecilia. Farrow gives an excellent portrayal of Cecilia, the timid and awkward young woman who lives in a small New Jersey town during the Depression.
Monk is a bit of a louse who isn't interested in finding a job and spends most of his time pitching pennies or hanging with local hookers.
Cecilia's world is rather hopeless and gray. She is poor, and her husband, Monk, played by Danny Aiello, doesn't treat her well.
Cecilia spends all of her time after work at The Jewl, the only movie house in town. She becomes mesmerized by the exotic glitter of the 1980s films she watches.
Cecilia becomes so enchanted with the movie, which is also called "The Purple Rose of Cairo," a piece of kitchy escapist entertainment, that she sees the movie five times.
But suddenly the Allen movie takes an absurd, and certainly confusing, turn. The pith-helmeted character Baxter, who stars in the movie Cecilia has been watching, decides he is in love with Cecilia and jumps off the screen.
Baxter is played by Jeff Daniels. And Daniels does justice to his role as the romantic movie hero lost in the real world.
Review
Bizarre as Baxter's escape from the screen may be, it leads to a funny sequence of events. The other characters in the film are stranded in the living room scene and are rather disgruntled by Baxter's disappearance.
The leftover audience at The Jewl also is upset, because they don't want to watch a bunch of snobbish actors sitting around doing nothing. The atmosphere in the theater takes on an air of hostility as the distraught actors converse with the displeased audience.
Even Gil Shepard, the actor who played Baxter in the film Cecilia was watching, begins to panic because the Baxter character is behaving weirdly in other movie theaters across the nation.
Allen has interspersed this movie with wonderfully funny clichés. But the movie also contains some serious and sobering revelations typical of most Allen films.
Snapshots
Vaughan to perform in KU Concert Series
Sarah Vaughan, jazz vocalist, will perform in the KU Concert Series instead of Cleo Laine and the John Dankworth Quartet, officials announced recently.
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Vaughan has distinguished herself as a big band vocalist, pianist and solo recording artist.
Vaughan, who has achieved legendary status among American jazz vocalists, will perform at 8 p.m. April 26 in Hoch Auditorium.
KU Brass Quintet to perform Monday
The Kansas Brass Quintet will perform a faculty recital at 8 p.m. Monday in Swarthout Recital Hall. The recital is free.
Assisting the quintet for the rectal will be a 10-piece brass choir, conducted by Zuchuang Chen, associate professor and director of orchestral activities at KU.
Weekend Outlook
Theatre
■ The Lawrence Community Theatre will present "Blood Wedding," directed by Penny Weiner, at 8 p.m. tonight, tomorrow and Saturday at 1501 New Hampshire St. Performances continue at 8 p.m. Jan. 31-Feb. 1, with a matinee at 2:30 p.m. Fet. 2. Tickets are $5.
Fred Schepisi's "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith," a true story of a half white aborigine, brought up by a Methodist pastor, caught between two cultures and exploited with tragic results. Tommy Lewis, Freddy Reynolds. 7:30 p.m. Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union. 1978; Australian; 124 minutes/color; R.
Movies
Gramm-Rudman law may damage fine arts
**Rob Retner's "This is Spinal Tap." a pseudo-documentary that is a witty reflection of contemporary life styles, fads, drugs, big business, hip language, sex, groupies and filmmakers. Midnight Saturday. 1984; USA; 83 minutes/color; R.
By Leslie Hirschbach
Some local arts administrators recently expressed their fear that the Gramm-Rudman balanced budget law could be devastating for the arts.
"We're fearing that the arts will be looked upon as something to be out," said Jackie Davis, director of the KU Concert Series and Chamber Music Series.
Davis said the University of Kansas would have to eliminate some performances and art displays if serious cuts were made from the National Endowment for the Arts. The arts endowment provides funds for visual and performing art presentations at KU.
"They will be hurt more because there isn't as much there to begin with," he said. "The museum receives one or two grants each year for temporary exhibitions. That would be an area that may be cut."
However, he said, the arts inevitably will suffer disproportionately when funds are cut from the federal budget.
Doug Tighman, assistant director of Spencer Museum of Art, said he was glad the government was trying to eliminate a projected $220 billion deficit, but not if it meant the arts endowment would be cut more than other areas.
If the museum lost valuable funds, Tilghman said, it might have to cut some programs entirely. It already is difficult to arrange major exhibitions, he said.
Steve Jansen, director of Watkins Community Museum, 1047 Massachusetts St., said he feared Gramm-Rudman would cost him a curator if the Institute of Museum Services had to withdraw its grant because of federal budget cuts.
A fairly strong, influential constituency of actors, opera singers and producers had prevented cuts in the past, Tilghman said, and they might be effective in preventing the bite of Gramm-Rudm.
Without a curator to care for artifacts, the quality of the museum's exhibits and its effectiveness would definitely be hurt. he said.
"We would attempt to fund the position," he said, "but frankly, it would be difficult to do."
James Moeser, dean of fine arts, said the arts probably would not suffer more from Gramm-Rudman than any other area of spending. However, the arts definitely would feel the pinch, and alternative sources of income are unlikely, he said.
Moeser said the private sector would not be able to make up the difference for funds snatched away by Gramm-Rudman because it already was giving as much as it could.