UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, December 2,1993
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7
A KU art professor is
Teaching the art of discipline and of imagination
A profile of John Talleur
Talleur stands in front of three prints he made that are on display in his home. The house is filled with paintings and sculptures from friends, family, and his many trips abroad
Only in men's imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.
The printing presses are in the basement, a Matisse original hangs in the den, and the sound of Frank Sinatra fills the air. In the living room, surrounded by various objets d'art, KU art professor John Talleur explains the original use for his coffee table."You see how it's indented all along here?" he asks, pointing to the circular grooves cut into the piece. "It's early nineteenth century Austrian and was used by silversmiths.
-Joseph Conrad
"Apparently, they would stick their round little bellies, they were round because they drank a lot of beer, more beer than most people; anyway they would stick their bellies in the circular part, work on their piece of jewelry, then pass it on to the next person."
Talleur pauses before talking about other pieces from his museum-class collection of paintings, relief prints, sculptures, and antiques.
He won't tell who his favorite artisies are or who influenced his style of woodcuts and printmaking.
"I just can't pick favorites," he said, laughing.
His house is filled with works from artists all over the world, including past students. His own creations are framed and hung beside famous and not-yet-famous artists.
"When you look at your own art, it's your life," he said, rolling his eyes. "It's all the horrors of your own life staring back at you."
Talleur's "horrors" have been staring back at him nearly all his life.
"I could draw before I could write," he said. He began taking art lessons in first grade and painting lessons every Saturday when he was in third grade.
"One of my first memories of my own art was in first grade," he said. "I made a picture, and the teacher thought it was so good that she framed it under glass and gave it to me to take home."
Talleur said that he kept the drawing for many years. He no longer has it, but still has several of the drawings and paintings of a budding artist.
"I always knew I wanted to be an artist," Talleur said. "But I also adore music. I don't know what I would do without it."
Tallure had to decide to become a composer or a visual artist.
"I decided that, for me, music would be a mathematical kind of thing, and I can't add twoplus two and get the answer twice, so I decided to sell my piano and focus on visual arts. I thought since I didn't have to add that I might at least have a chance."
The road has led him to exhibitions and one-man shows throughout Europe and North America. His works have been purchased by more than 60 institutions in the United States and abroad, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Was Taleur's decision to pursue a path to visual arts the right one? He thinks so.
Talleur, an only child, was born in Chicago, and grew up in Oak Park, Ill. His father, Leo, was a banker and stock broker, his mother, Dorothy, a homemaker.
--after that it was back to bed."
"Really, though, my mother was hideously bright," Talleur said. "She should have been a businesswoman, but father wouldn't allow it."
"When my parents adopted me I was hideously sick," Taller said. "I had rickets and allergies, and all kinds of stuff. They had to get goat's milk for me and that was during the Depression."
Taller said that during his early childhood he only attended school three days a week. "That's why I can't count or spell, and I'm not nice when I should be," he said, chuckling.
Instead, his mother devoted much of her time caring for Tallour's fai health.
The remainder of his time was spent in bed except for Sundays mornings.
"Church was a must, you know," he said. "But right
By the time he reached high school Talleur had out grown much of his illness and attended classes full time.
"I walked two-and-a-half miles to school with my friends and we told dirty jokes both ways." Talleur said, running his calloused fingers through his thick, gray hair. "It was a marvelous time in my life, even though high school for me was difficult because I'm not a natural scholar. I had to work my didyldoo off."
Between studying and attending activities with his friends Talleur began honing his artistic talents. After graduation from Oak Park High School in 1943, Talleur attended The University of Chicago and the Chicago Art Institute. He graduated in 1947.
Talleur's first teaching position was at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. He stayed for two years, and left when life at a small university became stifling.
"I mean, every time I sneezed, the faculty said 'Gesundheit!'" he said. "I vowed never to teach at a small college again."
In 1950 Talleur took his first trip to Europe. After returning to the United States he accepted a graduate research assistantship at the University of Iowa.
"It was the best art school in the country at the time, and I knew it wasn't worth a tidy doo to get a bachelor's and a master's at the same school," he said. Talleur spent a year at Iowa, then returned to Europe, this time on a Fulbright Scholarship. He studied at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.
Taller returned to Chicago for year, then came to Kansas as an art instructor in 1953.
He married one of his former students in 1975. They later divorced. They have one daughter, Ann Beatrix Talleur. She lives with her mother in Cortona Italy.
--dents view art in a clearer way.
Local artist Freddy Henderson studied graduate printmaking under Talleur. He said that Talleur helped him see art in a different way.
"Every time I made something he would always say, 'No, that's not the answer. Do it again.' Then one day I made something and when I showed it to him he said, 'Oh, that's very nice.' I almost fell over."
Henderson said that apart from Taleur's teaching techniques, his sense of humor helped students view art in a clearer way.
"He has such great language," Henderson said. "He'll say something like, 'Well, that's not quite ipsy pipsy, is it?' which is open-ended and fluster some people, but students gain wider, clearer eyes for looking at things that are unspeciful."
Laura Waldo-Semken studied printmaking and drawing under Tallure for four years. She describes his style as abstract.
WATSON
"The main thing is to look at the art first," she said. "The eye has fun with it, then everything falls together like a puzzle, and it's very beautiful. He has a lot of depth, texture, and layers to his pieces."
The layers are also incorporated into Tallleur's teaching style.
"He taught discipline in being critical of my work and still have fun and be playful with it," Waldo-Semken said.
Taller wonders what he will do without his students, his "angels." He is retiring next year.
"I cannot help but care deeply about them," he said. "I know what they're trying to do and how difficult it is."
Talleur encourages students who want to pursue art to do it in spite of what anyone says.
"No amount of criticism can discourage a good student," he said. "When you're in school the teachers care, but when you get out one gives a damn whether you make another picture. The world already has more art than it wants to look at. If you don't have the will, then do something else. God knows we could use more plumbers and carpenters."
Though he won't be in the classroom next year, Talleur will keep in touch with campus activities.
"One of the great pleasures of my life is adding to the collection of representative prints, particularly western prints at KU. I will continue to do that after retirement." he said.
Talleur plans to stay in Lawrence and spend time in the studio in his house, working on his relief prints and wood cuts.
"I couldn't possibly go anywhere else," he said. "The people I've met here and all the students have been marvelous. They're nicer than anywhere else."