"Recent Works" by Professor Emeritus of Art Walter Feldman opened Saturday at the Rockefeller Library as a month-long exhibition of paintings, sculptures and book art created within the last 20 years. Feldman is retiring this year after 54 years of teaching at Brown.
Feldman includes nine paintings in the show, each glowing with complex layers of color and script. He evokes historical and cultural themes in the pieces, looking back to the symbols and writings of both the ancient Mayan and Hebrew civilizations for inspiration.
Feldman credits his interest in pre-Columbian art to living in Mexico for over a year, where he encountered the Mayan symbols, known as glyphs.
"I used the idea of the glyphs but reinvented it so (the designs) become my language," he told The Herald.
In addition to their historical content, the paintings themselves have an interesting history. In 1997, the fifth floor of the List Art Building flooded and destroyed the stored paintings "beyond resuscitation," Feldman said.
Ten years later, Feldman decided to revisit them. Believing himself to have changed during this time, the artist said that rather than reproducing the ruined paintings, he chose to let his creation echo the original but also evolve into something different.
In doing so, Feldman allows each of the paintings to radiate with life, giving off an essence of past, present and future that breathes. "They are now more empathetic, more sensitive, and have another layer of meaning," Feldman said of the nine recreated paintings, "and I hope I am too."
Other works in the show include three reliquaries, or shrines, entitled "Homage to Auschwitz." Feldman came across the idea of making reliquaries while living in Italy. The three model-size buildings, which evoke the darkness of early mid-century Poland, contain prayers and pieces of cloth that refer to the uniforms worn by concentration camp victims.
Feldman also showcases a number of book art pieces and broadsides by Ziggurat Press, which Feldman founded in 1990 to produce handmade books. The books' subjects range from music to haiku to the Bible.
Feldman completed his undergraduate degree at Yale, studying with renowned artists like Willem de Kooning. After college, he served in the Army for three years during World War II and was honored with a Purple Heart and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
After his service, Feldman returned to Yale to complete his BFA and earned his MFA in 1951 after receiving the Alice Kimball Fellowship. He then taught at Yale before joining Brown's faculty in 1953.
Feldman was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to study mosaics and stained glass in Italy in 1956. A year later, his self-portrait won the gold medal at the Mostra Internazionale in Milan. In 1958, he received the Tonner Prize from the American Color Print Society.
Feldman's work has been included in both individual and group exhibitions at museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.
In 2005, Brown honored Feldman with the dedication of the Feldman Book Arts Studio in the John Hay Library. More than 300 of his students' books are in the permanent collection of the Hay Library.
"Since his arrival at Brown in 1953, Walter has had a profound and lasting influence on the University, for which we are grateful," President Ruth Simmons said in a Sept. 8 press release. "This exhibition is an opportunity to celebrate Walter's extraordinary career at Brown, as well as his commitment to his students, his art and his community."
