ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 13, 1996 TAG: 9602130049
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KAREN ADAMS STAFF WRITER
There was a time, artist Sondra Freckelton remembers, when the art galleries of New York City were like the intellectual salons of Paris - where one could exchange ideas with other artists, poets, musicians, dancers, philosophers and whoever else happened to be there.
``In the '50s, when we arrived in New York, the air was charged,'' Freckelton said at her bungalow at Hollins College, where she and husband, Jack Beal, are artists-in-residence for spring semester. ``All the disciplines were very close,'' she said, leaning forward for emphasis. ``Art was shared in all the ways that it can be. It was like the earth was being created.''
And everyone was poor, which apparently made them generous. People gave each other ideas like gifts, she said, with no sense of ownership, knowing that one person's idea for a painting could turn up in another's play or song or sculpture or poem - and it was a marvelous thing simply to witness it.
That sense of overlapping influences is evident in the exhibition that guest curator Freckelton has assembled at Hollins, under the sweeping title ``Women in the Visual Arts.''
The work of 30 American artists of various ages and perspectives will be on display from Thursday through March 17. The show is part of the school's annual Founder's Day celebration in honor of Charles Lewis Cocke, who said in 1857 that ``young women require the same thorough and rigid training as that afforded to young men.''
Mimi Harris, sculptor, teacher and exhibitions coordinator at Hollins, assisted with the show and said it's one of the most historically significant events that the school has ever offered.
``It's a wonderful opportunity for people to see what all these women have done,'' she said. ``There's never been anything quite like this before.''
Harris said that because of the quality and scope of the work, American Artist magazine has bought 200 copies of the exhibition's catalog to sell through an advertisement in the magazine.
It was difficult to choose from so many fine artists, said Freckelton, a renowned sculptor and watercolorist herself. She narrowed it to those who are still living and working, many in Virginia. In the catalog, she states that she wanted ``to celebrate some of the women whose work and commitment set a standard for me and so many other young artists.''
Freckelton, who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, was influenced by many of the artists in the show. Since the early '70s she has been making watercolor paintings rather than abstract sculptures, although she continues to examine the same issues: space, form and the third dimension.
The show, which spans 50 years, also honors the many interwoven friendships and aesthetic influences shared by the women, especially those who were working when there was little, if any, support from the greater community.
When painter Nell Blaine left her hometown of Richmond in 1942 to study in New York City, she was 19 years old and had $80 in her pocket. One of Blaine's influential teachers was Worden Day (``a steadfast artist''), who taught at Richmond School of Art (now Virginia Commonwealth University) in 1942, Blaine's last year there.
``She really lit a fire under me about abstract art,'' Blaine said via telephone from her home in New York City. Day told her about abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann's School of Fine Arts in New York and urged her to go.
Those early days in New York were so thrilling, Blaine said, that she didn't worry about her future - even though she was poor, had no prospects, and had acted entirely against her family's wishes. ``But I was so excited and challenged and happy to be there,'' she said. ``I felt as free as a bird.''
She studied at Hofmann's school with artists who continue to be her closest friends, among them Louisa Matthiasdottir.
Hofmann, Blaine said, was a brilliant analyst and original teacher and she found that time exhilarating. ``Once I found my point of view, I had this enormous confidence,'' she said. ``I was excited so much by the feeling that a door had opened."
After a thoughtful pause, she added, ``That sort of confidence may only be given to the young. But now, this age brings another, quieter sort of confidence.''
Now 73, Blaine continues to paint and draw in spite of health problems. She works almost entirely from nature, and can see the Hudson River from her window. Often she stays up all night to finish a work.
``I really try for the essence of nature with a spiritual lift to it,'' she said. ``I want there to be an expansive feeling that you get from the work. Often it's a very quiet thing that comes over you.''
Oil painter Jane Freilicher met Nell Blaine in the late '40s after Blaine had finished at Hofmann's school. ``She had a great influence on me,'' Freilicher said by telephone, also from New York. ``She steered me to Hans Hofmann and the idea of getting serious.''
``At that time my work was fairly abstract and expressionist, loosely painted,'' she said. ``Even so, my work has recognizable things, landscapes and figures.''
Freilicher was married to a jazz musician and listened to a lot of jazz. ``I'm not sure how much it influenced me,'' she said, ``But I loved the spontaneity and informality and invention of jazz.''
At 71, she still likes to experiment with her work. ``You can change oil,'' she said. ``I'll often start in one direction and end up somewhere else.'' She laughed and said, ``When I strike out on the canvas I don't know what I'll get.''
A native of Brooklyn, Freilicher is a painter whose work reflects the human element in nature rather than nature alone. In her recent work, which was based on motifs of 17th-century French paintings, she took figures and reworked them. Whatever form the final work takes, Freilicher said, she always aims for ``a sense of wholeness and a sensation of light.''
Upon looking back on those early days, she said, ``There were a lot of women just persisting, over the years,'' and those women have maintained a warm and supportive attitude toward each other.
Perseverance, she said, is the most important quality for young artists to have, especially when fashions suddenly change and one may be doing work that nobody seems to care about.
She said, ``You have to be strong. It's a question of character more than talent that carries you through.''
Jane Goldman, 44, is one of the younger artists in the show. As a painter and printmaker, she characterizes herself as a ``lyrical realist'' who was fortunate to have strong artistic influences throughout her life.
One of those influences was Sondra Freckelton, who encouraged her when she was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin. ``Her interest and support was the single biggest boost to my confidence and optimism,'' Goldman said by phone.
Another experience occurred when she was a child growing up in Dallas. Her mother had recognized her artistic ability and, when Goldman was 6, signed her up for a class at the Dallas art museum. Whenever her mother dropped her off, little Jane would wander through the museum alone, looking at the paintings without an adult to interpret them for her.
``From an early age I developed my own sense of aesthetics,'' she said. ``I was often late for those classes, because I would be out there, wandering and visiting my favorite paintings.''
Today, Goldman works in her Boston studio when she's not teaching or caring for her baby or performing with her country swing band, The Jane Gang. Her life is a swirl of visual art and music, and she paints ``in a musical soup,'' with jazz playing in the background.
As a teacher, Goldman wants to share with her students the zest for art that her teachers passed on to her.
``Those experiences changed my life,'' she said.
One of the most striking aspects of working with all these artists, Sondra Freckelton said, is their modesty about what they did and what they continue to do.
``They really led the way, even in the face of tremendous difficulties,'' she said. ``They stuck to it, all for the love of making art.''
LENGTH: Long : 150 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. 1. Sculptor and Hollinsby CNBmaartist-in-residence Sondra Freckelton is the ``Wome in the Visual
Arts'' curator: One of her goals was to "celebrate some of the
women whose work and commitment set a standard for me and so many
other young artists." She's shown with her sculpture, "Constant,"
which is in the exhibit. 2. "Desk Top (Yaddo)," 1957 oil on canvas
by Nell Blaine. color. 3. "Pooh," 1987 watercolor by Jane Goldman.
4. "The Straw Hat," 1958 oil by Jane Freilicher.