| Exhibit highlights role of AU’s artists in mid-twentieth century Washington BY SALLY ACHARYA
Photos courtesy of University archives and American University Museum
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Some 65 years ago, there were almost no universities in the country where a student could earn a degree in fine arts. A would-be biologist could dabble in sculpture on the side, with an elective or two; or a person intent on a career in painting could earn a degree from an art institute and eschew the biology and literature and philosophy classes that a full-fledged university offered. Except at AU. The then-small university on the grassy edge of the nation’s capital tried an experiment in 1942 that made it one of the first universities in the country to offer a degree in fine arts. According to Ignacio Moreno, an archivist at the University Library, only three other universities in the United States offered such a degree—which has now, of course, become a standard major everywhere. An innovative agreement with the Phillips Gallery Art School allowed AU students to take morning art classes at the country’s first museum of modern art, followed by regular college courses at AU in the afternoon. In that way, they’d earn a bachelor’s or master’s degree in fine arts while enjoying the benefits of a full liberal arts education. The program soon evolved into a full-fledged, campus-based art department. By 1944, a number of members of the Phillips art faculty had become AU faculty. One was the first chair of the art department, C. Law Watkins. But he died in 1945, and the chairmanship went to another Phillips veteran, William Calfee. 
Work by mid-twentieth century faculty members William Calfee below; life at AU’s art department at the time.
Some 20 years later, Calfee could often be found on the grass by the Watkins Building, sitting with a circle of art students and talking about art, philosophy, and anything that came to mind. One of those students was Moreno. Moreno, an art historian as well as an archivist, recently helped to organize an exhibition of Calfee’s work, William Calfee and the Washington Modernists, on display at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center through Sunday, Jan. 21. The exhibit focuses on Calfee’s abstract cast-bronze sculptures, and also includes work by some of Washington’s leading artists from the 1940s and 1950s. A number of the artists were associated with AU, including Robert Gates and Sarah Baker, who taught painting and drawing. The exhibit places Calfee in the context of the “modernists” working in Washington at the time. AU and its faculty members played an important role in mid-twentieth century Washington and were deeply involved with others who promoted contemporary art at a time when there were few venues in the culturally conservative town to see new developments. Calfee stepped down as art department chair in 1954, but continued to teach over the course of many decades. “He was very open, very receptive to his students,” Moreno recalls. “One time, we piled into his Ford station wagon and drove somewhere on the banks of Virginia, south of Mount Vernon, to collect specimens of wood for carving. That was the kind of out-of-the-way thing he’d do for us.” The chats on the grass outside the Watkins weren’t formal classes, and they weren’t accidental, either, Moreno recalls. The engaging professor would simply invite his students to gather to chat, and they’d come. Moreno, CAS ’70, ’79, chose the sculptures for the show, and Jack Rasmussen, director of the AU Museum, chose the paintings and drawings. Moreno hopes the exhibit can help to raise awareness of the rich history of AU’s art department, and the excellence of its faculty. He also sees it as a tribute to an influential teacher and artist who became a friend to himself and many others, both at AU and throughout Washington. “The AU art department really made a tremendous contribution that’s very little recognized,” Moreno says. “It’s a fascinating history, and AU was at the forefront.” 
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