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The Daily OrangeDrawing from a journey
Immigrant art exhibit paints history with authentic work
By Caitlin Dewey
Posted: 1/14/09, 3:45 AM EST Section: Feature
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Nicolette Dobrowolski, one of the curators of the exhibit, is the daughter of a German immigrant who came to the United States with hopes of establishing a new life here.
Her co-curator, Peter Verheyen, is also the child of immigrant parents; his parents emigrated from Germany in 1963. As a result, the exhibit - a part of the 2008 Migration Symposium - was more than mere business as usual; Verheyen called the project a "labor of love," and Dobrowolski said the exhibit was extremely personal for both curators.
"I felt a very strong pull to this project," Dobrowolski said. "We came across a number of images showing ships coming over from Europe, and we realized that that was exactly how our parents came across. The artists in the exhibit emigrated, became naturalized citizens and started families - that's what happened to us. We wouldn't be here without that migration."
Verheyen said his experience with the exhibit was similarly personal; his work on the project revealed a number of parallels between the lives of the artists and those of his parents.
"My parents came to this country in 1963," he said. "The times were different from when most of these artists came over, but they had many of the same experiences. They were seeking opportunities and they followed those opportunities - even the voyage was the same.
"I learned English on a playground," he said. "They learned the language by the seat of their pants, too."
The immigration stories of the five artists in the collection are enshrined on the silent sixth floor of Bird Library, where "Dawn of a New Age" has been housed since Sept. 8. The set of photographs, letters, prints and other papers were all part of the Special Collections Research Center's core collections.
Among the pieces featured in the exhibit are a number of original paintings and illustrations by Turkish industrial designer John Vassos, letters and sketches by Swiss architect William Lescaze, photographs of Russian dancer and choreographer Adolph Bolm, a self-portrait by Ukrainian painter Louis Lozowick, and the concerto score for the film "Spellbound," composed by Hungarian musician Miklós Rózsa.
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