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| Teacher of Us All: Laurence Rathsack and a few of his students Dean Jensen Gallery 759 N. Water St., Milwaukee 414-278-7100 September 15 – October 14, 2006 |
I visited “Teacher of Us All” a week after it opened
on September 15. Dean Jensen was standing in
his Water Street gallery with one of Laurence
Rathsack’s former students who was feeling left
out because he wasn’t among the six selected to
exhibit with the 86-year-old retired art educator.
Considering that Rathsack taught at the University
of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and its predecessor
institutions for five decades (he retired in 1999), it’s
a wonder that the revered professor was able to
select six out of the tens of thousand of former
students who fell under his spell.
Liz Bachhuber, Beth Eisendrath, Kathleen Holder,
Marc Jacobson, Cece Murphy Kim, and David Niec
made the cut. My initial instinct was to try to find a
connecting link between teacher and students. Art
students have been known to ape their instructors,
and some instructors seem to find that flattering,
but according to Eisendrath who studied advanced
watercolor with Rathsack 28-years-ago, the good
professor was a harsh grader, who had the knack
for critiquing an eclectic range of pieces. “He liked
them for their intrinsic qualities despite his own
formal bent,” she says. “He was not doctrinaire.”
on September 15. Dean Jensen was standing in
his Water Street gallery with one of Laurence
Rathsack’s former students who was feeling left
out because he wasn’t among the six selected to
exhibit with the 86-year-old retired art educator.
Considering that Rathsack taught at the University
of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and its predecessor
institutions for five decades (he retired in 1999), it’s
a wonder that the revered professor was able to
select six out of the tens of thousand of former
students who fell under his spell.
Liz Bachhuber, Beth Eisendrath, Kathleen Holder,
Marc Jacobson, Cece Murphy Kim, and David Niec
made the cut. My initial instinct was to try to find a
connecting link between teacher and students. Art
students have been known to ape their instructors,
and some instructors seem to find that flattering,
but according to Eisendrath who studied advanced
watercolor with Rathsack 28-years-ago, the good
professor was a harsh grader, who had the knack
for critiquing an eclectic range of pieces. “He liked
them for their intrinsic qualities despite his own
formal bent,” she says. “He was not doctrinaire.”
It’s been eight years since Eisendrath moved from an art-focus to earn a law degree at Marquette.
She hasn’t produced any paintings recently, but says she intends to do so soon. She remarked that
many former students still return to have Rathsack critique their works, including all of those in the
current exhibit. Her contributions to “Teacher of Us All” include two wildly colorful acrylic paintings that
look like landscapes of still-life objects magnified.
So what then, is the connecting link between Rathsack’s work and that of his former students?
She hasn’t produced any paintings recently, but says she intends to do so soon. She remarked that
many former students still return to have Rathsack critique their works, including all of those in the
current exhibit. Her contributions to “Teacher of Us All” include two wildly colorful acrylic paintings that
look like landscapes of still-life objects magnified.
So what then, is the connecting link between Rathsack’s work and that of his former students?
It most definitely is “landscapes,” though
only those by plein-aire painter Marc
Jacobson come across in the literal sense.
He teaches at the Herron School of Art in
Indianapolis and his light-filled paintings
are certainly in stark contrast to those of
Niec, whose dark of night oil-painted
panels depict Wisconsin’s north woods the
hard way…in the winter, with only a
flashlight and the light of the moon to guide
his way. Dark blue and moody, Niec’s
paintings speak of both the lay of the land
and the lay of the artist’s mind.
At first glance, the 15 panel series of cutout
images of ducks and geese flying across
the enameled surfaces of small discarded
refrigerator doors did not seem to fit the
landscape mode. When Jensen informed
me that Eisvoegel (i.e. “ice ducks”) by Liz
Bachhuber, was inspired by the days when
she lived near Horicon Marsh, I began to
see a connection. Bachhuber, currently an
artist-in-residence at UW-Milwaukee, is
only those by plein-aire painter Marc
Jacobson come across in the literal sense.
He teaches at the Herron School of Art in
Indianapolis and his light-filled paintings
are certainly in stark contrast to those of
Niec, whose dark of night oil-painted
panels depict Wisconsin’s north woods the
hard way…in the winter, with only a
flashlight and the light of the moon to guide
his way. Dark blue and moody, Niec’s
paintings speak of both the lay of the land
and the lay of the artist’s mind.
At first glance, the 15 panel series of cutout
images of ducks and geese flying across
the enameled surfaces of small discarded
refrigerator doors did not seem to fit the
landscape mode. When Jensen informed
me that Eisvoegel (i.e. “ice ducks”) by Liz
Bachhuber, was inspired by the days when
she lived near Horicon Marsh, I began to
see a connection. Bachhuber, currently an
artist-in-residence at UW-Milwaukee, is
| Liz Bachhuber, Eisvoegel (Ice Birds), 1998 15 found refrigerator doors with programmed lighting. 93 x 115 x 4 in. Photo courtesy of inova |
| Kathleen Holder, Anamnesis XXX, 2006. Pastel, 32 x 22 in. Photo courtesy of Dean Jensen Gallery. |
based in Germany, and Eisvoegel is a melding of Germany’s past and her Midwest experiences. The
small refrigerator doors are remnants of what was left behind when the “walls came down” and East
Germans rushed forth to buy bigger refrigerators.
small refrigerator doors are remnants of what was left behind when the “walls came down” and East
Germans rushed forth to buy bigger refrigerators.
In a 2004 monograph published in connection with
“Transmission: Laurence Rathsack & Elizabeth
Bachhuber” at the University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, Dean Jensen wrote…”whatever the
subject of a Rathsack painting, each is permeated by
a certain pensiveness.” A glorious example of that
pensiveness permeates Skeletal Church, a 1996
Rathsack watercolor; it also infuses his study in black
ink and graphite (Train In Steam), produced a half
century earlier. Both are outstanding examples of
objects rendered so beautifully that they seem to
disappear into the surrounding atmosphere, where
they drift as memories, rather than hard-edged
renderings. Reviewers of art are often driven to
explain an artist’s “intent,” but unraveling a Rathsack
is tantamount to sacrilege. It simply is what it is.
It is said that Rathsack often layered as many as fifty
veils of watery pigment in some of his artworks. It
may be that his greatest gift to his students was the
art of “patience,” a virtue that would help sort out the
choices governing their future lives.
“All of the exhibitors are now in their 40s and 50s,”
remarked Eisendrath. “We remain committed.”
- Judith Ann Moriarty
Judith Ann Moriarty is a freelance writer and regular
contributor to Susceptible to Images.
Comments? Email
comments@susceptibletoimages.com
“Transmission: Laurence Rathsack & Elizabeth
Bachhuber” at the University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, Dean Jensen wrote…”whatever the
subject of a Rathsack painting, each is permeated by
a certain pensiveness.” A glorious example of that
pensiveness permeates Skeletal Church, a 1996
Rathsack watercolor; it also infuses his study in black
ink and graphite (Train In Steam), produced a half
century earlier. Both are outstanding examples of
objects rendered so beautifully that they seem to
disappear into the surrounding atmosphere, where
they drift as memories, rather than hard-edged
renderings. Reviewers of art are often driven to
explain an artist’s “intent,” but unraveling a Rathsack
is tantamount to sacrilege. It simply is what it is.
It is said that Rathsack often layered as many as fifty
veils of watery pigment in some of his artworks. It
may be that his greatest gift to his students was the
art of “patience,” a virtue that would help sort out the
choices governing their future lives.
“All of the exhibitors are now in their 40s and 50s,”
remarked Eisendrath. “We remain committed.”
- Judith Ann Moriarty
Judith Ann Moriarty is a freelance writer and regular
contributor to Susceptible to Images.
Comments? Email
comments@susceptibletoimages.com
| Laurence Rathsack, Skeletal Church, 1996 Watercolor on paper, 25 13/16 x 22 in. Photo courtesy of Dean Jensen Gallery. |
| Laurence Rathsack, Milwaukee Road Depot, 1961 Watercolor on paper, 26 1/2 x 22 in. Photo courtesy of Dean Jensen Gallery. |