In memoriam: Robert Colescott, 1925-2009 Robert Colescott, a distinguished figurative artist with a global reputation, was born in Oakland, Calif., Aug. 26, 1925, and after a long bout with Parkinson’s disease died on June 4, 2009, at his Tucson, Ariz., home. Prof. Colescott held a PSU Art Department appointment from 1957 to 1967. During those years, he regularly exhibited his work at local galleries and actively participated in the Portland metropolitan area’s thriving art community. In 1919 Prof. Colescott’s African-American parents, both of whom were talented musicians, moved from New Orleans to California in order to enhance their children’s educational opportunities. His father, a jazz violinist, supported the family by working as a railroad porter. The Colescotts developed a close family friendship with Sargent Johnson, a highly productive African-American sculptor who resided in San Francisco. In childhood Prof. Colescott began a lifetime’s dedication to drawing, painting, and enthusiastically playing drums. After wartime U.S. Army service in France and Germany, he enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed a baccalaureate degree in art, emphasizing painting and geometric abstract design, in 1949. After a year of further study in Paris, Prof. Colescott returned to Berkeley to earn a master’s degree in 1952. When Prof. Colescott joined PSU’s Art Department faculty in 1957, the institution had reached the threshold of a formative growth period. In 1964, when the University’s Middle East Studies Center began to flourish, he took a sabbatical leave to accept a yearlong fellowship in Cairo under the auspices of the American Research Center. In 1966 he and his family returned to Egypt, where he held an appointment as a visiting professor at the American University in Cairo, until the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli War in 1967. He and his family then evacuated to Paris for an extended work and study experience. He returned to the United States in 1970 to engage in painting and art instruction variously at California State University-Stanislaus; the University of California, Berkeley; and the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1983 he accepted a visiting professor appointment at the University of Arizona in Tucson, which led to a permanent position, culminating in promotion to emeritus professor in 1998. Some art critics and scholars detected an Egyptian influence on Colescott’s subsequent artistic productivity. Others sensed that his work had upturned ideas expressed by traditional art, and found the results to be innovative and pleasing. In 1997 he achieved the distinction of being the first African-American artist to exhibit at the Venice Biennale in Italy. Survivors include his widow, Jandava Cattron, and five sons: Alexander, of Napa, Calif., Dennett, of San Rafael, Calif., Daniel, of Modesto, Calif., Cooper, of Tucson, Ariz., and Nicolas, of Portland; and grandson Rubin, who also lives in Portland. An older brother, Emeritus Professor Warrington Colescott, Jr., of the University of Wisconsin and a distinguished artist in his own right, also survives him. Prof. Colescott’s PSU career brought him into close contact with the local art community and certainly influenced his subsequent professional development. Through the legacy of his work, he deserves to be remembered as a worthy contributor to our academic enterprise. A full-scale obituary (Roberta Smith, “Robert Colescott, 83, Artist Who Toyed with Stereotypes”) appeared in The New York Times, June 10, 2009. An in-depth review in The Oregonian, June 20, 2009, (D. K. Row, “Noted artist’s legacy has link to Portland”) sets forth his career. These published remembrances may be consulted at the RAPS Office files. —Victor C. Dahl, Professor Emeritus of History RAPS Scholarship Fund gets green light The Retirement Association of Portland State Scholarship Fund has been established! The purpose of the scholarship is to aid students who are emphasizing health- and/or age-related majors. The scholarship will be awarded based on grades and the need for upper division/graduate students at PSU. Department chairs will select qualified candidates with faculty advisement; the RAPS Board will ratify these candidates. The first scholarship(s) will be awarded as soon as sufficient funds develop. To contribute to the scholarship fund please contact MiMi Bernal-Graves, RAPS Office manager, at 503-725-3447 or raps@pdx.edu. Each donation is tax deductible and a receipt will be provided to donors via the PSU Foundation.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz