Why He Likes Prints
You might not expect a lecture about art to generate a crowd, but when the lecturer is Leo Steinberg … well, let’s just say that folks at UT-Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art were justified in moving the talk from the Art Building lecture hall to the LBJ Library auditorium. A good three-quarters of its 1,000 seats were filled Thursday, April 19, for the talk by Steinberg, whose extraordinary collection of 3,200 prints spanning the 15th through 20th centuries was acquired by the Blanton last year. The art historian began with a touching word of thanks to three people at UT: art history professor and old friend Richard Shiff, who first invited him to Austin; Blanton curator Jonathan Bober, whose work with prints at the museum left the scholar “absolutely enchanted by the combination of ardor and erudition” he displayed; and UT-Austin President Larry Faulkner, whose commitment to acquiring the print collection, expressed in a personal call, “deeply touched” Steinberg. That said, he launched into the topic “Why I Like Prints” and for 100 minutes led the crowd of 800 through 600 years of European art. He explained how he was drawn to prints by trying to understand the development of art: “I thought if I wanted to know art history, I’d better know what the artists were looking at, and that includes prints.” At that time, however, the art world still considered prints “an underclass, to be used but not cherished.” But Steinberg found much to cherish in them, and the more he looked, the more he found links in them, too — links among artists, supporting his belief that prints were significant in communicating ideas, styles, and solutions to artistic problems in the centuries before photography. Steinberg showed slide after slide in which a figure in one work was shown to be based on a figure in an earlier print. The connections seemed so obvious and simple when he set them before us, and yet it was clear that they were drawn from a lifetime of exploring and examining thousands of images, of being able to hold them all in his head, along with facts about the artists (where and when they lived, who they knew and studied with), and bring that information to bear in very specific ways. Intellectually, Steinberg is a colossus; but he didn’t tower over us mere mortals; he met us eye to eye, presenting his findings with clarity, good humor (even telling a joke at one point), and a palpable passion for this art. Here was a man who loved his work (and still does), and his ardor and erudition made one hungry to find this art and spend time with it, to look deeply into it. “Prints From the Leo Steinberg Collection” is on view at the Blanton through July 24. A second set will be displayed beginning Aug. 22. For more info, call 471-7324.
Chasing State
Congratulations to Crockett High School on advancing to state in this year’s UIL State One-Act Play Contest. This is the second year in a row that Crockett has made it to the top level in the 5-A division, but the accomplishment is particularly significant this year as it follows the death two weeks ago of longtime Crockett drama teacher Gil Sharp. Crockett’s entry, Over the River and Through the Woods, co-directed by Sharp and Mary Nancarrow, will be performed on Saturday, May 3, 4pm, in Bass Concert Hall.
Meanwhile, Bastrop Opera House, which has been competing in a similar contest held by the American Association of Community Theatres, has already made it to state. The weekend of March 21-23, the company presented its production of Playhouse Creatures, directed by Chester Eitze, at the Texas Nonprofit Theatres festival in Fort Worth, where it was chosen to advance to the national regional level (covering Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana), which took place in Amarillo last week. Alas, Playhouse Creatures did not advance to the national level, but two of the show’s actors, Melissa Grogan and Sharon Elmore, were named to the All-Star Cast. Congratulations to all.
This article appears in April 18 • 2003.