Art Becomes the Home
by Marian Frances Wolbers, instructor in ESL

In an airy, light-filled study several miles north of Albright is a cobweb—on the wall, in a photograph—sitting in broad leaf grasses.

Above a family fireplace just blocks away from the College are three dramatic views—an eighteenth-century Kunichika triptych—of a family giving up their two sons to go to serve as samurai.

A typical Albright professor’s house, it so happens, is anything but typical. There are shelves and shelves of books, of course. But an abstract clay figure of a woman, a hand-dyed prayer-flag from Nepal, a series of large hand-colored photographs taken in an Italian garden, and other one-of-a-kind artworks—watercolors, oils, silkscreens, metal sculptures, collages, pottery, quilts—are all equally likely to characterize professorial abodes.

And there’s no telling what to expect: What people collect to satisfy their heart of hearts is a highly individual matter. Hanging and placing artwork in one’s safest space—the home—not only reflects a highly personal sensibility and appreciation for visual and tactile expression, but is also an expression of self and family in relation to the world.

How people acquire art is part of that story. It may even prove prophetic. Mary Jane Androne and Dick Androne, both professors in the English Department, fell in love with Japanese woodblock ukiyoe—before they walked down the aisle. According to Mary Jane, “Dick and I started collecting Japanese prints separately before we were married in 1971. He had been in Europe the summer of 1970 and bought two prints from a dealer in Amsterdam: one image was of a woman under a bridge by Toyokuni II and an impressive wave print. Around the same time my parents gave me a Hiroshige II print which a Japanese scientist had given to my father in appreciation of some financial work he did for him in the 1950s. After we married and had started teaching at Albright… we bought 30 or so prints over a period of 10 to 15 years.”

Rather than feeling pressured to buy prints to “grow” their collection, the couple simply bought what they loved. “The most important criteria influencing our choice of works has probably been the subject matter and the imagery rather that the condition of the prints. We have an eighteenth-century geisha print in poor condition and a famous Hiroshige of a view of Mt Fuji through a tree that is damaged. But the images are so striking in both these works that we didn't really care that they were not in perfect condition. 

The Andrones have also steadily collected the works of Albright artists, including “collages that Bill Hummel did in the Kurt Schwitters style, a Harry Koursaros geometric gouache, and one of Linda Adlestein's small-scale colored photographs of an Italian masque.” This has been “especially rewarding,” says Mary Jane. “We associate all of these works with the times we spent with the artists.”

Archie Perrin and his wife Marijean also love the Albright art link. Works gracing the walls of their New York City apartment include pieces from Kristin Woodward’s “Old Testament Women’s Series” and Perrin’s “absolute favorites by Idalia Bernal,” (wife of Professor John Pankratz). “This Mexican artist is possibly the best working in the region, and her work ‘St. Sebastian’ inspired my own performance piece, ‘St Sebastian in Oklahoma,’ in 2001,” says Perrin.

Perrin, who often buys one piece of art per year, describes how he got started: “Since Tom Saylor ’81 gave me his Hans Hoffmann pastiche in the spring of 1980, I have been collecting art by Albright students, faculty and associated persons.  

Marijean's favorite piece, called “Baby Heads” is by Paul Sattler ’91 , “one of the most gifted art students to work in our d epartment,” says Perrin. Today, Sattler is represented by Alpha Gallery in Boston and Gerald Peters Gallery in New York . “Also, I should mention two ‘punk’ paintings by Nat Bard ’96, who is presently in the d epartment. And then there is the whole collection of surrealistic-like sculptures by Lee Kershner ’86 .”

Says Perrin, “My goal for my wife and me in our old age is to be surrounded by these expressive souvenirs of my career at this College—assuming that we both have enough mind left to appreciate art.”