Robert N. Sudlow (b. 1920, Holton, Kansas), Frozen Farm, 1978, Oil on canvas, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Gift of William and Shirley Griffith, 2002.0191.

Spencer Museum of Art
The University of Kansas
1301 Mississippi Street
Lawrence
785-864-4710
20/21 Gallery
Connections in Place,
Albert Bloch, Robert Sudlow, & Keith Jacobshagen
June 6-August 31, 2008

Connections in Place, organized by Bertram Lyons, director’s intern, revolves around works by Albert Bloch, Robert Sudlow, and Keith Jacobshagen. The installation also features video footage shot and edited by Kurt Funke, SMA exhibition assistant and 2008 KU graduate in theatre and film from Washington, Kansas

Lyons explains that Bloch, Sudlow, and Jacobshagen were selected for this dialogue because their art and lives respond to the theme in multiple ways. “Bloch was a teacher of Sudlow, who was a teacher of Jacobshagen,” says Lyons, KU graduate student in museum studies from Memphis, Tennessee. “Their relationships begin in Lawrence, Kansas, and they resonate in other places and spaces. With artwork from these artists presented on the Conversation Wall, we are inviting patrons to consider this specific interconnectedness, as well as to reflect on experiences in their own lives that connect them, through people, to place.”

“As an element of this conversation,” Lyons says, “we envisioned a spontaneous video installation to bring local landscapes and the people to whom they are important into the gallery to create a real dialogue between artists and the community about place. We asked students and community members to respond to these artworks by Bloch, Sudlow, and Jacobshagen as well as to the concepts of Kansas, landscape and interconnectedness in their lives. We asked them to identify local sites that are important to them. Then we went to the designated places and filmed the landscapes.”

Albert Bloch was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1882. Between 1909 and 1921, Bloch lived and worked mainly in Germany. In 1911 he met the expressionist painters Vasily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, who invited Bloch to exhibit in the two landmark exhibitions of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in 1911 and 1912. Bloch was the only American painter to show with The Blue Rider group. Bloch returned to the United States in 1919 and began a career as a teacher, first at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1922-23, then at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where he headed the Department of Drawing and Painting from 1923-47, teaching not only art but also KU’s first courses in art history. He continued to paint until 1958, and died on December 9, 1961. The Spencer holds the largest public collection of Bloch’s art.

Robert Sudlow was born in Holton, Kansas, in 1920. From 1938 to 1942, he attended the University of Kansas, studying drawing and painting with Albert Bloch, Karl Mattern, and Raymond Eastwood. Upon graduation from KU, he served in the United States Navy as a seaplane pilot and was discharged as Lieutenant, Senior Grade. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for service in the Western Pacific Theater during World War II. He taught at KU from 1945 until his retirement in 1987. Sudlow continues to live and work in Lawrence, Kansas.

Keith Jacobshagen was born in Wichita, Kansas, in 1941. After graduating from the Kansas City Art Institute, Jacobshagen worked in the Contemporary Design Department of Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1966 he was accepted into the MFA program at the University of Kansas, where he met and studied under Robert Sudlow. Since moving to Nebraska in 1968 he has concentrated on the landscape within a 60-mile radius of Lincoln, where he is currently a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Robert N. Sudlow (b. 1920, Holton, Kansas), From Lemasany Hill, 1995, Oil on canvas, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Museum purchase: Gift of Scottie Lingelbach, Tom Brokaw, Beverly and Bob Billings and donors to the Greatest Generation Fund, 2002.0120.

Albert Bloch (United States, 1882-1961), Winter, 1918, Oil on Canvas, Museum purchase: State funds, 1983.0022.

Keith Jacobshagen (born 1941, Wichita, Kansas), Havelock Elevator November 9, 1978 4:15-5:20 p.m., 1978, Oil on canvas, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Gift of Virginia Jennings Nadeau and Richard Pierre Nadeau, 1998.0026.