For those of you who aren’t on campus this summer, there is quite a bit of construction & renovation going on at the moment. To prepare, a number of administrative offices have moved in recent weeks, including the relocation of staff out of Cooley and Marts Halls. With over 300 works of art from the Samek Permanent Collection on display in offices and departmental spaces on campus, when people move, art moves also. You might have even seen myself, Pam, our new Graduate Assistant Laura and our big white box truck schlepping around in the central PA heat this summer.
While this has, understandably, resulted in a good amount of work for myself, it is always nice to be reacquainted with works from our collection that have been on display for awhile. One such piece is The Marches near Branchport, 1953- a watercolor by Blanchard Gummo that has been hanging in Cooley Hall for the last six years.
When an object comes back into collection storage, we always inspect the condition for any damage or preservation concerns. In addition, if we do not have a good, high resolution image of an object, I will photograph it as well. During my inspection of this piece, I found an envelope attached to the back of the frame, containing three newspaper clippings dating from 1972-1974.
This is where my job gets interesting and I get to play Sherlock Holmes, taking in the treasure map of clues to see if any long kept secrets about the piece are about to be exposed. Okay… that was a little dramatic, and unfortunately the articles did not tell us anything new about the object itself but they did shed some light onto the man who created the delicate watercolor, Blanchard Gummo.
Gummo is a name I am very familiar with, as the Samek Collection has 116 objects painted by the late professor, though it occurred to me that the current generation of Bucknellians probably are not familiar at all with the alumnus who taught at Bucknell for 43 years. So, here is a little Bucknell history lesson for you, and a personal anecdote:
Blanchard Gummo was a 1925 Bucknell graduate and member of Bucknell’s art department from 1931 to 1974, teaching studio courses as well as art history. In 1972, he was appointed the first Samuel H. Kress Professor of Art History, a professorship founded to recognize excellence in teaching and scholarship in the field of art history.
In 2003, more than 300 paintings, watercolors and sketches were bequeathed to Bucknell following the death of Gummo’s sister Vivian, a 1927 Bucknell graduate and professor of mathematics at Bucknell. While many objects were accessioned into our permanent collection, including over 70 detailed costume designs created for Bucknell theatre and dance productions (that even include the names of student actors), the University felt it was important to share the collection with the community at large and offered a number of pieces to institutions such as The Packwood House Museum (Lewisburg), the Centre County Historical Society (State College) and The State Museum of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg).
Gummo, who died in 1986, was posthumously presented the Academy of Artistic Achievement Award for his lifetime contributions to the arts in March 2002.
On a personal note, one of my favorite pieces in the Samek Collection is a sweet, little painting by Gummo. We know virtually nothing about this portrait, other than he is called “Ken,” but I enjoy making up stories about who he is and the adventures he has been on. When I was a little girl, I told my mother that I wanted to work in a bank, wear a tutu everyday and marry a man on a motorcycle. In reality, I work at Bucknell, I have never worn a tutu in my life and I married a man who drives a ridiculously large Jeep Wrangler that I often have difficulty getting in & out of. Now I am very happy with my choice of husband, but perhaps this is why Ken is currently hanging in my office; I think if Ken were alive today, he would most definitely drive a motorcycle.
Please take a moment to read the clippings attached below and, hopefully, learn something new about one of the many great Bucknellians who has helped to shape our University into the institution it is today.
