Yale Bulletin and Calendar

September 17, 2004|Volume 33, Number 3

When painting campus buildings, such as Harkness Tower, Wasserman says he tries to reveal the beauty of the structure with "excessive emphasis" on details.

Yale professor's watercolors
featured in JE exhibit

A Yale scientist's artistic creations are on display in the exhibition "From Battell to Bologna: Watercolors by Harry Wasserman," on view Sept. 23-Nov. 23 at Jonathan Edwards College (JE).

The show features over 40 artworks by Wasserman, a longtime Yale faculty member who is the Eugene Higgins Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and a senior research scientist in chemistry.

Many members of the Yale community may already be familiar with Wasserman's watercolor images of Yale buildings, which have appeared on University bulletins and posters, as well as a mural at the Yale Bookstore, writes Gary Haller, master of JE, in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition.

"However, as our exhibition reflects, we want to show a variety of architectural and street scenes, not limited to Yale and New Haven, and also highlight Harry's landscapes of marshes and sand dunes around Wellfleet, Cape Cod, and of desert and mountains around Tuscon," writes Haller, who is the Becton Professor of Engineering and Applied Science and himself a professor of chemistry.

Other works on display in the JE show include landscapes and city scenes from Italy, Israel, Barbados, Chile and Japan, as well as still lifes and "subway sketches" in black and white.

In an essay in the catalogue, Wasserman writes that "As far back as I can remember, I had a consuming interest in drawing." He took art classes throughout high school and his college years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a chemical officer in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, he recalls, "I applied my artistic talents to the production of posters aimed at awakening the interest of complacent military personnel to the dangers of gas warfare."

Despite the demands of his graduate work at Harvard, Wasserman began taking classes with Boston artist John Wilson. The two became friends and took painting trips to the Masschusetts shoreline. In 1960, during a sabbatical in Europe, Wasserman began painting watercolor views of the streets and buildings "or any of the sights that caught my interest."

Over two decades later, Wasserman's sketch of Woolsey Hall caught the eye of Yale colleague Professor Charles Porter, then head of the University's Summer and Special Studies Program. Porter suggested using the sketch on a catalogue and poster promoting the 1989 program. This became the first in a series of posters and catalogues featuring Wasserman's watercolors. Nine of these landscapes were more recently incorporated into a mural spanning the front of the café in the Yale Barnes and Noble Bookstore.

Porter notes in the catalogue -- which also includes commentary by Professor Bernard Chaet of the School of Art and University Printer John Gambell -- that Wasserman "often favors red hues in his portrayal of classically blue Yale, which for me adds a certain tender malice to the obvious pleasure he takes in viewing the places of Yale."

About those campus-themed images, Wasserman notes: "In my paintings of Yale buildings, I have tried to pay attention to the details of the facades without attempting to reproduce these with slavish accuracy in order to reveal the beauty of the structure without excessive emphasis on attractive but distracting details."

Wasserman says of his other works: "My paintings encompass not only village streets, city thoroughfares, and building facades, but also desert landscapes, mountain ranges, marshes and sand dunes. I seek subjects showing the beauty of nature. ... Although I rarely incorporate people into my drawings and watercolors, the compositions invite the viewer to image the activity of people."

The Yale scientist will talk about his art during a master's tea marking the opening of the exhibition on Thursday, Sept. 23. "Conversation with Harry Wasserman" will be held at 4 p.m. in the JE master's house, 70 High St. The event is free and open to the public.

"From Battell to Bologna: Watercolors by Harry Wasserman" is open for public viewing most Thursdays 4-6 p.m. or by appointment, (203) 432-0356.

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