Curator's Essay
Art, like clean air and water, is essential to our collective and individual well-being. In this tumultuous world we live in, art brings tranquility to chaos, and insight and sensitivity to callousness. Now, more than ever, we need to embrace and praise what is good about humankind and to celebrate its power to create and provide a necessary sustenance. For the past thirty-six years, the DOSHI has been an essential presence of art in the community. It is the DOSHI that we celebrate in this retrospective exhibit!
Harrisburg, like many American cities at the onset of the 20th century, sought to bring “modernity” in the form of art to its urban environs. As a means of preservation of artifacts and the cultivation of the public’s interest in the arts, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, formerly called The William Penn Memorial Museum was established in 1905. The Art Association of Harrisburg, the city’s oldest gallery, was founded in 1926. Both institutions have a long and successful history of fostering the arts through instruction and exhibition. Historically, however, certain bands of artists have always rejected the comfort of existing (and often viewed as conservative) organizations. Weary of public conformity to established styles and public censorship of those who countered these styles, artists often sought to create an alternative platform—it was against such a background that the “DOSHI” was conceived.
“Many a regional art establishment was developed or strengthened by the arrival of new artists and new aesthetics from other regions, a process in which artists from Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City played little role” as stated by art historian William H. Gerdts in his seminal work The East and the Mid-Atlantic, Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting, 1710-1920. One such person “who developed and strengthen the arts” was Maya Schock who arrived in Harrisburg from her native Japan in 1956. In May 1972, Maya, now a gifted artist and teacher, and her husband Floyd Schock, opened the Gallery DOSHI at 1435 North Second Street, Harrisburg1. This new gallery provided an ample alternative space for her students and fellow artists to display their works. Many will remember the DOSHI Tea Room where, after passing through the gallery and hence being exposed to the art, one could enjoy excellent oriental cuisine at mid-day or a cup of jasmine tea at mid-afternoon. On the walls and shelves of the Tea Room a variety of handcrafted items—jewelry, pottery, hand-blown glass, etc.— were displayed which provided still another showcase for artists. In the ensuing years, the DOSHI, now a non-profit gallery, has had several “homes”--South Cameron Street, the Harrisburg train station and Strawberry Square, taking up residence next to the Susquehanna Art Museum. In April 2000, DOSHI moved into the new home of the Susquehanna Art Museum in the Kunkel Building on Market Street where it remains today, an integral component of the museum.
The word “DOSHI” translates from the Japanese as “fellowship” and “brotherhood.” Since its inception, the gallery has sought to promote this very spirit of “DOSHI” by providing a showplace for the exhibition of all styles of work by both mature and emerging artists. Offering a refuge from the isolation that often occurs when artists find themselves working long hours alone in their studios, the DOSHI was, and still is, a gathering place for contemporary artists in the area to learn, discuss, and critique one another’s work. The monthly “Open Studio Night,” held every first Thursday, carries on this traditional DOSHI spirit of fellowship. The ardor and the passion of those artists that are intimately involved offers a synergy with the community; in other words, a ripple effect occurs in which the DOSHI’s total influence is more than the sum of its own direct contributions.
Location, location, location! Harrisburg’s geographic location brings a mixed blessing to the DOSHI and its artists. Situated close to urban centers such as Philadelphia and New York, regional artists are given opportunities to be kept apprised of recent trends and artistic currents, pushing that same “edge” as those other artists. Conversely, it is often fashionable for the collector or museumgoer to dismiss Harrisburg in favor of the larger cities. A pity for them! One only needs to glance about the galleries of this retrospective exhibit to witness the sophistication of the DOSHI artists. Many of the collectors who have generously loaned to this exhibit can attest that the Harrisburg region is a bountiful marketplace.
One Philadelphia institution, however, played a pivotal role in the early history of the DOSHI—The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, America’s oldest art school. Maya studied at the Academy (after graduating from the York Academy of Art) where she met fellow student/artist Bruce Samuelson, now a nationally-known artist and Professor of Painting at the Academy. The rendering of the human form was heavily emphasized in the Academy’s curriculum. Maya’s early self-portrait, as well as her reclining nude, exemplifies the ease of her ability to replicate the human form. Bruce Samuelson, who was the first Artistic Director of the DOSHI, takes more contemporary twists and turns with the human figure, lifting it out of a more static state. Maya also met Dan Miller, who currently is the Chairman of the Graduate Program at the Academy; his work is represented in the woodcut, long the medium associated with this artist. Harrisburg’s Mary Hochendoner, an alumna of the Academy, has reverently said that Maya was “the teacher who opened the doors for her.” It was Maya who suggested and encouraged Mary to enroll in the Academy.
Hochendoner’s Veil #1, 1987-1990, from
the permanent collection of The State Museum of Pennsylvania, reveals an
adroit rendering of undulating textile, a classic subject that has historically
challenged artists.
The entire third floor of the Second Street site was originally devoted
to the “DOSHI Academy” where Maya taught painting and drawing.
(Later on these galleries offered educational opportunities to the area’s
young people. It was not uncommon to have exhibits of the work of local
school children, as well as students from area high schools, colleges, and
universities.) Maya also taught at the York Academy of Art (which subsequently
became Pennsylvania School of Art & Design) and at Penn State Harrisburg.
In honor of its founder, the first gallery in this exhibit contains selective works of Maya Schock. The gallery contains six, the earliest of which is a self-portrait rendered in a traditional, figurative style to a later chromatic abstract from her “Journey Within Series.”
From the brushes of the DOSHI artists come non-traditional interpretations.
The Susquehanna River, long a favorite motif of the regional artist, is
abstracted in Clyde McGeary’s Island in the Susquehanna,
Looking East, 1970’s through 2002, given a humorous
funky “edge” in Robert W. Bissett’s The Night
Was Made for Lovers, c. 1980 and introduced as an erringly
haunting background in Rob Evans’ Night Life,
1998.
Examples of work by Maya’s students and followers—Terry Bowie,
Dan Fitch, and Gene Suchma— also reveal a shift from the traditional
presentation of subject matter. Suchma, in his (Edward) “Hopperesque”
Nude in a Telephone Booth, 1975, portrays a classical
frontal nude in an enclosed space, a telephone booth, emitting a psychological
message of isolation. Bowie takes a traditional historic portraiture, Dolly
(Madison), c. 1983 and renders her in unusual muted colors,
against a geometric background. Fitch’s fondness of geometry and the
precision is found in his Square Boxes: Form Studies No. 31,
1993.
The impact of modernism was felt among many artists associated with the DOSHI. Surrealism, a predecessor of abstract expressionism, is represented in the capable hands of Lawrence von Barann, a long time artist-associate of the DOSHI, a former director, teacher, and collector (see Self-portrait with Snapshots, 1997, on loan from The State Museum). Good examples of abstract expressionism are those of Charles “Li” Hidley (Autumnal, ND) and Mary Lundeen (Equilibrium, 2007), whose carefully conceptualized canvases of bold, colorful brushstrokes give way to an impression of spontaneity. The material physicality of the textured surface of the untitled canvas, 1969, of Dick Elliott and the lyrical spectrum on the canvas of Jerry Hershey’s Stella D’Oro, 2007, extol strong, painterly artistic expression.
DOSHI artists have often captured local sites and inhabitants in an idiosyncratic
manner. Photorealist Kathleen Piunti’s Breakfast Special,
(1981), Greg Rohrer’s To the DOSHI, 1989,
the late Wanda Macomber’s Strawberry Square Series,
ND, and photographer Ellen Siddon’s The Horseshoe Bar,
1981, provide a nostalgic moment for the viewer.
“The significant form,” that quality shared by all objects that
provokes an aesthetic appreciation or emotion, is expressed in ceramics,
sculpture, and photography. Among those that showed early in the DOSHI’s
history were the ceramicists Karl Beamer, John Guarnera, and Beverlee Lehr).
Sculpture, in a variety of material-- metal, wood, stone, and paper--is
represented in the works of Milt Friedly, Jo Margolis, Ted Prescott, and
Georgette Veeder. Among the photographers included are long-time resident
Henry Troup, Ellen Siddons and Carl Socolow, as well as the digital photography
of Donna Curanzy-Seltzer and Jeff Wiles.
Artists associated with other Harrisburg art establishments were always
welcomed, in particular Carrie Wissler-Thomas, President of the Art Association
of Harrisburg whose work is represented in the triptych entitled Ladies
of the Labyrinth (1983). Barbara Buer, Wanda Macomber, Kathleen
Piunti, and Joan Wolf have shared their work with both the DOSHI and the
Mechanicsburg Art Center. Well-known artists from Lancaster have shown at
the DOSHI in its early years—Mike Heberlein, Jerry Hershey, Sheba
Sharrow and more recently, Claire Giblin, Carol Galligan, JunCheng Liu,
and Ellen Slupe.
Thirty-six years of existence in Harrisburg demonstrates and exclaims that the DOSHI is that essential presence needed in a community, giving art that nurtures and sustains, both the artists and the community! We salute this vital, creative spirit of the DOSHI and may it prevail for many years to come!
- Carol Faill, Curator, December 2007
1. The building had previously been occupied by Rhea’s Pharmacy, and before that it was Silas Pomeroy’s butcher shop.
2. Phrase coined by British art critic and philosopher Clive Bell in his book entitled Art, 1913.