VCU news

By Malorie Burkett

Virginia Commonwealth University's Anderson Gallery will present "Origins: Works on Paper by Theresa Pollak," as part of the gallery's winter exhibition.

Organized by Amy Moorefield, assistant director and curator of collections for VCU's Anderson Gallery, the exhibit will feature over 30 previously unseen watercolors, prints and drawings by Pollak, who was instrumental in founding VCU's School of the Arts. The works in the exhibit focus on Pollak's artistic process and feature her artistic issues such as color palate selection, linear composition, value and contrast.

"Throughout her prolific career as an artist, Pollak held an impressive fidelity to favorite lifelong subjects, compositions and themes," said Moorefield. "She had a unique dedication and drive along with the distinctive capacity to uncover via her artistic process the essence and origin of a given subject."

The exhibit is gathered from a new gift made up of more than 600 works on papers donated by Theresa Pollak's estate to the Anderson Gallery's permanent collection to be recognized as the Theresa Pollak Reference Collection. Many of the works in this new gift are preliminary studies of Pollak's paintings already in the Gallery's collection. The gift gives VCU's Anderson Gallery the distinction of being the largest public repository of her artistic works.

Theresa Pollak founded the art department at the Richmond Professional Institute (RPI), which later became VCU, and served as chair of the RPI/VCU Arts faculty from 1942-1950. She also founded the art department at her alma mater, Westhampton College, University of Richmond. She received the title of professor emerita upon her retirement from VCU in 1969, and VCU's School of the Arts Building was named in her honor two years later.

Throughout her career, Pollak's work was the focus of several exhibitions at nationally renowned institutions such as the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. Pollak died at the age of 102 on Sept. 18, 2002.

The exhibit will open Jan. 23 with a reception from 7-9 p.m. at VCU's Anderson Gallery, 907 1/2 W. Franklin St., and will continue through March 7 during the Gallery's regular hours of operation. Hours are Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5p.m. and Saturday-Sunday, 1-5 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call 828-1522, or visit www.vcu.edu/artweb/gallery.