DANVERS – Salem State University students Alanna Niemczura and David Spalding-Aguirre are discovering 19th and 20th century artists from Danvers. Last semester they both participated in a research project for Associate Professor of Art History Gretchen Sinnett’s The Arts in America class. Since 2013 Danvers Historical Society (DHS) staff and volunteers have brought to the SSU campus interesting artifacts and works of art for the students to select and research. “One thing I love about this project is that it exposes students to the rewards, but also challenges, of historical research. Unlike researching famous artworks about which there is often a bevy of material readily available, this project is more like a treasure hunt. We don’t know at the beginning where we’ll end up and the path can be winding,” said Sinnett.
Alanna’s and David’s artworks which they selected in Sinnett’s class led them to want to learn more about the local artists. Sinnett suggested that they do an internship with Danvers Historical Society. Both students are earning an Art+Design major with a concentration in Art History. The DHS internship meets their major requirements to research art history through discovering local artwork and artists from the past.
David decided to continue his research of Takeji Matsubara (1892-1957), a Japanese artist, whose bizarre painting of a dentist first drew David’s attention. In the early 1910’s Takeji immigrated to the U.S. to attend the Pennsylvania School of Art. He met and married another art student, Frances White (1898-1976) from Danvers. When they married, they moved to 180 Locust Street in Danvers, Frances’ ancestral home. David’s research revealed that in 1933 Takeji and Frances Matsubara started an art school for adults and children at their home. While teaching their students, they also created Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects. The Society is fortunate to have artwork by both artists in the collection.
David stated, “I wanted to learn more about these artists, so I gladly accepted an internship in the hopes of doing more hands-on research. I also felt inspired by the community created by the Matsubaras’ art school.”
David also became intrigued with another local artist, Sol Levenson (1910-2006). Levenson’s parents moved to Danvers from New Jersey before World War I and opened a tailor shop on High Street. Sol was known to draw on the walls of his parents’ shop. It is no wonder that by the 1930’s Levenson created WPA mural projects. In 1987 Levenson generously donated to Danvers Historical Society several charcoal drawings of his renditions of Revolutionary and WWI soldiers for two WPA mural projects. He also donated several watercolor landscape paintings depicting local scenes.
“Levenson’s charcoal drawings of figure studies for his WPA murals are very inspiring to me as I do charcoal drawings and am learning how to do figure drawings. His watercolor landscapes with their suggestive color choices have challenged me to begin thinking about color in my own artwork.” expressed David.
Alanna was drawn to the portrait paintings by 19th century Danvers artist Abel Nichols (1815-1860). The Society owns three portraits by Nichols including Moses Black, John Page and Mary Fowler Page. “I wanted to research a painting from the collection which I could apply my knowledge from Salem State art history classes. I’m very familiar and interested in portrait paintings as they were the main style of painting in early America. Moses Black’s portrait stood out to me,” exclaimed Alanna.
Visit https://www.danvershistory.org/visit-us/collections/. ♦
