News Scrapbook 1980

READER

nineteenth-century concept of the Noble Savage was part of this. In spite of these reservations, his work is powerful, profound, and so thorough that it is awe-inspiring. His photographs were published by the J. Pierpont Morgan Foundation in twenty volurnes, each about 300 pages long, containing in total 1500 photogravure prints. Each volume was accompanied by a portfolio of more than thirty copperplate photogravures, totaling 722 plates. The edition wa~ limited to 500 copies, not all of which were bound. One of these twenty-volume sets of The North American Indian, as it was called, was given anonymously to the University of San Diego last spnng, and the university plans to hold annual exhibits of different por ions of the work. A complete set is estimated co be worth more than $50,000, and the an Diego Public Library is the only other institution in the city owning one. The first e:xhibition, called The Earth is Our Mother, opened last Monday in the Founder's Gallery at USD, consisting of about fifty photogravures. The gallery is open weekdays from 10:00 a.m. till 4:00 p.m., and the show runs through December 19, · In connec cion with the exhibition Dr. James Moriarty, USO lndianologist, will lecture on the cultur \ and historical aspects of Curtis's work, McCosker, USD professor of photography, will talk about urtis's technical i,nd artistic accomplishments in Salomon Hall , USO. For further information call 29 1-6480 x4296. tomorrow , Friday, November 21, I : 30 p. m. in tPe gallery. At 2:30 the same afternoon Duncan

Section 2 Events, Theater, Music, Film

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''The Shadow- Catcher'' EJw rd Sheriff Curtis was called "The hadow-Catcher" by h1 Indian fnenJs. We thmk of photography as being pictures made by light, and it is significant that Curtis's subjects focused on shadow - the opposite or complement of light - much a some arti ts draw the pace between obJects rather th:m the obiccts them elve . Indeed, Curtis's photographs arc hadowy· dark tones predom1n,1te. He frequently ph()togr.iphed in low light or .igamst the sun, and he evidently preferred to print darkly. This 1s the most tellt.1lc sign of his romanticism, and it 1 , 1 think, n way of expressing the Indian\ preference for the , ritituttl l1(envert-h m, al lifr. Curtis documented thi; ,pimu,11 pn:ference nor only in his photogr,tphs hut also in writing, " he wok copious nott:s on Indian bclicls, ceremonit: , ,1rts, and social cust()ms. Curtis w,1s dnven to photograph orth American Indians because he saw an urgent need to document thetr way of I ife before it disappeared forever He pent thirty year of his life ,It the 1• aginning of this century visiting over eighty trihes west of the Mississippi and taking perhaps 40,000 photog,aphs on clumsy, fragile gin , pbtes which were S<>metimes as l,trge ,1,

Photographs (continued from page 1)

air ~ady been dramatically c.hanged by the Spaniard,' mtroducnon of the horse in the Se-vcnteenth Century. The horse spread faster than the whitt: man's march acros the continent. Lewis and C lark found Indian tribes equipped with horses all the way to the Pacific Northwest. Horses converted sedentary farmers into nomadic buffalo hunters who lived in skin tepees and soon developed military societies, such as in the case of the Plains Indians. Perhaps this tranrtormation bought time for their people, perhaps not: the American Indians who most successfully maintained their cult11ral integrity were sedentary, such as the Pueblos. At any rate, the time bought was 5hort. When Curtis came the buffalo were nearly gone, and with them the way of life of the Plains Indians. Already tepees were of canvas supplied by the United States government rather than of elk or buffalo hide. Curtis photographed people with a rich past and no future. He wrote, "One hears only of yesterday. (The Indian's] th ug t are oftlie p s; oday is but a \i\;ing death, and his very being is permeated with the hopelessness of tomorrow ." This sadness is very evident in his images. Western civilization was encroaching so fast that Curtis frequently had to stage his photographs. No doubt he did this also in order co make beautiful photographs, free of the blemishes of civilization and of the harshness that documenting the process of a culture's dying would have required. Thus, he probably sacrificed ethnographic accuracy for a romantic 1zed idea of the true Indian, and the

Kutenal Duck Hunter/Edward S. Curtis

fourteen-by-seventeen inches. He traveled by wagon or pack h rse. By any measure this was a h role undertaking. Over half of clie $1.5 million project was financed by J. Pierpont Morgan, w m Curtis met through Pr ident Theodore Roosevelt. onically, the way of life that iliti. sought to document as a chentically "Indian" had

- Alberto Lau

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STAR NEWS 0 G

LA JOLLA LIGHT

ov 2 0

Musical

Camin~ Theatre tomorrow, Satur- and Sunday. The comic opera y Otto Nicolai will be presented at 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, under the direction of Robert Austin.

Danielle Forsgren (1.) and Steph- anie De Lani (r.}, both of Chula Vista, along with Cathleen Han- nasch rehearse for a presentation of 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' al University of San Diego's

READER 2 0

The executive board of the Associated Alurmae of the Sacred Heart of United States and Canada met recently h the home of Dr. Anita Figueredo of La Jolla. Pictured above arE Tony Curry, in back, first vice president; Sister Ellen Monsee&, front left; and Sara Finn of La Jolla, right, president. (Photo by SM Honda) Sacred Heart alums meet A reception honoring the executive board of the Associated Alumnae of the Sacred Heart of the United Sara Fim. Finn resided over the board · meeting which was held in San Diego ti mark the upcoming national~onference, which will be heh in the Hotel Del :

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR Otto Nicolai's comic opera based on Shakespeare's playful resurrection of Sir John Falstaff, drama·s grossest and most loveable scoundrel, from the dead. Sir John"s fortunes are at a low point. To alter his circumstances, he wr~es identical letters of amorous intent to Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, two merry wives who control the cash flow in their respective houses. When the women discover they share a common, purse-pinching admirer, they concoct several schemes to cure Falstaff, "'this huge hill of flesh," of what is ultimately a case of terminal immorality. Amid all the horseplay, daughter Anne Page and her boyfriend Fenton perform an end run, marry, and prove that love conquers all. Robert Austin directs this production of the University of San Diego Musical Theater. Danielle Forsgren and Stephanie De Lam are Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page; Cathleen Hannasch and Eric Jensen are Ann Page and Fenton; and Paul Horton ,s Falstaff. (Sm.) Camino Theater. USD, Fnday. November 21 and Saturday. November 22 at 8:00 p.m. Sunday. November 23 at 2:30 p.m.

States and Canada was held recently in the La Jolla home of Dr. Anita Figueredo. Guests included graduates from the 36 schools in the United States. Among the La Jollans attending were Toni Griffin, Margo Washburn and

Coronadi from March 25-28. Finn is completing her first term a president of the national•oard. Finn hs named Jean Hicks Miller s chairman of the conferere.