.
SALEM COLLEGE LIE?
,,, WINSTON - -,™
WIlNJb I Gist. SALEM. N* Ck /
Volume XLII
Salem College, Winston-Salem, N. C., Friday, February 9, 1962
Number 12
Committee Undertakes
Salem’s New Fine Arts
The proposed Fine Arts Building will be located to the rear of the Moravian Church (large building, top
left) and the Home Management House (bottom left). This view shows the rear of the building. The plans
for the building, on display in the Day Student Center, were drawn up by Lashmit, James, Brown, and
Pollack, local architects.
By Becky Boswell
Further planning for the new
Fine Arts Building is in progress.
At a meeting on February 7, mem
bers of the Salem administration
and acoustical and lighting consul
tants discussed construction and
facilities of the proposed building.
Mr. R. B. Newman, senior part
ner, and Mr. J. A. Curtis, both of
Bolt, Beranek and Newman, acous
tical consultants of Cambridge,
Mass., and Mr. Walter Holtcamp,
organ builder and specialist of
Cleveland, Ohio, also were on cam
pus last week for discussions. They
Luther Lashmit of
Mr. Joel R. Rubin, New York met with Mr.
theatrical and lighting consultant, Lashmit, James, Brown and Pol-
.Miss Barbara Battle and Mr. Ray lack, local architectural firm, Dean
Carver, of the Salem dramatics de- Sandresky of the Salem Music De
partment, discussed the dramatic partment, Mr. John Mueller, head
workshop area of the building. i of the organ department, Dr. Hix-
The workshop area consists of a Aon, Dr. Graniley, and Mr. Jack
small, 160-seat capacity theatre. White.
surrounded by dressing, rooms,' Among other things, they dis-
make-up room, office, shop, and cussed the placement of three j)r-
, costume room. The stage at one gans in the new building.
The
Gondamar Proves Test
For Salem Art Critics
The rise to fame and the decline
to obscurity of Raoul Gondemar
lasted exactly two weeks on the
Salem campus. The exposure of
the idenity of this artist is being
made with this story in The Salem-
ite.
“I thought some of the paintings
looked like Rorschach tests.”
Mr. Gondemar’s career began in
the faculty lounge with an argue-
ment as to whether the man in the
street could produce in one after
noon works of art that would rank
with the caliber of the usual Salem
College art exhibits. In addition,
there was the question of whether
the “drawing-room dilettante” could
be fooled with the so-called action
type of paintings. The arguement,
being an academic one, took place
intermittently over a period of
three months with defenders of
both sides of the question voicing
their views.
As a result, six faculty members
from four different departments
produced the twenty “Raoul Gon
demar” paintings within a three-
(About “Phoenix”) “I sort of like
that one.”
(About “Visage”) “If you look
closely, you can see that it’s a
man smoking a cigar.”
“His prices are mighty low.”
The faculty painters also were in
terested in learning whether or not
the viewer of art could determine
which paintings were produced by
members of the Art Department
and which were not. They there
fore agreed from the beginning
that members of the Art Depart
ment must be included in the ex
periment.
The program for the fictional
artist was so worded as to give
clues that the painter did not exist.
“Raoul” was spelled as the French
name instead of the Spanish. The
residence of the artist was given
as being in Plymouth, North Caro
lina, rather than in some distant
hour period during the Christmas state. A fictional French school
holidays. All members agreed from,was noted as “L’Ecole Superieur
the beginning that all paintings had des Arts” as was the invented
The gentlemen on campus dis
cussed the acoustical problems of
having the stage accessible to both
theatres and having privacy in case
of coinciding usage. Also the large
auditorium must be acoustically
correct for musical presentations,
speaking programs, choral groups,
and regular assemblies. It is equip
ped with an orchestra pit for later
use. The auditorium is enclosed in
a shell within the center of the
building.
Surrounding the auditorium on
the main floor are several galleries
for display purposes, a large lobby
and entrance hall. Also on the
floor are spaces for several offices,
studios, and classrooms.
On the lower level there are sev
eral classrooms, a lecture-rehearsal
hall with stojage area for costumes,
instruments, and choral ensemble
robes. Also on the same level are
small practice rooms and small stu
dios. There is a large art studio,
with windows along one side, and
a large organ studio. There is a
large listening room equipped with
earphones, and three small listen
ing rooms for group listening.
The proposed plans for the Fine
Arts Building, to be constructed
behind the Home Management
House, are on display in the Day
Student Center. The building will
be approximately 100 feet longer
than the Science Building and as
deep as Main Hall is wide.
Dr. Gramley hopes that construc
tion will start by next September
and that at least a portion of the
building will be ready for use by
February, 1964. Meetings to plan
solicitation of funds for the Spring
campaign were held this past week.
On February 5 Dr. Gramley and
Mr. White met with the officers of
the Alumnae Association and on
February 6 they met with officials
to be done without thought or plan
and as quickly as possible. Further
more, the faculty members agreed
that the origin of this supposed
Spanish painter was to be kept
secret in order that students and
other faculty members might view
the paintings objectively.
Careful records were kept of
faculty and student reactions to
the exhibit in order to settle the
argument one way or the other.
Since the comments varied from
“This is the best modern art show
I have seen here” to “This painter
is sick,” more questions were raised
than were answered.
Perhaps two of the most astute
comments made were the follow
ing: “My cat could do better. I
suppose it proves I don’t have a
critical eye. Even though he is a
Spanish painter, I can’t see a thing
in them.”
“I think he may really be ap
proaching the Cosmic urge.”
Among the most humorous com
ments were these;
“I’m wondering how this guy
knows when he paints a bad one.”
“I’ve seen my floor look better
after painting the walls.”
(About “Contraption”) “Nasty!
“I don’t see one that I would pay
$125 for.”
“Edwin M a r k h a n Fellowship in
Fine Arts”. Belmont Abbey was
selected as one of Gondemar’s
schools of study since it was a
North Carolina institution and
could be readily checked if the
viewer so desired. A completely
nonsensical objective (borrowed
from a science-fiction work) was
attributed to his art—” . . . the
essential unity of the visualization
of the Cosmic All is better revealed
than through the organization of
conventional forms.”—in order that
the student of language might see
its absurdity.
At no time was there an in
tention by the faculty painters to
fool those who saw the exhibit. As
a matter of fact, it was the hope
of the group that the students and
faculty would discover the Gon
demar invention.
Those faculty members involved
in the discussion and the person
ality of Raoul Gondemar agree on
only one point—that the exhibit
produced more questions than ans
wers. Is it Art? Can anyone be
an artist ? Does the “drawing-room
dilettante” have valid standards by
which he measures the worth of a
painting? Is this method of paint
ing truly the way to banish in
hibitions and produce creativity ?
Is all action painting little more
than an extension of such gyra
tions ?
Faculty Play
Aids Refugees
„ , tn ViP roTi. of the church to discuss solicitation
An artist’s concept of the Proposed dormitory to be epn-, the Moravian Church.
Structed on the site of the present , desie-n of Next 'Wednesday, February 14,
designed to correlate with the present architec g steering Committee from the
the Salem campus. Board of Trustees will meet to dis
cuss campaign solicitation in the
j r .t,- 11 tnootrp -jkn onens I Flentrop organ, presently in Old Winston-Salem community. Pas-
end of this small ^ea ,. L chapel, will be placed in the Flen- tors and . laymen of Moravian
onto the large 8TO-sea a ] practice room on the first churches in the Southern area will
thus enabling both areas o “ There will be new organs in be in the club dining room on
same stage faciities. n e .n the large auditorium, probably built! Thursday, February 15 in order to
area it will P-bably be pos ible to the^ RecitaL pi^n a campaign within the Mo-
experiment with theatre m the approxi- ^avian churches of the South for
round, with hg mg a ,. niately 200 people and is intended the proposed building project. An
ter of the room.. The surround! g recitals, some anonymous gift of $100,000 has also
area will be constructed m two V y Aca-i been given which is being used to
decks with the dressing rooms on y , , • I
1 demy assemblies each morning. develop the plans.
the top level.
The Faculty Play will be pre
sented on Thursday, March 15, at
8 ;30 p.m. in Memorial Hall. All
proceeds will go to the World Uni
versity Service. It is expected that
the money can be divided among
the four academic classes to be
used in support of the W. U. S.
refugee students of each class.
Mr. Jack White, Mr. Jim Bray,
Mr. Raymond Carver, Mr. Hewson
Michie, and Dr. Inzer Byers wrote
the script and will direct the scenes.
Mr. Paul Peterson and Dr. Eliza
beth Welch are in charge of music.
Miss Caroline Cox will direct the
dancing. All faculty and staff will
take part in the production.
Mr. White said that the faculty
“hope to make this year’s faculty
play the most tremendous produc
tion of all.”
For those who are interested, the
faculty painters were' Mr. James
Jordan, Dr. Steve Paine, Mr. Jim
Bray and his brother, Mr. Ben
Bray of Coker College, Mr. Hew
son Michie, Mr. William Mangum,
and Mr. Ed Shewmake.
Mrs. Phillips
Gives Recital
Mrs. Kay McGee Phillips, stu
dent of Paul Peterson, will present
a voice recital on Monday, Febru
ary 12, at 8:30 p.m. in Memorial
Hall.
Mrs. Phillips graduated from
Furman University, Greenville,
S. C., in 1956 with a B.A. in music.
She has taught in the music de
partment of Gardner Webb Junior
College; she has studied repertoire
and pedagogy with Paul Peterson
from 1960 to 1962.