"A Passionate Journey: The Work of Pele deLappe" kicks off the Fall 2002 Arts and Lectures program at the University Library in the Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center at Sonoma State University.
The exhibit opens Monday, August 26 and runs through October 25. In celebration of deLappe?s unique journey, the University Library will host a reception on September 13 from 6 to 9 p.m. At 7 p.m., deLappe and cultural historian Bram Dijkstra will lead a discussion on art, politics, and life in turbulent times of the past century.
DeLappe, a life long social realist, is a lithographer, painter, cartoonist, activist, and educator admired for her ability to capture human emotions, both poignant and comical, and the conditions from which these emotions arise.
Now in her eighties and living in Petaluma, deLappe provides 21st century audiences a rare glimpse into the many intersections of art, politics, labor, and culture of the 20th century.
A fourth generation San Franciscan born in 1916, Pele deLappe studied at the California School of Fine Arts (now the SF Art Institute) and the Art Students League in New York and taught drawing at the California Labor School.
She maintained friendships with Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Jessica Mitford, Arnold and Lucile Blanch, Byron Randall, Reginald Marsh, Raphael Soyer, John Sloan, Charles Locke, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, among others.
In a life devoted to activism and marked by international travel, she met James Joyce at age 10, participated in the San Francisco Waterfront Strike of 1934, modeled for Diego Rivera?s Rockefeller Center mural, illustrated and wrote for such publications as New Masses, People?s World, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Marine Cook?s and Steward Voice, made seven trips to Cuba, and authored her autobiography, Pele: A Passionate Journey through Art and the Red Press.
"A Passionate Journey: The Work of Pele deLappe" presents artworks created throughout her life. Lithographs, drawings, paintings, and ephemera have been loaned from private collectors, art galleries, and museums such as the Palace of the Legion of Honor, as well as from the artist?s own collection.
This exhibition is part of the Fall 2002 Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center Arts and Lectures Program which is designed to enrich the intellectual, educational, and cultural life of the Sonoma State community.
The early Fall 2002 program is titled "Class Conscious Art and Writing of the 20th Century." In addition to the art exhibit, the University Library in conjunction with the SSU English Department will sponsor a lecture series examining the work of artists and writers who explore the lives of 20th century working class Americans. There will also be displays throughout the building.
The September 13 discussion facilitated by cultural historian Bram Dijkstra and deLappe, begins the weekly lecture series. Dijkstra is a Professor of Literature at UC San Diego and author of such books as "Georgia O'Keeffe and the Eros of Place," "Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin de Siecle Culture" and "Evil Sisters: The Threat of Female Sexuality in Twentieth Century Culture."
Additional presenters in the series include: Deborah LeSueur and SSU Professor Julia Allen discussing the work of Meridel LeSueur, writer and cultural theorist; SSU Professor Kim Hester-Williams introducing works of Black Panther women writers; Rick Rivera, instructor at Modesto Junior College and former SSU student reading from his latest novel, "Stars Always Shine," which explores the relationship between a working class Mexican American man and an undocumented Mexican worker in western Sonoma Country.
The lectures are at noon on Wednesdays throughout September and October in Schulz 3001. A new art exhibition and lecture series will start in November.
The University Library Art Gallery is open Monday ? Saturday 10 am ? 5 pm. There is a $2.50 daily parking permit required to park on campus.
For further information, contact jean Wasp, Media Relations, (707) 664-2057.
