Artist of the Week: Father's Day

In honor of Father’s Day my father is this week’s artist.

I have posted the painting before and it is still one of my favorites. Since I have already told y’all about the painting I’ll instead tell you about my father.

Ralph_1957
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

This picture was taken in 1957. He looks so handsome and glamorous. At that time he was managing Robert Lehman’s private art collection (a large portion of which is on permanent display at the Met). I *think* this photograph was taken in Paris when my father was sent over to manage the potion of the collection that was on display. The original curator that was sent over had a nervous breakdown and my father had to pick up the slack. It was a pretty cool job. The best part was how he got it. Previously my father had worked at a factory (where he nearly destroyed the machinery by throwing the wrong switch) and had been an art teacher. One day he noticed a posting for a job “Eccentric millionaire seeking personal assistant to manage collection, must be non-smoking.” My father was a smoker, but he got the job anyway.

I don’t have very many memories of him painting, but we did have a studio in the barn at my first home. It was a large old red barn that my parents had a portion of converted to be an art studio. 2/3 of the barn was used to garage the cars and miscellaneous lawn equipment. The rest was walled off with the end side of the barn being all windows (much to the detriment of the local bird population). It was a bright and cheerful space with a wood stove for heat. Other than that, I don’t remember much more. My brother and I were generally not allowed in there.

I do remember that he loved books and movies, especially science fiction. He took me to see 2001 and I have always had a special fondness for that movie. He passed away in 1976, but to this day I still love going to the movies and reading science fiction. For that I have my father to thank.