Monday, December 13, 2010

Character study in Kodachrome


Joe Donaldson, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.
I've had the distinct pleasure of sorting through old kodachromes recently. This is one of my favorites. It was in a collection of "People" at Tulane School of Architecture and dated 1952.

"Joe Donaldson taught one class in watercolor for part of the year. I don't remember much about him except he was quite a character. He was a very talented man and very talented in teaching. It was interesting to watch him talk, because he had this habit of chain smoking and smoking two or three cigarettes at one time not realizing he had them lit. He would be on the board with chalk and cigarettes between his fingers and trying to write with the cigarette on the board. it was quite an interesting site. He was a very good teacher, a very good artist."


Milton Scheuermann, Jr. (TSA 1956) in Talk About Architecture

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UPDATE 12/16/10
Joe Donaldson (1914-1997) was born in New Orleans and Studied art at the Chicago Art Institute and Tulane University as well as with Enrique Alferez. He participated in the WPA Fine Art project in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1950-1952 he taught drawing and painting at Tulane University School of Architecture. To read more and to view some of his drawings and paintings see the The Joseph Donaldson, Jr. Memorial On-line Museum.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoa, Joe looks so young and relaxed unlike the intense artist/instructor I knew in the 70's-80's in College Station, Texas. What a fantastic instructor who taught us all so much about drawing. Peace, Katherine

Unknown said...

Joe was a mentor of mine at A&M

Jack Morris

Unknown said...

Joe was a mentor of mine at A&M

Jack Morris, Architect, ret,
Artist and gallery owner
www.thirdcoastgalleries.com

Unknown said...

Hello, My name is Anna Bryant Vitale, daughter of Prof Jack Bryant, TAMU. While cleaning out his home I found a beautiful sketch of an old barn in the woods and it is signed JDonaldson March '81. Since we are local to College Station I can only assume it is by the same artist you have works by. I am trying to authenticate the piece. I will take pictures but am running short on time right now. If you have advice on how I should go about getting this task done I would appreciate it if you let me know.

Thank you,
Anna Bryant Vitale
979-777-4535 (text or call)
aevitale@gmail.com