Error during command authentication.

Error - unable to initiate communication with LISTSERV (errno=10061, phase=CONNECT, target=127.0.0.1:2306). The server is probably not started. LISTSERV 16.5 - ARLIS-L Archives

Print

Print

 
I am sorry to hear the news of the passing of Bill Dane! He lead a full and
fabulous life! Can anyone who was there ever forget his heartfelt and
dramatic acceptance speech for the 1998 Distinguished Service Award! He was
a scholar and a leader. He was always interested in what you were doing and
would give support and encouragement with a twinkle in his eye and a hearty
laugh. He will be remembered fondly for his brilliant career and life!
Ted Goodman
ARLIS/NA DSA winner, former Pres.



On Mon, Jul 15, 2019 at 9:24 AM William Peniston <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> It is with deep sorrow that I submit the following obituary… and yet I
> cannot help but celebrate a life well-lived and a friend who meant so much
> to me.
>
>
>
> William A. Peniston, Ph.D., Librarian/Archivist, The Newark Museum
>
>
>
> William J. “Bill” Dane (1923-2019)
>
>
>
> The “dapper, refreshingly irreverent art scholar,” who began his career as
> a clerk in the Art and Music Department of the Newark Public Library in
> 1947 and ended it 62 years later in 2009 as the Supervising Librarian of
> Special Collections, William J. “Bill” Dane died on Saturday, July 13th
> at the age of 96.
>
>
>
> “Renowned in art circles for his unimpeachable manners, his implacable
> curiosity, and his unassailable scholarship… but perhaps, most revered for
> his impeccable eye…,” Dane took charge of a very rich collection founded at
> the turn of the 20th century and expanded it so that it is now a
> comprehensive survey of the graphic arts from the Renaissance to the 21st
> century, from Europe, America (both North and South), as well as Asia, all
> in a variety of formats. It includes over 25,000 fine prints, 5,000
> posters, 1,000 autographs, plus artists’ books, pop-up books, and rare
> books, greeting cards and postcards, even shopping bags. It contains some
> real treasures: one of his personal favorites was Red Grooms’ portrait of
> Gertrude Stein, because it reminded him of the time that he met her and her
> partner Alice B. Toklas after the war at a lecture given by the famous
> writer for the soldiers in Nancy in France. As he tried to engage her in
> conversation, she asked him to watch her poodle Basket. “So many pieces of
> artwork,” Dan Schnur, his long-time exhibits designer, once noted, “he has
> a personal story about them all. The collection is not dated. It’s ongoing,
> very open, very democratic.”
>
>
>
> “Dane has been an ideal custodian of the art collection,” art historian
> Ezra Shales said in an appreciation, “because he understands that they were
> created in the first decade of the 20th century to entertain and inform
> the library’s patrons… [He] has been careful to preserve the emphasis on
> aesthetic pleasure…, [but he] has pushed the envelope.” In another article,
> the independent journalist John McIntyre wrote, “Dane’s work as a collector
> has deepened his engagement with the community around him. Rather than
> endlessly pursuing his darlings, so to speak, Dane sought to acquire works
> by artists whose background and style would resonate with the city’s
> changing population.” In his own words, Dane defined his guiding principle
> as “a magical thing really.” “I love abstraction. I love realism. I love
> non-objective. I love bright colors and lines, and exploratory graphics. I
> don’t have any personal barriers for that sort of thing, which helps.”
>
>
>
> Born and raised in Concord, N.H., where his Irish-born father ran an auto
> repair shop, Dane was an inquisitive child. After his father became a state
> legislator, he often attended legislative sessions to watch and hear the
> debates from the balcony. “It was a wonderful thing to do,” he said later,
> “because I saw democracy at work.”
>
>
>
> His education at the University of New Hampshire was interrupted by World
> War II. He joined the Army right way in 1942, underwent basic training at
> Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and was then sent to the Newark College of
> Engineering (now the New Jersey Institute of Technology) to study
> bridge-building. It turned out that the Army didn’t need bridge-builders so
> his infantry division (the 69th) was sent to Belgium in December 1944 and
> he spent the rest of the war “dragging a 155-mm gun” across most of central
> Germany. His division was the one that met up with the Red Army at Torgau
> on the Elbe River in April 1945.
>
>
>
> While stationed in Newark, during the war, during one of his free weekends
> when he was not attending a performance at Radio City Music Hall, he
> wandered into the Renaissance-style palace on Washington Park known as the
> Newark Public Library. “I sat on one of the windowsills in the stacks and
> chose a book to read. It was such a relief to get away from engineering
> books, a luxury to enjoy something I selected for myself. In those days, I
> never dreamed that one day I would return to the library and spend [more
> than] half a century working in the building…”
>
>
>
> Thus it was in the fall of 1947, having finally finished his degree in
> liberal arts and without a clue as to what to do with it, he applied for a
> job at the Newark Public Library. He was hired, assigned to the Art and
> Music Department, and began to learn about art. “I circulated books,
> shelved and moved materials, and I picked up all kinds of information
> relating to the subject areas of art and music.” He furthered his education
> through generous leaves of absences granted by the library administration
> and through the support of the G.I. bill.
>
>
>
> Over the course of his many decades at the Newark Public Library, he
> curated over 350 exhibitions on topics as diverse as etchings by old
> masters, prints by modern masters, “Mostly Pop and A Little Op,” Japanese
> traditional woodblocks, Japanese modern woodblocks, work by African
> American artists, Puerto Rican artists, and numerous individual artists,
> posters on circuses, films, opera, and music, “fantastic tales” as
> illustrated in children’s books, “the magic world” of adult illustrated
> books, “A Potpourri of Pop-Ups,” playing cards, antique maps, shopping
> bags, “Fashion and Color” on “feminine modes,” and so many more.
>
>
>
> It was in these years that Dane started calling himself “the Keeper of
> Prints” – a royal title that he had given himself after a visit to the
> Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 1997 the collection was named “The
> William J. Dane Fine Print Collection” in his honor, and in 2004 he
> established “The Gertrude Fine Prints Endowment Fund” in memory of his
> sister with an initial contribution of $30,000 and $10,000 from the Dodge
> Foundation.
>
>
>
> An active member of many professional organizations, in 1972, along with
> James Humphrey from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Judith Hoffberg from
> the University of California at San Diego, Dane and other librarians
> founded the Art Libraries Society of North America. In those early years,
> Hoffberg served as its executive director and Dane served as its treasurer.
> In 1998, the organization gave him its Distinguished Service Award. Other
> organizations have all recognized his contributions to their goals and
> objectives.
>
>
>
> In summing up his career, Dane once said, “I feel very lucky that early on
> I fell into a professional subject area that I found very rewarding and
> filling… No two days have been the same.”
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *Disclaimer*
>
> The information contained in this communication from the sender is
> confidential. It is intended solely for use by the recipient and others
> authorized to receive it. If you are not the recipient, you are hereby
> notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking action in
> relation of the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and may
> be unlawful.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining
> ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/membership/join-arlisna Send
> administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to
> [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
> http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy
> Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/membership/join-arlisna Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~