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Contact:
Karlyn Haas
Prescott College Advancement Office
928/778-2090 ext. 4503
pr@prescott.edu
Sommer Trust Grants Year-Long Fellowship
Prescott: The Sommer Trust, a non-profit charitable foundation in the Prescott
area, recently awarded two Prescott College students the Frederick and Frances
Sommer Art Fellowship. The foundation's mission is "to support the aesthetic
within the social contract with an emphasis on quality of attention span
and the environment."
The fellowship award provides the recipients with Frederick and Frances
Sommer's Mountain Club home in Prescott, with full access to a large studio
and darkroom and supplies. The trust covers all utility costs.
This is the first year the trust has granted the fellowship, valued at approximately
$10,000. The recipients are Aidan Clowes, who graduated with a competence
in photography in December 1999, and Courtney Oertel, who is in her final
term studying photography and arts administration at Prescott College.
Born in 1905, the son of a landscape architect and horticulturalist, Sommer
was trained as an architect in Brazil. He received a master's degree in landscape
architecture at Cornell University, having been accepted even though he had
not received an undergraduate degree and did not yet speak fluent English.
There he met his wife, Frances, who was one of four female graduate students
and studying mathematics/education.
Sommer printed and developed his first photographs in 1930 while he was
in Switzerland recovering from tuberculosis. That same year the Sommers came
back to the United States. On their way to California they drove through
Tucson and thought it was gorgeous. In 1935 the state of Arizona hired Frances
to become one of the first social workers in the state, and the Sommers had
the choice between settling in Holbrook and Prescott. They chose Prescott,
where they rented-to-own their home in Mountain Club for $15 per month.
According to John Weiss in "Venus, Jupiter and Mars," a collection
of Sommer's work, "Photography became Sommer's dominant medium for linking
so many of the notions that enticed him. His subjects ranged from loved ones
to decaying animals. He intentionally put some things out of focus and rendered
others with exquisite detail…He photographed in the desert and in junkyards.
He collected found objects, often saving them for years before finally constructing
an arrangement to photograph. He cut paper into patterns with a knife and
photographed the harvest of his moves…He used other artists' lithographs
for backgrounds or he sliced up their prints, piecing them back together
to create a seamless image."
Sommer's work has been collected and exhibited throughout the world, including
exhibits at the Getty Museum (largest public collection of Sommer's work),
the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, the Museum
of Modern Art, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Victoria & Albert
Museum in London, the Art Institute in Chicago, and others.
Naomi Lyons, one of the Sommer trustees, met Fred at Princeton University
in 1983 where she was a genetics research assistant. "I had been interested
in the arts since I was a child," she said. "But at college, I
studied biology, the science of observation, the study of how life unfolds.
What better preparation for an artist?" She came to Prescott to work
with Sommer in 1985, the year he turned 80, and printed his photographic
work until his death.
"He was a universal man - though he lived in Prescott, Arizona, he
had a worldliness about him. He was a remarkable man and I do love his imagery.
I consider Fred one of America's greatest photographers. Fred's advice was
to be your own best audience. You can learn from your own work what no one
else can," Lyons said.
Stephen Aldrich and Walton Mendelson, also trustees, met Sommer when he
taught at Prescott College. They kept in touch with him, and Alcrich returned
to Prescott to work with Sommer in 1986 as an assistant. He later helped
Sommer with collages made from medical illustrations from the turn of the
century.
Sommer died on January 23, 1999, at his home in Prescott, at the age of
93. According the New York Times obituary written by Margarett Loke, until
the last few years of his life, Sommer was "the medium's best-kept secret."
The Frederick Sommer Trust created the fellowship to help Prescott College
students be artists. "This fellowship is like a bridge to the next phase," explained
Lyons. ""Fred's home is efficiently sized for living. His studio
is big, simple and has perfect north light. The darkroom is the largest room
in the house. Living there invites and supports quality work. The students
are making art for themselves; they finish when they feel it, not because
it's due on the 15th."
To be eligible for the fellowship, a student must be a senior photography
major in good standing, who uses a darkroom for her or his process. This
year two Prescott College students were awarded the fellowship because they
were collaborating on a project, though only Clowes lives in the home (the
darkroom has a separate entrance, making it possible for a second recipient
to have access.)
Clowes is very appreciative of the space she's been given. "The space
is really conducive to getting work done," she said. "The studio
and darkroom are fabulous. I've been able to experiment with different photography.
My senior project was experimentation and I explored new materials. I wouldn't
have been able to do that at school. It was definitely the most thought out,
best work I've done. I was totally free to do what I felt I needed to do.
I've never had a chunk of time where I could just be creative. I had two
months [for the project] and it was amazing."
"I do installation pieces; mostly conceptual, very personal. I was
able to make a 12-foot piece in this space - it's very liberating. For the
first time I have time to do what I want and I don't have to worry about
a lot of bills. My goal for my time here is to make some fine prints to honor
the fellowship. Fred's work is incredible. His art was very theoretical and
he thought at every step of the way. That's one of the things I'm getting
- I'm recognizing inspiration and chance."
Oertel says she has gained much inspiration from the space, and at times
feels Sommer is watching out for her. "Normally, if I know a print is
not going to work, I throw it away. One day I was about to do this, but something
told me I should wait and see what happens and it ended up being the best
print in the show. There's something about being surrounded by grand history."
Oertel is currently working on her senior project, which consists of black
and white self-portraiture and mixed media. "I couldn't have done half
as well without this space right now. You have time to make mistakes and
go back, where at school there was only so much time. I'm able to obtain
a better quality of work."
Over time, Prescott College and the trustees hope the fellowship will attract
high caliber artists seeking the senior fellowship to the College.
"By providing this remarkable access to the home and studio of Mr.
Sommer for our students, the trustees have brought his memory alive for them," said
Mary Jane Joyal, Prescott College's chief advancement officer. "As the
years go by and competition for this fellowship grows, I believe it will
have a wonderful impact on our photography program, as students demonstrate
their suitability for the fellowship in the quality of their work."
The fellowship experience has already had a remarkable impact on Clowes
and Oertel. Both feel the quality of their work has increased since being
able to work independently and at their own pace in the Sommer's home. "In
receiving this fellowship we were told we were good enough to deserve this
opportunity," Oertel explained. "It was like we had an expectation
we had to live up to, and we're doing that."
After completing the fellowship and graduating from Prescott College, Clowes
and Oertel both hope to continue pursuing photography through internships
and other opportunities.
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