For My Father

Oh, there are still those times I taste
a sip of the first drink of the night
and return to age fourteen, to
Calle de la Esperanza, barefoot
feet on cement, margarita in hand.
I felt special, the only kid there
out of all the nieces and nephews
allowed to have the weakly mixed
drink, the only one understanding
my father as he spoke to me in Spanish.
I practiced a clipped accent in
the citrus tree bedroom and listened
to us laugh at night. But even with
his rubias sleeping some doors down
in healthy skin and fresh linens,
he slept restlessly on the couch.
Was his last breath waiting for him
in the bedroom? We ate warm tortillas
and competed for hours at cards, my skin
healing from the California sun.
Thosedeep indigo nights, with barbecue
coals electrified, I laid my head
on his lap and saw the smoke wander
off, carrying away aroma. Now, I wish
I could tell myself: Breathe deeply,
this will not be forever. When I get
weepy with grief for him, I catch
my breath and I remember him the way
probably only how I do: as always
burnt sienna and leather with his language.

-Elizabeth Tippet '00
 

By Alicia Nemiccolo MacLeay '97

A traveling exhibit of American art masterpieces from the Smithsonian American Art Museum will be installed at the Colby College Museum of Art beginning August 1. Modernism & Abstraction: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum will remain on view at Colby through October 15. The 70 major paintings and sculptures show the radical transformations of American art in the 20th century as seen in works by Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, Franz Kline and others.

"There has never before been an exhibition of this magnitude in Maine dealing with modernism and abstraction," said Hugh Gourley III, director of the Colby museum. "It's an extraordinary opportunity for people in Maine-and indeed New England-to see works by artists who were at the forefront of 20th-century American art."

Modernism & Abstraction is one of eight exhibitions in "Treasures to Go," a series of exhibits touring the nation through 2002 while the Smithsonian American Art Museum is being renovated. Colby is the second of nine stops for the exhibit.

Modernism & Abstraction features art that embodies the developments in the 20th century, from emerging technologies to new political theories. The show includes many artists, from Joseph Stella and Georgia O'Keeffe to Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline. The most recent works featured are by Jennifer Bartlett, Eric Fischl and David Hockney.

"Storing treasures that attract more than half a million visitors each year was not an option we wanted to consider," said Elizabeth Broun, director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, who will speak at the Colby museum while the exhibit is on display. Instead, to share its collection, the Smithsonian American Art Museum launched the most extensive art tour ever.

Modernism & Abstraction previously was on exhibit at the Art Museum at Florida International University (Miami). After Colby it also will be shown at the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester (N.Y.), the Allentown Art Museum (Pa.), the Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, Tenn.), the Worcester Art Museum (Mass.), the National Academy Museum (New York, N.Y.), the Des Moines Art Center (Iowa) and the Oakland Museum of California.

Colby Museum of Art hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free, and the museum is accessible to persons with disabilities. For information call (207) 872-3228.