Distinguished Alumni Award


Virginia A. Myers 49BA, 51MFA

2016

Virginia A. Myers was a gentle teacher and renowned printmaker who blazed new trails in the world of the fine arts and whose invention of the Iowa Foil Printer elevated the reputation of the UI School of Art and Art History among programs of its kind.

Myers' 50-year UI career began in 1962 when she became an instructor in Iowa’s printmaking department—the only woman teaching studio courses at the time. Prior to that, she earned a B.A. degree in drawing and painting in 1949 from the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. After completing graduate and postgraduate studies at California College of the Arts and Crafts and the University of Illinois, Myers came to Iowa City in 1955 to collaborate with distinguished printmaker Mauricio Lasansky. During that time, she also spent a year in Paris on a Fulbright Scholarship, studying at Atelier 17 with printmaker Stanley William Hayter.

UI graduate Nancy Schneider Hanson, 61BA, who turned to Myers for valuable advice and guidance during her undergraduate years, says, "Virginia taught us all what it means to follow your passion. Her story of arriving in Iowa City by herself, on a train, without a job, with no place to live, and with very little money—in hopes of studying with Mauricio Lasansky, whom she'd never met—is testament to her dedication."

"Virginia taught us all what it means to follow your passion."

With her creation of the Iowa Foil Printer in the 1980s, Myers became one of the nation's preeminent artists in foil imaging. The printer allowed her to combine foil stamping with traditional printmaking methods—a technique that once had been available only through commercial foil stampers. She then patented the equipment with Dan Wenman, a local machinist, and Jim Phillips, an electrical engineer.

Besides being a groundbreaking inventor, Myers also was an exceptional teacher and scholar. She became a full professor at Iowa in 1982, and her class in hot foil stamping that began in 1990 was the first of its kind ever taught in a school of fine arts. She published two books about this process, presented more than 100 solo shows throughout the world, and participated in numerous group exhibits.

Myers' work is featured in the collections of the San Francisco Art Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, the Toledo Museum of Art, the National Collection of Women’s Art, the Muscatine Art Gallery, and the Des Moines Art Center. In addition, she served as a member of the board of directors for the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York City.

Though Myers retired in 2012 at the age of 84, she continued working on a third book, Changing Light: A New Visual Language, and on a five-panel art installation, A Codex of Our Times, which she completed in 2014 and considered her greatest artistic achievement.

In 2015, the UI created the Virginia A. Myers Nexus of Art and Engineering Program to facilitate partnerships among faculty and students in engineering and the arts. In the words of program director Deanne Wortman, Myers "didn't see any kind of boundaries between disciplines. She was very open to just the idea of making art."

Virginia Myers died in December 2015, but her inspiring legacy endures through her work, which brought a new art form to life and helped define the University of Iowa’s artistic legacy.

Myers was a member of the UI Foundation's Presidents Club.


About Distinguished Alumni Awards

Since 1963, the University of Iowa has annually recognized accomplished alumni and friends with Distinguished Alumni Awards. Awards are presented in seven categories: Achievement, Service, Hickerson Recognition, Faculty, Staff, Recent Graduate, and Friend of the University.


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L.A.-based artist Charles Ray to receive CLAS Alumni Fellow award, give talks this month. Unpainted sculpture by Charles Ray, 1997, fiberglass and paint, 60x78x171 inches. Photograph by Josh White and courtesy of the Matthew Marks Gallery. Charles Ray (75BFA) was walking through the UI physics and astronomy department one day when he came across an inspiring scene. Ray, an art student whose curiosity extended far beyond the studio, hoped to hitch a ride out to the observatory for some evening stargazing. Instead, he found a group of students constructing a satellite bound for a space mission. "It just blew my mind," recalls Ray. Just as mind-blowing were the sculptures Ray was creating across the river, years before he would establish himself as one of the world's most important artists. For one physics-defying piece, he fashioned a 2,000-pound slab of concrete atop a slender tree trunk. For another, he dropped a massive wrecking ball onto a crumpled steel plate, as if Sputnik had just crashed outside the old Art Building. Charles Ray "It was such a formative experience for me," the Los Angeles-based sculptor says of his time in Iowa City. "It did something to my soul and my brain. Even though I was young, the university and my mentors gave me a great deal of independence. My curiosity was endless." A professor emeritus at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, Ray returns to campus this month to speak and receive the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' Alumni Fellow award. Rather than just waxing nostalgic about his time at Iowa, Ray has organized a three-day lecture series April 16-18 with two fellow art scholars. Iowa native Graham Harman, a philosophy professor at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, will open the series by discussing his theory of aesthetics known as object-oriented ontology. On the second day, Ray will speak about the nature of sculptural objects. And Richard Neer, an art historian at the University of Chicago, will bookend the series by lecturing on the question of provenance, or art's origin. Ray will also give a separate public lecture April 17 in Art Building West titled "My Soul is an Object." Recognized as one of the leading artists of his generation, Ray is known for his strange and enigmatic sculptures so loaded with nods to the past that they've been called "catnip for art historians." His 2014 Horse and Rider, for example, is a 10-ton solid stainless steel work in the tradition of a war memorial, but depicts the artist slouch-shouldered atop a weary nag. Ray is also famous for his wry re-imaginings of familiar objects, like the 47-foot-long replica of a red toy fire truck that he parked in front of New York's Whitney Museum of American Art for a 1993 biennial exhibition. Ray and his studio team often spend years working on a given piece, which can fetch as much as seven figures at auction. His sculptures can be found at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among other major U.S. museums. Ray is currently preparing for a retrospective show in Paris next year?one of several upcoming international exhibitions. Isabel Barbuzza, UI associate professor of sculpture, describes Ray's work as beautiful and witty, while using scale in unexpected ways. Ray's 8-foot-tall Boy with Frog?commissioned for a prominent spot in Venice, Italy, then removed after some controversy (a version now stands outside the Getty Museum in Los Angeles)?is among Barbuzza's favorites. "His sculptures have a presence you can only see when you're in front of the work," she says. "They're very moving, and to me it's interesting what happens with scale?the viewer relates to the piece in a very profound way." Steve McGuire (83MA, 90PhD), director of the School of Art and Art History, says few others have contributed more to contemporary art than Ray. "This is a big deal for us to be able to celebrate his career," McGuire says of presenting Ray with the alumni fellow award. "I think it's pretty meaningful to him, and of course it's really meaningful for our school." A Chicago native, Ray arrived at Iowa as a gifted artist but hardly a model student. Ray's dyslexia made schoolwork a chore, and his parents had sent him to military school with the hopes of straightening out his academics. It was at the UI, however, where he finally found his language in the studio and, in turn, his footing in the classroom. "Through the syntax of sculpture, I could express myself intellectually for the first time," Ray says. "That gave me a kind of confidence." Ray studied under UI art school pillars like Wallace Tomasini, Julius Schmidt, and Hans Breder. But it was his bond with Roland Brenner?a South African professor and former pupil of sculptor Anthony Caro?that proved to be the most influential. Ray still remembers his first sculpture in Brenner's class, a steel configuration with long stems and discs at the end. Its bouquet-like resemblance didn't sit well with Brenner. "That showed me you made something, but didn't want to discover something," Ray recalls Brenner telling him. "Don't ever do that in my class again." The two would become lifelong friends. Iowa City is a different place today than the 1970s, particularly the transformation of the arts campus after the flood of 2008, Ray says. Still, his visits back to campus over the years always remind him of those crisp and clear Iowa nights at the observatory and gazing out the studio window while exploring the frontiers of sculpture. "It feels like you can see right through the galaxy when you look up," Ray says. Handheld bird by Charles Ray, 2006, painted steel, 2x4x3 inches The UI is home to six pieces by Ray, all found in the Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building and displayed through the university's Art on Campus program. Among them is Handheld bird, a tiny but ornate piece depicting a creature in an embryonic state. Lunchtime Lecture Series What: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences fellow Charles Ray and two guest art scholars?Graham Harman and Richard Neer?will deliver a series of public lectures this month at the UI. When, where: 12:20 p.m. April 16?18 at Art Building West, room 240, 141 N. Riverside Drive, Iowa City More information: events.uiowa.edu/26915 My Soul is an Object: Artist Talk with Charles Ray What: A public lecture by renowned sculptor and UI alumnus Charles Ray When, where: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 17, at Art Building West, room 240, 141 N. Riverside Drive, Iowa City More about Ray: charlesraysculpture.com/ Support the UI School of Art and Art History

The UIVA Alumni Organization serves and connects alumni and students who share the common bond of military service.

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