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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 22, 2004)
An artist's life is portrayed through the eyes of history The Gertrude Bass Warner collection includes slides that depict the meeting of East and West in Shanghai BY THOMAS MUNRO FREELANCE REPORTER The Knight Library Browsing Room was filled with the muted col ors of glass lantern slides Tliesday night, as about 70 students, staff, fac ulty and community members cele “Uniting East and West: The Life and Work of Gertrude Bass Warner,” marked the opening of an exhibit at the library of pieces from the Warner collection. “The exhibit represents the histori cal recovery of an almost forgotten li brary,” said James Fox, head of special collections and University archives. The exhibit includes rare books and manuscripts, personal letters and other ephemera, maps of Shinto shrines (a particular interest of Warner), a computer slide show of 37 glass lantern slides and early plans for the art museum. Cecilia “Ce” Rosenow, visiting as sociate professor of literature at the Clark Honors College, designed the Drated the Hie and work of Gertrude Bass Warner. Warner, an amateur scholar of Asian art and culture, was instrumental in the creation of the Jor dan Schnitzer Museum of Art and donated a vast li brary of rare books, glass slides and documentation of her voyages in Asia to the University libraries. Tliesdav’s event, titled exhibit. She is currently working on a book about Warner. Rosenow thanked the many people who have contributed to the success of the ex hibit in her opening comments, in cluding students in the Honors Col lege, describing “a campus-wide effort served as the center piece of a new art museum. She spent most of 1904 through 1929 in East Asia collecting art and docu menting her explorations. Her pri mary concern was to improve the relationships between the United States and East Asian nations through cultural exchange. Rosenow introduced Roxann Prazniak, associate professor of his tory at the Honors College, who de livered a lecture on Warner’s 5,000 glass lantern slides. These hand painted slides show a wide variety of scenes in China, Japan and else where. Prazniak said that while Warner claimed to see the cultural exchange she captured in a positive, optimistic light, the choices she made in producing her slides sug gest a more complicated view of the meeting of East and West. The Warner slides were taken in a period of profound, unsettling change in China and Japan, said Prazniak. During Warner’s time in China, the imperial examination system, a 2,000-year tradition, came to an end, followed soon by the end of the empire itself. Shanghai, where many of her slides were cap tured, was experiencing unprece dented growth due to investments by colonial powers. Japan was expe riencing an accelerated version of the industrial revolution. Many of Warner’s slides portray the sometimes confusing meeting of East and West in Shanghai, a city that had only recently emerged from the Boxer Rebellion, a revolt against British cultural and political prac tices. In the slide titled “Rowing Club,” for instance, a colonial row ing club is off to the side of the pic ture, while a traditional Chinese junk sails straight toward the cam era. When Warner shows a long row of rickshaws, they are full of Euro peans in suits and bowlers. Instead of a tourist’s picture of a pagoda, she snaps it as a steam train travels in front of it. But Warner maintained a positive view of this mutual discovery, ac cording to Prazniak. “Warner saw the aesthetic plane of everyday natural life as one on which people of different cultures could meet,” she said. Thomas Munro is a freelance reporter for the Emerald to mount the exhibit.” Warner moved to Eu gene in 1921 to join her son, a professor of law at the University, after the death of her hus band, Murray, said Rosenow. Her private art collection, donated to the University as the Murray Warner Collec tion of Oriental Art, BETHERE What: Uniting East and West: The Life and Work of Gertrude Bass Warner Where: East and west entryway corridors and second floor, Special Collections Exhibit area, Knight Library When: Until Jan. 16 Journalist discusses possible Gaza Strip 'disengagement' Elli Wohlgelenter, copy editor for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, talks about Israel after Nov. 2 elections BY THOMAS MUNRO FREELANCE REPORTER The political intrigues of the Is raeli Knesset are enormously com plicated and cannot be affected much by the results of the upcom ing U.S. election, journalist Elli Wohlgelernter said Wednesday evening in a talk sponsored by the Oregon Hillel. Wohlgelernter is a copy editor for Haaretz, a politically moderate daily newspaper published in Tel Aviv, Is rael. Professor of Communication David Frank described Haaretz as The New York Times of its country. “I have great respect for that newspaper,” Frank said. “It is prob ably the best newspaper in Israel.” Wohlgelernter’s talk was entitled, “The Day after November 2nd: Still Engaged to the Disengagement Plan?” It focused on recent machi nations within Israel’s Knesset, or parliament. He tried to present all sides of a complicated issue to the largely pro-Israel audience of about 35. “I’m not here to advocate a view. I’m here to present issues,” Wohlgelernter said. Wohlgelernter described the new policy that is splitting the Israeli government. In what is seen as a sudden turnaround, embattled Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a member of the conservative Likud party, has announced a unilateral “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip, an area that has been a major spot of contention in the Palestinian peace process. This disengagement would mean the removal of thou sands of Israeli settlers from their Gaza homes. Sharon’s action has led to a con fusion of alliances. The more con servative Zionist elements who have historically been Sharon’s most ardent supporters are strongly opposed to disengagement from Gaza. Israeli liberals, who have long held Sharon in low regard, are strongly in favor of this move. The shifting alliances mean that the im mediate future of the disengage ment order and the Sharon govern ment itself are matters of great uncertainty, said Wohlgelernter. Wohlgelernter emphasized that he believes Sharon is completely committed to the withdrawal and will “go down in flames if it fails.” He described Sharon as more of a strategist than a hawk, and he ar gued that this decision was a strate gic one. Professor Frank agreeed. “I think he.is completely sincere, JOURNALIST, page 12A FREE ADMISSION Alliance for Security www.alliancefor5eiiunty.org THE DRAFT; IS IT YOUR TURN? THE NATION; ARE WE MORE OR LESS SECURE? IT’S YOUR DUTY: GET ENGAGED. REMEMBER LE5SDN5 LEARNED...BEFDRE YOUR NUMBER IS CALLED. MtMiUiUii: »fc». FOUNDER, VIETNAM VETERANS AMERICA FOUNDATION 5:00PM UNIVERSITY OF OREGON EUGENE LILLIS 182 AND DIALOGUE WITH
