It
was in March 1992 that UCSB Alumnus Ken Trevey ('51) called out of the
blue to describe a collection of 20th-century American prints he was interested
in donating to the University Art Museum. Two months earlier, Bruce Robertson,
former Associate Curator of Paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art, had
joined the faculty at UCSB as a specialist in American art history. It
would prove highly fortuitous that these two events virtually coincided.
We visited Ken Trevey's home, where the prints hung salon-style in the
hallways and rooms upstairs, and were assured that his collection, carefully
amassed over a twenty-year period, would make a major contribution to the
Museum's growing holdings of graphic art. We also immediately saw the intrinsic
importance of this cross-section of works by at least three generations
of both major and minor American realist artists. We were interested
in the collection for the same reasons that Ken wanted to donate it: to
have it available to generations of students for study and enjoyment and
to make it the subject of an exhibition and publication for the appreciation
of a broad audience. Just one month prior to Ken Trevey's untimely death
from cancer in July 1992, the University Art Museum was gifted with 128
American realist prints. Now, we are able to fulfill a collector's dream.
Ken's own background and occupation shaped his collection -- as a writer for prime-time television his interests were first and foremost in stories. The prints in his collection are distinctive for their narrative focus, for their often dramatic subject matter, and for the high quality of their impressions. As Robertson has described it, Trevey had an unabashed fascination with the dramas of daily life, especially those of the 1930s and 1940s in America.
Robertson has accomplished precisely what Ken Trevey had hoped: he has used this distinguished collection of graphic art as a vehicle for a broad and intensive investigation of the history of printmaking in the era of the Great Depression, particularly the interaction between artists, the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration, and mass media. Robertson has involved undergraduate and graduate students in the conceptualization of the exhibition and the thematic groups, in research on individual works, and in the development of educational programs, satisfying another of Ken Trevey's wishes and one that accords with the Museum's own. We are grateful to these students for their contributions. Robertson also acknowledges the help of Patricia Gilbert, Myra Orth and Sally Stein.
The Museum owes enormous thanks to Professor Robertson for his unstinting efforts on this project over the last two and one-half years. He has curated the exhibition and written the catalogue essay despite a full plate of responsibilities as Associate Professor in the Department of History of Art and Architecture. His long experience as a museum professional has made him an invaluable partner, and he has been a great pleasure to work with, as much for his insights as for his enthusiasm and engagement.
All of the Museum staff have contributed to the success of this project, participating in ways that exceed in deed and spirit their respective responsibilities. Paul Prince, Museum Designer, can be singled out for overseeing both the exhibition and publication with his usual sensitivity and originality, but here has taken on the additional challenge of creating his first full-dress catalogue using sophisticated computer software. My thanks go to him and to the entire staff for their outstanding efforts.
The Web page associated with this exhibition was originally created by Holly Unruh and Ian Burns in 1997, and updated in 2000 by Nancy Ann Arnold. The full exhibition catalogue, Representing America: The Ken Trevey Collection of American Realist Prints, is available from the University of Washington Press. (ISBN# 0-942006-26-7) Representing America is also available for travel to other intitutions. Please contact the University Art Museum for further information.
Support for this project was provided in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal Agency, to whom we are grateful for their endorsement. We also acknowledge an award form the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at UCSB, which has recognized our efforts to provide educational programming of high quality. Lastly, and most importantly, we thank Ken Trevey for his vision, commitment to excellence, and generosity. It is with profound gratitude that we dedicate this catalogue to his memory.
Marla C. Berns
Director
University Art Museum, UCSB