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| Monday, May 1, 2000 WRITER: Phil Williams, 706/542-8501, pwilliam@franklin.uga.edu CONTACT: Carmon Colangelo, 706/542-1511, MRS. LAMAR DODD DONATES PAINTING FROM HER LATE HUSBAND TO HELP RAISE FUNDS FOR UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA’S CORTONA PROGRAM ATHENS, Ga. – Mrs. Lamar Dodd, wife of the late head of the University of Georgia School of Art that now bears his name, has donated one of her husband’s paintings to help raise funds for the school’s Cortona program. The four-by-six-foot painting called Gunnison Gorge, was executed in 1976 in oil and gold leaf on canvas. Proceeds from the sale of the painting will help match University of Georgia Foundation funds and money raised by Athens businessman Buddy Allen and his wife, Lucy, as part of an initiative to equip and upgrade a building in Cortona that will serve as headquarters for UGA’s year-round art program in that Italian city. "I think it’s great that we are able to use this painting to help the program," said Mrs. Dodd. "Lamar loved Cortona and would be pleased to see the program expand." The gift of the painting, which has been appraised at $42,000, was praised by Carmon Colangelo, head of the Lamar Dodd School of Art and by R. G. Brown, director of the Cortona Program. "We are at a critical point now in fund-raising, and we are delighted that Annie Laurie Dodd stepped up and made this happen for us," said Brown. Colangelo added that the gift will "make all the difference in the world." The building, which has already been leased but which needs restoration and equipment is called the Severini Institute and is in the historic center of Cortona. It includes its own garden. The building had previously been used as a governmental educational center by the Province of Arezzo. The renovation of the Severini Institute is consistent with initiatives by UGA President Michael Adams in expanding and improving international programs. The Cortona program has been part of the University of Georgia since 1970, when art professor John Kehoe decided to form a studies abroad program for UGA students interested in art. Instead of locating the program in a famous city such as Florence or Rome, however, Kehoe settled on Cortona, a small, quiet town in Tuscany with a history extending back some 2,700 years or more. Now more popular than ever, the program continues to be a major success for the Lamar Dodd School of Art. In all more than 4,000 students have participated in the program since its inception. "I consider the Cortona program to be of significant importance in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences," said Dean Wyatt Anderson. "It offers our students a marvelous opportunity to work and study among the glories of Italy." The choice of Cortona was hardly quixotic. The area is spectacularly beautiful, with terraced fields heavy with olives, wheat, grapes and sunflowers, but the reasons Kehoe settled on this walled Tuscan town were far deeper. First of all, the town has a rich artistic and historical background with important architecture of many periods and fine paintings and sculpture in museums. Cortona is also centrally located and allows day-long field trips to Bologna, Siena, Florence and many other sites. "There were many travel programs on campus back in 1970, but Jack Kehoe wanted a serious studio art program," said Professor Carmon Colangelo, head of the school of art. "He wanted a program where students could participate in stone carving, ceramics, printmaking, painting and other art forms while also taking courses in art history and visiting notable sites. This has become the hallmark of the Cortona program." Dodd, retired head of the university's art school and a pioneering art educator and artist in the South for 60 years, died Sept. 21, 1996, the day before his 87th birthday. Dodd was head of the UGA art school from 1938 until 1973, and chairman of the Division of Fine Arts from 1960 until his retirement in 1976. This year the university named the school for him, and a scholarship and a professorial chair in the school also bear his name. Acknowledged as one of the strongest influences on art in the South in this century, Dodd joined the University of Georgia art department in 1937 as one of three faculty members teaching classes to eight undergraduate art majors. The next year he became head of the department, and over the next 35 years built the department into one of the nation's leading collegiate art education programs. A prolific artist with a careful eye for detail and a flair for color, Dodd painted works ranging from delicate still lifes and portraits to dramatic depictions of heart surgery and rocket launches. His paintings are in many private collections and major museums, including New York's Whitney Museum of American Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Smithsonian Institution and National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. As a painter, Dodd was known for close attention to detail and a deft use of color to convey mood and emotion. Employing a range of styles from realism to near-abstraction, he painted with such skill that "the moment rendered in paint becomes transmuted into the event, the object itself," according to a just-published biography by William U. Eiland, director of the Georgia Museum of Art. His subjects were diverse, ranging from stark Southern landscapes and gritty urban streets to glorious sunflowers, touching portraits and vibrant representations of UGA athletic events. Among his best known works are a series of large, colorful paintings, created for NASA in the 1960s and '70s, depicting space exploration. He also produced a famous series of "Heart" paintings portraying the drama of open-heart surgery. Dodd's paintings have been shown in more than 100 one-man exhibitions and many group shows. He received scores of prizes, and his works have been reproduced in national publications such as Life, Time and Newsweek magazines, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Christian Science Monitor.
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