Discovering Treasures in the Charlot Collection: Using Artist’s Papers for Research

Presentation by Bron Solyom, Curator of the Jean Charlot Collection, University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa Library

Friday, April 18, 5:30 p.m.

Hamilton Library, Eugene Yap Room (A153)

Free and open to the general public.

Ariel Zúñiga, a researcher from Mexico and son of the famous artist Francisco Zúñiga, arrived at the Charlot Collection seeking information about another well-known Mexican artist, Emilio Amero. He was skeptical, not expecting to find much that he did not already know. Curator Bron Solyom will describe their surprising voyage of discovery and show the treasures they uncovered. As a collection of artist’s papers—the documentary and archival resources and artworks that contribute to our understanding of an artist’s life, work and associations—the Charlot Collection is exceptional for its size and depth, as well as the fact that it continues to evolve with a program of on-going acquisitions. It is an outstanding example of the value of preserving artists’ papers, a role that the Collection is undertaking with the initiation of the Archive of Hawai‘i Artists.

This presentation accompanies an exhibition, Image and Word: Jean Charlot and the Way of the Cross, to be held in the Hamilton Library Bridge Gallery through June 15. Throughout his life, Charlot revisited this subject many times in ink and paint, although like the rest of his liturgical art it is one of the lesser known aspects of his work