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Visionary art collector, Edward Wales Root, featured in WCNY-produced documentary
Syracuse NY : “Auspicious Vision: Edward Wales Root and American Modernism” is an unprecedented documentary about the life, passion and vision of a native Central New Yorker, Edward Wales Root. It premieres Tuesday, January 29 at 9 pm on WCNY-TV Channel 24/Time Warner Cable Channel 11. WCNY Axxess Productions produced this one-hour film to honor the 50th anniversary of a bequest made by Root to the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute and its Museum of Art that consists of 227 works by 80 American artists. “The collection is one of the most significant bequests made to any museum in U.S. history,” says the Museum’s Art Director & Chief Curator, Paul D. Schweizer. “Root is one of our greatest benefactors,” WCNY filmed in high-definition format to highlight the exquisite works of art on display at the Museum. The production includes narration by Peter Thomas (“NOVA” and “Forensic Files”) and interviews with some of the artists, conservators, museum directors and curators, educators, historians, journalists, and collectors as well as friends and relatives of Root. It also includes historical footage and contemporary stills. Edward Wales Root (1884-1956) was born and raised in Clinton, New York. His father, Elihu Root, was Secretary of State to Theodore Roosevelt (1905), a U.S. Senator (1909-1915), and the first President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Elihu received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1912. Hearing impaired from the age of three, Root reached out to the world through a variety of vocations. “He was also a horticulturist, a ranch hand and a newspaper man; but, art became his passion as he journeyed into the uncharted waters of American Modernism,” says Executive Producer, Larry Goodsight. “I suppose art became his way to communicate without words.” While Root taught art appreciation at Hamilton College for over 20 years, he collected extensively because he did not want his students to learn about art by using slides. To complement this educational philosophy, Root also developed a practical criticism process whereby students learned to study art through hands-on examination using six different aspects: sense, motive, form, tone, intention and value. What began in 1909 as a single purchase of art by Ernest Lawson continued into the late ‘50s, as Root’s acquisitions grew to include pieces by Burchfield, Davis, de Kooning, Stamos, Pollack and many others. This collection became the cornerstone of a gift that has not only enhanced the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute; an emerging cultural center located in Utica, New York, but also energized the Upstate New York community. This exhibit will remain at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute through February 24, 2008 when it becomes a traveling exhibit. The documentary will also air nationally in cities where the exhibit appears throughout 2008-2009. For information on the exhibit, and select photos of the collection, go to www.mwpai.org. |
