MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College opens the new Peter Paul Luce Gallery in McWethy Hall with a traveling exhibition by former art instructor Karen Gunderson, whose 16 large-scale black and white drawings and paintings explore the theme of safety in friendship, within the context of moral courage.
“Moral Courage During WWII: Denmark and Bulgaria” runs Oct. 6 through Nov. 17. A reception is during Cornell’s homecoming, Saturday, Oct. 19, from 3-5 p.m. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 2-4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.
The exhibition includes large-scale seascapes evoking the rescue of Danish Jews by boat to Sweden, as well as iconic portraits of the kings of Denmark and Bulgaria who led their nations’ rescues of their Jewish citizens.
“These are not celebratory portraits of larger-than-life heroes and heroines, blinded by their bright goodness, so much as they are human-scaled images of people who did what they could, even as they remained haunted by the knowledge that this may not have been enough,” stated James Young, professor of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, in an essay for the exhibition at Hebrew Union College in New York.
Gunderson taught at Cornell from 1968 to 1970 before moving to New York. Her other teaching appointments have included the Chicago Art Institute, Ohio State University and the Maryland Institute College of Arts. She grew up in a Danish community in Racine, Wis., where she learned about the courage of the people of Denmark and their king, Christian X, who assisted more than 7,000 Danish Jews in their escape to Sweden by boat, saving them from Nazi roundups.
Gunderson last year won the Lorenzo Magnifico Award of Second Prize in Painting at the Florence (Italy) Biennale. Recently she was sent by the U.S. Department of State to Lome, Togo, to teach and lecture.
Cornell’s McWethy Hall became the new home of the art department this fall. Formerly known as Alumni Hall, the building opened in 1909 as Cornell’s first gymnasium. Renovations have added the gallery, offices for faculty, studios for faculty and students, large teaching studios, a sculpture court and off-street parking. A formal dedication will be at homecoming. The Luce Gallery was built with a $1 million grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, which was given in honor of Peter Paul Luce of Englewood, Colo., son of Luce Foundation founder Henry R. Luce and a Cornell life trustee.