A new Huntington Museum of Art book profiles nearly 600 Huntington artists.
By James E. Casto
HQ 116 | WINTER 2022
Over his career, Huntington Museum of Art Executive Director Geoffrey K. Fleming has written an entire shelf of books, exhibit catalogs and other publications.
His latest art reference book, Eclectic Rhythms, contains nearly 600 capsule biographies of artists of every type who at some point in their careers lived and worked in Huntington. Some of the artists included in the book — June Kilgore, Chuck Ripper, Adele Thornton Lewis, Stan Sporny, Don Pendleton and others — are well known; but many other names are likely unfamiliar, as Fleming has rescued many talented artists from virtual obscurity.
In an interview, Fleming said the seed for the book was planted by a question posed to him by a member of the museum staff.
“One day our grant writer walked into my office, told me he was writing a funding proposal and said he wanted to talk about how Huntington has always been a community of artists. He asked me if we had any reference material on the number of artists who had worked in Huntington over the years. ‘No,’ I said, ‘I didn’t.’”
“Well, you should get on that,” he jokingly responded.
“I laughed that off at the time, but then not long after I got to thinking about the idea. I found myself digging around at nights and on weekends as I researched, examined and compiled information from many types of indexes, databases and business and genealogical records. After almost two years, the book is the result of those nights and weekends.”
Initially, he said the project wasn’t meant to be a book.
“Starting out we thought of it as strictly an internal reference document. But when we were done, I sent the completed manuscript to a donor that I thought might be interested in it. I suggested two options. We could do a full-scale book or do a scaled-down version with no illustrations. ‘Oh no,’ he said. ‘If we’re going to do it, we need to do it right.’ And that, I think, is what we did.”
Fleming explained that a lot of thought went into which artists to include in the book.
“Our final decision was that to be included an artist had to have been born here, or had to have lived and worked here or had to have studied here at Marshall University.”
The book’s cover features a colorful abstract by June Kilgore.
“From the very beginning, I said that her painting should be on the cover. She taught art at Marshall for decades, ultimately becoming chair of the school’s Art Department. Well known for her colorful abstracts, she and Stan Sporny are probably the two best painters to ever work in Huntington. Also, I wanted an image that sort of went with the book’s title, Eclectic Rhythms. When you look at what she’s created — the pattern, the colors, the brushstrokes — there’s a clear rhythm to it.
“As I was researching the book, I was surprised to learn how many artists had been connected with the old D.E. Abbott Co., one of the largest businesses in early Huntington. A maker of custom portraits and picture frames, it employed literally hundreds of artists, photographers, photo enlargers, re-touchers and tinters, as well as the designers and makers of picture frames. In the firm’s heyday, Abbott frames were sold throughout the eastern United States and were even exported to Europe.”
Fleming explained that his research uncovered several acclaimed artists with ties to Huntington.
“I was taken aback by the number of nationally prominent artists who came from Huntington or passed through Huntington at some point, yet are not remembered here. Charles Hawes is a good example. Born in Huntington, he went on to have an exceptional career as an illustrator, doing covers for the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers and other national magazines. Yet, he’s virtually unknown in Huntington today.”
The new full-color hardback book contains more than 40 large illustrations of works by artists who are included in the volume. It also includes a half-dozen photographs of early museum scenes taken by Huntington photographer Willis Cook.
“Willis Cook was almost the official photographer at the museum for 10 or 15 years. He took photos of every event, every project and every class. There are thousands of his photos in the collection. We constantly use his photographs in researching what was going on at the museum.”
Priced at $39.95, Eclectic Rhythms: The Artists of Huntington, West Virginia, 1871-Present is available for purchase at the HMA Store.
