Silent Africa: African Masks from the June Harwood Collection and Silent Auction Fundraiser

2017 Exhibition Dates and Events

• August 28 - October 20, 2017: The exhibit runs in Gallery V at PCC. Visit The Galleries at PCC during Open Hours. 
• Thursday, September 21, 2017 12 - 1 pm: Afternoon Reception
• Friday, October 13, 6 - 10 pm: ArtNight Reception (Pasadena ArtNight)

About "Silent Africa"

The Art Galleries at Pasadena City College are pleased to present African masks and artifacts from the collection of the June Harwood Charitable Trust. These objects were acquired by Hardedge painter June Harwood, often with the help of noted collector and artist Emerson Woelffer. The inventory list of these objects represents Harwood’s identification of the artifacts, but she was not an expert. With this in mind, they are being sold as decorative objects without authentication. For all the objects – the artist is anonymous and the date is unknown.

The direct influence of these objects on the nature of June Harwood’s own art is not clearly understood, but she did produce a group of paintings entitled the African Series. Harwood Trust co-trustee Dennis Reed notes, “Given her admiration for these objects, they must have influenced her in a general way, but not in the specific way that, for example, Picasso was directly influenced by African artifacts and even painted masks into his works.” Reed senses that Harwood, and fellow artist Emerson Woelffer, collected for reasons that were at least two-fold. “Their generation viewed collecting ethnic artifacts, particularly African, as a sign of cultural sophistication. More importantly, they admired the spiritual impact and formal simplicity of ethnic art,” says Reed, adding, “June particularly liked works that were crudely crafted – rough with little detail.”

 We are deeply grateful to the June Harwood Charitable Trust for extending this rare opportunity to the Art Galleries at Pasadena City College to present these pieces of art and to do a fundraising silent auction with all proceeds to benefit the galleries’ programming.

Silent Art Auction Procedure

We will put a sheet of paper next to each object with the starting bid amount indicated. A bidder will first register to bid by giving their contact information to the gallery staff and then enter their bid amount on the paper with their name (bidding is in $25 increments). We will also provide a “Buy it Now” option. For example, the bidding starts at $75, but the piece can be bought outright for $150. The buyer can purchase the piece that day, we will mark it SOLD with a red dot, and the buyer takes the piece home when the show closes. For the remaining works at auction, when the show closes, the winning bidders will be notified to pick up their piece  Friday, Oct 20 from 12 - 3 pm.

Payments

Once you are notified that you're the winning bidder, you can pay for the art piece by check or credit card.

• Check: Make check out to “PCC Foundation” and please also write “Art Gallery Fund” in the memo line of the check).
• Credit card: Go to give.pasadena.edu, choose “other” for designation, type “Art Gallery Fund” in comments box, and enter credit card info.

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Special thanks to Dennis Reed and Michael Whalen, co-trustees of the June Harwood Charitable Trust, for their generous support of the Art Galleries at Pasadena City College. This exhibition is made possible by the support of the Student Services Fund, the Office of the President and the PCC Foundation, and the Division of Visual Arts and Media Studies.  

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