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National Medal of Arts 11/17/89 [OA 4425]
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National Medal of Arts 11/17/89 [OA 4425]
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Records of the White House Office of Speechwriting (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Mary Kate Grant Subject Files
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Originally Processed With FOIA(s):
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MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Grant, Mary Kate, Files
Subseries:
Subject File, 1988-1991
OA/ID Number:
13882
Folder ID Number:
13882-011
Folder Title:
National Medal of Arts, 11/17/89
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19
2
7
7
1 THE UHE
PLURIBUS UNUM
EA
FEB
AND
NATIONAL MEDAL OF ARTS
On the occasion
National Medal of Arts
of the presentation of
DAYTON HUDSON
THE NATIONAL MEDAL
CORPORATION
OF ARTS
for helping to forge a vital partnership
THE WHITE HOUSE
between the corporate sector and the
Friday, November 17, 1989
arts community, and for demonstrat-
ing how both can benefit in the
process.
National Medal of Arts
JOHN UPDIKE
for novels and stories that over a forty-
year career have given us a wryly af-
fectionate yet penetrating analysis of
the complexity of life in today's
America.
The Recipients
National Medal of Arts
LEOPOLD ADLER
ROBERT MOTHERWELL
KATHERINE DUNHAM
ALFRED EISENSTAEDT
for reflecting in his art the very essence
MARTIN FRIEDMAN
of American freedom, with paintings
LEIGH GERDINE
that have found a distinguished place
in collections everywhere.
JOHN BERKS "DIZZY" GILLESPIE
WALKER HANCOCK
VLADIMIR HOROWITZ Posthumously
CZESLAW MILOSZ
ROBERT MOTHERWELL
JOHN UPDIKE
DAYTON HUDSON CORPORATION
7
National Medal of Arts
CZESLAW MILOSZ
for glorious poetry and prose that
celebrates the freedom-loving spirit
not only of his native Poland but that
of his adopted country, the United
States.
National Medal of Arts
National Medal of Arts
VLADIMIR HOROWITZ
LEOPOLD ADLER
for his extraordinary achievements and
for his civic leadership in preserving
distinctive style as a pianist, whose
for all time the beauty of Savannah,
concerts brought pleasure to audiences
Georgia, and for making that city a
everywhere and whose contributions
model of the art of historic preser-
to music made him a citizen of the
vation.
world.
National Medal of Arts
National Medal of Arts
KATHERINE DUNHAM
WALKER HANCOCK
for her pioneering explorations of
for his extraordinary contribution to
Caribbean and African dance which
the art of sculpture, and for demon-
have enriched and transformed the art
strating the enduring beauty of the
of dance in America.
classical tradition.
National Medal of Arts
National Medal of Arts
JOHN BERKS "DIZZY" GILLESPIE
ALFRED EISENSTAEDT
for his trail-blazing work as a musician
who helped elevate jazz to an art form
of the first rank, and for sharing his
for the extraordinary photographs that
gift with listeners around the world.
document the tragedies and triumphs
he has witnessed over a lifetime.
National Medal of Arts
National Medal of Arts
MARTIN FRIEDMAN
LEIGH GERDINE
for opening the doors of his museum
for his distinguished career as a mu-
to the best of all of the arts of our
sician and educator, and for the en-
time-from painting and sculpture to
lightened patronage which has earned
film, video and performance-and for
him the title of "spiritual father of the
opening our eyes to the vital connec-
arts in St. Louis."
tions between these forms of ex-
pression.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
MK FVI
October 23, 1989
KG
MEMORANDUM FOR JOHN FROHNMAYER
-
FROM:
James W. Cicconi you Aim Ciccoin
SUBJECT:
National Medal of the Arts Awards
As you know, the President had previously selected five
individuals to receive the 1989 National Medal of the Arts
Awards:
Katherine Dunham
John Updike
Leonard Bernstein
Robert Motherwell
Leigh Gerdine
He has now selected the following individuals and one corporation
to complete the list:
Walker Hancock
"Dizzy" Gillespie
Vladimir Horowitz Alfred Eisenstadt
James Stewart
Ezeslaw Milos
Leopold Adler
Martin Friedman
Dayton Hudson
We have now confirmed the presentation lunch for Friday,
November 17, at noon, with the President and the First Lady.
Thank you.
July 12 / Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1986
open letter issued last month by a group of
guide an interceptor toward its target, and
30 former Soviet scientists now living in the
methods of stopping incoming missiles, es-
United States.
pecially with nonnuclear means. Technolog-
In stark contrast, we are defenseless
ical advances now permit us to detect and
against the most dangerous weapons in the
track an aggressor's missiles in early flight.
history of mankind. Isn't it time to put our
It is in this boost phase that missiles must
survival back under our own control? Our
be intercepted and knocked out to achieve
search for an effective defense is a key part
the protection we're looking for. There
of a three-pronged response to the Soviet
have been some major achievements in the
threat. We also have been moving ahead to
diplomatic field as well. Great Britain, West
modernize our strategic forces and, simulta-
Germany, and Israel have signed agree-
neously, to reach fair and verifiable arms
ments to participate in the research, and
reduction agreements with the Soviet
talks with other major allies are expected.
Union. The Soviets have yet to agree to
Nothing of great value, of course, comes
arms reduction despite the strenuous efforts
cheap. But a defensive system which can
of several U.S. administrations. However,
protect us and allies against all ballistic mis-
our SDI research to make nuclear missiles
siles, nuclear or conventional, is a prudent
investment. I'm sorry to say, however, that
less effective also makes these missiles more
some Members of Congress would take a
negotiable. And when we talk about negoti-
shortsighted course, deeply cutting the
ations, let's be clear: Our SDI research is
funds needed to carry out this vital pro-
not a bargaining chip. It's the number of
gram. So, it's imperative your voice is
offensive nuclear missiles that need to be
heard. In the weeks ahead, it would be a
reduced, not the effort to find a way to
tragedy to permit the budget pressures of
defend mankind against these deadly mis-
today to destroy this vital research program
siles. And reliable defenses could also serve
and undercut our chances for a safer and
as insurance against cheating or breaking
more secure tomorrow. President Eisen-
out of an arms reduction agreement.
hower once said, "The future will belong,
All this makes it evermore important to
not to the fainthearted, but to those who
keep our strategic defense research moving
believe in it and prepare for it."
forward. We have set up a well-managed
I agree with that, and I know you do, too.
program which, in just over 3 years, has
Until next week, thanks for listening, and
already accomplished much. Even faster
God bless you.
progress than expected has been made in
developing the system's "eyes"-scientists
Note: The President spoke at 12:06 p.m.
call them sensors-and its "brains," which
from Camp David, MD.
Remarks at a Presentation Ceremony for the National Medal of Arts
July 14, 1986
The President. Well, thank you all, and I
kell, for proposing that we create the Na-
want to welcome you to the White House
tional Medal of Arts; the Congress for en-
and let you know how lucky I feel. It's not
acting the authorizing legislation; the Na-
often these days that I get to have lunch
tional Council on the Arts for providing us
with my roommate. [Laughter]
once again with such a fine list of nominees;
But thank you for joining Nancy and me
and Dan Terra, our Ambassador for Cultur-
in this, the second annual conferring of the
al Affairs, for continuing his tradition of
National Medal of Arts. And permit me to
holding a State Department reception on
thank our Committee on the Arts and Hu-
this occasion. As we award these 12 medals
manities and its Chairman, Andrew Heis-
today, we celebrate 12 rich contributions to
950
Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1986 / July 14
rd its target, and
American arts; and, in a wider sense, we
And now Nancy is going to help me
ming missiles, es-
celebrate American culture itself, the cul-
award the medals.
neans. Technolog-
ture of liberty, the culture in which artists
Mrs. Reagan. Marian Anderson was born
us to detect and
are free to be true to themselves.
in Philadelphia, and at the age of 8 she
es in early flight.
Nearly two centuries ago, when this
started singing in choirs. She began her
that missiles must
grand old house was built, our nation com-
career as a contralto in Europe, and it was
out to achieve
prised, for the most part, a narrow band of
Sol Hurok who launched her career in the
oking for. There
towns and villages hugging the eastern sea-
United States. In 1955 she made her debut
nievements in the
board, a rugged and often unlettered
with the New York Metropolitan Opera,
reat Britain, West
people clinging to the edge of a vast conti-
thereby paving the way for the acceptance
signed agree-
nent. For art, drama, music, and learning
of black performers on the concert stage.
the research, and
Americans looked not to themselves but to
Arturo Toscanini said that a voice like hers
lies are expected.
Europeans, not to the New World but to
comes only once in a century. Marian An-
of course, comes
the Old. And yet as those rugged people
derson is one of the greatest ladies of opera,
ystem which can
pushed west and gave birth to a great coun-
and accepting for her today is her cousin,
all ballistic mis-
try, they likewise gave birth to a great, dis-
Miss Sandra Grimes.
onal, is a prudent
tinctive culture. First, American arts took
Frank Capra was born in Palermo, Italy,
ay, however, that
on the twang of the frontier fiddle and the
and came to our country at the age of 6. He
ess would take a
sharp, clean lines of our primitive paintings.
served four times as president of the Acade-
ply cutting the
And then came the joy of jazz, the sparkle
my of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and
ut this vital pro-
and spectacle of film, the stirring sense of
three times as president of the Screen Di-
your voice is
space and light in the work of artists from
d, it would be a
rectors Guild. A pioneer of the art of film,
George Inness to Winslow Homer. In our
he's one of the greatest directors and pro-
dget pressures of
own time we've seen the rise of superb re-
ducers in motion picture history. We'll
research program
gional orchestras, ballets, and opera compa-
for a safer and
nies, the coming of age of fine museums
never forget the classic films "It Happened
President Eisen-
throughout the country, and the emergence
One Night," "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,"
of cities like New York and Los Angeles as
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and "You
ture will belong,
Can't Take It With You." He's earned five
but to those who
art capitals of world importance.
or it."
So it is that in matters of culture today,
Academy Awards and has been honored
with a Lifetime Achievement Award of the
know you do, too.
Americans look not so much to the Old
for listening, and
World as to the New-to America itself-
American Film Institute. Frank Capra is
and they do so with pride. Our administra-
one of the truly great artists of a uniquely
tion has sought to emphasize these distinc-
American style of filmmaking, and we're
ke at 12:06 p.m.
tively American aspects of our own culture,
pleased to have his son, Tom Capra, accept-
and Frank Hodsoll at the National Endow-
ing on his father's behalf.
ment for the Arts has devoted to this
Aaron Copland was born of Lithuanian
charge all his acumen and skill. Under
parents in New York. He studied privately
Frank's leadership, the Endowment has
with many of the world's greatest musi-
Medal of Arts
helped to widen State and local support for
cians, including Nadia Boulanger. He com-
the arts across the country. And with the
posed his first symphony in 1923 and con-
support of the Congress, the Endowment is
tinued creating masterpieces using truly
expanding arts programming to television
American folk themes and tunes. We're
create the Na-
and radio to reach all our people.
most familiar with the "Lincoln Portrait,"
Congress for en-
And today we have this wonderful event,
for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in music,
gislation; the Na-
this moment to pause and appreciate 12
and "Billy the Kid." He collaborated with
for providing us
magnificent contributions to the artistic life
Agnes de Mille on "Rodeo" and with
list of nominees;
of our nation. We honor patrons-those
Martha Graham on "Appalachian Spring."
ssador for Cultur-
who enable the distinctively American tra-
Aaron Copland is a paramount American
dition of private support for the arts to
composer, and accepting for him is Mrs.
his tradition of
flourish. And we honor artists themselves—
Vivian Perlis, his close friend and official
reception on
their pains, their triumphs, their devotions,
biographer.
these 12 medals
contributions to
all of themselves that they've given to their
Willem de Kooning was born in Rotter-
work and hence to our nation.
dam, Holland. He worked his way to our
951
July 14 / Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1986
country as a wiper in the engine room of a
the study of expressive styles of culture. Re-
steamship. Before establishing himself as
cently we've seen his work in the television
the great painter that he is, he made signs
series "American Patchwork." Mr. Lomax,
and window displays; he was a carpenter,
you've truly enriched our understanding of
furniture designer, muralist, and began his
the cultures of America and the world.
work in abstraction in 1934. As a leader of
Lewis Mumford was born in Flushing,
abstract expressionism, he's influenced all
New York. He's one of our most distin-
modern painting and is acclaimed by all the
guished historians, literary critics, and com-
world as America's great contribution to
mentators on cities and urban design. He's
modern art. Accepting for him today is his
the author of some 31 books and was the
wife, Elaine, who is also a fine painter.
recipient of a National Book Award in 1961
Agnes de Mille was born in New York.
for "The City in History." Mr. Mumford has
Her name is certainly synonymous with the
said of the city: "If it ceases to be a milieu
art of dance. As performer and choreogra-
in which people can exist in reasonable con-
pher, she is unforgettable. There's no
tentment, it will be unprofitable to discuss
memory of America that could be complete
architectural achievements." His concern
without the dance of "Oklahoma," "Carou-
for the whole of the city, as opposed to the
sel," "Brigadoon," or the ballet of "Rodeo,"
"Fall River Legend," or "The Four Marys."
single architectural triumph, has taught us
how to strive for architecture as "The
Agnes de Mille has written over a dozen
books on dance and is also distinguished as
Home of Man," the title of his highly origi-
a teacher. She's a great artist and a great
nal book on the philosophy of architecture.
American.
Accepting for Mr. Mumford today is his
Eva Le Gallienne was born in London
daughter, Mrs. Alison Morss.
and became a citizen in 1927. In 1921 she
Eudora Welty was born in Jackson, Missis-
starred in her first film, "Liliom," and went
sippi, and lives there today. Miss Welty is a
on to triumph in "Camille," "The Master
preeminent American writer, who is most
Builder," and "Mary Stuart." She also
well-known for her books about the South
earned a special Tony Award and an Emmy
and the Southern family. She's influenced
for her outstanding performance in the PBS
generations of young American writers. In
special "The Royal Family." Eva Le Gal-
1941 she published her first book, "A Cur-
lienne founded and directed both the Civic
tain of Green," and in 1973 she won a Pul-
Repertory Theatre in New York and the
itzer Prize for "The Optimist's Daughter."
American Repertory Theatre. In addition to
Her work is read widely throughout the
her many talents, she's also a recognized
country and the world. Miss Welty consid-
translator of the Scandinavian classics of
ers her 1984 autobiographical work, "One
Ibsen and Hans Christian Andersen. She's a
Writer's Beginnings," a very significant and
great actress, director, producer, teacher,
recent expression of her thoughts. And
and author. Accepting for her is Mrs. Anne
we're very honored to present her the Na-
Kaufman Schneider, a close family friend
tional Medal of Arts.
and colleague.
Dominique de Menil began her career as
Alan Lomax was born in Austin, Texas,
a bold patron of the arts in the 1930's by
and is without a doubt the world's most
giving Max Ernst his first one-man show. In
renowned folklorist. He's devoted his life
1941 she came to this country from Paris.
and talent to collecting, compiling, and pre-
She's organized exhibitions in New York
serving the folk music of the United States
and Houston as well as in France and Ger-
and the world. As director-producer of an
many and is currently chairman of the
original folk music series on CBS Radio in
Pompidou Art and Cultural Foundation in
the thirties and forties, he presented all
Paris. She's played a primary role in the
Americans for the first time such then un-
renaissance of art institutions in Houston,
knowns as Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, Leadbel-
where a new museum will soon house the
ly, and Woody Guthrie. For the past 24
world-acclaimed collection of Dominique de
years he's been a President's Scholar at Co-
Menil and her late husband, John. We're
lumbia University, where he has pioneered
honored to have her here today.
952
Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1986 / July 14
of culture. Re-
Exxon Corporation began its support of
eye for the new and daring and as a collec-
the television
the arts in the forties, and today it's known
tor of contemporary art. The Albright-Knox
Mr. Lomax,
by millions for its promotion of the arts of
Gallery, under the leadership of Mr. Knox,
nderstanding, of
television through "Great Performances"
set major precedents in opening its doors to
the world.
and "Live From Lincoln Center." A pio-
modern art. And we're pleased to award
in Flushing,
neer of the program "Dance in America,"
him the National Medal of Arts.
most distin-
Exxon not only brought dance into Ameri-
The President. Well, thank you, Nancy.
and com-
can living rooms but stimulated live dance
And thank you all. On behalf of the Ameri-
design. He's
performance across America. Exxon has also
can people, I commend you, each of you,
and was the
supported the technology of live broadcasts
for crowning our nation's greatness with
Award in 1961
and simulcasts for audio fidelity. Over 300
grace. You have forever set an example for
Mumford has
new orchestral and chamber works by
artists and patrons in the years ahead to live
to be a milieu
American composers have been brought to
up to. I know the Endowment will draw on
reasonable con-
broad audiences by this corporation. Exxon
these examples as it launches its new initia-
table to discuss
is an outstanding example of enlightened
tives in arts education. Certainly the exist-
His concern
corporate support for the arts, and with us
ence of strong music and fine arts curricula
opposed to the
today is Jack Clark, Exxon's senior vice
is important to keeping the humanities
has taught us
president and director.
truly humanizing and the liberal arts truly
as "The
Seymour H. Knox was born in Buffalo,
liberating.
is highly origi-
New York, where he still lives. As a collec-
So, for all that you've already achieved
of
architecture.
tor and patron, his contribution to his birth-
and for all that your work will continue to
mean to our nation in the decades ahead,
today is his
place is everlasting. Few know that he was
a champion polo and squash player in his
once again, thank you. God bless you all.
Backson, Missis-
youth who represented our country in
international competitions. However, he
Note: The President spoke at 1:06 p.m. in
Miss Welty is a
will be most remembered for his perceptive
the East Room at the White House.
who is most
out the South
influenced
writers. In
book, "A Cur-
Nomination of Michael Mussa To Be a Member of the Council of
won a Pul-
Economic Advisers
Daughter."
July 14, 1986
toughout the
Welty consid-
work, "One
The President today announced his inten-
Geneva, October to December 1976 and
regnificant and
tion to nominate Michael Mussa to be a
May to September 1981; a research fellow,
toughts. And
member of the Council of Economic Advis-
London School of Economics, July 1975 to
her the Na-
ers. He would succeed William Poole VII.
October 1976; and associate professor of ec-
Since 1980 Dr. Mussa has been a profes-
onomics, July 1975 to June 1976 and an
Ther career as
sor of international business, University of
assistant professor of economics, September
1930's by
Chicago. Previously, he was a visiting pro-
1971 to June 1975, University of Rochester.
Than show. In
fessor, Asian Department, International
Dr. Mussa graduated from the University
from Paris.
Monetary Fund, May to July 1980; an asso-
of California at Los Angeles (A.B., 1966) and
New York
ciate professor of economics, University of
the University of Chicago (M.A., 1970 and
and Ger-
Chicago, 1976-1980; a research fellow,
Ph.D., 1974). He resides in Chicago, IL, and
Than of the
Graduate Institute of International Studies,
was born April 15, 1944, in Los Angeles.
Fundation in
in the
Houston,
house the
de
We're
953
person
DIOOO
out
of one arm and transferring it to the
intergovernmental affairs.
other. The major problem is the big
leakage-the huge costs for the legisla-
tive and administrative bureaucracy.
Frederick E. Hart
Congress made a most serious mis-
take when it enacted the catastrophic
health program, which became effective
Contemporary
Art Is Perverted Art
at the beginning of this year. Congress
gave additional Medicare benefits to the
senior population but required seniors to
The air is becoming suffocatingly pun-
cells of galleries and museums and are
was the short-lived creation of the Statue
pay for the full tab.
gent with the incense of pious indignation
from the art world concerning Congress'
It is possible to live without art, and if
put in public places, where the public is
of Democracy in Tiananmen Square. Na-
The seniors were enraged, both be-
forced to live with them and pay for them.
ively executed, it was nonetheless a won-
cause of the high cost and because many
reaction to the way the National Endow-
the nourishment provided by art continues
If one visited a town or a city in
derful display of the unique ability of art
already had such coverage. The flaws are
ment for the Arts is spending taxpayers'
Renaissance Italy, the motive of art and
to embody and enhance concisely and
SO great that the whole thing should be
money.
dropped entirely. Other seniors very self-
to be so nauseating, life without art will
its resulting products would come off
movingly a deeply felt public yearning for
What is taking place is yet another
entirely differently. Art was not then
an ideal of a just society. The profound
ishly want to retain all the benefits but
perverse manipulation of the public by the
have the entire population, including the
become, for some, desirable."
thought of as an end in itself but as
meaning the statue had for tens of mil-
contemporary art establishment. The
another form of service. When the Italian
lions of people gives the art a value and
younger folk, pay the bill.
public, through its instrument, Congress,
peasant looked about, he saw an array of
When our yuppie Stanford son got his
has reacted to the baiting and taunting of
moral authority of profound significance.
between then and now. Life in the late
aggrandizement of art and artist at the
dedicated embellishments from his
its sense of decency by the art world
church to his public buildings, fountains
In ancient Greece, which generated
first job a few years ago, he was sur-
19th century was heavily regimented by
expense of sacred public sentiments-
through its instrument, the NEA. Under-
2,500 years of Western art, there existed
prised to find that he was paying 28
strict societal mores: the public expres-
profound sentiments embodied by sym-
and plazas. The artwork, which was ex-
19
neath its outrage, the art world can
no distinction between aesthetics and eth-
percent in federal taxes and 7 percent in
sion of emotion and sexuality was severe-
bols, such as the flag or the crucifix,
quisitely created, embraced his values, his
Social Security taxes. That inspired us to
barely contain its secret delight at this
ly repressed. When art and literature
which the public has a right and a duty to
religious beliefs, his history, his aspira-
ics in the judgment of a work of art.
research our tax burden for our first jobs
publicity bonanza featuring a heroic sce-
broke through those layers of repression,
treasure and protect.
tions and his ideals. It was meant to give
Works of art achieved greatness by em-
in the early 1950s. We found that we had
nario of free spirits versus troglodytes.
people were offended, outraged and ill at
When one looks back at the majestic
enrichment through its artistry but, more
bodying great ideas, as well as by sheer
paid only 6 percent in federal taxes, and
What eludes the public is the current
ease about the truths they discovered
sweep of art in history and its awesome
important, to give purpose through its
mastery of the medium. The inspiration
only 1 percent in Social Security.
philosophy and practice of art, which not
about themselves. But we live in a differ-
and magnificent accomplishments, how
meaning. It was, as Dante called sculp-
and the motivation for that mastery were
When we bought our first house, we
only delights in but thrives on a belief
ent world. Today, "repression" is a bad
nasty and midget like are so many of the
ture, "visible speech." It was not created
in the nobility of the ideas pursued.
had funds saved for the down payment,
system of deliberate contempt for the
word. Nothing is ever, ever repressed.
products and so much of the philosophy of
for art's sake but for his sake.
It is the contemporary renunciation of
and mortgage payments took only a
public. In order to understand this, you
Everything is discussed, analyzed and
contemporary art by comparison. Once,
The measure of achievement in art
the moral responsibility of art that is the
fourth of our income. Today many young
have to understand the values of art today
ventilated by people ranging from Phil
art served society rather than biting at its
was determined by the degree to which
source of the recent hostilities between
people have trouble saving the down
and how contemporary art is intellectually
Donahue in the morning to Larry King at
heels while demanding unequivocal finan-
that art was considered ennobling. Art
art and public. The cutback of funds by
payment and are devoting about 40 per-
packaged for the marketplace. To grasp
night, day in and day out. It's gotten
cial support. Once, under the banner of
and society had achieved a wonderful
Congress is a graphic display of the
cent of their income for mortgage pay-
this is also to grasp the sorry moral
damned hard if not almost impossible to
beauty and order, art was a rich and
responsibility for each other. Art summa-
public's declining conviction of the impor-
S
ments. Some pay even more. (To help
condition of art today and how this is
offend anyone anymore.
meaningful embellishment of life, embrac-
rized, with masterful visual eloquence
tance of art, caused by a self-absorbed art
solve this problem, we have helped par-
shriveling art, making it less and less a
But art persists. Every artist worth his
ing-not desecrating-its ideals, its aspi-
born of a sense of beauty, the striving of
that has lost all sense of obligation to the
ents do "equity-sharing" with their chil-
meaningful endeavor.
salt yearns to create works of art that are
rations and its values.
civilization to find order and purpose in
public good and the betterment of man. It
dren to get over the hurdle of the large
Since the beginnings of bohemianism in
(mistakenly perceived, of course) so of-
Not so today.
the universe. This service to truth was
is possible to live without art, and if the
down payment required.)
art in the late 19th century, rejection by
fensive, so insulting to the public as to
Look about you. The artlessness of
more important than the endeavor of art
nourishment provided by art continues to
To promote intergenerational equity,
the public has become the traditional
earn him a clear judgment of genius for
contemporary life has come about be-
itself. And it was this dedication to service
be so nauseating, life without art will
well-off older people should be more sen-
hallmark of what comes to be regarded as
his success at being misunderstood.
cause of a breakdown in the fundamental
that gave art its moral authority.
become, for some, desirable.
sitive to the burdens they are creating for
great art. An offended public is a critical
It has become the intense pastime of
philosophy of art and who it is created for.
This moral authority is the critical
If art is to flourish in the 21st century,
the younger working generation. We do
necessity for the attainment of creden-
contemporary art to pursue controversy,
The flaw is not with a public that refuses
element by which a society regards art
it must renew its moral authority by
tials by any artist. The idea that art and
II
not want to become whoopies at the
the bigger the better, as a form of art.
to nourish the arts. Rather it is with a
either as an essential and meaningful part
philosophically and fundamentally rededi-
expense of creating yippies-younger, im-
artist must be initially misunderstood and
But the artist has had to reach farther
practice of art that refuses to nourish the
of life, as in Renaissance Italy or, as
cating itself to life rather than art. Art
poverished people. Also, we want them to
rejected has become doctrine in the my-
and deeper to find some new twist with
public. The public has been so bullied
today, a superfluous bit of fluff, mainly
must again touch our lives, our fears and
be whoopies some day, just like us.
thology of great art, and consequently it
which to offend. A simple-minded little
intellectually by the proponents of con-
indulged in by a small snobbish minority.
cares. It must evoke our dreams and give
has become one of the primary criteria in
sophomoric gimmick of making people
temporary art that it has wearily resigned
Art is regarded by contemporary society
hope to the darkness.
The writers are certified financial
evaluating the historical importance of a
walk on the flag to make a cute point
itself to just about any idiocy that is put
much the same way architects now re-
given artist. The art world embraced this
arouses vast passion and national contro-
before it and calls itself art. But the
planners. George Marotta is also a
gard art-not as an essence, but as a
The writer, a sculptor whose works
fable in the late 19th century and has
versy-for which artist and art world pat
common man has his limits, and they are
high-rent amenity.
include the Vietnam Memorial
research fellow at the Hoover
been running hard with it ever since.
each other on the back.
reached when some of these things
Institution.
The most touching and noble impulse
statue, is a member of the
There is, however, a critical difference
What is really going on is the cynical
emerge from the sanctuary of the padded
toward "visible speech" in recent times
Commission of Fine Arts.
Aug. 9 / Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1988
Remarks at a White House Luncheon
"singing what belongs to him or her and to
for the Recipients of the National
none else." Well, that gift, the right to sing
Medal of Arts
your own song, is the promise and the glory
August 9, 1988
of America. And I'm proud to be able to
honor those who've used the freedom to
The President. Well, thank you for being
speak and think and write and bring the
with us today, as we confer the fourth
arts to all Americans. They enrich us and
annual National Medal of Arts. I would like
immortalize us and make us whole.
to thank the National Council on the Arts
And Nancy now is going to help me do
for its list of nominees and the Committee
the honors.
on the Arts and Humanities for its help in
Mrs. Reagan. Mrs. Vincent Astor was
our efforts to enhance private-sector sup-
born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and
port in these critical areas. And I also want
lives in New York where she serves as presi-
to thank Frank Hodsoll, Chairman of the
dent of the Vincent Astor Foundation.
National Endowment for the Arts, for all of
Under her guidance, the foundation has
his work.
provided major funding to many organiza-
This occasion is a special pleasure for me
tions, including the Metropolitan Museum
every year. As I look at the names of the 12
of Art and the New York Public Library.
people we honor today, I think of the words
The foundation's current focus is on the
of the poet Walt Whitman: "I hear America
homeless and illiteracy. Mrs. Astor was hon-
singing." The voice within-heard is the
ored by the American Academy and Insti-
same voice that all great artists can hear.
tute of Arts and Letters in 1986.
It's the voice that inspires them, the voice
that inspires great American art. But Amer-
Saul Bellow was born in Lachine,
ica does not sing in one voice. No, she sings
Quebec, and lives in Chicago, where he
in many voices, a thousand different songs
serves as professor of the committee on
in a thousand different keys. And when
social thought at the University of Chicago.
American art captures the breathtaking va-
A Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner for liter-
riety of this land, as it does in the work of
ature, Mr. Bellow was also the first Ameri-
the seven artists we honor today, America's
can to receive the International Literary
voices come together in a chorus of what is
Prize. He's contributed fiction, criticism,
best and noblest in us.
and essays to numerous magazines. Mr.
We can hear America singing in the com-
Bellow has written 10 novels, the latest of
positions of Virgil Thomson, the virtuosity
which is "More Die of Heartbreak."
of Rudolf Serkin, and the performances of
Francis Goelet, a major donor and com-
Helen Hayes. We can hear her in the prose
missioner of American music, was born in
of Saul Bellow and the choreography of
Bordeaux, France, and now lives in River-
Jerome Robbins, in the photography of
side, Connecticut. He is most noted for
Gordon Parks and the architecture of I.M.
commissioning new works for the New York
Pei. But we couldn't hear America's song
Philharmonic. His donations for new pro-
without the wonderful contribution of those
ductions of the Metropolitan Opera include
who dedicate themselves to bringing the
the world premier of Samuel Barber's
arts before us and instructing us in them.
"Antony and Cleopatra." He's assisted or-
And that's why we honor five others today
chestral and operatic composers nation-
as well.
wide.
Sydney J. Freedberg has helped America
Helen Hayes was born here in Washing-
to sing by teaching generations of Ameri-
ton, DC, where at five she first appeared on
cans how to look at paintings. Mrs. Vincent
stage as Prince Charles in "A Royal
Astor, Mr. Francis Goelet, and Mr. Obert
Family." Her memorable roles include
Tanner have helped America to sing by
Mary Stuart, Queen Victoria, Harriet Bee-
spending so much of their lives supporting
cher Stowe, and Portia. She's delighted au-
and promoting the best that America has to
diences nationwide in motion pictures, on
offer. Roger Stevens has helped America to
radio, and television. A beloved and versa-
sing by helping its playwrights find their
tile actress, she's indeed deserving of the
voice. Every American, as Whitman said, is
First Lady of American Theatre.
1026
Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1988 / Aug. 9
or
her
and
to
Gordon Parks was born in Fort Scott,
its fundraising and programming with out-
the right to sing
Kansas, and in his youth supported himself
standing success.
and the glory
by working as a piano player and profes-
to be able to
sional basketball player. A newsreel led him
Obert C. Tanner was born in Farming-
the freedom to
to buy his first camera. And within a few
ton, Utah, and lives in Salt Lake City. There
and bring the
months, he had his first exhibit. His career
he's noted for leadership in constructing
enrich us and
includes 19 years on assignments for Life
Salt Lake City's Symphony Hall and restor-
whole.
magazine. Mr. Parks is an accomplished
ing the historic Capital Theater. Mr. Tan-
to help me do
photographer, composer, writer, and direc-
ner's also the author of 10 religious and
tor of films.
philosophical books. As founder and chair-
Astor was
I.M. Pei was born in China and came to
Hampshire, and
this country to study architecture. He
man of his own company, he's generously
he serves as presi-
began his own firm, known as the I.M. Pei
contributed to Utah's artistic community.
Astor Foundation.
and Partners. A world acclaimed architect,
He's also promoted aesthetic and intellectu-
Mr. Pei has designed nearly 50 projects in
al growth throughout the United States and
foundation has
to many organiza-
the United States and abroad, half of which
Great Britain.
ropolitan Museum
are award winners. His most recent work
Public Library.
on the Louvre Museum in Paris has earned
Virgil Thomson was born in Kansas City,
Missouri, and lived in Paris from 1925 to
focus is on the
him the 1988 Medal of the Legion of
Honor.
1940. He was the music critic of the New
Astor was hon-
cademy and Insti-
Jerome Robbins was born in New York
York Herald Tribune for 14 years and has
City and made his debut at 19 as a modern
been a guest conductor with major orches-
1986.
dancer. Since then, he's choreographed
tras throughout the world. A Pulitzer Prize
in Lachine,
hicago, where he
many Broadway shows, including: "On the
winner, he's written music in all forms.
he committee on
Town," "High Button Shoes," "Call Me
Among his most important compositions are
Madam," "The King and I," and "The
three operas: "Four Saints in Three Acts,"
versity of Chicago.
Pajama Game." He's directed and choreo-
"The Mother of Us All," and "Lord Byron."
winner for liter-
graphed such greats as "Fiddler on the
Mr. Thomson regrets he can't be with us
the first Ameri-
Roof" and "West Side Story," which is often
today, but accepting for him is Mrs. Richard
rnational Literary
fiction, criticism,
considered his masterpiece. Today he serves
Flender.
as coballet master and chief of the New
magazines. Mr.
York City Ballet.
Sydney J. Freedberg was born in Boston,
the latest of
Rudolf Serkin was born in Bohemia, now
Massachusetts, and was educated at Boston
artbreak."
part of Czechoslovakia-a little trouble
Latin School and Harvard. He served twice
donor and com-
there-and today lives in Guilford, Ver-
as chairman of the fine arts department at
was born in
mont. A child prodigy at four, he made his
Harvard and later was appointed the
lives in River-
European debut at the age of 12. He made
Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Fine
most noted for
his first American debut in Washington,
Arts. In 1983 he became chief curator with
for the New York
DC, in 1933. A world acclaimed concert
the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
for new pro-
pianist, Mr. Serkin has toured extensively
A distinguished art historian and curator,
Opera include
and taught at the Curtis Institute, where he
Samuel Barber's
Professor Freedberg has written five major
served as director from 1968 through 1976.
He's assisted or-
books and influenced generations of art his-
There he helped establish the Marlboro
torians and students.
composers nation-
Music School and Festival in Vermont. Mr.
Serkin regrets that he can't be with us
here in Washing-
today, but accepting for him is his grand-
The President. Well, again, just thank you
first appeared on
daughter, Ms. Sarah Ludwig.
all. God bless you all. And, again, a great
in "A Royal
Roger L. Stevens was born in Detroit and
congratulation, I know, for all those who
roles include
grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He began
are here-the recipients of this award. And
Harriet Bee-
his career as a real estate dealer and later
now, we're going to run real fast down the
delighted au-
became a major theatrical producer in New
hall. [Laughter]
pictures, on
York City and London. In total, he has pro-
beloved and versa-
duced or coproduced nearly 200 plays. He
deserving of the
chaired the John F. Kennedy Center for the
heatre.
Performing Arts from 1961 to 1988, guiding
Note: The President spoke at 1:13 p.m. in
the Residence at the White House.
1027
Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1987 / June 18
ior
to
the
recep-
nomic zones. The United States neither rec-
secure access for U.S. fishermen to the
a
fundraising
ognizes nor claims jurisdiction over tuna
stocks wherever they migrate beyond a
beyond 12 nautical miles. As mandated by
narrow belt of coastal waters. The Treaty
the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and
provides for the issuance of regional li-
Management Act, the United States Gov-
censes for tuna fishing in some ten million
ernment has prohibited imports of tuna
square miles of the South Pacific Ocean.
from several countries as a result of seizures
Data collected on tuna catch may provide a
of U.S. tuna boats by nations exercising ju-
basis for future management and conserva-
risdictional claims. This dispute has resulted
tion efforts. It thus furthers U.S. fisheries
in a cycle of tuna vessel seizures and conse-
policy goals while eliminating the primary
quential U.S.-imposed trade embargoes that
source of bilateral friction between the
806(d)
(to
be
has resulted in serious erosion of our good
United States and the Pacific Island states.
2185)
are
dele-
relations with the countries of the region
I recommend that the Senate give early
fense.
and has provided the Soviet Union with an
consideration to the Treaty, with annexes
in
the
Presi-
opportunity to exploit these differences
and agreed statement, and give its advice
codified
at
10
through fisheries agreements.
and consent to ratification at an early date.
the
Secretary
United States policy under the Magnuson
in
consultation
RONALD REAGAN
Act has been to negotiate international
agreements to ensure the effective conser-
The White House,
State
and
De-
vation and management of tuna and to
June 18, 1987.
other
and
with
riate Executive
n
carrying
out
12576
of
De-
Appointment of Henry W. Maier as a Member of the Advisory
perseded.
Commission on Intergovernmental Relations
ALD
REAGAN
June 18, 1987
The President today announced his inten-
of Mayors, the National League of Cities,
tion to appoint Henry W. Maier, mayor of
and the National Conference of Democratic
Federal
Regis-
Milwaukee, WI, to be a member of the Ad-
Mayors. From 1953 to 1960, he served as
visory Commission on Intergovernmental
State senator.
Relations for a term of 2 years. He would
Mr. Maier graduated from the University
succeed Joseph P. Riley, Jr.
of Wisconsin (B.A., 1940; M.A., 1964). He
Since 1960 Mr. Maier has served as the
served in the U.S. Navy. Mayor Maier was
tes-United
mayor of Milwaukee, WI. He is recognized
as a dean of American mayors and is the
born February 7, 1918, in Dayton, OH. He
only mayor to head all three national mu-
is married, has two children, and resides in
nicipal organizations: the U.S. Conference
Milwaukee, WI.
xchanged
with
New
Guinea
Remarks at a Luncheon for Recipients of the National Medal of Arts
areas,
and
of
State
June 18, 1987
the
United
The President. Well, thank you, all of you,
Chairman, Andrew Heiskell, for their help
a
fisheries
dis-
for being with us today on this third annual
in furthering our cultural life. Finally, let
and
states
as
a
conferring of the National Medal of Art.
me thank the Congress-in particular, Sena-
arding
jurisdic-
Thanks also to the National Council on the
tor Edward Kennedy, who is graciously
The
Pacific
Arts, for its work and for providing us with
hosting the reception this evening-for join-
over
tuna
a fine list of nominees, and to our Commit-
ing with us in supporting the arts and in
exclusive
eco-
tee on the Arts and Humanities and its
celebrating the achievements of our best
681
June 18 / Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1987
artists and their supporters.
so that the great heritage that is ours may
We honor today seven artists and four
be enriched by, as well as itself enrich,
patrons of the arts. We do this in the bicen-
other enduring traditions. We honor the
tennial year of our Constitution. The Con-
arts not because we want monuments to
stitution is the framework of our liberty and
our own civilization but because we are a
the guarantor of our rights. Its drafting two
free people. The arts are among our na-
centuries ago was one of the few truly revo-
tion's finest creations and the reflection of
lutionary acts in the annals of human gov-
freedom's light.
ernment. And the great constitutional phi-
The National Medal of Arts is to recog-
losopher Herbert J. Storing has written that
nize those among us who make this possi-
unlike any governing system before it the
ble. So now, Nancy, who does such a fine
Constitution was "widely, fully, and vigor-
job as honorary chairman of our Committee
ously debated in the country at large; and
on the Arts and Humanities, will announce
adopted by open and representative proce-
the honorees.
dure." Here in America, that is, the people
Mrs. Reagan. Romare Bearden was born
gave powers to the government, not the
other way around.
in Charlotte, North Carolina, but grew up
Yes, here in America government existed
in Harlem, where he was influenced by the
from the very first moment to preserve and
music and culture of jazz. University-
protect and defend the unalienable rights of
trained in mathematics, in the end, he de-
cided to become an artist. The New York
man. The Constitution was not just a state-
ment of policy or procedure. It showed the
Times wrote of his 1986 "Retrospective,"
depth of the Founders on learning and
that "Bearden's tapestries are about
grasp of culture, without which they
memory and forgetting, wisdom and laugh-
couldn't have produced the Constitution. It
ter, silence and song." Romare Bearden is
should come as no surprise, then, that the
an exceptional artist, reflecting the Ameri-
Founders viewed the arts as essential ele-
can surroundings of his own life. Mr. Bear-
ments of the new American nation. George
den. [Applause]
Washington declared in 1781 that both
Ella Fitzgerald was born in Newport
"arts and sciences are essential to the pros-
News, Virginia, and received her early
perity of the state and to the ornament and
music education in the public schools of
happiness of human life." And Thomas Jef-
Yonkers, New York. As a teenager, she won
ferson was himself an artist as well as a
an amateur contest at Harlem's Apollo The-
politician. And John Adams spoke of his
ater, and within a year, she had an engage-
duty to study "politics and war, that my
ment with the Chick Webb Band. She's
sons may have liberty to study mathematics
toured widely in this country and abroad,
and philosophy, geography, natural history
teaming with such greats as Louis Arm-
and naval architecture, navigation, com-
strong, Count Basie, and Duke Elllington.
merce and agriculture, in order to give
Ella Fitzgerald is indeed our First Lady of
their children a right to study painting,
Song.
poetry, music, and architecture."
Howard Nemerov was born in New York
Well, today it is John Adams' grandchil-
City and graduated from Harvard Universi-
dren's great-great-grandchildren who have
ty. He's authored over two dozen books and
that right. And let us resolve that our
taught at several universities. His work
schools will teach our children the same re-
covers the entire spectrum of American cul-
spect and appreciation for the arts and hu-
ture and rituals, including poems about
manities that the Founders had. Why do
trees, water, people, and science. He's also
we, as a free people, honor the arts? Well,
a scholar of Dante, Shakespeare, Words-
the answer is both simple and profound.
worth, and Blake. A Pulitzer Prize winner,
The arts and the humanities teach us who
Howard Nemerov is truly a great writer
we are and what we can be. They lie at the
and scholar.
very core of the culture of which we're a
Alwin Nikolais was born in Southington,
part, and they provide the foundation from
Connecticut, and received his first commis-
which we may reach out to other cultures
sion to choreograph in 1940. He served as
682
Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1987 / June 18
ge that is ours may
director of the Henry Street Playhouse for
productions throughout the country. He's
ell as itself enrich,
22 years, and there he developed his form
also funded a theatre complex at Iowa State
ns. We honor the
of abstract theatre. His career has now
University, a professorial chair of music at
ant monuments to
spanned four decades. Considered by many
the University of Iowa, and a fine arts and
because we are a
a revolutionary figure in the art of dance,
theatre center in his home town of Mar-
are among our na-
Alwin Nikolais is an extraordinary part of
shalltown. Bill Fisher, your generosity is in
d the reflection of
that extraordinary American art form.
the American tradition, and the art of opera
Isamu Noguchi was born in Los Angeles,
is the better for it.
of Arts is to recog-
but received his early education in Japan.
Dr. Armand Hammer was born in New
no make this possi-
He later apprenticed as a Guggenheim
York City and trained as a physician. He
o does such a fine
fellow with Brancusi, and he collaborated
began his business career in the Soviet
of our Committee
with Martha Graham, designing the sets for
Union while waiting for his medical intern-
ities, will announce
"Frontier." His unique sculpture bridges
ship. After his return in the 1930's, he orga-
East and West. Committed to the art of our
nized the Hammer Galleries. As a philan-
Bearden was born
time, and yet an inspired reinventor of
thropist-I seem to be having trouble with
much that's ancient, Isamu Noguchi is a
olina, but grew up
my words-[laughter}-Dr. Hammer has
influenced by the
great artist and a great symbolic link be-
enriched the collections of many museums,
tween America and Japan.
jazz. University-
and his humanitarian endeavors have had
William Schuman was born in New York
in the end, he de-
worldwide impact. Dr. Hammer couldn't be
ist. The New York
City. He had his own jazz band and wrote
with us today, but he's asked Mr. William
6 "Retrospective,"
popular songs in high school. And then he
McSweeny, president of Occidental Interna-
turned to symphonic music at 19, after
stries are about
hearing a concert of the New York Philhar-
tional Corporation, to accept for him.
wisdom and laugh-
monic. Mr. Schuman became president of
Frances and Sydney Lewis have devoted
Romare Bearden is
the Juilliard School, establishing the Juilliard
a lifetime to supporting the arts. Frances
lecting the Ameri-
String Quartet and reforming the teaching
was born in New York City, and Sydney in
own life. Mr. Bear-
of music theory. As a composer of 10 sym-
Richmond, Virginia, where they both now
phonies, 5 concertos, and many other
live. They've spent 25 years collecting con-
born in Newport
works, and as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Wil-
temporary paintings, sculpture, design, and
ceived her early
liam Schuman's contribution to the music of
decorative arts; and they've supported art-
public schools of
America is enormous and lasting.
ists from all over the country. Their gener-
teenager, she won
Robert Penn Warren was born in Guth-
osity and a portion of their collection pro-
rlem's Apollo The-
rie, Kentucky. As a junior at Vanderbilt, he
vide the basis for the new wing of the Vir-
he had an engage-
joined John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, and
ginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.
Vebb Band. She's
Donald Davidson, who edited the magazine
Frances and Sydney Lewis, you continue
untry and abroad,
The Fugitive. Mr. Warren has published 17
the American tradition as great and sensi-
ts as Louis Arm-
books of poetry and 10 novels. A recipient
tive volunteers for the arts.
Duke Elllington.
of 3 Pulitzer Prizes, 2 in poetry and 1 in
The President. Well, now, Nancy, thank
our First Lady of
fiction, Mr. Warren is our first Poet Laure-
you, and thank all of you. Our honorees
ate. His contributions to American letters
today have truly been leaders in writing the
born in New York
are nothing short of extraordinary. Mr.
history of American freedom. So, all that's
Harvard Universi-
Warren was unable to come today but has
left for us to say now to all of you, in addi-
0 dozen books and
asked his friend, Mr. John Broderick, Assist-
tion to congratulations to all of them, and a
rsities. His work
ant Librarian of the Library of Congress, to
thank you to them for what they have con-
n of American cul-
accept for him.
tributed, and to all of you for being here
ng poems about
J. William Fisher was born in Marshall-
also. Once again, thank you, and God bless
science. He's also
town, Iowa, and was a composer in his early
you all.
kespeare, Words-
days. But he's best known as one who's
zer Prize winner,
spent a lifetime helping American opera,
Note: The President spoke at 1:34 p.m. in
y a great writer
has been responsible for over 60 new opera
the East Room at the White House.
n in Southington,
his first commis-
40. He served as
683
NATIONAL MEDAL OF ARTS
This medal was established by P.L. 98-306 of May 31, 1984.
The President shall from time to time award the medal, on
the basis of recommendations from the National Council on
the Arts, to individuals or groups who in the President's
judgement are deserving of special recognition by reason
of their outstanding contributions to the excellence,
growth, support, and availability of the arts in the
United States.
Not more than 12 of such medals may be awarded in any
calendar year.
An individual may be awarded the medal only if at the
time such award is made such individual (1) is a citizen
or other national of the United States; or (2) is an alien
lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent res-
idence who has filed an application or petition for natural-
ization in the manner prescribed by the Immigration and
Nationality Act and is not permanently ineligible to become
a citizen of the United States.
A group may be awarded the medal only if such group is
organized or incorporated in the United States.
The presentation of the medal shall be made by the President
with such ceremonies as the President may deem proper,
including attendance by appropriate Members of Congress.
The first Medals were presented by the President on April 23,
1985, at the White House.
In addition to the medal, the recipients also receive a
citation signed by the President.
NOTE: The President on May 17, 1983, presented Recognition
Certificates to 12 artists and patrons of the arts. These
recipients were selected by the President's Committee on
the Arts and the Humanities. Now that the National Medal
of Arts has been established, this Recognition Program will
not be used in the future.
gruka
repm
Houri
dems
NFT
when
Franksell
amp
arts
Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1985 / Apr. 23
nember of a military
to the practices for
Remarks at a Luncheon for Recipients of the National Medal of Arts
military missions
April 23, 1985
for over 35 years.
will not use lethal
The President. Well, thank you, all of you,
the unthinkable and create the audacious;
pression.
dem
practices on the
for being here. It's a great pleasure and an
they are free to make both horrendous mis-
sonnel in the Feder-
honor for Nancy and me to welcome you to
takes and glorious celebrations. Where
vs
Members of the
the White House today.
there's liberty, art succeeds.
have written in-
This is an historic occasion. Two years
In societies that are not free, art dies. In
The use of lethal
ago, I asked Frank Hodsoll to work with
the totalitarian societies of the world, all art
was not only
Congress to establish a National Medal of
is officially approved. It's the expression not
practice under an
the Arts. And last year Congress passed this
of the soul but of the state. And this state-
an
outrage.
legislation, and today we award the first
sanctioned art is usually, as a rule, 99 per-
was a senseless,
medals.
cent of the time, utterly banal, utterly
raises serious ques-
Before we do, there's some thanks in
common. It is lowest common denominator
to Soviet mili-
order to those who worked to make this
art. In fact, it is not art at all; for art is an
the world. The
ceremony possible. I want to thank the
expression of creativity, and creativity, as
expresses regret. We
Committee on the Arts and Humanities and
I've said, is born in freedom-which is not
enough. What is
its Chairman, Andrew Heiskell. Thanks are
to suggest that great artists who love the
that they recognize
due also to Senators Robert Stafford, Clai-
truth of art cannot be found in totalitarian
borne Pell, and Paul Simon and Congress-
states. They're there. Visit a prison, you'll
we have from the
man Tom Coleman for their leadership in
find a number of them. Their garrets are
belief that the So-
enacting this legislation. And thanks also to
jail cells; their crime is that they refused to
Nicholson's family
Frank Hodsoll, the National Council of the
put their minds in chains and their souls in
ensation for Major
Arts, and Robert Graham, the artist who
solitary. Some artists are forced to the
for his child. In his
designed the medal that we're about to
fringes of society. Their work is repressed.
Zaytsev, General
award today. And finally, thanks to Ambas-
These artists may be unpersons, but all of
siderations fully and
sador Terra for that wonderful reception
them are heroes.
did not accept
last night. So, thanks to you all.
I know you feel solidarity with them; I
them to higher
Now, that was the serious part; now to
know you often think of your brother and
stated in our
the fun part. We award today for the first
sister artists throughout the world. And I
The Soviets subse-
time in our history the National Medal of
hope you continue to pay tribute to them
to respond to
Arts. The purpose of this medal is to recog-
by celebrating freedom in your work and in
we will contin-
nize both individuals and groups who have
your lives.
are matters of
made outstanding contributions to the ex-
I happen to think, though, that to be an
tinued Soviet refusal
cellence and availability of the arts in the
artist is always difficult, even in free soci-
a responsible and
United States. And through this medal, we
eties. Expressing the truth in ideas requires
not fail to have ad-
recognize both the artist and the patron,
risk-risk for the artist and risk for the
relations.
both the creator of art and the supporter
patron. There's no way of knowing in ad-
and encourager of the creator of art. The
vance how society will receive a new idea.
read the statement
one needs the other, and the United States
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "To be great is
Room at the
needs both.
to be misunderstood." It's my hope that this
daily press brief-
In recognizing those who create and
medal today will go some way to telling the
p.m.
those who make creation possible, we cele-
great artists here in this room that I think
brate freedom. No one realizes the impor-
we finally understand you.
tance of freedom more than the artist, for
We celebrate today the courage, talent,
only in the atmosphere of freedom can the
and commitment of the American artists
arts flourish. Artists have to be brave; they
here assembled. We celebrate also the cour-
live in the realm of idea and expression,
age, generosity, and far-sightedness of the
and their ideas will often be provocative
patrons who have helped bring American
and unusual. Artists stretch the limits of un-
art to broad audiences and to preserve
derstanding. They express ideas that are
great works for the future. We thank all of
sometimes unpopular. In an atmosphere of
you for your great work. You've done honor
liberty, artists and patrons are free to think
to your nation.
485
Apr. 23 / Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1985
And now, Nancy will help me announce
just last week visited her in New Mexico.
the honorees.
Lincoln Kirstein was born in Rochester,
Mrs. Reagan. Hallmark Cards is repre-
New York. Mr. Kirstein devoted his life to
sented today by Donald Hall, chairman of
the patronage and development of Ameri-
the board and chief executive officer. Hall-
can ballet. It was his dream to start a ballet
mark is an outstanding example of enlight-
company. He preserved, and out of his col-
ened corporate support of arts, nationally
laboration with George Balanchine grew
and locally. Hallmark supports ballet, opera,
both the School of American Ballet and the
symphonic music, and theater. It's brought
New York City Ballet. A poet, art critic, and
the arts to the children of Kansas City and
writer on dance, he founded the dance
has won 49 Emmies for its production,
index and the dance archives of the
"The Hallmark Hall of Fame." And last
Museum of Modern Art. Mr. Kirstein's im-
night, it added to its awards by being given
print on ballet is truly indelible.
the TV Academy's Hall of Fame Award. So,
Leontyne Price was born in Laurel, Mis-
we're just adding our own to that.
sissippi. And she's one of our greatest opera
Louise Nevelson is a distinguished artist
singers. She made her debut with the San
who has made a significant contribution to
Francisco and Metropolitan Operas in 1961.
the art of the 20th century. She's one of a
She's appeared abroad with numerous com-
handful of truly original and major artists in
panies but has spent the major part of her
America. As a young woman, she studied
career in the United States doing opera,
painting, sculpture, drawing, voice, acting,
concerts, recitals, and recordings. Through
and modern dance. She developed her per-
recordings, Ms. Price's artistry will live on
sonal approach to sculpture by using wood
for future generations as one of the greatest
in a unique way to create environments.
opera artists of our time.
She's won many awards and honors. And
Paul Mellon has devoted a lifetime to the
we're happy today to add to those. She says
enrichment of the arts. He began by accu-
she's used to carrying heavy things. [Laugh-
mulating books and paintings on sports, and
ter]
this eventually extended to other fields. His
Jose Ferrer was born in Puerto Rico. He
generosity has supplied a variety of cities
made his debut on the New York stage in
with museum structures and collections of
1935, a recipient of three Tony Awards for
European art. All of us are familiar with the
acting and directing. He's most remem-
magnificent Mellon treasures at the Nation-
bered for performances on film, stage, and
al Gallery of Art, where Mr. Mellon's lead-
on television as Cyrano de Bergerac. Mr.
ership as Trustee and Chairman of the
Ferrer has certainly enriched the art of sta-
Board has been extraordinary. Mr. Mellon
gecraft. He became the general director of
has truly enriched our Capital and the
the New York City Theater Company in
Nation.
1948. And he, too, has won innumerable
awards, and his credits are too long to go
Alice Tully was born in Corning, New
into. We'd be here all day. Jose.
York. Ms. Tully is a leading patron of music
Georgia O'Keeffe was born in Sun Prai-
in New York and throughout the Nation.
rie, Wisconsin. She worked in her early
She's also an artist. And after studying voice
years as a commercial artist and art supervi-
in Paris and giving concerts, she gave up
sor in public schools. For 30 years, she re-
performance and devoted herself to philan-
sided in New Mexico painting landscapes,
thropy. Her major gift was the chamber
flowers, stones, and skeletons with singular
music hall at Lincoln Center, which was
vision. She's turned ordinary objects into
dedicated to her in 1969. She's been a
fascinating subjects. Her giant-sized, single
board member of Juilliard School of Music
flower blossoms are recognized around the
and the New School of Music in Philadel-
world. Mrs. O'Keeffe's contribution to
phia and helped organize the Chamber
painting is now part of the American herit-
Music of Lincoln Center. Ms. Tully's gener-
age. She's unable to be with us today, but
osity has enhanced the field of music and
accepting her medal will be Carter Brown,
brought excellent music to millions.
Director of the National Gallery of Art, who
Ralph Ellison is an author and educator
486
Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1985 / Apr. 23
in New Mexico.
whose academic career has included posi-
the honorary chairwoman of the 20th Anni-
in Rochester,
tions at Bard College, UCLA, the University
versary Committee, who also happens to be
devoted his life to
of Chicago, Rutgers, Yale, and New York
my most generous patron, my roommate-
opment of Ameri-
University. The recipient of many awards,
[laughter]-and also my friend, Charlton
to start a ballet
here and abroad, he's best known for his
Heston, the chairman of the committee.
and out of his col-
collection of essays and the very distin-
For two decades now the National En-
Balanchine grew
guished American novel of the postwar
dowment has been doing wonderful work.
Ballet and the
period, "Invisible Man." Mr. Ellison's contri-
Most recently, they've been involved in a
art critic, and
bution to American society certainly will
great endeavor to preserve and protect our
unded the dance
not be forgotten.
rich heritage of film and television and the
archives of the
Dorothy Buffum Chandler-Buffie-is a
dance. And they've been building endow-
Mr. Kirstein's im-
great patron and civic leader for the arts in
ments for fine art institutions and helping
lelible.
Los Angeles. She conceived and organized
struggling young artists find an audience.
in Laurel, Mis-
the funding of the Los Angeles Music
And the members of the Endowment
our greatest opera
Center, which in 1964 opened the Dorothy
would all be the first to say that none of
ebut with the San
Chandler Pavilion. More than 35 million
their great work would have succeeded
Operas in 1961.
people have attended events at this center.
without the generous financial help and
numerous com-
Enriching the lives of the people of Los
support of the American people, of un-
major part of her
Angeles with theater, classical music, ballet,
known, unsung citizens who each day vol-
doing opera,
the Center stimulated the flowering of the
unteer their time and money to encourage
ecordings. Through
performing arts throughout Los Angeles
the arts.
will live on
County. Buff Chandler's represented here
Just last week, as a matter of fact, the
one of the greatest
by her daughter, Camilla Chandler Frost.
New Orleans Symphony was too low on
Elliott Carter is a distinguished composer
funds to continue their performances. The
a lifetime to the
who studied at Harvard and later in Paris
city rallied round the group in a new pri-
began by accu-
with the famous Nadia Boulanger. He's
vate sector initiative called Proud Citizens
on sports, and
taught at St. John's University, Columbia,
for Our Culture. In just 4 days, $445,000
to other fields. His
Yale, Cornell, and the Juilliard School of
was raised by the volunteers. And I am told
a variety of cities
Music. He's a recipient of numerous awards,
that hundreds of thousands of dollars will be
and collections of
including two Pulitzer Prizes for music. Mr.
forthcoming from the business community.
familiar with the
Carter.
Now, this is quite a tribute to the perform-
at the Nation-
Martha Graham was born in Pittsburgh,
ing arts.
Mr. Mellon's lead-
Pennsylvania. She's dominated the field of
And today we celebrate the people of
Chairman of the
dance as a teacher, performer, choreogra-
New Orleans and the people from all over
dinary. Mr. Mellon
pher, and director. She's invented new
our country who've made contributions
Capital and the
forms and movements and influenced gen-
such as this. And so, again, a thank you to
erations. So many of our best dancers owe
all of you-artists and patrons and recipi-
in Corning, New
their beginnings to this great lady. Nearly
ents and encouragers-thank you for being
patron of music
60 years later, she is still creating and still
what you are and doing the great work that
ughout the Nation.
giving. Miss Graham.
you do. And thank you for honoring your
after studying voice
The President. Well, thank you, Nancy.
nation.
she gave up
[Laughter] We're proud to be associated
God bless you all.
herself to philan-
with all of you. And we thank you for what
was the chamber
you've done to make America a better
Center, which was
place.
Note: The President spoke at 1:06 p.m. in
969. She's been a
It's fitting that these first National Medals
the State Dining Room at the White House.
School of Music
of Art are being presented on the 20th an-
In his remarks, the President referred to
Music in Philadel-
niversary of the National Endowment of the
United States Ambassador at Large for Cul-
the Chamber
Arts. I congratulate the Endowment and
tural Affairs Daniel J. Terra.
Ms. Tully's gener-
field of music and
to
millions.
and educator
487
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 15, 1989
MEMORANDUM FOR CHRISS WINSTON
FROM:
ROGER B. PORTER
RBP
SUBJECT:
Presidential Remarks: National Medal of Arts
The remarks are well written and should provide an excellent
centerpiece for what is sure to be a great event. We have no
suggested changes from a policy standpoint and approve of the
draft in its present form.
CC: James W. Cicconi
98:8v IIII 01 188 00
CLOSE HOLD
Document No. 09014455
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
11/14/89
11/15/89 2:00 PM
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
WINSTON
DEMAREST
PINKERTON
FITZWATER
PORTER ROSE
GRAY
FIRESTONE
HAGIN
HODSOLL
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 PM, Wednesday, November 15, with a
copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
CLOSE HOLD
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Grant/Simon
November 14, 1989
1989 NOV 14 PM 5: 19
Draft two
A:medal
REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
AWARDS LUNCHEON / EAST ROOM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
12:00 NOON
Thank you, all of you, for being here today for the fifth
annual presentation of the National Medal of the Arts. It's a
great pleasure and an honor for Barbara and me to welcome you to
the White House. I would like to thank the National Council on
the Arts for its list of nominees; and the Committee on the Arts
and Humanities, as well as John Frohnmayer, chairman of the
National Endowment for the Arts, for all their hard work.
Dante once wrote that "Art imitates nature as well as it
can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of
grandchild of God." As this "grandchild of God," art embraces
our values and history, gives meaning to our existence and
illuminates the basic human truths which give us purpose. In a
way, art defines our civilization.
But in another, more personal way, art opens entire new
worlds for each of us, letting us see and hear and even feel life
through the mind of someone else -- from new perspectives.
Instead of seeing a single world, we can see as many worlds as
there are artists and writers, dancers and musicians.
The diversity of art in this Nation is truly a product of
the diversity of our democracy. The American arts, like a many-
faceted mirror, have been a colorful reflection of our Nation's
2
history. The music of the frontier led to the blues of the
bayou, and the swing bands of the cities. The primitivism of the
early painters gave way to the romanticism of the Hudson River
school and later the abstract expressionism of recent times. In
architecture, Americans see everything from neoclassicism and
modernism. Modern photography and filmmaking have their roots in
the tintypes of the Civil War era. And from our earliest
writings to this week's bestseller list, we've seen American
poetry, novels and short stories earn a unique place in the
literature of the world. Cities like New York and Los Angeles
have become art capitals of international importance, and
regional orchestras, museums, dance troupes and opera companies
have enjoyed spectacular successes.
Today, we honor a group of men and women whose creative
ideas, talent and passion have added so much to the rich tapestry
that is our Nation's cultural heritage. Their work is not just
of the mind but of the heart and of the soul.
Some have challenged us. Some have amazed us. Some have
brought remarkable beauty of sight and sound to us. But all have
helped us to think and to dream and to understand ourselves and
our world a little better.
Today, we honor Alfred Eisenstaedt for his photography,
Dizzy Gillespie for his jazz innovations, and John Updike for his
prose. Katherine Dunham for her dance and choreography, Walker
Hancock for his sculpture, Czeslaw Milosz for his poetry, Robert
Motherwell for his paintings, and Leopold Adler for his historic
3
building renovations. ((And we honor someone whose great talent
and energy will live on long after the thunder of his music has
faded, the late Vladimir Horowitz.)
And we honor the patrons of the arts -- those who understand
that without the artistic creativity of its people, no nation can
be whole -- and those whose dedication, energy and commitment
have sustained that creativity over the years. We honor Martin
Friedman of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Leigh Gerdine
of Webster University in St. Louis, and the Dayton Hudson
Corporation. And now, Barbara will award the National Medal of
the Arts to our recipients.
( (FIRST LADY PRESENTS AWARDS. SEE ATTACHED CITATIONS))
((BACK TO THE PRESIDENT)) Thank you, Barbara. I
congratulate each of you, for your achievements, your dreams and
your passion. You have honored this Nation, and America is
grateful to you. God bless you, and God bless America.
Congratulations once again.
# # #
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
((THE FIRST LADY))
1989 NOV 14 PM 5: 19 1989
Leopold Adler, II is a nationally recognized expert in
historic preservation, and a native of Savannah, Georgia. Mr.
Adler changed the face of his home town and demonstrated for many
other civic leaders how to revitalize an old city with great
potential. He was the driving force behind two remarkable
experiments in inner city revitalization: one resulted in the
designation of the historic section of Savannah as a "National
Historic District"; and the other in the renovation of low income
housing in the Victorian district of the city. Mr. Adler has
been active nationally, and served as a trustee for almost a
decade for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. ((Read
Citation on Medal))
Katherine Dunham is an innovative and outstanding dancer and
choreographer. Born in Chicago, she founded the Ballet Negre
there in 1931. The Dunham Company, the first Black professional
dance company in America, performed throughout the world from
1938 through 1963, presenting the dance, music and folklore of
Third World countries and the U.S. For over thirty years, Ms.
Dunham maintained the only permanently self-subsidized dance
troupe in America. She also founded the Dunham School of Arts
and Research in New York, which became a reservoir of talent for
Broadway, Hollywood and the world. The Dunham Technique is
described as a "style of dance and a philosophy of life." Many
of our present day works on stage and screen reflect her profound
influence. ((Citation))
2
Alfred Eisenstaedt is the quintessential photojournalist who
pioneered the introduction of the candid camera technique into
news reporting. After emigrating from West Prussia in 1935, he
became one of the original photography staff of the new Life
Magazine. Eisenstaedt's most famous photo is that of the sailor
kissing the nurse in Times Square at the end of World War II, and
it has come to embody America's joy and relief at the end of the
war. As a photographer, he has won almost every major award
given to those in his profession. Now, at the age of 90, he can
claim to have covered the significant events of the past 50 years
and has left us as his legacy a photographic record of the
writers, musicians, statesmen, scientists and educators of our
time, and the historic events surrounding them. ((Citation))
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie is a world famous jazz
trumpeter, who began working with a trumpet at the age of 12.
Mr. Gillespie is a pivotal figure in 20th Century American music,
and an innovator in the "bebop" movement in modern jazz. While
playing with Earl "Fatha" Hines, he developed a radical new
approach to improvisation that was to change the course of modern
music making. He was the featured trumpeter with many of
America's leading swing orchestras, including the bands of Teddy
Hill, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, and Billy
Eckstine's legendary orchestra of 1944. Dizzy Gillespie is
credited with introducing Afro-Cuban rhythms into jazz in 1947
and the South American bossa nova to the United States. He is
the author of "To Be, or Not to Bop." ((Citation))
3
Walker Kirtland Hancock is a renowned sculptor whose work
spans a period of 70 years. He began it by sculpting the bust of
an orphan and was awarded a Prix de Rome while still an
apprentice. He has spent a lifetime sculpting over 268 pieces --
many of them portrait busts, monuments and medals -- in the
heroic Renaissance style of Florence. Mr. Hancock has sculpted
busts of John Paul Jones, President Abraham Lincoln, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey, then-Vice President Gerald Ford, and
Chief Justice Warren Burger. In 1971, he commented on the
similarity of his philosophy on sculpture with that of the Greek
civilization -- he observed that the Greeks were the ones who
"began to carve images in honor of ordinary mortals, " "making
heroes of them. " He said that celebrating heroes was "still one
of the worthy functions of sculpture." ( (Citation) )
( (Vladimir Horowitz biography to come) )
4
Czeslaw Milosz is a poet and educator, whom Joseph Brodsky
has called "one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the
greatest." Mr. Milosz was born in Lithuania in 1911 and
emigrated to the U.S. in 1960, becoming a naturalized citizen in
1970. Known as one of the leaders in the avant-garde poetry
movement in Poland during the 1930's, Mr. Milosz served in the
Resistance during World War II and edited an anti-Nazi anthology,
"Invincible Song." He also served in the Polish diplomatic
service. He has written several works in English, and in 1980 he
won the Nobel Prize for Literature. ( (Citation))
Robert Motherwell is a great painter known throughout the
world as a leader in the New York School of Abstract
Expressionism. Mr. Motherwell's first shows occurred in Paris in
1939 and in this country in New York in 1944. By the 1960's and
1970's, his work was featured in most of the major museums and
galleries in the United States. Early in his career he found
himself surrounded by European artists-in-exile, particularly
Surrealists and Cubists. In the 1940's, Mr. Motherwell created
"monumental canvases" from his collages, often in stark black and
white. By the 1960's he was producing large scale works, such as
the "Open" series done with a monochromatic palette. He has
earned a place as one of America's great artists. ((Citation))
5
John Updike is the author of over 36 books of poetry,
novels, short stories and essays. As a novelist, he has written
about his early childhood in Pennsylvania and later as an adult
of his experiences in Massachusetts, where he now lives. He
began as a writer for the New Yorker Magazine, then authored the
novels The Poorhouse Fair, Rabbit, Run, and among many others,
The Centaur. His 1984 novel, The Witches of Eastwick was made
into a major motion picture. In 1982 Mr. Updike received the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the American Book Award and
the National Book Critics Circle Award for writing Rabbit is
Rich. John Updike is one of the best chroniclers of American
small town life in literature. ((Citation))
Martin Friedman is one of our Nation's most innovative and
scholarly museum directors. Mr. Friedman has served as Director
of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis since 1961, making that
institution into one of the premier small museums in this country
-- in exhibitions as well as a major presenter of performing
arts. He has served as a Presidentially appointed member of the
National Council on the Arts, and was made an Officier des Arts
et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 1984. Mr.
Friedman is recognized worldwide as a director of a museum which
presents contemporary art, architecture and design as well as
innovative film and performing arts presentations. ((Citation) )
6
Leigh Gerdine is an outstanding civic leader who has paved
the way for the development of every major cultural institution
in St. Louis. A resident of that city for nearly four decades,
he was professor and chairman of the Department of Music at
Washington University in St. Louis from 1950 to 1970; for the
last 18 years, he has been president of Webster University in St.
Louis. Leigh Gerdine has helped shape the cultural activities of
St. Louis and has provided a level of leadership which has
enabled the city to become a major arts center in our country.
Mr. Gerdine has been deeply involved in the St. Louis Symphony,
the St. Louis Repertory Company, and was the founding chairman of
the St. Louis Opera Theater, now one of the most widely acclaimed
companies in the country. ((Citation))
Dayton Hudson Corporation has been a leader in corporate
giving for 42 years -- giving five percent of its Federallly
taxable income for worthwhile community programs and currently
forty percent of that figure to the arts. Dayton Hudson's policy
in grant making has been targeted to programs and projects that
increase, on a long-term basis, a community's resources making it
a more vital place in which to live. Artistic leadership and
increased access to the arts are primary goals of the funding.
Dayton Hudson's dollar support for the arts ranks among the top
five art supporters in the country -- having contributed over the
last ten years $59 million to art programs in 48 states and the
District of Columbia. Dayton Hudson has generously contributed
to both institutional projects as well as individual artists.
((Citation))
Grant/Simon
November 15, 1989
Draft three
A:medal
REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
AWARDS LUNCHEON / EAST ROOM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
12:00 NOON
Thank you, all of you, for being here today for the fifth
annual presentation of the National Medal of the Arts. It's a
great pleasure and an honor for Barbara and me to welcome you to
the White House. I would like to thank the National Council on
the Arts, the Committee on the Arts and Humanities, as well as
John Frohnmayer, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts,
and of course, Hugh Southern, for the support and encouragement of
America's cultural life.
Dante once wrote that "Art imitates nature as well as it
can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of
grandchild of God." As this "grandchild of God," art embraces
our values and history, gives meaning to our existence and
illuminates the basic human truths which give us purpose. In a
way, art defines our civilization.
But in another, more personal way, art opens entire new
worlds for each of us, letting us see and hear and even feel life
through the mind of someone else -- from new perspectives.
Instead of seeing a single world, we can see as many worlds as
there are artists and writers, dancers and musicians.
The diversity of art in this Nation is truly a product of
the diversity of our democracy. The American arts, like a many-
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
( (THE FIRST LADY))
Leopold Adler, II is a nationally recognized expert in
historic preservation, and a native of Savannah, Georgia. Mr.
Adler changed the face of his home town and demonstrated for many
other civic leaders how to revitalize an old city with great
potential. He was the driving force behind two remarkable
experiments in inner city revitalization: one resulted in the
designation of the historic section of Savannah as a "National
Historic District"; and the other in the renovation of low income
housing in the Victorian district of the city. Mr. Adler has
also served as a trustee for almost a decade for the National
Trust for Historic Preservation. To Leopold Adler for his civic
leadership in preserving for all time the beauty of Savannah,
Georgia, and for making that city a model of the art of historic
preservation.
Katherine Dunham is an innovative and outstanding dancer and
choreographer. Born in Chicago, she founded the Ballet
Negre [NAY-grh] there in 1931. The Dunham Company, the first
Black professional dance company in America, performed throughout
the world from 1938 through 1963, presenting the dance, music and
folklore of Third World countries and the U.S. For over thirty
years, Ms. Dunham maintained the only permanently self-subsidized
dance troupe in America. She also founded the Dunham School of
Arts and Research in New York The Dunham Technique is described as a
"style of dance and a philosophy of life," reflected in many of
our present day works on stage and screen. To Katherine Dunham
2
for her pioneering explorations of Caribbean and African dance
which have enriched and transformed the art of dance in America.
Alfred Eisenstaedt is the quintessential photojournalist who
pioneered the introduction of the candid camera technique into
news reporting. After emigrating from West Prussia in 1935, he
joined the original photography staff of the new Life Magazine.
Eisenstaedt's most famous The photo of a sailor kissing a nurse
in Times Square at the end of World War II, is Eisenstaedt's most
Phote,
famous and it embodies America's joy and relief. war. As a
photographer, he has won almost every major award given to those
in his profession. Now, at the age of 90, he has left us as his
legacy a photographic record of the writers, musicians,
statesmen, scientists and educators and people of our time, and
the historic events surrounding them. To Alfred Eisenstadt for
the extraordinary photographs that document the tragedies and
triumphs he has witnessed over a lifetime.
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie is a world famous jazz
trumpeter, who began working with a trumpet at the age of 12.
Mr. Gillespie is a pivotal figure in 20th Century American music,
and an innovator in the "bebop" movement in modern jazz. While
playing with Earl "Fatha" Hines, he developed a radical new
approach to improvisation that was to change the course of modern
music making. Over the years, he has been the featured trumpeter
with many of America's leading swing orchestras. Dizzy Gillespie
is credited with introducing Afro-Cuban rhythms into jazz in 1947
and the South American bossa nova to the United States. To John
Berks "Dizzy" Gillespie for his trail-blazing work as a musician
3
who helped elevate jazz to an art form of the first rank, and for
sharing his gift with listeners around the world.
Walker Kirtland Hancock is a renowned sculptor whose work
spans a period of 70 years. He began it by sculpting the bust of
an orphan and was awarded a Prix de Rome while still an
apprentice. He has spent a lifetime sculpting over 268 pieces --
many of them portrait busts, monuments and medals -- in the
heroic Renaissance style of Florence. Mr. Hancock has sculpted
busts of John Paul Jones, President Abraham Lincoln, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey, then-Vice President Gerald Ford, and
Chief Justice Warren Burger
Commenting on the similarity of
his philosophy on sculpture with that of the Greek civilization -
- he observed that the Greeks made heroes of ordinary mortals
making heroes of them. He said that celebrating heroes was
"still one of the worthy functions of sculpture." To Walter
Hancock for his extraordinary conribution to the art of
sculpture, and for demonstrating the enduring beauty of the
classical tradition.
( (Vladimir Horowitz biography to come) )
4
Czeslaw Milosz is a poet and educator, whom Joseph Brodsky
has called "one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the
greatest." Mr. Milosz was born in Lithuania in 1911 and
emigrated to the U.S. in 1960, becoming a naturalized citizen in
1970. Known as one of the leaders in the avant-garde poetry
movement in Poland during the 1930's, Mr. Milosz served in the
Resistance during World War II and edited an anti-Nazi anthology,
"Invincible Song." He has written several works in English, and
in 1980 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. To Czeslaw Milosz
for glorious poetry and prose that celebrates the freedom-loving
spirit not only of his native Poland but that of his adopted
country, the United States.
Robert Motherwell is a great painter known throughout the
world as a leader in the New York School of Abstract
Expressionism. Mr. Motherwell's first shows occurred in Paris in
1939 and in this country in New York in 1944. By the 1960's and
1970's, his work was featured in most of the major museums and
galleries in the United States. In the 1940's, Mr. Motherwell
created "monumental canvases" from his collages, often in stark
black and white. By the 1960's he was producing large scale
works, such as the "Open" series done with a monochromatic
palette. To Robert Motherwell for reflecting in his art the very
essence of American freedom, with paintings that have found a
distinguished place in collections everywhere.
5
John Updike is the author of over 36 books of poetry,
novels, short stories and essays. He began as a writer for the
New Yorker Magazine, then authored the novels The Poorhouse Fair,
Rabbit, Run, and among many others, The Centaur. His 1984 novel,
The Witches of Eastwick was made into a major motion picture. In
1982 Mr. Updike received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well
as the American Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle
Award for writing Rabbit is Rich. To John Updike for novels and
stories that over a forty-year career have given us a wryly
affectionate yet penetrating analysis of the complexity of life
in today's America.
Martin Friedman is one of our Nation's most innovative and
scholarly museum directors. Mr. Friedman has served as Director
of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis since 1961, making that
institution into one of the premier small museums in this country
-- in exhibitions as well as a major presenter of performing
arts. He has served as a Presidentially appointed member of the
National Council on the Arts, and was made an Officier des Arts
et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 1984. To Martin
Friedman for opening the doors of his museum to the best of all
of the arts of our time -- from painting and sculpture to film,
video and performance -- and for opening our eyes to the vital
connections between these forms of expression.
6
Leigh Gerdine is an outstanding civic leader who has paved
the way for the development of every major cultural institution
in St. Louis. A 40-year resident of that city, he was professor
and chairman of the Department of Music at Washington University;
for the last 18 years, he has been president of Webster
University. Leigh Gerdine has helped shape the cultural
activities of St. Louis and has provided a level of leadership
Center
which has enabled the city to become a major arts
Mr. Gerdine
A
has been deeply involved in the St. Louis Symphony, the St. Louis
Repertory Company, and was the founding chairman of the St. Louis
Opera Theater, now one of the most widely acclaimed companies in
the country. To Leigh Gerdine for his distinguished career as a
musician and educator, and for the enlightened patronage which
has earned him the title of "spiritual father of the arts in St.
Louis."
Dayton Hudson Corporation has been a leader in corporate
giving for 42 years -- giving five percent of its Federallly
taxable income for worthwhile community programs and currently
forty percent of that figure to the arts. Dayton Hudson's has
targeted support to programs and projects that increase, on a
long-term basis, a community's resources making it a more vital
place in which to live. Artistic leadership and increased access
to the arts are primary goals of the funding. Dayton Hudson's
dollar support for the arts ranks among the top five art
supporters in the country -- having contributed over the last ten
years $60 million to art programs in 48 states and the District
of Columbia. To Dayton Hudson Corporation for helping to forge a
7
vital partnership between the corporate sector and the arts
community, and for demonstrating how both can benefit in the
process.
x
9-89 THU 17:46
P.02/03
TEXT OF PRESIDENTIAL CITATIONS
FOR THE RECIPIENTS OF 1989 NATIONAL MEDAL OF ARTS
To
Dayton Hudson Corporation for for helping to forge a vital partnership between
the corporate sector and the arts community, and
for demonstrating how both can benefit in the
process.
To
Martin Friedman
for for opening the doors of his museum to the best
of all of the arts of our time-from painting
and sculpture to film, video and performance--
and for opening our eyes to the vital
connections between these forms of expression.
To
Leopold Adler
for
for his civic leadership in preserving for all
time the beauty of Savannah, Georgia, and for
making that city a model of the art of historic
preservation.
To
for
John Berks "Dizzy" Gillespie
for his trail-blazing work as a musician who
helped elevate jazz to an art form of the first
rank, and for sharing his gift with listeners
around the world.
To
for
Walker Hancock
for his extraordinary contribution to the art of
sculpture, and for demonstrating the enduring
beauty of the classical tradition.
To
Leigh Gerdine
for
for his distinguished career as a musician and
educator, and for the enlightened patronage
which has earned him the title of "spiritual
father of the arts in St. Louis."
To
Robert Motherwell
for
for reflecting in his art the very essence of
American freedom, with paintings that have found
a distinguished place in collections everywhere.
conduct eacher, pianist and as
a composer whose work will continue to enrich
ou and those of our children.
9-89 THU 17:46
P.03/03
To
nn Updike
Sol
for novels and stories that over a forty-year
career have given us a wryly affectionate yet
penettating analysis of the complexity of life
in today's America.
11
so
Katherine Dunham
for her pioneering explorations of Caribbean and
African dance which have enriched and
transformed the art of dance in America.
TO Czeslaw Milosz
son
for glorious poetry and prose that celebrates
the freedom-loving spirit not only of his native
Poland but that of his adopted country, the
United States.
to
Alfred Eisenstadt
13
for the extraordinary photographs that document
the tragedies and triumphs he has witnessed over
a lifetime.
CLOSE HOLD
Document No. 09014455
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
11/14/89
11/15/89 2:00 PM
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
WINSTON
DEMAREST
PINKERTON
FITZWATER
PORTER ROSE
GRAY
FIRESTONE
HAGIN
HODSOLL
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 PM, Wednesday, November 15, with a
copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
See comments from Hodsoll
CLOSE HOLD
60 :2d $1100.68
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
CLOSE HOLD
Document No. 09014455
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
11/14/89
11/15/89 2:00 PM
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
WINSTON
DEMAREST
PINKERTON
FITZWATER
PORTER ROSE
GRAY
FIRESTONE
HAGIN
HODSOLL
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 PM, Wednesday, November 15, with a
copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
CLOSE HOLD
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Grant/Simon
November 14, 1989
1989 NOV 14 PM 5: 19
Draft two
A:medal
REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
AWARDS LUNCHEON / EAST ROOM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
12:00 NOON
Thank you, all of you, for being here today for the fifth
annual presentation of the National Medal of the Arts. It's a
great pleasure and an honor for Barbara and me to welcome you to
the White House. I would like to thank the National Council on
the Arts for its list of nominees; and the Committee on the Arts
and Humanities, as well as John Frohnmayer, chairman of the
National Endowment for the Arts, for all their hard work on behalf
of our cultural life
Dante once wrote that "Art imitates nature as well as it
can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of
grandchild of God." As this "grandchild of God," art embraces
our values and history, gives meaning to our existence and
illuminates the basic human truths which give us purpose. In a
way, art defines our civilization.
But in another, more personal way, art opens entire new
worlds for each of us, letting us see and hear and even feel life
through the mind of someone else -- from new perspectives.
Instead of seeing a single world, we can see as many worlds as
there are artists and writers, dancers and musicians.
The diversity of art in this Nation is truly a product of
the diversity of our democracy. The American arts, like a many-
faceted mirror, have been a colorful reflection of our Nation's
montA
A
Insert 2 (A)
We need to make this great diversity of art more a part of the
lives of all Americans. We need to begin this effort in our
schools so that our young people will have a sense of their
heritage and the creativity of the present. And we need to make
sure that our museums, stages and the media make special efforts
to reach out to those that do not regularly participate. The work
of the National Endowment for the Arts is especially important in
these areas.
2
history. The music of the frontier led to the blues of the
bayou, and the swing bands of the cities. The primitivism of the
early painters gave way to the romanticism of the Hudson River
school and later the abstract expressionism of recent times. In
architecture, Americans see everything from neoclassicism and
modernism. Modern photography and filmmaking have their roots in
the tintypes of the Civil War era. And from our earliest
writings to this week's bestseller list, we've seen American
poetry, novels and short stories earn a unique place in the
literature of the world. Cities like New York and Los Angeles
have become art capitals of international importance, and
regional orchestras, museums, dance troupes and opera companies
have enjoyed spectacular successes.
INSERT
Today, we honor a group of men and women whose creative
2A
we need
ideas, talent and passion have added so much to the rich tapestry
to make
this great
that is our Nation's cultural heritage. Their work is not just
disersity
of the mind but of the heart and of the soul.
art more
a part of
Some have challenged us. Some have amazed us. Some have
theflive the
of all
brought remarkable beauty of sight and sound to us. But all have
Americans.
we need
helped us to think and to dream and to understand ourselves and
to beain
this effort
our world a little better.
in our
schools
Today, we honor Alfred Eisenstaedt for his photography,
so that
our young
Dizzy Gillespie for his jazz innovations, and John Updike for his
people
will have
prose. Katherine Dunham for her dance and choreography, Walker
a sense
Hancock for his sculpture, Czeslaw Milosz for his poetry, Robert
of their
heritage
Motherwell for his paintings, and Leopold Adler for his historic
and/the the
make sure that our
the creat need resend. irity at And and we special Augesy
reach out to
extorts
to
those that do not regularly Sallead participate
The work et the National Endowment for
the
and media
the arts is especially important in these areas
3
building renovations. ((And we honor someone whose great talent
and energy will live on long after the thunder of his music has
faded, the late Vladimir Horowitz.)
And we honor the patrons of the arts -- those who understand
that without the artistic creativity of its people, no nation can
be whole -- and those whose dedication, energy and commitment
have sustained that creativity over the years. We honor Martin
Friedman of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Leigh Gerdine
of Webster University in St. Louis, and the Dayton Hudson
Corporation. And now, Barbara will award the National Medal of
the Arts to our recipients.
( (FIRST LADY PRESENTS AWARDS. SEE ATTACHED CITATIONS) )
( (BACK TO THE PRESIDENT) ) Thank you, Barbara. I
congratulate each of you, for your achievements, your dreams and
your passion. You have honored this Nation, and America is
grateful to you. God bless you, and God bless America.
Congratulations once again.
# # #
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
1989
( (THE FIRST LADY))
Leopold Adler, II is a nationally recognized expert in
historic preservation, and a native of Savannah, Georgia. Mr.
Adler changed the face of his home town and demonstrated for many
other civic leaders how to revitalize an old city with great
potential. He was the driving force behind two remarkable
experiments in inner city revitalization: one resulted in the
designation of the historic section of Savannah as a "National
Historic District"; and the other in the renovation of low income
housing in the Victorian district of the city. Mr. Adler has
been active nationally, and served as a trustee for almost a
decade for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. ( (Read
Citation on Medal) )
Katherine Dunham is an innovative and outstanding dancer and
choreographer. Born in Chicago, she founded the Ballet Negre
there in 1931. The Dunham Company, the first Black professional
dance company in America, performed throughout the world from
1938 through 1963, presenting the dance, music and folklore of
Third World countries and the U.S. For over thirty years, Ms.
Dunham maintained the only permanently self-subsidized dance
troupe in America. She also founded the Dunham School of Arts
and Research in New York, which became a reservoir of talent for
Broadway, Hollywood and the world. The Dunham Technique is
described as a "style of dance and a philosophy of life. If Many
of our present day works on stage and screen reflect her profound
influence. ((Citation) )
2
Alfred Eisenstaedt is the quintessential photojournalist who
pioneered the introduction of the candid camera technique into
news reporting. After emigrating from West Prussia in 1935, he
became one of the original photography staff of the new Life
Magazine. Eisenstaedt's most famous photo is that of the sailor
kissing the nurse in Times Square at the end of World War II, and
it has come to embody America's joy and relief at the end of the
war. As a photographer, he has won almost every major award
given to those in his profession. Now, at the age of 90, he can
claim to have covered the significant events of the past 50 years
and has left us as his legacy a photographic record of the
writers, musicians, statesmen, scientists and educators of our
time, and the historic events surrounding them. ((Citation))
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie is a world famous jazz
trumpeter, who began working with a trumpet at the age of 12.
Mr. Gillespie is a pivotal figure in 20th Century American music,
and an innovator in the "bebop" movement in modern jazz. While
playing with Earl "Fatha" Hines, he developed a radical new
approach to improvisation that was to change the course of modern
music making. He was the featured trumpeter with many of
America's leading swing orchestras, including the bands of Teddy
Hill, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, and Billy
Eckstine's legendary orchestra of 1944. Dizzy Gillespie is
credited with introducing Afro-Cuban rhythms into jazz in 1947
and the South American bossa nova to the United States. He is
the author of "To Be, or Not to Bop." ((Citation))
3
Walker Kirtland Hancock is a renowned sculptor whose work
spans a period of 70 years. He began it by sculpting the bust of
an orphan and was awarded a Prix de Rome while still an
apprentice. He has spent a lifetime sculpting over 268 pieces --
many of them portrait busts, monuments and medals -- in the
heroic Renaissance style of Florence. Mr. Hancock has sculpted
busts of John Paul Jones, President Abraham Lincoln, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey, then-Vice President Gerald Ford, and
Chief Justice Warren Burger. In 1971, he commented on the
similarity of his philosophy on sculpture with that of the Greek
civilization -- he observed that the Greeks were the ones who
"began to carve images in honor of ordinary mortals, " "making
heroes of them. " He said that celebrating heroes was "still one
of the worthy functions of sculpture." ( (Citation) )
((Vladimir Horowitz biography to come))
4
Czeslaw Milosz is a poet and educator, whom Joseph Brodsky
has called "one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the
greatest." Mr. Milosz was born in Lithuania in 1911 and
emigrated to the U.S. in 1960, becoming a naturalized citizen in
1970. Known as one of the leaders in the avant-garde poetry
movement in Poland during the 1930's, Mr. Milosz served in the
Resistance during World War II and edited an anti-Nazi anthology,
"Invincible Song." He also served in the Polish diplomatic
service. He has written several works in English, and in 1980 he
won the Nobel Prize for Literature. ((Citation))
Robert Motherwell is a great painter known throughout the
world as a leader in the New York School of Abstract
Expressionism. Mr. Motherwell's first shows occurred in Paris in
1939 and in this country in New York in 1944. By the 1960's and
1970's, his work was featured in most of the major museums and
galleries in the United States. Early in his career he found
himself surrounded by European artists-in-exile, particularly
Surrealists and Cubists. In the 1940's, Mr. Motherwell created
"monumental canvases" from his collages, often in stark black and
white. By the 1960's he was producing large scale works, such as
the "Open" series done with a monochromatic palette. He has
earned a place as one of America's great artists. ((Citation))
5
John Updike is the author of over 36 books of poetry,
novels, short stories and essays. As a novelist, he has written
about his early childhood in Pennsylvania and later as an adult
of his experiences in Massachusetts, where he now lives. He
began as a writer for the New Yorker Magazine, then authored the
novels The Poorhouse Fair, Rabbit, Run, and among many others,
The Centaur. His 1984 novel, The Witches of Eastwick was made
into a major motion picture. In 1982 Mr. Updike received the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the American Book Award and
the National Book Critics Circle Award for writing Rabbit is
Rich. John Updike is one of the best chroniclers of American
small town life in literature. ( (Citation))
Martin Friedman is one of our Nation's most innovative and
scholarly museum directors. Mr. Friedman has served as Director
of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis since 1961, making that
institution into one of the premier small museums in this country
-- in exhibitions as well as a major presenter of performing
arts. He has served as a Presidentially appointed member of the
National Council on the Arts, and was made an Officier des Arts
et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 1984. Mr.
Friedman is recognized worldwide as a director of a museum which
presents contemporary art, architecture and design as well as
innovative film and performing arts presentations. ((Citation))
(
6
Leigh Gerdine is an outstanding civic leader who has paved
the way for the development of every major cultural institution
in St. Louis. A resident of that city for nearly four decades,
he was professor and chairman of the Department of Music at
Washington University in St. Louis from 1950 to 1970; for the
last 18 years, he has been president of Webster University in St.
Louis. Leigh Gerdine has helped shape the cultural activities of
St. Louis and has provided a level of leadership which has
enabled the city to become a major arts center in our country.
Mr. Gerdine has been deeply involved in the St. Louis Symphony,
the St. Louis Repertory Company, and was the founding chairman of
the St. Louis Opera Theater, now one of the most widely acclaimed
companies in the country. ( (Citation))
Dayton Hudson Corporation has been a leader in corporate
giving for 42 years -- giving five percent of its Federallly
taxable income for worthwhile community programs and currently
forty percent of that figure to the arts. Dayton Hudson's policy
in grant making has been targeted to programs and projects that
increase, on a long-term basis, a community's resources making it
a more vital place in which to live. Artistic leadership and
increased access to the arts are primary goals of the funding.
Dayton Hudson's dollar support for the arts ranks among the top
five art supporters in the country -- having contributed over the
last ten years $59 million to art programs in 48 states and the
District of Columbia. Dayton Hudson has generously contributed
to both institutional projects as well as individual artists.
((Citation))
CLOSE HOLD
Document No. 09014455
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
11/14/89
11/15/89 2:00 PM
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
WINSTON
DEMAREST
PINKERTON
FITZWATER
PORTER ROSE
GRAY
FIRESTONE
HAGIN
HODSOLL
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 PM, Wednesday, November 15, with a
copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
Chris Chris/MK-
CLOSE HOLD
In may the have some further comments later, but of
James W. Cicconi
wanted to get these to you early. Inerall a great
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
speech.
John Surdher
Grant/Simon
November 14, 1989
1989 NOV 14 PM 5: 19
Draft two
A:medal
REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
AWARDS LUNCHEON / EAST ROOM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
12:00 NOON
Thank you, all of you, for being here today for the fifth
annual presentation of the National Medal of the Arts. It's a
great pleasure and an honor for Barbara and me to welcome you to
the White House. I would like to thank the National Council on
the Arts for its list of nominees; and the Committee on the Arts
and Humanities, as well as John Frohnmayer, chairman of the
National Endowment for the Arts, for all their hard work.
Dante once wrote that "Art imitates nature as well as it
can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of
grandchild of God." As this "grandchild of God," art embraces
our values and history, gives meaning to our existence and
illuminates the basic human truths which give us purpose. In a
way, art defines our civilization.
But in another, more personal way, art opens entire new
worlds for each of us, letting us see and hear and even feel life
through the mind of someone else -- from new perspectives.
Instead of seeing a single world, we can see as many worlds as
there are artists and writers, dancers and musicians.
The diversity of art in this Nation is truly a product of
the diversity of our democracy. The American arts, like a many-
faceted mirror, have been a colorful reflection of our Nation's
the impressionism of the antist like Surgeast and
Benson, and
2
history. The music of the frontier led to the blues of the
bayou, and the swing bands of the cities. The primitivism of the
early painters gave way to the romanticism of the Hudson River
Federal and Kikandsonia
school and later the abstract expressionism of recent times.
In
Richardsmiss remaneze
Romancagne
architecture, Americans see everything from neoclassicism and
to
modernism. Modern photography and filmmaking have their roots in
the tintypes of the Civil War era. And from our earliest
writings to this week's bestseller list, we've seen American
Both these
poetry, novels and short stories earn a unique place in the
styles are
basically
literature of the world. Cities like New York and Los Angeles
American
have become art capitals of international importance, and
here
regional orchestras, museums, dance troupes and opera companies
the
the
have enjoyed spectacular successes.
angystion.
Today, we honor a group of men and women whose creative
ideas, talent and passion have added so much to the rich tapestry
that is our Nation's cultural heritage. Their work is not just
of the mind but of the heart and of the soul.
Some have challenged us. Some have amazed us. Some have
This, excelled,
brought remarkable beauty of sight and sound to us. But all have
helped us to think and to dream and to understand ourselves and
our world a little better.
Today, we honor Alfred Eisenstaedt for his photography,
Dizzy Gillespie for his jazz innovations, and John Updike for his
prose. Katherine Dunham for her dance and choreography, Walker
Hancock for his sculpture, Czeslaw Milosz for his poetry, Robert
Motherwell for his paintings, and Leopold Adler for his historic
3
building renovations. ( (And we honor someone whose great talent
and energy will live on long after the thunder of his music has
faded, the late Vladimir Horowitz.)
And we honor the patrons of the arts -- those who understand
that without the artistic creativity of its people, no nation can
be whole -- and those whose dedication, energy and commitment
have sustained that creativity over the years. We honor Martin
Friedman of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Leigh Gerdine
of Webster University in St. Louis, and the Dayton Hudson
read
Corporation. And now, Barbara will award the National Medal of
the Arts to our recipients.
First Lady reads citations 15
( (FIRST LADY PRESENTS AWARDS. SEE ATTACHED CITATIONS))
((BACK TO THE PRESIDENT)) Thank you, Barbara. I
congratulate each of you, for your achievements, your dreams and
your passion. You have honored this Nation, and America is
grateful to you. God bless you, and God bless America.
Congratulations once again.
# # #
The President First Lady will read biographical atations.
will then hand citation and medal material to recipients. and
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
1989 NOV
( (THE FIRST LADY) )
Leopold Adler, II is a nationally recognized expert in
historic preservation, and a native of Savannah, Georgia. Mr.
Adler changed the face of his home town and demonstrated for many
other civic leaders how to revitalize an old city with great
potential. He was the driving force behind two remarkable
experiments in inner city revitalization: one resulted in the
designation of the historic section of Savannah as a "National
Historic District"; and the other in the renovation of low income
housing in the Victorian district of the city. Mr. Adler has
been active nationally, and served as a trustee for almost a
decade for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. ( (Read
Citation on Medal) )
Katherine Dunham is an innovative and outstanding dancer and
choreographer. Born in Chicago, she founded the Ballet Negre
there in 1931. The Dunham Company, the first Black professional
dance company in America, performed throughout the world from
1938 through 1963, presenting the dance, music and folklore of
Third World countries and the U.S. For over thirty years, Ms.
Dunham maintained the only permanently self-subsidized dance
troupe in America. She also founded the Dunham School of Arts
and Research in New York, which became a reservoir of talent for
Broadway, Hollywood and the world. The Dunham Technique is
described as a "style of dance and a philosophy of life.' " Many
of our present day works on stage and screen reflect her profound
influence. ((Citation) )
2
Alfred Eisenstaedt is the quintessential photojournalist who
pioneered the introduction of the candid camera technique into
news reporting. After emigrating from West Prussia in 1935, he
became one of the original photography staff of the new Life
Magazine. Eisenstaedt's most famous photo is that of the sailor
kissing the nurse in Times Square at the end of World War II, and
it has come to embody America's joy and relief at the end of the
war. As a photographer, he has won almost every major award
given to those in his profession. Now, at the age of 90, he can
claim to have covered the significant events of the past 50 years
and has left us as his legacy a photographic record of the
writers, musicians, statesmen, scientists and educators of our
time, and the historic events surrounding them. ((Citation))
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie is a world famous jazz
trumpeter, who began working with a trumpet at the age of 12.
Mr. Gillespie is a pivotal figure in 20th Century American music,
and an innovator in the "bebop" movement in modern jazz. While
playing with Earl "Fatha" Hines, he developed a radical new
approach to improvisation that was to change the course of modern
music making. He was the featured trumpeter with many of
America's leading swing orchestras, including the bands of Teddy
Hill, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, and Billy
Eckstine's legendary orchestra of 1944. Dizzy Gillespie is
credited with introducing Afro-Cuban rhythms into jazz in 1947
and the South American bossa nova to the United States. He is
the author of "To Be, or Not to Bop." ((Citation))
3
Walker Kirtland Hancock is a renowned sculptor whose work
spans a period of 70 years. He began it by sculpting the bust of
an orphan and was awarded a Prix de Rome while still an
apprentice. He has spent a lifetime sculpting over 268 pieces --
many of them portrait busts, monuments and medals -- in the
heroic Renaissance style of Florence. Mr. Hancock has sculpted
busts of John Paul Jones, President Abraham Lincoln, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey, then-Vice President Gerald Ford, and
Chief Justice Warren Burger. In 1971, he commented on the
similarity of his philosophy on sculpture with that of the Greek
civilization -- he observed that the Greeks were the ones who
"began to carve images in honor of ordinary mortals, " "making
heroes of them. " He said that celebrating heroes was "still one
of the worthy functions of sculpture." ( (Citation) )
( (Vladimir Horowitz biography to come) )
4
Czeslaw Milosz is a poet and educator, whom Joseph Brodsky
has called "one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the
greatest." Mr. Milosz was born in Lithuania in 1911 and
emigrated to the U.S. in 1960, becoming a naturalized citizen in
1970. Known as one of the leaders in the avant-garde poetry
movement in Poland during the 1930's, Mr. Milosz served in the
Resistance during World War II and edited an anti-Nazi anthology,
"Invincible Song. He also served in the Polish diplomatic
service. He has written several works in English, and in 1980 he
won the Nobel Prize for Literature. ((Citation))
Robert Motherwell is a great painter known throughout the
world as a leader in the New York School of Abstract
Expressionism. Mr. Motherwell's first shows occurred in Paris in
1939 and in this country in New York in 1944. By the 1960's and
1970's, his work was featured in most of the major museums and
galleries in the United States. Early in his career he found
himself surrounded by European artists-in-exile, particularly
Surrealists and Cubists. In the 1940's, Mr. Motherwell created
"monumental canvases" from his collages, often in stark black and
white. By the 1960's he was producing large scale works, such as
the "Open" series done with a monochromatic palette. He has
earned a place as one of America's great artists. ( (Citation))
5
John Updike is the author of over 36 books of poetry,
novels, short stories and essays. As a novelist, he has written
about his early childhood in Pennsylvania and later as an adult
of his experiences in Massachusetts, where he now lives. He
began as a writer for the New Yorker Magazine, then authored the
novels The Poorhouse Fair, Rabbit, Run, and among many others,
The Centaur. His 1984 novel, The Witches of Eastwick was made
into a major motion picture. In 1982 Mr. Updike received the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the American Book Award and
the National Book Critics Circle Award for writing Rabbit is
Rich. John Updike is one of the best chroniclers of American
small town life in literature. (Citation))
Martin Friedman is one of our Nation's most innovative and
scholarly museum directors. Mr. Friedman has served as Director
of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis since 1961, making that
institution into one of the premier small museums in this country
-- in exhibitions as well as a major presenter of performing
arts. He has served as a Presidentially appointed member of the
National Council on the Arts, and was made an Officier des Arts
et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 1984. Mr.
Friedman is recognized worldwide as a director of a museum which
presents contemporary art, architecture and design as well as
innovative film and performing arts presentations. ((Citation))
6
Leigh Gerdine is an outstanding civic leader who has paved
the way for the development of every major cultural institution
in St. Louis. A resident of that city for nearly four decades,
he was professor and chairman of the Department of Music at
Washington University in St. Louis from 1950 to 1970; for the
last 18 years, he has been president of Webster University in St.
Louis. Leigh Gerdine has helped shape the cultural activities of
St. Louis and has provided a level of leadership which has
enabled the city to become a major arts center in our country.
Mr. Gerdine has been deeply involved in the St. Louis Symphony,
the St. Louis Repertory Company, and was the founding chairman of
the St. Louis Opera Theater, now one of the most widely acclaimed
companies in the country. ( (Citation))
Dayton Hudson Corporation has been a leader in corporate
giving for 42 years -- giving five percent of its Federallly
taxable income for worthwhile community programs and currently
forty percent of that figure to the arts. Dayton Hudson's policy
in grant making has been targeted to programs and projects that
increase, on a long-term basis, a community's resources making it
a more vital place in which to live. Artistic leadership and
increased access to the arts are primary goals of the funding.
Dayton Hudson's dollar support for the arts ranks among the top
five art supporters in the country -- having contributed over the
last ten years $59 million to art programs in 48 states and the
District of Columbia. Dayton Hudson has generously contributed
to both institutional projects as well as individual artists.
((Citation))
CLOSE HOLD
Document No. 09014455
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
11/14/89
11/15/89 2:00 PM
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER N/C
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
WINSTON
DEMAREST
PINKERTON N/C
FITZWATER
PORTER ROSE NIC No one office
GRAY
FIRESTONE N/C
HAGIN
HODSOLL
6190
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 PM, Wednesday, November 15, with a
copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
CLOSE HOLD
21 : 9d pl 130 68
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Grant/Simon
November 14, 1989
1989 NOV 14 PM 5: 19
Draft two
A:medal
REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
AWARDS LUNCHEON / EAST ROOM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
12:00 NOON
Thank you, all of you, for being here today for the fifth
annual presentation of the National Medal of the Arts. It's a
great pleasure and an honor for Barbara and me to welcome you to
the White House. I would like to thank the National Council on
the Arts for its list of nominees; and the Committee on the Arts
and Humanities, as well as John Frohnmayer, chairman of the
and encouragent of
and, of course, Hush Southern,
National Endowment for the Arts, for all their the hard work, support, for
Cuiericas
Dante once wrote that "Art imitates nature as well as it cultural
life.
can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of
grandchild of God." As this "grandchild of God," art embraces
our values and history, gives meaning to our existence and
illuminates the basic human truths which give us purpose. In a
way, art defines our civilization.
But in another, more personal way, art opens entire new
worlds for each of us, letting us see and hear and even feel life
through the mind of someone else -- from new perspectives.
Instead of seeing a single world, we can see as many worlds as
there are artists and writers, dancers and musicians.
The diversity of art in this Nation is truly a product of
the diversity of our democracy. The American arts, like a many-
faceted mirror, have been a colorful reflection of our Nation's
2
history. The music of the frontier led to the blues of the
bayou, and the swing bands of the cities. The primitivism of the
early painters gave way to the romanticism of the Hudson River
American mpression and
school and later the abstract expressionism of recent times. In
Federal
to
architecture, Americans see everything from neoclassicism and
post modernism. Modern photography and filmmaking have their roots in
the tintypes of the Civil War era. And from our earliest
writings to this week's bestseller list, we've seen American
poetry, novels and short stories earn a unique place in the
literature of the world. Cities like New York and Los Angeles
have become art capitals of international importance, and
regional orchestras, museums, dance troupes and opera companies
have enjoyed spectacular successes.
msertA
Today, we honor a group of men and women whose creative
ideas, talent and passion have added so much to the rich tapestry
that is our Nation's cultural heritage. Their work is not just
of the mind but of the heart and of the soul.
Some have challenged us. Some have amazed us. Some have
brought remarkable beauty of sight and sound to us. But all have
helped us to think and to dream and to understand ourselves and
our world a little better.
Today, we honor Alfred Eisenstaedt for his photography,
Dizzy Gillespie for his jazz innovations, and John Updike for his
prose. Katherine Dunham for her dance and choreography, Walker
Hancock for his sculpture, Czeslaw Milosz for his poetry, Robert
Motherwell for his paintings, and Leopold Adler for his historic
3
preservation
building renovations. ( (And we honor someone whose great talent
and energy will live on long after the thunder of his music has
faded, the late Vladimir Horowitz.)
And we honor the patrons of the arts -- those who understand
that without the artistic creativity of its people, no nation can
be whole -- and those whose dedication, energy and commitment
have sustained that creativity over the years. We honor Martin
Friedman of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Leigh Gerdine
of Webster University in St. Louis, and the Dayton Hudson
read Citations for
Corporation. And now, Barbara will award the National Medal of
the Arts to our recipients.
ReADS CITATIONS.
( (FIRST LADY PRESENTS AWARDS. SEE ATTACHED CITATIONS) )
((BACK TO THE PRESIDENT)) Thank you, Barbara. I
congratulate each of you, for your achievements, your dreams and
your passion. You have honored this Nation, and America is
grateful to you. God bless you, and God bless America.
Congratulations once again.
# # #
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
1989 NOV
( (THE FIRST LADY))
Leopold Adler, II is a nationally recognized expert in
historic preservation, and a native of Savannah, Georgia. Mr.
Adler changed the face of his home town and demonstrated for many
other civic leaders how to revitalize an old city with great
potential. He was the driving force behind two remarkable
experiments in inner city revitalization: one resulted in the
designation of the historic section of Savannah as a "National
Historic District"; and the other in the renovation of low income
housing in the Victorian district of the city. Mr. Adler has
also
been active nationally, and served as a trustee for almost a
decade for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. ((Read
Citation on Medal) )
Katherine Dunham is an innovative and outstanding dancer and
choreographer. Born in Chicago, she founded the Ballet Negre
there in 1931. The Dunham Company, the first Black professional
dance company in America, performed throughout the world from
1938 through 1963, presenting the dance, music and folklore of
Third World countries and the U.S. For over thirty years, Ms.
Dunham maintained the only permanently self-subsidized dance
troupe in America. She also founded the Dunham School of Arts
and Research in New York, which became a reservoir of talent for
Broadway, Hollywood and the world. The Dunham Technique is
described as a "style of dance and a philosophy of life," Many
reflected in many
of our present day works on stage and screen reflect her profound
influence. (Citation) )
2
Alfred Eisenstaedt is the quintessential photojournalist who
pioneered the introduction of the candid camera technique into
news reporting. After emigrating from West Prussia in 1935, he
became somed one of the original photography staff of the new Life
The
a
Magazine. Eisenstaedt's most famous photo is that of the sailor
IN
IS
kissing the nurse in Times Square at the end of World War II, and
ies
it has come to embody America's joy and relief, at the end of the
war As a photographer, he has won almost every major award
given to those in his profession. Now, at the age of 90, he can
claim to have covered the significant events of the past 50 years
he
and has left us as his legacy a photographic record of the
and people
writers, musicians, statesmen, scientists and educators of our
time, and the historic events surrounding them. ((Citation))
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie is a world famous jazz
trumpeter, who began working with a trumpet at the age of 12.
Mr. Gillespie is a pivotal figure in 20th Century American music,
and an innovator in the "bebop" movement in modern jazz. While
playing with Earl "Fatha" Hines, he developed a radical new
approach to improvisation that was to change the course of modern
Over the years,
music making. He was the featured trumpeter with many of
been
America's leading swing orchestras, including the bands of Teddy
Hill, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, and Billy
Eckstine's legendary orchestra of 1944. Dizzy Gillespie is
credited with introducing Afro-Cuban rhythms into jazz in 1947
and the South American bossa nova to the United States. He is
the author of "To Be, or Not to Bop." ((Citation))
3
Walker Kirtland Hancock is a renowned sculptor whose work
spans a period of 70 years. He began it by sculpting the bust of
an orphan and was awarded a Prix de Rome while still an
apprentice. He has spent a lifetime sculpting over 268 pieces --
many of them portrait busts, monuments and medals -- in the
heroic Renaissance style of Florence. Mr. Hancock has sculpted
busts of John Paul Jones, President Abraham Lincoln, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey, then-Vice President Gerald Ford, and
Chief Justice Warren Burger. In 1971 he commented ing on the
similarity of his philosophy on sculpture with that of the Greek
made heroes of ordwary
civilization -- he observed that the Greeks were the ones who
mustalsm
"began to carve images in honor of ordinary mortals, " "making
heroes of them. He said that celebrating heroes was "still one
of the worthy functions of sculpture." ( (Citation))
((Vladimir Horowitz biography to come))
add
4
Czeslaw Milosz is a poet and educator, whom Joseph Brodsky
has called "one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the
greatest." Mr. Milosz was born in Lithuania in 1911 and
emigrated to the U.S. in 1960, becoming a naturalized citizen in
1970. Known as one of the leaders in the avant-garde poetry
movement in Poland during the 1930's, Mr. Milosz served in the
Resistance during World War II and edited an anti-Nazi anthology,
"Invincible Song. " He also served in the Polish diplomatic
service He has written several works in English, and in 1980 he
won the Nobel Prize for Literature. ( (Citation))
Robert Motherwell is a great painter known throughout the
world as a leader in the New York School of Abstract
Expressionism. Mr. Motherwell's first shows occurred in Paris in
1939 and in this country in New York in 1944. By the 1960's and
1970's, his work was featured in most of the major museums and
galleries in the United States. Early in his career he found
himself surrounded by European artists-in-exile, particularly
Surrealists and Cubists In the 1940's, Mr. Motherwell created
"monumental canvases" from his collages, often in stark black and
white. By the 1960's he was producing large scale works, such as
the "Open" series done with a monochromatic palette. He has
earned a place as one of America's great artists. ((Citation))
5
John Updike is the author of over 36 books of poetry,
novels, short stories and essays. As a novelist, he has written
about his early childhood in Pennsylvania and later as an adult
of his experiences in Massachusetts, where he now lives. He
began as a writer for the New Yorker Magazine, then authored the
novels The Poorhouse Fair, Rabbit, Run, and among many others,
The Centaur. His 1984 novel, The Witches of Eastwick was made
into a major motion picture. In 1982 Mr. Updike received the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the American Book Award and
the National Book Critics Circle Award for writing Rabbit is
Rich. John Updike is one of the best chroniclers of American
small town life in literature ((Citation))
Martin Friedman is one of our Nation's most innovative and
scholarly museum directors. Mr. Friedman has served as Director
of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis since 1961, making that
institution into one of the premier small museums in this country
-- in exhibitions as well as a major presenter of performing
arts. He has served as a Presidentially appointed member of the
National Council on the Arts, and was made an Officier des Arts
et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 1984. Mr.
Friedman is recognized worldwide as a director of a museum which
presents contemporary art, architecture and design as well as
innovative film and performing arts presentations. ( (Citation) )
6
Leigh Gerdine is an outstanding civic leader who has paved
the way for the development of every major cultural institution
in St. Louis. A 40-year resident. of that city, for nearly four decades
he was professor and chairman of the Department of Music at
Washington University in St. Louis from 1950 to 1970; for the
last 18 years, he has been president of Webster University in St.
Louis Leigh Gerdine has helped shape the cultural activities of
St. Louis and has provided a level of leadership which has
enabled the city to become a major arts center in our country.
Mr. Gerdine has been deeply involved in the St. Louis Symphony,
the St. Louis Repertory Company, and was the founding chairman of
the St. Louis Opera Theater, now one of the most widely acclaimed
companies in the country. ( (Citation) )
Dayton Hudson Corporation has been a leader in corporate
giving for 42 years -- giving five percent of its Federallly
taxable income for worthwhile community programs and currently
forty percent of that figure to the arts. Dayton Hudson's policy
Support
in grant making has been targeted to programs and projects that
increase, on a long-term basis, a community's resources making it
a more vital place in which to live. Artistic leadership and
increased access to the arts are primary goals of the funding.
Dayton Hudson's dollar support for the arts ranks among the top
five art supporters in the country -- having contributed over the
60
last ten years $59 million to art programs in 48 states and the
District of Columbia. Dayton Hudson has generously contributed
to both institutional projects as well as individual artists.
((Citation) )
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 15, 1989
MEMORANDUM FOR CHRISS WINSTON
DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT
FOR COMMUNICATIONS
FROM:
FREDERICK D. NELSON EBN.
ASSOCIATE COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT
SUBJECT:
National Medal of the Arts
The Counsel's Office has no legal objection to the Presidential
Remarks prepared for the National Medal of Arts Awards Luncheon.
cc: James W. Cicconi
2t : 11v $100.68
CLOSE HOLD
Document No. 09014455
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
-
11/14/89
11/15/89 2:00 PM
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
WINSTON
DEMAREST
PINKERTON
FITZWATER
PORTER ROSE
GRAY
FIRESTONE
HAGIN
HODSOLL
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 PM, Wednesday, November 15, with a
copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
CLOSE HOLD
No Comment : Olv 68
James W. Cicconi
ligislative Affairs 11/14/89
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
CLOSE HOLD
Document No. 09014455
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
11/14/89
11/15/89 2:00 PM
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
WINSTON
DEMAREST
PINKERTON
PORTER ROSE
FITZWATER
GRAY
FIRESTONE
HAGIN
HODSOLL
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 PM, Wednesday, November 15, with a
copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
OK S.R CLOSE HOLD
18:47 $100.68 SI
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Grant/Simon
November 14, 1989
1989 NOV 14 PM 5: 19
Draft two
A:medal
REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
AWARDS LUNCHEON / EAST ROOM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
12:00 NOON
Thank you, all of you, for being here today for the fifth
annual presentation of the National Medal of the Arts. It's a
great pleasure and an honor for Barbara and me to welcome you to
the White House. I would like to thank the National Council on
the Arts for its list of nominees; and the Committee on the Arts
and Humanities, as well as John Frohnmayer, chairman of the
National Endowment for the Arts, for all their hard work.
Dante once wrote that "Art imitates nature as well as it
can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of
grandchild of God." As this "grandchild of God," art embraces
our values and history, gives meaning to our existence and
illuminates the basic human truths which give us purpose. In a
way, art defines our civilization.
But in another, more personal way, art opens entire new
worlds for each of us, letting us see and hear and even feel life
through the mind of someone else -- from new perspectives.
Instead of seeing a single world, we can see as many worlds as
there are artists and writers, dancers and musicians.
The diversity of art in this Nation is truly a product of
the diversity of our democracy. The American arts, like a many-
faceted mirror, have been a colorful reflection of our Nation's
2
history. The music of the frontier led to the blues of the
bayou, and the swing bands of the cities. The primitivism of the
early painters gave way to the romanticism of the Hudson River
school and later the abstract expressionism of recent times. In
architecture, Americans see everything from neoclassicism and
modernism. Modern photography and filmmaking have their roots in
the tintypes of the Civil War era. And from our earliest
writings to this week's bestseller list, we've seen American
poetry, novels and short stories earn a unique place in the
literature of the world. Cities like New York and Los Angeles
have become art capitals of international importance, and
regional orchestras, museums, dance troupes and opera companies
have enjoyed spectacular successes.
Today, we honor a group of men and women whose creative
ideas, talent and passion have added so much to the rich tapestry
that is our Nation's cultural heritage. Their work is not just
of the mind but of the heart and of the soul.
Some have challenged us. Some have amazed us. Some have
brought remarkable beauty of sight and sound to us. But all have
helped us to think and to dream and to understand ourselves and
our world a little better.
Today, we honor Alfred Eisenstaedt for his photography,
Dizzy Gillespie for his jazz innovations, and John Updike for his
prose. Katherine Dunham for her dance and choreography, Walker
Hancock for his sculpture, Czeslaw Milosz for his poetry, Robert
Motherwell for his paintings, and Leopold Adler for his historic
3
building renovations. ((And we honor someone whose great talent
and energy will live on long after the thunder of his music has
faded, the late Vladimir Horowitz.)
And we honor the patrons of the arts -- those who understand
that without the artistic creativity of its people, no nation can
be whole -- and those whose dedication, energy and commitment
have sustained that creativity over the years. We honor Martin
Friedman of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Leigh Gerdine
of Webster University in St. Louis, and the Dayton Hudson
Corporation. And now, Barbara will award the National Medal of
the Arts to our recipients.
( (FIRST LADY PRESENTS AWARDS. SEE ATTACHED CITATIONS) )
((BACK TO THE PRESIDENT)) Thank you, Barbara. I
congratulate each of you, for your achievements, your dreams and
your passion. You have honored this Nation, and America is
grateful to you. God bless you, and God bless America.
Congratulations once again.
###
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
( (THE FIRST LADY) )
1989 NOV 14 PM 5: 19 1989
Leopold Adler, II is a nationally recognized expert in
historic preservation, and a native of Savannah, Georgia. Mr.
Adler changed the face of his home town and demonstrated for many
other civic leaders how to revitalize an old city with great
potential. He was the driving force behind two remarkable
experiments in inner city revitalization: one resulted in the
designation of the historic section of Savannah as a "National
Historic District"; and the other in the renovation of low income
housing in the Victorian district of the city. Mr. Adler has
been active nationally, and served as a trustee for almost a
decade for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. ((Read
Citation on Medal) )
Katherine Dunham is an innovative and outstanding dancer and
choreographer. Born in Chicago, she founded the Ballet Negre
there in 1931. The Dunham Company, the first Black professional
dance company in America, performed throughout the world from
1938 through 1963, presenting the dance, music and folklore of
Third World countries and the U.S. For over thirty years, Ms.
Dunham maintained the only permanently self-subsidized dance
troupe in America. She also founded the Dunham School of Arts
and Research in New York, which became a reservoir of talent for
Broadway, Hollywood and the world. The Dunham Technique is
described as a "style of dance and a philosophy of life. " Many
of our present day works on stage and screen reflect her profound
influence. ((Citation))
2
Alfred Eisenstaedt is the quintessential photojournalist who
pioneered the introduction of the candid camera technique into
news reporting. After emigrating from West Prussia in 1935, he
became one of the original photography staff of the new Life
Magazine. Eisenstaedt's most famous photo is that of the sailor
kissing the nurse in Times Square at the end of World War II, and
it has come to embody America's joy and relief at the end of the
war. As a photographer, he has won almost every major award
given to those in his profession. Now, at the age of 90, he can
claim to have covered the significant events of the past 50 years
and has left us as his legacy a photographic record of the
writers, musicians, statesmen, scientists and educators of our
time, and the historic events surrounding them. ( (Citation))
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie is a world famous jazz
trumpeter, who began working with a trumpet at the age of 12.
Mr. Gillespie is a pivotal figure in 20th Century American music,
and an innovator in the "bebop" movement in modern jazz. While
playing with Earl "Fatha" Hines, he developed a radical new
approach to improvisation that was to change the course of modern
music making. He was the featured trumpeter with many of
America's leading swing orchestras, including the bands of Teddy
Hill, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, and Billy
Eckstine's legendary orchestra of 1944. Dizzy Gillespie is
credited with introducing Afro-Cuban rhythms into jazz in 1947
and the South American bossa nova to the United States. He is
the author of "To Be, or Not to Bop." ((Citation))
3
Walker Kirtland Hancock is a renowned sculptor whose work
spans a period of 70 years. He began it by sculpting the bust of
an orphan and was awarded a Prix de Rome while still an
apprentice. He has spent a lifetime sculpting over 268 pieces --
many of them portrait busts, monuments and medals -- in the
heroic Renaissance style of Florence. Mr. Hancock has sculpted
busts of John Paul Jones, President Abraham Lincoln, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey, then-Vice President Gerald Ford, and
Chief Justice Warren Burger. In 1971, he commented on the
similarity of his philosophy on sculpture with that of the Greek
civilization -- he observed that the Greeks were the ones who
"began to carve images in honor of ordinary mortals," "making
heroes of them.' He said that celebrating heroes was "still one
of the worthy functions of sculpture." ( (Citation))
((Vladimir Horowitz biography to come) )
4
Czeslaw Milosz is a poet and educator, whom Joseph Brodsky
has called "one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the
greatest." Mr. Milosz was born in Lithuania in 1911 and
emigrated to the U.S. in 1960, becoming a naturalized citizen in
1970. Known as one of the leaders in the avant-garde poetry
movement in Poland during the 1930's, Mr. Milosz served in the
Resistance during World War II and edited an anti-Nazi anthology,
"Invincible Song." He also served in the Polish diplomatic
service. He has written several works in English, and in 1980 he
won the Nobel Prize for Literature. ( (Citation))
Robert Motherwell is a great painter known throughout the
world as a leader in the New York School of Abstract
Expressionism. Mr. Motherwell's first shows occurred in Paris in
1939 and in this country in New York in 1944. By the 1960's and
1970's, his work was featured in most of the major museums and
galleries in the United States. Early in his career he found
himself surrounded by European artists-in-exile, particularly
Surrealists and Cubists. In the 1940's, Mr. Motherwell created
"monumental canvases" from his collages, often in stark black and
white. By the 1960's he was producing large scale works, such as
the "Open" series done with a monochromatic palette. He has
earned a place as one of America's great artists. ((Citation))
5
John Updike is the author of over 36 books of poetry,
novels, short stories and essays. As a novelist, he has written
about his early childhood in Pennsylvania and later as an adult
of his experiences in Massachusetts, where he now lives. He
began as a writer for the New Yorker Magazine, then authored the
novels The Poorhouse Fair, Rabbit, Run, and among many others,
The Centaur. His 1984 novel, The Witches of Eastwick was made
into a major motion picture. In 1982 Mr. Updike received the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the American Book Award and
the National Book Critics Circle Award for writing Rabbit is
Rich. John Updike is one of the best chroniclers of American
small town life in literature. (Citation))
Martin Friedman is one of our Nation's most innovative and
scholarly museum directors. Mr. Friedman has served as Director
of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis since 1961, making that
institution into one of the premier small museums in this country
-- in exhibitions as well as a major presenter of performing
arts. He has served as a Presidentially appointed member of the
National Council on the Arts, and was made an Officier des Arts
et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 1984. Mr.
Friedman is recognized worldwide as a director of a museum which
presents contemporary art, architecture and design as well as
innovative film and performing arts presentations. ((Citation))
6
Leigh Gerdine is an outstanding civic leader who has paved
the way for the development of every major cultural institution
in St. Louis. A resident of that city for nearly four decades,
he was professor and chairman of the Department of Music at
Washington University in St. Louis from 1950 to 1970; for the
last 18 years, he has been president of Webster University in St.
Louis. Leigh Gerdine has helped shape the cultural activities of
St. Louis and has provided a level of leadership which has
enabled the city to become a major arts center in our country.
Mr. Gerdine has been deeply involved in the St. Louis Symphony,
the St. Louis Repertory Company, and was the founding chairman of
the St. Louis Opera Theater, now one of the most widely acclaimed
companies in the country. (Citation) )
Dayton Hudson Corporation has been a leader in corporate
giving for 42 years -- giving five percent of its Federallly
taxable income for worthwhile community programs and currently
forty percent of that figure to the arts. Dayton Hudson's policy
in grant making has been targeted to programs and projects that
increase, on a long-term basis, a community's resources making it
a more vital place in which to live. Artistic leadership and
increased access to the arts are primary goals of the funding.
Dayton Hudson's dollar support for the arts ranks among the top
five art supporters in the country -- having contributed over the
last ten years $59 million to art programs in 48 states and the
District of Columbia. Dayton Hudson has generously contributed
to both institutional projects as well as individual artists.
((Citation))
Center in North Carolina. His most recent
Reid take their of
book, "The Signifying Monkey," won a 1989
Amer
Bock Award.
Vladimir Horowitz: Thunder, Lightning and Awe
By HAROLD C. SCHONBERG
His combination of
strike with the rapidity of a cobra, then
instantly coiling again. His singing line came
HEN VLADIMIR HORO-
craft and personality
naturally: it was a product of the Russian
W
school, and all pianists of the time made
witz played, he generated
electricity, thunder and light-
captivated even
beautiful sounds. Beauty of sound was part of
the 19th-century Romantic esthetic. His so-
ning and displayed demonic
professional pianists
nority was a different matter. Horowitz
technical control that always
threatened to get out of hand but never did.
worked out a system of muscular control that
Then he would turn around and play, simply,
who disagreed with
enabled him to produce, without banging,
purely and ravishingly, a Chopin mazurka or
without any sign of physical effort, crashing
waltz. He was more than a pianist. To the
his approach.
fortissimos that could ride over the biggest
orchestra.
public and to his colleagues, he generated
awe.
His death a week ago today recalled the
He always claimed that, unlike most of the
impact he made on me when I was a young
age of 3. But he once told this writer that he
world's great pianists, he was never a child
man and continued to make as we grew older
started late, at 5. He conceded that by 10 he
prodigy. Liszt, Josef Hofmann, Leopold Go-
and he became the grand veteran of the
thought he "had some talent," and that he
dowsky, Ferruccio Busoni and many other of
piano. We were not close friends, but for
was a "not so bad" sight-reader. (From
the superpianists were playing at the age of
some 35 years I had been interviewing him
Horowitz, "not so bad" always meant mildly
and writing about him, and we had achieved
4, and their styles, in effect, had been fully
stupendous.) He never practiced very much.
formed by the time they were 15. At that age
a fine working relationship.
Instead he read through the piano literature
they also were veterans of the concert stage.
Interviewing Horowitz involved as much
and operatic scores.
Some sources say Horowitz started at the
protocol as a diplomatic affair in Washing-
Horowitz seemed to have developed his
ton. One was expected to arrive at his East
unusual physical approach to the keyboard
Harold C. Schonberg, former chief music
Side town house promptly Coffee and cookies
by himself: wrists turned outward and often
Jack Mitchell
Horowitz at the keyboard in 1988-Crashing fortissimos without banging
critic of The Times, is the author of "The
were ready. Often Mrs. Horowitz was there.
below the keyboard, flat fingers, the little
Great Pianists" (Simon & Schuster).
After coffee the interview took place. After
fingers of both hands curled in, opening to
Continued on Page 32
THEATER
FILM
Letters
3
A 'Gypsy' wanderer
Jim Jarmusch freights
Dance
sends news from the
9
'Mystery Train' with
Music
road.
American originality.
27
By Marilyn Stasio
By Vincent Canby
Recordings
29
THEATER
B. D. Wong, airborne
ART
Milos Forman takes a
Pop View
30
from 'Butterfly' to,
A 'Grand Hotel' with
new look at old loves
A museum, reborn,
Television
Tempest.'
33
a
32
H
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, NOVEM
Horowitz:
Thunder, Awe
And Lightning
slow?" Mr. Horowitz would say. "The
Continued From Page 1
performance was even slower. While
I was playing I looked at the audi-
the interview Horowitz and I would
ence. Everybody was going to sleep. I
settle down to gossip, to discuss pia-
figured that this was the end of my
nists of the past, to talk about prob-
American career."
lems of interpretation. He invariably
would go to the piano to illustrate a
point. Once seated, he could remain
So Horowitz, deciding he had noth-
there for several hours. Often he
ing to lose, started the piano's en-
talked about his life, his ideas about
trance in the last movement at his
music, his piano technique, every-
tempo. He took off like the thorough-
thing.
bred he was, and the startled Sir
He studied at the Kiev Conserva-
Thomas had no choice but to try to
tory as a teen-ager and said that he
follow him. Horowitz remembered
learned nothing from his teachers.
that they ended "nearly" togther. At
When the Revolution came, his well-
least one critic, Olin Downes, knew
to-do family was financially wiped
exactly what had been going on, and
out and he had to start playing in
The Times the next day carried his
public. Of course his abilities were
rave review about this new "Cossack
instantly recognized, and he was
from the Steppes."
tabbed as the coming young pianist.
Horowitz was saved, but he carried
He was especially popular in Lenin-
a grudge against Sir Thomas, whom
he called "a bad colleague." Several
years later he was in London to play
He was always
the Tchaikovsky. He entered the hall
for the first rehearsal and who was on
experimenting
the podium? Yes. Horowitz said that
he stopped dead. Should he walk out?
with the pedal
Sir Thomas grinned and loudly said,
"Librarian! The score!" Horowitz
and his touch on
broke into laughter and they went on
with their business. This time the
the keys.
accompaniment was excellent.
In his way, Horowitz was to piano
playing what Jascha Heifetz during
those years was to the violin. All of
grad. Young, slim, handsome, with a
the world's violinists wanted to be
profile somewhat resembling that of
Jascha Heifetz, and all of the world's
Chopin, he had a fan club of hysteri-
pianists wanted to be Vladimir Horo-
cal young ladies who swooned over
witz. Especially in the 1950's and
his playing.
1960's, they tried. If Horowitz revived
Not since the days of Paderewski
a seldom-heard piece - Schumann's
had there been anything like it. In
"Kreisleriana," say - everybody
1924 he gave 15 concerts in Leningrad
Vladimir Horowitz in 1988-a fabulous sight-reader who
was programming "Kreisleriana"
in one season, not once_repeating
the following year. They tried to copy
piece. He would show the programs to
the Horowitz phrasings, the Horowitz
favored guests at his home in New
sound. It was an impossible quest.
Disk Repertory
York.
Vladimir Horowitz started recording around 1927,
In 1925 he left the Soviet Union,
and substantially his entire repertory is on records. He
living first in Berlin, then in Paris,
His big pianistic rival through the
was a Romantic planist, and his specialties were Cho-
creating a furor in both cities. Amer-
years following World War II was
pin, Schumann, Liszt, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff.
ica had to wait until 1928 for his first
Arthur Rubinstein. No two pianists
could have been more dissimilar. Ru-
A good place to start is with "Horowitz Live at Car-
appearances here. His debut took
binstein was the exponent of joie de
negie Hall" (a three-disk Columbia CD set, M3K-
place with the New York Philharmon-
ic in Carnegie Hall, and his piece was
vivre, of healthy sentiment, of natu-
44681), which contains large portions of his Carnegie
the Tchaikovsky B flat minor Concer-
ralness in interpretation. They had an
Hall recitals, including his famous comeback in 1965.
to. It also was the Philharmonic debut
uneasy on-and-off friendship. Great
Highlights include the Schumann Fantasy, Seriabin's
of the conductor, Sir Thomas Bee-
pianists, like great sopranos, are not
Ninth Sonata and the Bach-Busoni Toccata in C.
cham. Horowitz, not usually much of
immune to professional jealousy.
For sentimental reasons, "Horowitz in Moscow" is
a raconteur, liked to talk about that
It would have been hard to find a
worth having. This Deutsche Grammophon release
debut. Sometimes he embellished it
professional pianist, then and now,
(419499; all three formats) contains mostly short
and changed a thing or two, but the
who did not simply roll over and play
pieces from the concerts of 1986. There is a
outlines remained the same. As he
dead when Horowitz's name was
good helping of Liszt on an RCA compact disk (5935-2-
told the story, Sir Thomas was inter-
mentioned. They all realized then,
RC), with the B minor Ballade, "Funerailles" and
ested primarily in Sir Thomas and
and realize now, that Horowitz had a
gave Horowitz as little rehearsal
style that perhaps was too idiosyn-
"Mephisto" Waltz. A lovely Schumann record contains
time as possible.
cratic for their taste. Every age
the "Kinderscenen," "Arabesque," "Blumenstücke,"
"Also," said Horowitz, "he con-
makes music its own way, and the
"Kreisleriana" and Toccata (CBS CD, MK-42409).
ducted the Tchaikovsky without a
present generation of pianists has
The album titled "Portrait of Vladimir Horowitz"
score - and he did not know the score
been trained more to the printed note
(Columbia 44797, CD and cassette) contains Chopin's
so well. His tempos were so slow I
than to the emotional content of the
B flat minor Sonata, Beethoven's "Moonlight" and
thought I would die. But who was I, an
music.
some odds and ends, including the planist's virtuoso
unknown, scared Jewish boy from
But professionals also respond to
treatment of "Carmen." A fine Chopin offering is con-
Kiev, to argue with the great Sir
sheer craft, and no pianist had the
Thomas Beecham?"
combination of craft and personality
Came the concert. Sir Thomas con-
that Horowitz owned. They listened,
ducted the overture, Horowitz re-
fascinated, to the way Horowitz
taking potshots at Horowitz, following
know much about Ro
called, and, because of some of his
shaped a phrase, were amazed at the
the leads of B. H. Haggin and Virgil
In his early years I
usual energetic gestures, Sir Thomas
colors he could draw from the instru-
Thomson, both of whom thought Ho-
closest thing any pian
managed to snap his suspenders. He
ment, and were willing to accept any-
rowitz's playing was affected and of-
the phenomenal Ser
had to conduct holding up his trousers
thing he did on his own terms, with
ten actually tortuous. In some cases
noff. He had much the
with one hand. That did not help his
the reservation that what was O.K.
they had a point, though it is hard to
tone, the same infal
mood for the concerto, which fol-
for Horowitz was not necessarily O.K.
see how Thomson in the 1940's could
the same independen
lowed.
for them.
call Horowitz's playing affected. All it
took very few metric
"You think the rehearsal was
Some critics in those years started
did was suggest that Thomson did not
there was even a cla
A Gypsy Heads f
ART
she could have been
Continued From Page 5
tells the truth - she
OF
Like everyone else
Friday, two more on Saturday and a
wants something sh
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1989
were controlling him rather than
versa. Perhaps old age Was setting
in; or was Horowitz pandering to his
public? Yet he once again caught
control of himself, and his playing for
the last six years was reminiscent of
the old Horowitz: not so big, perhaps,
not SO thunderous, but controlled,
singing and beautiful.
Those who considered Horowitz
merely a pianistic acrobat missed the
point of his art. Nor did they realize
how good a musician he was. He
thought a great deal about music and
had the musical mind to put' his
thoughts into effect. He was a fabu-
lous sight-reader who generally read
four or five measures at a gulp no
matter how difficult the music. That
made life difficult for his page
turners. I know. I turned for him
several times, once while he was
reading a set of virtuoso études by
Moscheles at home. At one point he
broke down. He giggled. "Ooh! This is
hard!" He played the passage slowly,
just once, and then rattled it off as
though he had been playing it all' his
life.
He had much of the entire active
repertory in his fingers. In publid he
never played more than about a half-
dozen of the Beethoven sonatas, but
at home he would sit at the piano,
He had the same
kind of gleaming
tone, infallible
technique and
independent left
hand as
Rachmaninoff.
playing, from memory of course, one
of the early sonatas, or Op. 111', or
sections of the "Hammerklavier."
Fooling around at the keyboard he
might drift from the Saint-Saëns's C
Jack Mitchell
minor Concerto (a piece he liked very
ladimir Horowitz in 1988-a fabulous sight-reader who generally took in four or five measures at a gulp.
much) to sections of Tchaikovsky's
"Eugene Onegin," to the Chopin
Etude in Thirds ("I am too old to play
Disk Repertory
this in public"), to the Schumann
tained in a CBS CD, 42412; highlights include the
Concerto, to some Moszkowski he had
Vladimir Horowitz started recording around 1927,
Polonaise-Fantasy and some deliciously played ma-
learned as a child, to some complete-
and substantially his entire repertory is on records. He
zurkas.
ly unfamiliar Liszt. He would spend
was a Romantic pianist, and his specialties were Cho-
CBS 42411 (a CD) is devoted to Scriabin, with the
an hour demonstrating how to weight
pin, Schumann, Liszt, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff.
last two sonatas, some preludes and études, and the
chords, striking, say, a B flat chord
A good place to start is with "Horowitz Live at Car-
once-famous "Vers la flamme." Nobody plays Scria-
and bringing out individual notes
negie Hall" (a three-disk Columbia CD set, M3K-
bin better.
from top to bottom.
44681), which contains large portions of his Carnegie
His great 1928 recording of the Rachmaninoff D mi-
As a pianist he took his technique
Hall recitals, including his famous comeback in 1965.
nor Concerto with the London Symphony under Coates
for granted, but not his sound, and he
Highlights include the Schumann Fantasy, Scriabin's
is on a Fidelio CD, EB-3. Aged as this is, it is preferable
was always experimenting with pedal
Ninth Sonata and the Bach-Busoni Toccata in C.
to the more modern recordings; it gives a good
effects and various ways to strike the
keys. He was asked what he consid-
For sentimental reasons, "Horowitz in Moscow" is
idea of the ardor and control of the young Horowitz.
ered the most important thing in pi-
worth having. This Deutsche Grammophon release
Some Horowitz releases of pre-war recordings are
ano playing. "Color, color, color, col-
(419499; all three formats) contains mostly short
available in the out-of-print Angel COLH series. Keep
or, color!" he said with almost the
pieces from the concerts of 1986. There is a
an eye out for them and pick up whatever you can.
frenzy of King Lear and his five
good helping of Liszt on an RCA compact disk (5935-2-
There also are some discontinued Victors worth hav-
"nevers."
RC), with the B minor Ballade, "Funerailles" and
ing, and if you run across the one that contains Schu-
No pianist of his time had such ah
"Mephisto" Waltz. A lovely Schumann record contains
mann's "Clara Wieck" Variations, radiantly
impact on audiences, and probably
the "Kinderscenen," Arabesque," "Blumenstücke,"
played, and Horowitz's own "Stars and Stripes For-
only one other musician of our time
"Kreisleriana" and Toccata (CBS CD, MK-42409).
ever," grab it.
exerted such hypnotic force - Arturo
The album titled "Portrait of Vladimir Horowitz"
There are three stereo video productions featuring
Toscanini, his father-in-law. The Ho-
(Columbia 44797, CD and cassette) contains Chopin's
Horowitz, all on Pioneer Laserdisks: "Horowitz in
rowitz magic consisted of a combina-
B flat minor Sonata, Beethoven's "Moonlight" and
London," "Horowitz: The Last Romantic" and "Horo-
tion of high-voltage fury and aristo-
cratic elegance, coupled to a térrific
some odds and ends, including the planist's virtuoso
witz in Moscow." All are also available on videocas-
technique and breathtaking daring
treatment of "Carmen." A fine Chopin offering is con-
sette.
-H.C.S.
He could miscalculate; or some-
times his dares did not come off; or
one could legitimately ask why he
took a phrase in this or that manner.
ng potshots at Horowitz, following
know much about Romantic style.
his playing. Listen to his stupendous
But never was there a letdown in
leads of B. H. Haggin and Virgil
In his early years Horowitz was the
1932 recording of the Liszt Sonata or
interest, tension, drama, his own kind
mson, both of whom thought Ho-
closest thing any pianist ever came to
the 1928 version, with Albert Coates,
of dedication, his ability to keep an
tz's playing was affected and of-
the phenomenal Sergei Rachmani-
of the Rachmaninoff D minor Concer-
audience at the edge of the seat. He
actually tortuous. In some cases
noff. He had much the same gleaming
to. They were typical of his style
was unique, and with him the line of
had a point, though it is hard to
tone, the same infallible technique,
through the 1970's.
Romantic Russian pianism that
now Thomson in the 1940's could
the same independent left hand. He
After those years, an element of
started with Anton Rubinstein In the
Horowitz's playing affected. All it
took very few metrical liberties, and
artificiality could creep into his play-
1850's has come to an end. There will
vas suggest that Thomson did not
there was even a classic element to
ing, and one felt that mannerisms
be no successors.
Gypsy Heads for Broadway
THIS WEEK
pounds, shillings, and pence, to a decimal system.
become citizens. Although the new measure is not
Holt had helped to formulate the change in currency
expected to cause any great influx of non-Europeans
during his tenure as Treasurer.
into Australia, it is a radical departure from a policy
In foreign affairs, Holt has gone along with Sir
that had been in effect for some fifty years.
Robert Menzies' view that Australia must break with
Although Holt reportedly had mildly socialist
its previous isolation, and that Australia's frontier
leanings in his youth, he has generally been an
lies in the jungles of Vietnam and Malaysia, where
ardent champion of free enterprise during his po-
Australian soldiers have been fighting alongside
litical career. Essentially a pragmatist, he has, how-
American and British troops against Communist
ever, avoided an extreme anti-socialist position, and
guerilla forces. "If you look beyond our immediate
he has won the respect of trade union officials and
preoccupations in Vietnam and Malaysia and con-
Labour party leaders. He has conceded that some
sider our general involvement in Asia, we are in the
underdeveloped countries might have to use social-
most critical upheaval in the affairs of mankind," he
ist means to "nurse industry through its infancy,"
declared soon after taking office. "The events
and he once defined socialism as "an intermediate
[in Asia] in the next ten years will influence policies
stage between a primitive, or colonial, economy and
in this country for centuries ahead."
a free enterprise system capable of developing its
On March 8, 1966 Holt announced that Australian
own capital." "I have no capacity for hate," he once
troops in Vietnam would be increased from 1,500 to
said, as quoted in the Reporter (April 21, 1966).
4,500, including some conscripts, and declared that
"Even when I was fighting the Communists tooth
"Australia cannot stand aside from the struggle to
and nail in industry, I remained on friendly terms
resist the aggressive thrust of Communism in Asia."
with some of their leaders."
In April 1966 Holt visited Saigon to confer with
In 1946 Harold E. Holt married Mrs. Zara
South Vietnamese leaders, and two months later,
(Dickins) Fell, whom he had known while he was a
while visiting President Lyndon B. Johnson in Wash-
university student. Mrs. Holt, who has three married
ington, D.C., he pledged that Australia would stand
sons from her earlier marriage to a British army
"all the way with L.B.J." on Vietnam.
officer, is a dress designer from Toorak, Victoria,
The government's growing commitment to South
and maintains salons in Sydney and Melbourne.
Vietnam caused considerable controversy among
Ruggedly handsome and gray-haired, Holt has been
Australians, many of whom had been traditionally
said to resemble "an aging James Bond." His prac-
opposed to sending conscripts to fight in foreign
tice of wearing top hat and tails on every possible
wars, and it touched off widespread protests, partic-
occasion has earned him a reputation as "the matinee
ularly from churchmen. On March 24, 1966 Labour
idol of Parliament." He is generally soft-spoken and
party spokesmen introduced a motion in the House
casual, though very energetic. Although he is said
of Representatives, censuring the government for its
to lack the debating skill and caustic wit of his pre-
Vietnam policy. The motion was, however, defeated
decessor, he has a facility with words and a keen
by a vote of 60 to 47. The veteran Labour party
sense of humor. A sportsman, Holt enjoys the
leader, Arthur A. Calwell, then announced plans to
beaches and is fond of skin-diving, spearfishing,
make the government's Vietnam policy a major issue
power-boating, and water skiing. He is also an avid
in the election scheduled for November 26, 1966. On
golfer and a horse-racing enthusiast. His clubs are
that day Australians re-elected Holt, indicating their
the Athenaeum in Melbourne, the Victoria Amateur
support of his Vietnam policy.
Turf Club, and the Victoria Racing Club.
Despite Australia's expanding commitments in
Southeast Asia, Holt is reluctant to demand further
References
increases in Australia's defense budget, which has
Guardian p9 Ja 18 '66 por
doubled in the past three years. "It would plainly be
NY Times p14 Ja 21 '66 por
of great detriment to us-however sound we might
N Y Times Mag p3⁸+ O 23 '66 pors
regard the necessity-to attempt to devote too large
Toronto Globe and Mail p3 Ja 21 '66
a proportion of our resources to the defense field," he
International Who's Who, 1965-66
has said, as quoted in the Reporter (April 21, 1966).
International Year Book and Statesmen's
Holt maintains that existing regional military alli-
Who's Who, 1966
ances-ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, and the
Who's Who, 1966-67
United States) and the eight-power SEATO (South-
Who's Who in Australia, 1962
east Asia Treaty Organization) pact-do not fully
meet Australia's defense needs. Instead he has urged
that the United States and Great Britain establish a
greater co-ordination of their defenses in the Pacific
HOROWITZ, VLADIMIR
area.
In keeping with his increasing preoccupation with
Oct. 1, 1904- Pianist
Asia, Holt has favored some modifications of the
Address: c/o Columbia Records, 799 7th Ave.,
traditional "white Australia" policy, which had kept
New York 10019
immigrants from Asian and other non-European
countries to a bare minimum. In March 1966, a few
NOTE: This biography supersedes the article
weeks after he became Prime Minister, Australia
that appeared in Current Biography in 1943.
revised its immigration policy, relaxing the restric-
tions on non-white immigration, permitting colored
At each stage of his extraordinary career the pianist
immigrants who are "well qualified and useful" to
Vladimir Horowitz has proved himself the guardian
enter the country and making it easier for them to
and cultivator of a genius that has grown continu-
184
CURRENT BIOGRAPHY 1966
ne new measure is not
aflux of non-Europeans
ously, renewed in vitality and enlarged in produc-
leparture from a policy
tivity. The return of Horowitz to the concert plat-
me fifty years.
form, at Carnegie Hall, in May 1965, after a
had mildly socialist
twelve-year "sabbatical" was hailed in the New York
as generally been an
press as the major musical occasion of the decade
erprise during his po-
and as the most dramatic event in contemporary
agmatist, he has, how-
musical history. Comparing the 1928 New York de-
i-socialist position, and
but of the Russian-born pianist with his 1965 per-
ade union officials and
formance, critics found that he had lost none of his
S conceded that some
electricity, sensitivity, and technical excellence. Al-
ght have to use social-
though less volatile, his playing retained much of the
through its infancy,"
old controlled thunder" and brilliant flashes of
m as "an intermediate
splendor, while surpassing its earlier reach in lyr-
colonial, economy and
icism and interpretation.
able of developing its
Appropriately, Vladimir Horowitz' first home was
acity for hate," he once
on Music Street (Musikalnyi Pereulok) in Kiev,
rter (April 21, 1966).
Russia. He was born there on October 1, 1904, the
the Communists tooth
youngest of three children of Simeon and Sophie
ined on friendly terms
(Bodik) Horowitz. (The Russian form of the name
is Gorovitz.) His father, a prosperous electrical en-
VLADIMIR HOROWITZ
t married Mrs. Zara
gineer, enjoyed with his family a comfortable and
known while he was a
cultured domestic life dominated by music. All three
who has three married
of the children acquired an enduring love of music
Muck, Wilhelm Furtwängler, and other notable
age to a British army
from their mother, an amateur pianist who had
conductors. Sophisticated European critics com-
from Toorak, Victoria,
studied at the Kiev Conservatory. Vladimir's sister,
pared him to Busoni, Paderewski, and Anton Rubin-
dney and Melbourne.
Regina, became a concert pianist, and his brother,
stein. In Paris, in 1926, he met the American concert
-haired, Holt has been
Georg, became a violin teacher.
manager Arthur Judson, who signed him to a con-
ames Bond." His prac-
Under his mother's tutelage, Horowitz began to
tract for a tour in the United States in 1928.
tails on every possible
play the piano when he was three or four years old
Horowitz made his American debut at Carnegie
utation as "the matinee
and to take formal lessons when he was six. His
Hall on January 12, 1928 as the soloist with the New
herally soft-spoken and
parents recognized his talent and nurtured it, but
York Philharmonic, under the direction of the British
c. Although he is said
did not raise him as a prodigy. Guided by the advice
conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, who was also giv-
caustic wit of his pre-
of a family friend, the composer Alexander Scriabin,
ing his first performance in the United States. Differ-
ith words and a keen
who urged that their son become not just a pianist,
ing with the conductor on the interpretation of
nan, Holt enjoys the
but an educated man, they sent him to a Gymnasium
Tchaikovsky's B-Flat Minor Concerto, the pianist
n-diving, spearfishing,
as well as to the Kiev Conservatory. At the conserva-
outraced the orchestra in an excess of virtuosity that
ing. He is also an avid
tory, between the ages of twelve and sixteen, he
he later acknowledged as being in questionable taste.
thusiast. His clubs are
studied piano and composition under Felix Blumen-
"I played louder, faster and more notes than Tchai-
the Victoria Amateur
feld, who had been a pupil of the famed nineteenth-
kovsky wrote," Howard Taubman once quoted Hor-
Racing Club.
century pianist Anton Rubinstein. Horowitz once
owitz as saying (Collier's, April 13, 1946). Amer-
said that, through Blumenfeld, he was "the grand-
icans, however, wildly applauded the impudent,
pupil of Rubinstein."
vibrant young Russian who bewitched them with his
por
Horowitz's early ambition was to become a com-
control over the piano. The reputation that he had to
66 por
poser. As a student he learned the repertoire of all
fulfill in his tours of the United States was that of a
+ O 23 '66 pors
instruments and could play Italian, French, German,
razzle-dazzle, whirlwind, spellbinding wizard of the
ail p3 Ja 21 '66
and Russian operas from memory. He composed
keyboard. And in living up to it, he influenced a
Vho, 1965-66
pieces for voice and piano and delighted in accom-
generation of young pianists who tried in vain to
Book and Statesmen's
panying singers in renditions of his own works. The
imitate his sonority and bravura.
"accident" that turned Horowitz into a concert pian-
One of the highlights of Horowitz' career was his
ist, rather than a composer, was the Russian Revolu-
meeting in 1933 with Arturo Toscanini, who was
ia, 1962
tion, which deprived his family of their possessions,
then conducting his cycle of Beethoven concerts
including their home. To earn money to help his
with the New York Philharmonic. Toscanini chose
father, Horowitz gave a series of fifteen concerts in
Horowitz as soloist for the Emperor concerto, which
Kharkov during 1922-23. The response of his audi-
concluded the series. It was in connection with this
ences there and later in his hometown led to a tour
concert that the pianist met the conductor's daugh-
of Russia during the following season, in which he
ter, Wanda. The following summer Horowitz visited
Records, 799 7th Ave.,
gave seventy concerts, twenty-three of them in Len-
the Toscaninis at their island villa on Lake Maggiore
ingrad, playing a total of 200 or more compositions.
in Italy, and on December 21, 1933 Vladimir Hor-
In the fall of 1925 Horowitz was permitted to
owitz and Wanda Toscanini were married in Milan.
supersedes the article
leave Russia for the purpose of "study." He never
During his 1935 season Horowitz gave nearly 100
returned home. With his three recitals in Berlin in
Biography in 1943.
recitals. The cost of such a demand on his energy
January 1926 he launched the musical campaign
was fatigue and a delayed recovery from an appen-
inary career the pianist
that during the next two years captured concert-
dectomy. For the next few years he lived in seclusion
d himself the guardian
goers in nearly all European capitals. He played
in France and Switzerland, but contrary to reports,
at has grown continu-
command performances for royalty and appeared as
he apparently had no intention of retiring. He de-
soloist with the orchestras of Bruno Walter, Karl
voted himself to studying music and has said that he
CURRENT BIOGRAPHY 1966
185
felt that his period of rest and research had resulted
tober 1, 1962 in commemoration of the pianist's
in his growth as an artist. In 1938 he gave a per-
fifty-eighth birthday. John Ardoin praised it in Mu-
formance in Zurich; in 1939 he resumed his recitals
sical America (October 1962) as Horowitz' "finest
in Paris; and in January 1940 he returned to New
record to date and
one of the finest piano records
York and to an enthusiastic reception at Carnegie
ever made." It became the best-selling classical
Hall. Deciding to settle down in the United States,
record of the year, the first classical solo long-play-
he became an American citizen in 1944.
ing record to reach the popular best-selling lists, and
By 1942 Horowitz ranked as the highest paid con-
the winner of a "Ghammy" award from the National
cert artist in the country. Critics and audiences
Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for the
agreed that in a new phase of his career the pianist
best album of the year in the classical category. His
brought both a more serious concern for interpreta-
recordings for Columbia also received Grammy
tion to his still dazzling technique and a change in
awards in 1963, 1964, and 1965, making him the
repertory to his concerts. He tended to bypass clas-
only performer in the history of the recording indus-
sical works for modern compositions and transcrip-
try to be so honored in four consecutive years.
tions. During the decade from 1940 to 1950 he in-
Horowitz had been making his records for Co-
troduced sonatas by Prokofiev, Kabalevsky, and
lumbia in a studio in an old church. Finding the
Samuel Barber, along with many smaller modern
church "a little dry acoustically," he suggested in
pieces. One of his best known transcriptions is his
January 1965 that he try recording at Carnegie Hall.
tour de force arrangement of Sousa's "Stars and
When he went there to practice before a small in-
Stripes Forever," which he made for a patriotic rally
vited audience, rumors spread in the New York press
in Central Park in 1945. During World War II he
that he was giving secret recitals in preparation for
and Toscanini had performed together in many war
a comeback. In his interview with Chasins, Horowitz
bond concerts, raising on one occasion a reported
maintained that the rumors were false, but went on
$10,000,000.
to explain that he had been much impressed by a
To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of his
young newspaperman who told him after a Colum-
debut in the United States, on January 12, 1953
bia taping session that his records did not do him
Horowitz gave a recital in Carnegie Hall in which he
justice. Realizing that the younger generation did
repeated the Tchaikovsky concerto that he had
not really know him, he decided upon an immediate
played in 1928. On the eve of the concert Howard
resumption of public performances.
Taubman wrote in the New York Times Magazine,
"I had only to lose-nothing to gain. I was a
"He remains one of the greatest technicians of piano
legend," Horowitz later said of the risk he took
history, but his technique is no longer an end in it-
when he made his first public concert appearance in
self. He has transformed himself from a fire-eating
twelve years at Carnegie Hall on May 9, 1965. He
virtuoso into a self-critical, searching artist." After
had, however, more to give. He had not lost his
his concert, at the height of his popularity, Horowitz
colorful, blazing quality or his magical finger work
stepped from the stage of Carnegie Hall into a
coupled with subtle and restrained use of the pedal.
mysterious retirement.
Harold C. Schonberg summed up critical consensus
Many pressures probably contributed to Horo-
when he wrote in the New York Times (May 16,
witz's twelve-year absence from the concert plat-
1965), "But added to these were a more reflective
form-a nervous stomach, exhaustion from traveling
approach, less of a nervous-sounding attack, an even
from one engagement to another, and the other de-
richer quality of sound and more of an organiza-
bilitating demands that a perfectionist makes upon
tional ability. The 'new' Horowitz is less interested
himself in preparation for each concert. In press
in detail, more interested in the long line, the struc-
interviews, especially in one with Abram Chasins for
ture of a piece, a consecutive musical flow." The
High Fidelity Magazine (October 1965), Horowitz
concert, which included works by Bach, Schumann,
has discussed his need at that time to recover from
Scriabin, and Chopin, was recorded live in a Colum-
musical digressions and surpluses accumulated dur-
bia album. The records authentically retain several
ing his twenty-five years of concertizing. He found
wrong notes that Horowitz has said "add a human
refreshment in much classical and romantic music
quality."
that he had neglected, such as the Italian masters of
For an artist generally regarded as introspective,
bel canto, of which he made a thorough study.
Horowitz has been generously receptive to talking
Since 1931, when he made a recording of Rach-
with music historians, critics, and reporters. He pre-
maninoff's Third Piano Concerto, Horowitz had re-
fers to be interviewed reclining on a sofa beneath
corded almost exclusively for RCA Victor. During
Picasso's Acrobat en Repos at his town house on
his absence from the concert stage, proof of his
Manhattan's East 94th Street. Here, surrounded by
musical enrichment was heard first in his 1955 RCA
paintings of Manet, Rouault, and Degas, he gives
Victor record of the work of Muzio Clementi and
lessons to a few talented young pianists. He is a slim,
later in his all-Scriabin, all-Beethoven, and all-
smartly tailored man, with dark eyes and trim, sleek
Chopin discs for the same company. Then in 1962
black hair. Vladimir and Wanda Horowitz have a
he broke with RCA Victor, presumably because of
daughter, Sonia. The interfaith marriage of Horo-
disagreement over repertory, and signed a contract
witz, who is Jewish, and Toscanini's daughter, who
with Columbia Records that gave him freedom to
is a Roman Catholic, has raised no problems. Horo-
decide upon the music he would record.
witz is a registered Democrat.
For his first recording for Columbia Records, Hor-
Almost all descriptions of Horowitz' work contain
owitz chose works by Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Schu-
the word intensity. It suggests an exciting, suspense-
mann, and Liszt. The album was released on Oc-
ful force in his playing that reflects the personality
186
CURRENT BIOGRAPHY 1966
on of the pianist's
in praised it in Mu-
of an artist who readily admits that he is high-strung,
as Horowitz' "finest
but insists that he is not temperamental or neurotic.
finest piano records
Sensitive to the charges of a few critics that he is a
est-selling classical
technician-superficial and mechanical, Horowitz
sical solo long-play-
protested in an interview with Howard Klein of the
best-selling lists, and
New York Times (May 9, 1965) "But what is tech-
from the National
nique? It is having a good voice and knowing how to
ad Sciences for the
sing well. The piano's voice is the tone, the bal-
assical category. His
ancing of the notes, the coloring.
It takes the
received Grammy
coordination of mind, heart, and finger. If by tech-
5, making him the
nique is meant the total of phrasing, shading, and
the recording indus-
pedaling, then I am happy to be called the greatest
secutive years.
technician."
his records for Co-
church. Finding the
References
y," he suggested in
Colliers 117:65 Ap '46
at Carnegie Hall.
High Fidelity Mag 15:50+ 0 '65 por
before a small in-
N Y Post p28 My 2 '65 por
the New York press
N Y Times Mag p11 Ja 11 por; p12 My
Is in preparation for
9 '65 por
BOBBY HULL
h Chasins, Horowitz
Newsweek 65:92+ My 17 '65 por
false, but went on
Chotzinoff, Samuel. A Little Nightmusic
uch impressed by a
(1964)
of Belleville. His muscular physique developed
him after a Colum-
Ewen, David. Living Musicians (1940)
early, through the woodchopping and strenuous
ords did not do him
Schonberg, Harold C. The Great Pianists
farm work he did regularly on his parents' farm.
nger generation did
(1963)
Bob Wilson, then the chief scout for the Chicago
upon an immediate
Who's Who in America, 1964-65
Black Hawks, saw Hull play in Belleville and put
Who's Who in World Jewry, 1965
him on the Black Hawks' negotiating list, thus in-
to gain. I was a
suring that the team would have first rights to
of the risk he took
signing him later. The following fall, as a first step
oncert appearance in
in grooming Hull for the big league, the Chicago
HULL, BOBBY
on May 9, 1965. He
organization sent him, with his parents' permission,
He had not lost his
to Hespeler, Ontario, where he played with a
Jan. 3, 1939- Professional hockey player
magical finger work
juvenile team sponsored by the Black Hawks. The
Address: b. Chicago Black Hawks, 1800 W.
hed use of the pedal.
following season he was moved from Hespeler to a
Madison St., Chicago, Ill. 60612
up critical consensus
Junior B team in Woodstock, where he helped the
rk Times (May 16,
The most celebrated player in contemporary pro-
team to win a Junior B championship. In both
ere a more reflective
fessional hockey is Bobby Hull, who has been play-
Hespeler and Woodstock he continued his schooling
and stood in the first half of his class. He received
ading attack, an even
ing left wing for the Chicago Black Hawks since
1957. Hull rivals Gordie Howe in all-around
no payment for his playing, but the Black Hawks
ore of an organiza-
vitz is less interested
prowess on the rink, is unsurpassed in the speed of
paid his expenses, including room and board in
private homes.
long line, the struc-
his skating (up to 29.2 miles an hour) and the vel-
musical flow." The
ocity of his slap shots (up to 118 miles an hour),
At sixteen Hull joined the St. Catherines (On-
by Bach, Schumann,
and displays his talents with an uncommon audi-
tario) TeePees, a team in the junior Ontario
ded live in a Colum-
ence-exciting flair. He tied for the National Hockey
Hockey Association, the highest amateur league in
Canada. The coach of the TeePees at that time was
tically retain several
League scoring lead in the 1959-60 season and cap-
Rudy Pilous, who later became coach of the Black
said "add a human
tured the league scoring crown in 1964-65 and
again in 1965-66. In the latter year he set a new
Hawks. Hull was disappointing in his first season
ded as introspective,
NHL scoring record with 54 goals and 97 points.
with the TeePees, scoring only eleven goals. In his
second season he led the team in goals, with thirty-
receptive to talking
The fifth child and oldest son in a family of
three, but his playing was still not spectacular.
nd reporters. He pre-
eleven children, Robert Marvin Hull, Jr., was born
While playing with the TeePees he studied at St.
g on a sofa beneath
in Point Anne, Ontario, Canada on January 3, 1939.
Catherines High School, where he was fullback on
his town house on
His father, Robert Marvin Hull, Sr., a cement com-
the football team.
Here, surrounded by
pany foreman and farmer, was a pro hockey player
In the fall of 1957 Hull worked out with the
and Degas, he gives
manqué and passed on his frustrated ambition to his
Black Hawks at their training camp in St. Cath-
pianists. He is a slim,
sons. His hope has been fulfilled, not only in Robert,
erines whenever his schedule permitted. One night
eyes and trim, sleek
Jr., but also in a younger son, Dennis, who is now
the- Ehicago team used him in a game against the
da Horowitz have a
one of Robert's teammates on the Black Hawks.
New York Rangers, and in that first confrontation
marriage of Horo-
Hull received his first pair of skates at Christmas
against big-league competition he scored two goals.
nini's daughter, who
1942, one week before his third birthday, and he
Tommy Ivan, manager of the Black Hawks, decided
no problems. Horo-
learned to skate before the day was over. A year
that Hull was ready to move up to the parent or-
later his father began to teach him how to play
ganization, and a contract was signed. Hull, then in
rowitz' work contain
hockey with a sawed-off stick. At five he was hold-
his senior year, dropped out of high school and went
in exciting, suspense-
ing his own in games with boys twice his age, and
to Chicago.
flects the personality
at twelve he was playing on the same team with his
In his first season with the Black Hawks, Hull,
father in an intermediate league in the nearby city
playing center, scored thirteen goals, above par for
CURRENT BIOGRAPHY 1966
187
CLOSE HOLD
Document No. 09014455 ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
11/14/89
11/15/89 2:00 PM
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
WINSTON
DEMAREST
PINKERTON
FITZWATER
PORTER ROSE
GRAY
FIRESTONE
HAGIN
HODSOLL
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 PM, Wednesday, November 15, with a
copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
CLOSE HOLD
89 OCT 15 P2: 02
See 11/15/89
Comments
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Grant/Simon
November 14, 1989
1989 NOV 14 PM 5: 19
Draft two
A:medal
REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
AWARDS LUNCHEON / EAST ROOM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
12:00 NOON
Thank you, all of you, for being here today for the fifth
annual presentation of the National Medal of the Arts. It's a
great pleasure and an honor for Barbara and me to welcome you to
the White House. I would like to thank the National Council on
the Arts for its list of nominees; and the Committee on the Arts
and Humanities, as well as John Frohnmayer, chairman of the
National Endowment for the Arts, for all their hard work.
Acting (Last want
Dante once wrote that "Art imitates nature as well as it
can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of
grandchild of God." As this "grandchild of God," art embraces
pip 5 3.
our values and history, gives meaning to our existence and
illuminates the basic human truths which give us purpose. In a
way, art defines our civilization.
But in another, more personal way, art opens entire new
worlds for each of us, letting us see and hear and even feel life
through the mind of someone else -- from new perspectives.
Instead of seeing a single world, we can see as many worlds as
there are artists and writers, dancers and musicians.
The diversity of art in this Nation is truly a product of
the diversity of our democracy. The American arts, like a many-
faceted mirror, have been a colorful reflection of our Nation's
2
history. The music of the frontier led to the blues of the
bayou, and the swing bands of the cities. The primitivism of the
early painters gave way to the romanticism of the Hudson River
school and later the abstract expressionism of recent times. In
architecture, Americans see everything from neoclassicism and
modernism. Modern photography and filmmaking have their roots in
the tintypes of the Civil War era. And from our earliest
writings to this week's bestseller list, we've seen American
poetry, novels and short stories earn a unique place in the
literature of the world. Cities like New York and Los Angeles
have become art capitals of international importance, and
regional orchestras, museums, dance troupes and opera companies
have enjoyed spectacular successes.
Today, we honor a group of men and women whose creative
ideas, talent and passion have added so much to the rich tapestry
that is our Nation's cultural heritage. Their work is not just
of the mind but of the heart and of the soul.
Some have challenged us. Some have amazed us. Some have
brought remarkable beauty of sight and sound to us. But all have
helped us to think and to dream and to understand ourselves and
our world a little better.
Today, we honor Alfred Eisenstaedt for his photography,
Dizzy Gillespie for his jazz innovations, and John Updike for his
prose. Katherine Dunham for her dance and choreography, Walker
Hancock for his sculpture, Czeslaw Milosz for his poetry, Robert
Motherwell for his paintings, and Leopold Adler for his historic
Skills as/a muserin
Preservation, and Martin Friedman 3 for his and
director.
building renovations. ((And We honor someone whose great talent
and energy will live on long after the thunder of his music has
faded, the late Vladimir Horowitz.)
And we honor the patrons of the arts -- those who understand
that without the artistic creativity of its people, no nation can
be whole -- and those whose dedication, energy and commitment
have sustained that creativity over the years. We honor Martin
Friedman of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Leigh Gerdine
of Webster University in St. Louis, and the Dayton Hudson
Corporation. And now, Barbara will award the National Medal of
the Arts to our recipients.
( (FIRST LADY PRESENTS AWARDS. SEE ATTACHED CITATIONS) )
( (BACK TO THE PRESIDENT)) Thank you, Barbara. I
congratulate each of you, for your achievements, your dreams and
your passion. You have honored this Nation, and America is
grateful to you. God bless you, and God bless America.
Congratulations once again.
# # #
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
( (THE FIRST LADY))
1989 NOV 14 19
Leopold Adler, II is a nationally recognized expert in
historic preservation, and a native of Savannah, Georgia. Mr.
Adler changed the face of his home town and demonstrated for many
other civic leaders how to revitalize an old city with great
potential. He was the driving force behind two remarkable
experiments in inner city revitalization: one resulted in the
designation of the historic section of Savannah as a "National
Historic District"; and the other in the renovation of low income
housing in the Victorian district of the city. Mr. Adler has
been active nationally, and served as a trustee for almost a
decade for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. ( (Read
Citation on Medal) )
Katherine Dunham is an innovative and outstanding dancer and
choreographer. Born in Chicago, she founded the Ballet Negre
there in 1931. The Dunham Company, the first Black professional
dance company in America, performed throughout the world from
1938 through 1963, presenting the dance, music and folklore of
Third World countries and the U.S. For over thirty years, Ms.
Dunham maintained the only permanently self-subsidized dance
troupe in America. She also founded the Dunham School of Arts
and Research in New York, which became a reservoir of talent for
Broadway, Hollywood and the world. The Dunham Technique is
described as a "style of dance and a philosophy of life." Many
of our present day works on stage and screen reflect her profound
influence. ((Citation))
2
Alfred Eisenstaedt is the quintessential photojournalist who
pioneered the introduction of the candid camera technique into
news reporting. After emigrating from West Prussia in 1935, he
became one of the original photography staff of the new Life
Magazine. Eisenstaedt's most famous photo is that of the sailor
kissing the nurse in Times Square at the end of World War II, and
it has come to embody America's joy and relief at the end of the
war. As a photographer, he has won almost every major award
given to those in his profession. Now, at the age of 90, he can
claim to have covered the significant events of the past 50 years
and has left us as his legacy a photographic record of the
writers, musicians, statesmen, scientists and educators of our
time, and the historic events surrounding them. ((Citation))
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie is a world famous jazz
trumpeter, who began working with a trumpet at the age of 12.
Mr. Gillespie is a pivotal figure in 20th Century American music,
and an innovator in the "bebop" movement in modern jazz. While
playing with Earl "Fatha" Hines, he developed a radical new
approach to improvisation that was to change the course of modern
music making. He was the featured trumpeter with many of
America's leading swing orchestras, including the bands of Teddy
Hill, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, and Billy
Eckstine's legendary orchestra of 1944. Dizzy Gillespie is
credited with introducing Afro-Cuban rhythms into jazz in 1947
and the South American bossa nova to the United States. He is
the author of "To Be, or Not to Bop.' ((Citation))
3
Walker Kirtland Hancock is a renowned sculptor whose work
spans a period of 70 years. He began it by sculpting the bust of
an orphan and was awarded a Prix de Rome while still an
apprentice. He has spent a lifetime sculpting over 268 pieces --
many of them portrait busts, monuments and medals -- in the
heroic Renaissance style of Florence. Mr. Hancock has sculpted
busts of John Paul Jones, President Abraham Lincoln, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey, then-Vice President Gerald Ford, and
Chief Justice Warren Burger. In 1971, he commented on the
similarity of his philosophy on sculpture with that of the Greek
civilization -- he observed that the Greeks were the ones who
"began to carve images in honor of ordinary mortals," "making
heroes of them. If He said that celebrating heroes was "still one
of the worthy functions of sculpture." ( (Citation) )
( (Vladimir Horowitz biography to come) )
-
4
Czeslaw Milosz is a poet and educator, whom Joseph Brodsky
has called "one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the
greatest." Mr. Milosz was born in Lithuania in 1911 and
emigrated to the U.S. in 1960, becoming a naturalized citizen in
1970. Known as one of the leaders in the avant-garde poetry
movement in Poland during the 1930's, Mr. Milosz served in the
Resistance during World War II and edited an anti-Nazi anthology,
"Invincible Song." He also served in the Polish diplomatic
service. He has written several works in English, and in 1980 he
won the Nobel Prize for Literature. ( (Citation))
Robert Motherwell is a great painter known throughout the
world as a leader in the New York School of Abstract
Expressionism. Mr. Motherwell's first shows occurred in Paris in
1939 and in this country in New York in 1944. By the 1960's and
1970's, his work was featured in most of the major museums and
galleries in the United States. Early in his career he found
himself surrounded by European artists-in-exile, particularly
Surrealists and Cubists. In the 1940's, Mr. Motherwell created
"monumental canvases" from his collages, often in stark black and
white. By the 1960's he was producing large scale works, such as
the "Open" series done with a monochromatic palette. He has
earned a place as one of America's great artists. ((Citation))
5
John Updike is the author of over 36 books of poetry,
novels, short stories and essays. As a novelist, he has written
about his early childhood in Pennsylvania and later as an adult
of his experiences in Massachusetts, where he now lives. He
began as a writer for the New Yorker Magazine, then authored the
novels The Poorhouse Fair, Rabbit, Run, and among many others,
The Centaur. His 1984 novel, The Witches of Eastwick was made
into a major motion picture. In 1982 Mr. Updike received the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the American Book Award and
the National Book Critics Circle Award for writing Rabbit is
Rich. John Updike is one of the best chroniclers of American
small town life in literature. ( (Citation))
Martin Friedman is one of our Nation's most innovative and
scholarly museum directors. Mr. Friedman has served as Director
of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis since 1961, making that
institution into one of the premier small museums in this country
-- in exhibitions as well as a major presenter of performing
arts. He has served as a Presidentially appointed member of the
National Council on the Arts, and was made an Officier des Arts
et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 1984. Mr.
Friedman is recognized worldwide as a director of a museum which
presents contemporary art, architecture and design as well as
innovative film and performing arts presentations. ((Citation))
6
Leigh Gerdine is an outstanding civic leader who has paved
the way for the development of every major cultural institution
in St. Louis. A resident of that city for nearly four decades,
he was professor and chairman of the Department of Music at
Washington University in St. Louis from 1950 to 1970; for the
last 18 years, he has been president of Webster University in St.
Louis. Leigh Gerdine has helped shape the cultural activities of
St. Louis and has provided a level of leadership which has
enabled the city to become a major arts center in our country.
Mr. Gerdine has been deeply involved in the St. Louis Symphony,
the St. Louis Repertory Company, and was the founding chairman of
the St. Louis Opera Theater, now one of the most widely acclaimed
companies in the country. ( (Citation) )
Dayton Hudson Corporation has been a leader in corporate
giving for 42 years -- giving five percent of its Federallly
taxable income for worthwhile community programs and currently
forty percent of that figure to the arts. Dayton Hudson's policy
in grant making has been targeted to programs and projects that
increase, on a long-term basis, a community's resources making it
a more vital place in which to live. Artistic leadership and
increased access to the arts are primary goals of the funding.
Dayton Hudson's dollar support for the arts ranks among the top
five art supporters in the country -- having contributed over the
last ten years $59 million to art programs in 48 states and the
Correct
District of Columbia. Dayton Hudson has generously contributed
by
to both institutional projects as well as individual artists.
MEA.
((Citation))
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
LEOPOLD ADLER, II IS A NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED EXPERT
IN HISTORIC PRESERVATION, ONE WHO HAS CHANGED THE FACE
OF HIS HOME TOWN, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA. HE WAS THE
DRIVING FORCE BEHIND TWO REMARKABLE REVITALIZATION
EXPERIMENTS: ONE REFURBISHED THE HISTORIC SECTION OF
SAVANNAH; AND THE OTHER RENOVATED LOW INCOME HOUSING IN
THE VICTORIAN DISTRICT. MR. ADLER HAS ALSO SERVED AS A
TRUSTEE FOR ALMOST A DECADE FOR THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR
HISTORIC PRESERVATION.
- 2 -
To LEOPOLD ADLER FOR HIS CIVIC LEADERSHIP IN PRESERVING
FOR ALL TIME THE BEAUTY OF SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, AND FOR
MAKING THAT CITY A MODEL OF THE ART OF HISTORIC
PRESERVATION.
- 3 -
KATHERINE DUNHAM IS AN OUTSTANDING DANCER AND
CHOREOGRAPHER. THE DUNHAM COMPANY, THE FIRST BLACK
PROFESSIONAL DANCE COMPANY IN AMERICA, PERFORMED
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD FROM 1938 THROUGH 1963, PRESENTING
THE DANCE, MUSIC AND FOLKLORE OF THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES
AND THE U.S. FOR OVER THIRTY YEARS, Ms. DUNHAM
MAINTAINED THE ONLY PERMANENTLY SELF-SUBSIDIZED DANCE
TROUPE IN AMERICA. SHE ALSO FOUNDED THE DUNHAM SCHOOL
OF ARTS AND RESEARCH IN NEW YORK.
- 4 -
To KATHERINE DUNHAM FOR HER PIONEERING EXPLORATIONS OF
CARIBBEAN AND AFRICAN DANCE WHICH HAVE ENRICHED AND
TRANSFORMED THE ART OF DANCE IN AMERICA.
- 5 -
ALFRED EISENSTAEDT [I-ZEN-STAHT] IS THE
QUINTESSENTIAL PHOTOJOURNALIST WHO PIONEERED THE
INTRODUCTION OF THE CANDID CAMERA TECHNIQUE INTO NEWS
REPORTING. AFTER EMIGRATING FROM WEST PRUSSIA IN 1935,
HE JOINED THE ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHY STAFF OF THE NEW
LIFE MAGAZINE. MR. EISENSTAEDT'S MOST FAMOUS PHOTO IS
THAT OF A SAILOR KISSING A NURSE IN TIMES SQUARE AT THE
END OF WORLD WAR II. As A PHOTOGRAPHER, HE HAS WON
ALMOST EVERY MAJOR PROFESSIONAL AWARD.
- 6 -
To ALFRED EISENSTADT FOR THE EXTRAORDINARY PHOTOGRAPHS
THAT DOCUMENT THE TRAGEDIES AND TRIUMPHS HE HAS
WITNESSED OVER A LIFETIME.
- 7 -
JOHN BIRKS "DIzzy" GILLESPIE IS A VIRTUOSO
MUSICIAN, PIONEER, COMPOSER, AND BANDLEADER WHO HAS
BEEN A PIVOTAL FIGURE IN 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN MUSIC.
A FOUNDER OF THE JAZZ "BEBOP" MOVEMENT, HE DEVELOPED A
RADICAL NEW APPROACH TO IMPROVISATION THAT WAS TO
CHANGE THE COURSE OF MODERN MUSIC MAKING. FOR MORE
THAN FORTY YEARS, HE HAS EXPLORED THE VARIED MUSIC OF
DIFFERENT CULTURES. MR. GILLESPIE HAS PERFORMED BEFORE
COUNTLESS WORLD LEADERS, AND HAS WON NUMEROUS AWARDS.
- 8 -
To JOHN BIRKS "DIzzy" GILLESPIE FOR HIS TRAIL-BLAZING
WORK AS A MUSICIAN WHO HELPED ELEVATE JAZZ TO AN ART
FORM OF THE FIRST RANK, AND FOR SHARING HIS GIFT WITH
LISTENERS AROUND THE WORLD.
- 9 -
WALKER KIRTLAND HANCOCK IS A RENOWNED SCULPTOR
WHOSE WORK SPANS A PERIOD OF 70 YEARS. HE BEGAN BY
SCULPTING THE BUST OF AN ORPHAN AND WAS AWARDED A PRIX
DE ROME WHILE STILL AN APPRENTICE. HE HAS SPENT A
LIFETIME SCULPTING OVER 268 PIECES -- MANY OF THEM
PORTRAIT BUSTS, MONUMENTS AND MEDALS -- IN THE HEROIC
RENAISSANCE STYLE OF FLORENCE. MR. HANCOCK HAS
SCULPTED BUSTS OF AMERICAN HEROES AND PRESIDENTS. HE
HAS SAID THAT JUST AS THE ANCIENT GREEKS DID IN THEIR
SCULPTURE, CELEBRATING HEROES IS "STILL ONE OF THE
WORTHY FUNCTIONS OF SCULPTURE" TODAY.
- 10 -
To WALKER HANCOCK FOR HIS EXTRAORDINARY CONTRIBUTION TO
THE ART OF SCULPTURE, AND FOR DEMONSTRATING THE
ENDURING BEAUTY OF THE CLASSICAL TRADITION.
- 11 -
VLADIMIR HOROWITZ WAS A CONSUMMATE PIANIST AND
GENIUS WHO WAS KNOWN FOR THE "CONTROLLED THUNDER" AND
ELECTRICITY OF HIS PERFORMANCES. APPROPRIATELY, MR.
HOROWITZ' FIRST HOME WAS ON MUSIC STREET IN KIEV. HE
LEFT THE SOVIET UNION AS A MUSICAL SENSATION IN 1925,
TO PLAY IN BERLIN, PARIS, AND FINALLY IN AMERICA AT
CARNEGIE HALL. HE RETURNED TO CARNEGIE HALL 25 YEARS
LATER AT THE HEIGHT OF HIS POPULARITY, AND RETURNED TO
PLAY IN THE SOVIET UNION IN 1986. VLADIMIR HOROWITZ'S
MUSIC HAD A COLORFUL, BLAZING QUALITY AND TECHNICAL
EXCELLENCE. TRULY, HE WAS A MAN WITH NO EQUALS.
- 12 -
To VLADIMIR HOROWITZ FOR HIS EXTRAORDINARY ACHIEVEMENTS
AND DISTINCTIVE STYLE AS A PIANIST, WHOSE CONCERTS
BROUGHT PLEASURE TO AUDIENCES EVERYWHERE AND WHOSE
CONTRIBUTIONS TO MUSIC MADE HIM A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD.
- 13 -
CZESLAW MILOSZ [SAYS-Lov ME-LOSHE] IS A POET AND
EDUCATOR, WHOM JOSEPH BRODSKY HAS CALLED "ONE OF THE
GREATEST POETS OF OUR TIME, PERHAPS THE GREATEST." MR.
MILOSZ WAS BORN IN LITHUANIA IN 1911 AND BECAME A
NATURALIZED CITIZEN IN 1970. As ONE OF THE LEADERS IN
THE AVANT-GARDE POETRY MOVEMENT IN POLAND DURING THE
1930's, HE EDITED AN ANTI-NAZI ANTHOLOGY, "INVINCIBLE
SONG." MR. MILOSZ WON THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE
IN 1980, FOR HIS POETRY ON LIFE IN THIS CENTURY.
- 14 -
To CZESLAW MILOSZ FOR GLORIOUS POETRY AND PROSE THAT
CELEBRATES THE FREEDOM-LOVING SPIRIT NOT ONLY OF HIS
NATIVE POLAND BUT THAT OF HIS ADOPTED COUNTRY, THE
UNITED STATES.
1
- 15 -
ROBERT MOTHERWELL IS AN ARTIST OF GLOBAL STATURE,
RENOWNED AS ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF AMERICAN ABSTRACT
EXPRESSIONISM -- THE FIRST AMERICAN ART MOVEMENT TO
RECEIVE RECOGNITION INTERNATIONALLY AS BEING ON THE
LEADING EDGE OF WORLD ART. HE IS BEST KNOWN FOR A
SERIES OF MONUMENTAL PAINTINGS ON THE "SPANISH ELEGY"
THEME, FOR ABSTRACT PAINTINGS IN THE "OPEN" SERIES, AND
AS A MASTER OF COLLAGES. HE HAS RECEIVED A MULTITUDE
OF HONORS IN THE FIVE DECADES OF HIS CAREER.
- 16 -
To ROBERT MOTHERWELL FOR REFLECTING IN HIS ART THE VERY
ESSENCE OF AMERICAN FREEDOM, WITH PAINTINGS THAT HAVE
FOUND A DISTINGUISHED PLACE IN COLLECTIONS EVERYWHERE.
- 17 -
JOHN UPDIKE IS THE AUTHOR OF OVER 30 BOOKS OF
POETRY, NOVELS, SHORT STORIES AND ESSAYS. MR. UPDIKE
IS ONE OF THE BEST CHRONICLERS OF AMERICAN SMALL TOWN
LIFE IN LITERATURE. HE BEGAN AS A WRITER FOR THE NEW
YORKER MAGAZINE, THEN AUTHORED THE NOVELS THE POORHOUSE
FAIR, RABBIT, RUN, AND AMONG MANY OTHERS, THE CENTAUR
AND THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK. AMONG MANY OTHER AWARDS,
IN 1982 MR. UPDIKE RECEIVED THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR
FICTION FOR RABBIT IS RICH.
- 18 -
To JOHN UPDIKE FOR NOVELS AND STORIES THAT OVER A
FORTY-YEAR CAREER HAVE GIVEN US A WRYLY AFFECTIONATE
YET PENETRATING ANALYSIS OF THE COMPLEXITY OF LIFE IN
TODAY'S AMERICA.
- 19 -
MARTIN FRIEDMAN IS ONE OF OUR NATION'S MOST
INNOVATIVE AND SCHOLARLY MUSEUM DIRECTORS. MR.
FRIEDMAN HAS SERVED AS DIRECTOR OF THE WALKER ART
CENTER IN MINNEAPOLIS SINCE 1961, MAKING IT INTO ONE OF
THE PREMIER SMALL MUSEUMS IN THIS COUNTRY -- IN
EXHIBITIONS AS WELL AS PERFORMING ARTS. IN ADDITION To
HIS ACTIVISM IN THE ARTS COMMUNITY, HE HAS WRITTEN
EXTENSIVELY ON CONTEMPORARY ART, AND RECENTLY HELPED
CREATE THE NEW MINNEAPOLIS SCULPTURE GARDEN.
- 20 -
To MARTIN FRIEDMAN FOR OPENING THE DOORS OF HIS MUSEUM
TO THE BEST OF ALL OF THE ARTS OF OUR TIME -- FROM
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE TO FILM, VIDEO AND PERFORMANCE -
- AND FOR OPENING OUR EYES TO THE VITAL CONNECTIONS
BETWEEN THESE FORMS OF EXPRESSION.
- 21 -
LEIGH GERDINE [LAY JER-DINE] IS AN OUTSTANDING
CIVIC LEADER WHO HAS PAVED THE WAY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT
OF EVERY MAJOR CULTURAL INSTITUTION IN ST. LOUIS. MR.
GERDINE IS A 40-YEAR RESIDENT OF THAT CITY, AND FOR
18 YEARS, HAS BEEN PRESIDENT OF WEBSTER UNIVERSITY. HE
HAS BEEN DEEPLY INVOLVED IN THE ST. LOUIS SYMPHONY, THE
ST. LOUIS REPERTORY COMPANY, AND WAS FOUNDING CHAIRMAN
OF THE ST. LOUIS OPERA THEATER, NOW ONE OF THE MOST
WIDELY ACCLAIMED COMPANIES IN THE COUNTRY.
- 22 -
To LEIGH GERDINE FOR HIS DISTINGUISHED CAREER AS A
MUSICIAN AND EDUCATOR, AND FOR THE ENLIGHTENED
PATRONAGE WHICH HAS EARNED HIM THE TITLE OF "SPIRITUAL
FATHER OF THE ARTS IN ST. LOUIS."
- 23 -
DAYTON HUDSON CORPORATION HAS BEEN A LEADER IN
CORPORATE GIVING FOR 43 YEARS -- SINCE 1980, THE
CORPORATION HAS CONTRIBUTED NEARLY 70 MILLION DOLLARS
TO ARTS PROGRAMS IN THE UNITED STATES. DAYTON HUDSON
HAS TARGETED SUPPORT TO PROGRAMS THAT, ON A LONG-TERM
BASIS, MAKE A COMMUNITY A MORE VITAL PLACE IN WHICH TO
LIVE. DURING 1988 ALONE, DAYTON HUDSON GENEROUSLY
AWARDED $7.4 MILLION TO 580 ARTS PROGRAMS IN 37 STATES
AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
- 24 -
To DAYTON HUDSON CORPORATION FOR HELPING TO FORGE A
VITAL PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE CORPORATE SECTOR AND THE
ARTS COMMUNITY, AND FOR DEMONSTRATING HOW BOTH CAN
BENEFIT IN THE PROCESS.
###
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS / EAST ROOM
mk
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989 / 12:00 NOON
THANK YOU, ALL OF YOU, FOR BEING HERE TODAY FOR THE
FIFTH ANNUAL PRESENTATION OF THE NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE
ARTS. IT'S A GREAT PLEASURE AND AN HONOR FOR BARBARA
AND ME TO WELCOME YOU TO THE WHITE HOUSE.
- 2 -
I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE NATIONAL COUNCIL ON THE ARTS,
THE COMMITTEE ON THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES, AS WELL AS
JOHN FROHNMAYER, [FRONE-MY-ER] OUR NEW AND
DISTINGUISHED CHAIRMAN OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR
THE ARTS, AND, OF COURSE, HUGH SOUTHERN, FOR THE
SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF AMERICA'S CULTURAL LIFE.
DANTE ONCE WROTE THAT "Art IMITATES NATURE AS WELL
AS IT CAN, AS A PUPIL FOLLOWS HIS MASTER; THUS IT IS A
SORT OF GRANDCHILD OF GOD."
- 3 -
As THIS "GRANDCHILD OF GOD, ART EMBRACES OUR VALUES
AND HISTORY, GIVES MEANING TO OUR EXISTENCE AND
ILLUMINATES THE BASIC HUMAN TRUTHS WHICH GIVE US
PURPOSE. IN A WAY, ART DEFINES OUR CIVILIZATION.
BUT IN ANOTHER, MORE PERSONAL WAY, ART OPENS ENTIRE
NEW WORLDS FOR EACH OF US, LETTING US SEE AND HEAR AND
EVEN FEEL LIFE THROUGH THE MIND OF SOMEONE ELSE -- FROM
NEW PERSPECTIVES.
- 4 -
INSTEAD OF SEEING A SINGLE WORLD, WE CAN SEE AS MANY
WORLDS AS THERE ARE ARTISTS AND WRITERS, DANCERS AND
MUSICIANS.
THE DIVERSITY OF ART IN THIS NATION IS TRULY A
PRODUCT OF THE DIVERSITY OF OUR DEMOCRACY. THE
AMERICAN ARTS, LIKE A MANY-FACETED MIRROR, HAVE BEEN A
COLORFUL REFLECTION OF OUR NATION'S HISTORY. THE MUSIC
OF THE FRONTIER LED TO THE BLUES OF THE BAYOU, AND THE
SWING BANDS OF THE CITIES.
- 5 -
THE PRIMITIVISM OF THE EARLY PAINTERS GAVE WAY TO THE
ROMANTICISM OF THE HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL AND LATER,
AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM AND ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM. IN
ARCHITECTURE, AMERICANS SEE EVERYTHING FROM THE FEDERAL
STYLE TO POST-MODERNISM. MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY AND
FILMMAKING HAVE THEIR ROOTS IN THE TINTYPES OF THE
CIVIL WAR ERA.
- 6 -
AND FROM OUR EARLIEST WRITINGS TO THIS WEEK'S
BESTSELLER LIST, WE'VE SEEN AMERICAN POETRY, NOVELS AND
SHORT STORIES EARN A UNIQUE PLACE IN THE LITERATURE OF
THE WORLD. CITIES LIKE NEW YORK AND Los ANGELES HAVE
BECOME ART CAPITALS OF INTERNATIONAL IMPORTANCE, AND
REGIONAL ORCHESTRAS, MUSEUMS, DANCE TROUPES AND OPERA
COMPANIES HAVE ENJOYED SPECTACULAR SUCCESSES.
WE NEED TO MAKE THIS GREAT DIVERSITY OF ART MORE A
PART OF THE LIVES OF ALL AMERICANS.
- 7 -
WE NEED TO BEGIN THIS EFFORT IN OUR SCHOOLS SO THAT OUR
YOUNG PEOPLE WILL HAVE A SENSE OF THEIR HERITAGE AND
THE CREATIVITY OF THE PRESENT. AND WE NEED TO MAKE
SPECIAL EFFORTS TO REACH OUT TO THOSE WHO DO NOT
REGULARLY PARTICIPATE. THE WORK OF THE NATIONAL
ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT IN THESE
AREAS.
- 8 -
TODAY, WE HONOR A GROUP OF MEN AND WOMEN WHOSE
CREATIVE IDEAS, TALENT AND PASSION HAVE ADDED so MUCH
TO THE RICH TAPESTRY THAT IS OUR NATION'S CULTURAL
HERITAGE. THEIR WORK IS NOT JUST OF THE MIND BUT OF
THE HEART AND OF THE SOUL.
SOME HAVE CHALLENGED US. SOME HAVE AMAZED US.
SOME HAVE BROUGHT REMARKABLE BEAUTY OF SIGHT AND SOUND
To US.
- 9 -
BUT ALL HAVE HELPED US TO THINK AND TO DREAM AND TO
UNDERSTAND OURSELVES AND OUR WORLD A LITTLE BETTER.
TODAY, WE HONOR ALFRED EISENSTAEDT [I-ZEN-STAHT]
FOR HIS PHOTOGRAPHY, DIZZY GILLESPIE FOR HIS JAZZ
INNOVATIONS, AND JOHN UPDIKE FOR HIS PROSE. KATHERINE
DUNHAM FOR HER DANCE AND CHOREOGRAPHY, WALKER HANCOCK
FOR HIS SCULPTURE, CZESLAW [SAYS-Lov] MILOSZ [ME-LOSHE]
FOR HIS POETRY, ROBERT MOTHERWELL FOR HIS PAINTINGS,
AND LEOPOLD ADLER FOR HIS HISTORIC PRESERVATION.
- 10 -
AND WE HONOR SOMEONE WHOSE GREAT TALENT AND ENERGY WILL
LIVE ON, LONG AFTER THE SOUND OF HIS MUSIC HAS FADED --
THE LATE VLADIMIR HOROWITZ.
AND WE HONOR THE PATRONS OF THE ARTS -- THOSE WHO
UNDERSTAND THAT WITHOUT THE ARTISTIC CREATIVITY OF ITS
PEOPLE, NO NATION CAN BE WHOLE -- AND THOSE WHOSE
DEDICATION, ENERGY AND COMMITMENT HAVE SUSTAINED THAT
CREATIVITY OVER THE YEARS.
- 11 -
WE HONOR MARTIN FRIEDMAN OF THE WALKER ART CENTER IN
MINNEAPOLIS, LEIGH [LAY] GERDINE [JER-DINE] OF WEBSTER
UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS, AND THE DAYTON HUDSON
CORPORATION. AND NOW, JOHN FROHNMAYER WILL READ THE
CITATIONS FOR NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS TO OUR
RECIPIENTS.
((FROHNMAYER READS CITATIONS, FIRST LADY HANDS
MEDALS TO YOU TO PRESENT TO RECIPIENTS.))
- 12 -
((BACK TO THE PRESIDENT)) THANK YOU, JOHN. I
CONGRATULATE EACH OF YOU, FOR YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS, YOUR
DREAMS AND YOUR PASSION. You HAVE HONORED THIS NATION,
AND AMERICA IS GRATEFUL TO YOU. GOD BLESS YOU, AND GOD
BLESS AMERICA. CONGRATULATIONS ONCE AGAIN. AND NOW
I'D LIKE ALL OF OUR MEDAL WINNERS TO JOIN US UP HERE
FOR A MOMENT.
# # #
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
5
PM
43
November 15, 1989
INFORMATION
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
CHRISS WINSTON
FROM:
MARY KATE GRANT meg
Besum Be Five sees Purt! PBB w
SUBJECT:
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
I. SUMMARY
Attached are proposed remarks for the National Medal of the
Arts Awards ceremony, to be held Friday, November 17, at 12 noon
in the East Room (lunch will follow in the State Dining Room.)
The First Lady has agreed to the format set during the previous
Administration: You will deliver opening remarks from cards; she
will read the biographies and medal citations; you will hand the
recipients their medals and shake hands; then you will thank the
participants and end the ceremony.
II. DISCUSSION
This is the fifth annual presentation of the National Medal
of the Arts, begun under President Reagan. They honor great
artists as well as patrons of the arts; a posthumous medal will
also be awarded to Vladimir Horowitz. Your remarks discuss the
role of the arts in our society and the unique place they hold in
American history.
The attached biographies will be sent to Mrs. Bush on
Thursday.
Grant/Simon
November 15, 1989
Draft three
A:medal
REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
AWARDS LUNCHEON / EAST ROOM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
12:00 NOON
Thank you, all of you, for being here today for the fifth
annual presentation of the National Medal of the Arts. It's a
great pleasure and an honor for Barbara and me to welcome you to
the White House. I would like to thank the National Council on
the Arts, the Committee on the Arts and Humanities, as well as
our new and distingurshed
John Frohnmayer, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts,
^
and, of course, Hugh Southern, for the support and encouragement
of America's cultural life.
Dante once wrote that "Art imitates nature as well as it
can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of
grandchild of God." As this "grandchild of God," art embraces
our values and history, gives meaning to our existence and
illuminates the basic human truths which give us purpose. In a
way, art defines our civilization.
But in another, more personal way, art opens entire new
worlds for each of us, letting us see and hear and even feel life
through the mind of someone else -- from new perspectives.
Instead of seeing a single world, we can see as many worlds as
there are artists and writers, dancers and musicians.
The diversity of art in this Nation is truly a product of
the diversity of our democracy. The American arts, like a many-
2
faceted mirror, have been a colorful reflection of our Nation's
history. The music of the frontier led to the blues of the
bayou, and the swing bands of the cities. The primitivism of the
early painters gave way to the romanticism of the Hudson River
school and later, American impressionism and abstract
expressionism. In architecture, Americans see everything from
the Federal style to post-modernism. Modern photography and
filmmaking have their roots in the tintypes of the Civil War era.
And from our earliest writings to this week's bestseller list,
we've seen American poetry, novels and short stories earn a
unique place in the literature of the world. Cities like New
York and Los Angeles have become art capitals of international
importance, and regional orchestras, museums, dance troupes and
opera companies have enjoyed spectacular successes.
We need to make this great diversity of art more a part of
the lives of all Americans. We need to begin this effort in our
schools so that our young people will have a sense of their
heritage and the creativity of the present. And we need to make
special efforts to reach out to those who do not regularly
participate. The work of the National Endowment for the Arts is
especially important in these areas.
Today, we honor a group of men and women whose creative
ideas, talent and passion have added so much to the rich tapestry
that is our Nation's cultural heritage. Their work is not just
of the mind but of the heart and of the soul.
3
Some have challenged us. Some have amazed us. Some have
brought remarkable beauty of sight and sound to us. But all have
helped us to think and to dream and to understand ourselves and
our world a little better.
Today, we honor Alfred Eisenstaedt for his photography,
Dizzy Gillespie for his jazz innovations, and John Updike for his
prose. Katherine Dunham for her dance and choreography, Walker
Hancock for his sculpture, Czeslaw Milosz for his poetry, Robert
Motherwell for his paintings, and Leopold Adler for his historic
preservation. ( (And we honor someone whose great talent and
energy will live on, long after the thunder magic sound of his music has
faded -- the late Vladimir Horowitz.)
And we honor the patrons of the arts -- those who understand
that without the artistic creativity of its people, no nation can
be whole -- and those whose dedication, energy and commitment
have sustained that creativity over the years. We honor Martin
Friedman of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Leigh Gerdine
of Webster University in St. Louis, and the Dayton Hudson
Corporation. And now, Barbara will read the citations for
National Medal of the Arts to our recipients.
( (FIRST LADY READS CITATIONS. ))
( (BACK TO THE PRESIDENT)) Thank you, Barbara. I
congratulate each of you, for your achievements, your dreams and
your passion. You have honored this Nation, and America is
grateful to you. God bless you, and God bless America.
Congratulations once again.
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
( (THE FIRST LADY)
Leopold Adler, II is a nationally recognized expert in
historic preservation, and a native of Savannah, Georgia. Mr.
Adler changed the face of his home town and demonstrated for many
other civic leaders how to revitalize an old city with great
potential. He was the driving force behind two remarkable
experiments in inner city revitalization: one resulted in the
designation of the historic section of Savannah as a "National
Historic District"; and the other in the renovation of low income
housing in the Victorian district of the city. Mr. Adler has
also served as a trustee for almost a decade for the National
Trust for Historic Preservation. To Leopold Adler for his civic
leadership in preserving for all time the beauty of Savannah,
Georgia, and for making that city a model of the art of historic
preservation.
Katherine Dunham is an innovative and outstanding dancer and
choreographer. Born in Chicago, she founded the Ballet
Negre [NAY-grh] there in 1931. The Dunham Company, the first
Black professional dance company in America, performed throughout
the world from 1938 through 1963, presenting the dance, music and
folklore of Third World countries and the U.S. For over thirty
years, Ms. Dunham maintained the only permanently self-subsidized
dance troupe in America. She also founded the Dunham School of
Arts and Research in New York. The Dunham Technique is described
as a "style of dance and a philosophy of life," reflected in many
of our present day works on stage and screen. To Katherine
2
Dunham for her pioneering explorations of Caribbean and African
dance which have enriched and transformed the art of dance in
America.
Alfred Eisenstaedt is the quintessential photojournalist who
pioneered the introduction of the candid camera technique into
news reporting. After emigrating from West Prussia in 1935, he
joined the original photography staff of the new Life Magazine.
The photo of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square at the end
of World War II, is Eisenstaedt's most famous photo and it
embodies America's joy and relief. As a photographer, he has won
almost every major award given to those in his profession. Now,
at the age of 90, he has left us as his legacy a photographic
record of the writers, musicians, statesmen, scientists,
educators and people of our time, and the historic events
surrounding them. To Alfred Eisenstadt for the extraordinary
photographs that document the tragedies and triumphs he has
witnessed over a lifetime.
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie is a world famous jazz
trumpeter, who began working with a trumpet at the age of 12.
Mr. Gillespie is a pivotal figure in 20th Century American music,
and an innovator in the "bebop" movement in modern jazz. While
playing with Earl "Fatha" Hines, he developed a radical new
approach to improvisation that was to change the course of modern
music making. Over the years, he has been the featured trumpeter
with many of America's leading swing orchestras. Dizzy Gillespie
is credited with introducing Afro-Cuban rhythms into jazz in 1947
and the South American bossa nova to the United States. To John
3
Berks "Dizzy" Gillespie for his trail-blazing work as a musician
who helped elevate jazz to an art form of the first rank, and for
sharing his gift with listeners around the world.
Walker Kirtland Hancock is a renowned sculptor whose work
spans a period of 70 years. He began it by sculpting the bust of
an orphan and was awarded a Prix de Rome while still an
apprentice. He has spent a lifetime sculpting over 268 pieces --
many of them portrait busts, monuments and medals -- in the
heroic Renaissance style of Florence. Mr. Hancock has sculpted
busts of John Paul Jones, President Abraham Lincoln, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey, then-Vice President Gerald Ford, and
Chief Justice Warren Burger. Commenting on the similarity of his
philosophy on sculpture with that of the Greek civilization -- he
observed that the Greeks made heroes of ordinary mortals making
heroes of them. He said that celebrating heroes was "still one
of the worthy functions of sculpture." To Walter Hancock for his
extraordinary conribution to the art of sculpture, and for
demonstrating the enduring beauty of the classical tradition.
((Vladimir Horowitz biography to come))
4
Czeslaw Milosz is a poet and educator, whom Joseph Brodsky
has called "one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the
greatest." Mr. Milosz was born in Lithuania in 1911 and
emigrated to the U.S. in 1960, becoming a naturalized citizen in
1970. Known as one of the leaders in the avant-garde poetry
movement in Poland during the 1930's, Mr. Milosz served in the
Resistance during World War II and edited an anti-Nazi anthology,
"Invincible Song." He has written several works in English, and
in 1980 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. To Czeslaw Milosz
for glorious poetry and prose that celebrates the freedom-loving
spirit not only of his native Poland but that of his adopted
country, the United States.
Robert Motherwell is a great painter known throughout the
world as a leader in the New York School of Abstract
Expressionism. Mr. Motherwell's first shows occurred in Paris in
1939 and in this country in New York in 1944. By the 1960's and
1970's, his work was featured in most of the major museums and
galleries in the United States. In the 1940's, Mr. Motherwell
created "monumental canvases" from his collages, often in stark
black and white. By the 1960's he was producing large scale
works, such as the "Open" series done with a monochromatic
palette. To Robert Motherwell for reflecting in his art the very
essence of American freedom, with paintings that have found a
distinguished place in collections everywhere.
5
John Updike is the author of over 36 books of poetry,
novels, short stories and essays. He began as a writer for the
New Yorker Magazine, then authored the novels The Poorhouse Fair,
Rabbit, Run, and among many others, The Centaur. His 1984 novel,
The Witches of Eastwick was made into a major motion picture. In
1982 Mr. Updike received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well
as the American Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle
Award for writing Rabbit is Rich. To John Updike for novels and
stories that over a forty-year career have given us a wryly
affectionate yet penetrating analysis of the complexity of life
in today's America.
Martin Friedman is one of our Nation's most innovative and
scholarly museum directors. Mr. Friedman has served as Director
of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis since 1961, making that
institution into one of the premier small museums in this country
-- in exhibitions as well as a major presenter of performing
arts. He has served as a Presidentially appointed member of the
National Council on the Arts, and was made an Officier des Arts
et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 1984. To Martin
Friedman for opening the doors of his museum to the best of all
of the arts of our time -- from painting and sculpture to film,
video and performance -- and for opening our eyes to the vital
connections between these forms of expression.
6
Leigh Gerdine is an outstanding civic leader who has paved
the way for the development of every major cultural institution
in St. Louis. A 40-year resident of that city, he was professor
and chairman of the Department of Music at Washington University;
for the last 18 years, he has been president of Webster
University. Leigh Gerdine has helped shape the cultural
activities of St. Louis and has provided a level of leadership
which has enabled the city to become a major arts center. Mr.
Gerdine has been deeply involved in the St. Louis Symphony, the
St. Louis Repertory Company, and was the founding chairman of the
St. Louis Opera Theater, now one of the most widely acclaimed
companies in the country. To Leigh Gerdine for his distinguished
career as a musician and educator, and for the enlightened
patronage which has earned him the title of "spiritual father of
the arts in St. Louis."
Dayton Hudson Corporation has been a leader in corporate
giving for 42 years -- giving five percent of its Federallly
taxable income for worthwhile community programs and currently
forty percent of that figure to the arts. Dayton Hudson's has
targeted support to programs and projects that increase, on a
long-term basis, a community's resources making it a more vital
place in which to live. Artistic leadership and increased access
to the arts are primary goals of the funding. Dayton Hudson's
dollar support for the arts ranks among the top five art
supporters in the country -- having contributed over the last ten
years $60 million to art programs in 48 states and the District
of Columbia. To Dayton Hudson Corporation for helping to forge a
7
vital partnership between the corporate sector and the arts
community, and for demonstrating how both can benefit in the
process.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 15, 1989
NOTE FOR LAURIE FIRESTONE:
The citation for Vladimir Horowitz
should read:
for his extraordinary achievements
and distinctive style as a pianist,
whose concerts brought pleasure to
audiences everywhere and whose
contributions to music made him a
citizen of the world.
NEA has approved this citation.
Thanks.
James W. Cicconi
ba: Krina/MK
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
11/16/89
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
SUBJECT:
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BATES
UNTERMEYER
CARD
ROGERS
CICCONI
WINSTON
DEMAREST
PINKERTON
FITZWATER
PORTER ROSE
FIRESTONE
GRAY
HAGIN
HODSOLL
REMARKS:
The attached has been forwarded to the President.
RESPONSE:
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
THE WHITE HOUSE
1989 NOV
WASHINGTON
15 PM >. 43
November 15, 1989
INFORMATION
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
CHRISS WINSTON cw
FROM:
MARY KATE GRANT meg
SUBJECT:
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
I. SUMMARY
Attached are proposed remarks for the National Medal of the
Arts Awards ceremony, to be held Friday, November 17, at 12 noon
in the East Room (lunch will follow in the State Dining Room.)
The First Lady has agreed to the format set during the previous
Administration: You will deliver opening remarks from cards; she
will read the biographies and medal citations; you will hand the
recipients their medals and shake hands; then you will thank the
participants and end the ceremony.
II. DISCUSSION
This is the fifth annual presentation of the National Medal
of the Arts, begun under President Reagan. They honor great
artists as well as patrons of the arts; a posthumous medal will
also be awarded to Vladimir Horowitz. Your remarks discuss the
role of the arts in our society and the unique place they hold in
American history.
The attached biographies will be sent to Mrs. Bush on
Thursday.
Grant/Simon
November 15, 1989
Draft three
A:medal
REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
AWARDS LUNCHEON / EAST ROOM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
12:00 NOON
Thank you, all of you, for being here today for the fifth
annual presentation of the National Medal of the Arts. It's a
great pleasure and an honor for Barbara and me to welcome you to
the White House. I would like to thank the National Council on
the Arts, the Committee on the Arts and Humanities, as well as
John Frohnmayer, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts,
and, of course, Hugh Southern, for the support and encouragement
of America's cultural life.
Dante once wrote that "Art imitates nature as well as it
can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of
grandchild of God." As this "grandchild of God," art embraces
our values and history, gives meaning to our existence and
illuminates the basic human truths which give us purpose. In a
way, art defines our civilization.
But in another, more personal way, art opens entire new
worlds for each of us, letting us see and hear and even feel life
through the mind of someone else -- from new perspectives.
Instead of seeing a single world, we can see as many worlds as
there are artists and writers, dancers and musicians.
The diversity of art in this Nation is truly a product of
the diversity of our democracy. The American arts, like a many-
2
faceted mirror, have been a colorful reflection of our Nation's
history. The music of the frontier led to the blues of the
bayou, and the swing bands of the cities. The primitivism of the
early painters gave way to the romanticism of the Hudson River
school and later, American impressionism and abstract
expressionism. In architecture, Americans see everything from
the Federal style to post-modernism. Modern photography and
filmmaking have their roots in the tintypes of the Civil War era.
And from our earliest writings to this week's bestseller list,
we've seen American poetry, novels and short stories earn a
unique place in the literature of the world. Cities like New
York and Los Angeles have become art capitals of international
importance, and regional orchestras, museums, dance troupes and
opera companies have enjoyed spectacular successes.
We need to make this great diversity of art more a part of
the lives of all Americans. We need to begin this effort in our
schools so that our young people will have a sense of their
heritage and the creativity of the present. And we need to make
special efforts to reach out to those who do not regularly
participate. The work of the National Endowment for the Arts is
especially important in these areas.
Today, we honor a group of men and women whose creative
ideas, talent and passion have added so much to the rich tapestry
that is our Nation's cultural heritage. Their work is not just
of the mind but of the heart and of the soul.
3
Some have challenged us. Some have amazed us. Some have
brought remarkable beauty of sight and sound to us. But all have
helped us to think and to dream and to understand ourselves and
our world a little better.
Today, we honor Alfred Eisenstaedt for his photography,
Dizzy Gillespie for his jazz innovations, and John Updike for his
prose. Katherine Dunham for her dance and choreography, Walker
Hancock for his sculpture, Czeslaw Milosz for his poetry, Robert
Motherwell for his paintings, and Leopold Adler for his historic
preservation. ( (And we honor someone whose great talent and
energy will live on, long after the thunder of his music has
faded -- the late Vladimir Horowitz.)
And we honor the patrons of the arts -- those who understand
that without the artistic creativity of its people, no nation can
be whole -- and those whose dedication, energy and commitment
have sustained that creativity over the years. We honor Martin
Friedman of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Leigh Gerdine
of Webster University in St. Louis, and the Dayton Hudson
Corporation. And now, Barbara will read the citations for
National Medal of the Arts to our recipients.
( (FIRST LADY READS CITATIONS. ))
( (BACK TO THE PRESIDENT)) Thank you, Barbara. I
congratulate each of you, for your achievements, your dreams and
your passion. You have honored this Nation, and America is
grateful to you. God bless you, and God bless America.
Congratulations once again.
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
( (THE FIRST LADY) )
Leopold Adler, II is a nationally recognized expert in
historic preservation, and a native of Savannah, Georgia. Mr.
Adler changed the face of his home town and demonstrated for many
other civic leaders how to revitalize an old city with great
potential. He was the driving force behind two remarkable
which refun lished
experiments in inner city revitalization: one resulted in the
designation of the historic section of Savannah as a National
Rd
Historic District" ; and the other in the renovation of low income
housing in the Victorian district of the city. Mr. Adler has
also served as a trustee for almost a decade for the National
Trust for Historic Preservation. To Leopold Adler for his civic
leadership in preserving for all time the beauty of Savannah,
Georgia, and for making that city a model of the art of historic
preservation.
Katherine Dunham is an innovative and outstanding dancer and
choreographer. Born in Chicago, she founded the Ballet
Negre [NAY-grh] there in 1931. The Dunham Company, the first
Black professional dance company in America, performed throughout
the world from 1938 through 1963, presenting the dance, music and
folklore of Third World countries and the U.S. For over thirty
years, Ms. Dunham maintained the only permanently self-subsidized
dance troupe in America. She also founded the Dunham School of
Arts and Research in New York. The Dunham Technique is described
as a "style of dance and a philosophy of life," reflected in many
of our present day works on stage and screen. To Katherine
2
Dunham for her pioneering explorations of Caribbean and African
dance which have enriched and transformed the art of dance in
America.
Alfred Eisenstaedt is the quintessential photojournalist who
pioneered the introduction of the candid camera technique into
news reporting. After emigrating from West Prussia in 1935, he
joined the original photography staff of the new Life Magazine.
The photo of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square at the end
of World War 11, is Disenstaedt most famous photo and it
embedies America' joy and relief. As a photographer, he has won
almost every major award given to those in his profession. Now,
at the age of 90, he has left us as his legacy a photographic
record of the writers, musicians, statesmen, scientists,
educators and people of our time, and the historic events
surrounding them. To Alfred Eisenstadt for the extraordinary
photographs that document the tragedies and triumphs he has
witnessed over a lifetime.
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie is a world famous jazz
trumpeter, who began working with a trumpet at the age of 12.
Mr. Gillespie is a pivotal figure in 20th Century American music,
and an innovator in the "bebop" movement in modern jazz. While
playing with Earl "Fatha" Hines, he developed a radical new
approach to improvisation that was to change the course of modern
)
music making Over the years, he has been the featured trumpeter
with many of America's leading swing orchestras. Dizzy Gillespie
is credited with introducing Afro-Cuban rhythms into jazz in 1947
and the South American bossa nova to the United States. To John
3
Berks "Dizzy" Gillespie for his trail-blazing work as a musician
who helped elevate jazz to an art form of the first rank, and for
sharing his gift with listeners around the world.
Walker Kirtland Hancock is a renowned sculptor whose work
spans a period of 70 years. He began it by sculpting the bust of
an orphan and was awarded a Prix de Rome while still an
apprentice. He has spent a lifetime sculpting over 268 pieces --
many of them portrait busts, monuments and medals -- in the
heroic Renaissance style of Florence. Mr. Hancock has sculpted
busts of John Paul Jones, President Abraham Lincoln, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey, then-Vice President Gerald Ford, and
Chief Justice Warren Burger. Commenting on the similarity of his
philosophy on sculpture with that of the Greek civilization -- he
observed that the Greeks made heroes of ordinary mortals making
heroes of them. He said that celebrating heroes was "still one
of the worthy functions of sculpture." To Walter Hancock for his
extraordinary conribution to the art of sculpture, and for
demonstrating the enduring beauty of the classical tradition.
( (Vladimir Horowitz biography to come))
[Ches-lav Me-losh]
Czeslaw Milosz is a poet and educator, whom Joseph Brodsky
has called "one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the
greatest." Mr. Milosz was born in Lithuania in 1911 and
emigrated to the U.S. in 1960, becoming a naturalized citizen in
1970. Known as one of the leaders in the avant-garde poetry
movement in Poland during the 1930's, Mr. Milosz served in the
Resistance during World War II and edited an anti-Nazi anthology,
"Invincible Song." He has written several works in English, and
in 1980 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. To Czeslaw Milosz
for glorious poetry and prose that celebrates the freedom-loving
spirit not only of his native Poland but that of his adopted
country, the United States.
Robert Motherwell is a great painter known throughout the
world as a leader in the New York School of Abstract
Expressionism. Mr. Motherwell's first shows occurred in Paris in
1939 and in this country in New York in 1944. By the 1960's and
1970's, his work was featured in most of the major museums and
galleries in the United States. In the 1940's, Mr. Motherwell
created "monumental canvases" from his collages, often in stark
black and white. By the 1960's he was producing large scale
works, such as the "Open" series done with a monochromatic
palette. To Robert Motherwell for reflecting in his art the very
essence of American freedom, with paintings that have found a
distinguished place in collections everywhere.
5
John Updike is the author of over 36 books of poetry,
novels, short stories and essays. He began as a writer for the
New Yorker Magazine, then authored the novels The Poorhouse Fair,
Rabbit, Run, and among many others, The Centaur. His 1984 novel,
The Witches of Eastwick was made into a major motion picture In
1982 Mr. Updike received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well
as the American Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle
Award for writing Rabbit is Rich. To John Updike for novels and
stories that over a forty-year career have given us a wryly
affectionate yet penetrating analysis of the complexity of life
in today's America.
Martin Friedman is one of our Nation's most innovative and
scholarly museum directors. Mr. Friedman has served as Director
of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis since 1961, making that
institution into one of the premier small museums in this country
-- in exhibitions as well as a major presenter of performing
arts. He has served as a Presidentially appointed member of the
National Council on the Arts, and was made an Officier des Arts
et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 1984. To Martin
Friedman for opening the doors of his museum to the best of all
of the arts of our time -- from painting and sculpture to film,
video and performance -- and for opening our eyes to the vital
connections between these forms of expression.
6
Leigh Gerdine is an outstanding civic leader who has paved
the way for the development of every major cultural institution
in St. Louis. A 40-year resident of that city, he was professor
and chairman of the Department of Music at Washington University;
for the last 18 years, he has been president of Webster
University. Leigh Gerdine has helped shape the cultural
ctivities of St Louis and has provided a level of leadership
which has enabled the city to become a major arts center Mr.
Gerdine has been deeply involved in the St. Louis Symphony, the
St. Louis Repertory Company, and was the founding chairman of the
St. Louis Opera Theater, now one of the most widely acclaimed
companies in the country. To Leigh Gerdine for his distinguished
career as a musician and educator, and for the enlightened
patronage which has earned him the title of "spiritual father of
the arts in St. Louis. "
Dayton Hudson Corporation has been a leader in corporate
giving for 42 years -- giving five percent of its Federallly
taxable income for worthwhile community programs and currently
forty percent of that figure to the arts. Dayton Hudson has
targeted support to programs and projects that increase, on a
long-term basis, a community's resources making it a more vital
place in which to live. Artistic leadership and increased access
to the arts are primary goals of the funding Dayton Hudson's
dollar support for the arts ranks among the top five art
supporters in the country -- having contributed over the last ten
years $60 million to art programs in 48 states and the District
of Columbia. To Dayton Hudson Corporation for helping to forge a
7
vital partnership between the corporate sector and the arts
community, and for demonstrating how both can benefit in the
process.
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
( (THE FIRST LADY) )
Leopold Adler, II is a nationally recognized expert in
historic preservation, and a native of Savannah, Georgia. Mr.
Adler changed the face of his home town and demonstrated for many
other civic leaders how to revitalize an old city with great
potential. He was the driving force behind two remarkable
experiments in inner city revitalization: one resulted in the
designation of the historic section of Savannah as a "National
Historic District"; and the other in the renovation of low income
housing in the Victorian district of the city. Mr. Adler has
been active nationally, and served as a trustee for almost a
decade for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. ((Read
Citation on Medal) )
Katherine Dunham is an innovative and outstanding dancer and
choreographer. Born in Chicago, she founded the Ballet Negre
there in 1931. The Dunham Company, the first Black professional
dance company in America, performed throughout the world from
1938 through 1963, presenting the dance, music and folklore of
Third World countries and the U.S. For over thirty years, Ms.
Dunham maintained the only permanently self-subsidized dance
troupe in America. She also founded the Dunham School of Arts
and Research in New York, which became a reservoir of talent for
Broadway, Hollywood and the world. The Dunham Technique is
described as a "style of dance and a philosophy of life. " Many
of our present day works on stage and screen reflect her profound
influence. ((Citation))
2
Alfred Eisenstaedt is the quintessential photojournalist who
pioneered the introduction of the candid camera technique into
news reporting. After emigrating from West Prussia in 1935, he
became one of the original photography staff of the new Life
Magazine. Eisenstaedt's most famous photo is that of the sailor
kissing the nurse in Times Square at the end of World War II, and
it has come to embody America's joy and relief at the end of the
war. As a photographer, he has won almost every major award
given to those in his profession. Now, at the age of 90, he can
claim to have covered the significant events of the past 50 years
and has left us as his legacy a photographic record of the
writers, musicians, statesmen, scientists and educators of our
time, and the historic events surrounding them. (Citation))
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie is a world famous jazz
trumpeter, who began working with a trumpet at the age of 12.
Mr. Gillespie is a pivotal figure in 20th Century American music,
and an innovator in the "bebop" movement in modern jazz. While
playing with Earl "Fatha" Hines, he developed a radical new
approach to improvisation that was to change the course of modern
music making. He was the featured trumpeter with many of
America's leading swing orchestras, including the bands of Teddy
Hill, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, and Billy
Eckstine's legendary orchestra of 1944. Dizzy Gillespie is
credited with introducing Afro-Cuban rhythms into jazz in 1947
and the South American bossa nova to the United States. He is
the author of "To Be, or Not to Bop. " ((Citation))
3
Walker Kirtland Hancock is a renowned sculptor whose work
spans a period of 70 years. He began it by sculpting the bust of
an orphan and was awarded a Prix de Rome while still an
apprentice. He has spent a lifetime sculpting over 268 pieces --
many of them portrait busts, monuments and medals -- in the
heroic Renaissance style of Florence. Mr. Hancock has sculpted
busts of John Paul Jones, President Abraham Lincoln, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey, then-Vice President Gerald Ford, and
Chief Justice Warren Burger. In 1971, he commented on the
similarity of his philosophy on sculpture with that of the Greek
civilization -- he observed that the Greeks were the ones who
"began to carve images in honor of ordinary mortals,' " "making
heroes of them. " He said that celebrating heroes was "still one
of the worthy functions of sculpture." ( (Citation))
( (Vladimir Horowitz biography to come))
4
Czeslaw Milosz is a poet and educator, whom Joseph Brodsky
has called "one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the
greatest." Mr. Milosz was born in Lithuania in 1911 and
emigrated to the U.S. in 1960, becoming a naturalized citizen in
1970. Known as one of the leaders in the avant-garde poetry
movement in Poland during the 1930's, Mr. Milosz served in the
he
Resistance during World War II and edited an anti-Nazi anthology,
"Invincible Song." He also served in the Polish diplomatic
service He has written several works in English, and in 1980 he
won the Nobel Prize for Literature. (Citation))
Robert Motherwell is a great painter known throughout the
founder of
American
world as a leader in the New York School of Abstract
Expressionism. Mr Motherwell's first shows occurred in Paris in
1939 and in this country in New York in 1944 By the 1960's and
1970's, his work was featured in most of the major museums and
galleries in the United States. Early in his career he found
himself surrounded by European artists-in-exile, particularly
Surrealists and Cubists. In the 1940's, Mr. Motherwell created
"monumental canvases" from his collages, often in stark black and
white. By the 1960's he was producing large scale works, such as
the "Open" series done with a monochromatic palette. He has
earned a place as one of America's great artists. ((Citation))
5
30
John Updike is the author of over 36 books of poetry,
novels, short stories and essays. As a novelist, he has written
about his early childhood in Pennsylvania and later as an adult
of his experiences in Massachusetts, where he now lives. He
began as a writer for the New Yorker Magazine, then authored the
novels The Poorhouse Fair, Rabbit, Run, and among many others,
The Centaur. His 1984 novel, The Witches of Eastwick was made
into a major motion picture. In 1982 Mr. Updike received the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the American Book Award and
the National Book Critics Circle Award for writing Rabbit is
Rich. John Updike is one of the best chroniclers of American
small town life in literature. ( (Citation))
Martin Friedman is one of our Nation's most innovative and
scholarly museum directors. Mr. Friedman has served as Director
of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis since 1961, making that
institution into one of the premier small museums in this country
-- in exhibitions as well as a major presenter of performing
arts. He has served as a Presidentially appointed member of the
National Council on the Arts, and was made an Officier des Arts
et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 1984. Mr.
Friedman is recognized worldwide as a director of a museum which
presents contemporary art, architecture and design as well as
innovative film and performing arts presentations. ( (Citation) )
6
Leigh Gerdine is an outstanding civic leader who has paved
performing ants
the way for the development of every major cultural institution
in St. Louis. A resident of that city for nearly four decades,
he was professor and chairman of the Department of Music at
Washington University in St. Louis from 1950 to 1970; for the
last 18 20 years, he has been president of Webster University in St.
Louis. Leigh Gerdine has helped shape the cultural activities of
St. Louis and has provided a level of leadership which has
enabled the city to become a major arts center in our country.
Mr. Gerdine has been deeply involved in the St. Louis Symphony,
the St. Louis Repertory Company, and was the founding chairman of
the St. Louis Opera Theater, now one of the most widely acclaimed
companies in the country. ( (Citation) )
Dayton Hudson Corporation has been a leader in corporate
43
giving for X years -- giving five percent of its Federallly
a significant portion
taxable income for worthwhile community programs and currently
forty percent of that figure to the arts. Dayton Hudson's policy
in grant making has been targeted to programs and projects that
increase, on a long-term basis, a community's resources making it
a more vital place in which to live. Artistic leadership and
increased access to the arts are primary goals of the funding.
Dayton Hudson's dollar support for the arts ranks among the top
five art supporters in the country having contributed over the
meanly $70
37
last ten years $59 million to art programs, in 48 states and the
District of Columbia Dayton Hudson has generously contributed
to both institutional projects as well as individual artists.
((Citation))
Hasiitz Sha hi will follow.
Is
AUTHORIZED
LEOPOLD ADLER, II
Leopold Adler, II, a nationally recognized expert in historic
preservation, was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1923 and educated
there. He lives and works as a real estate developer in
Savannah.
It is not an exaggeration to state that Mr. Adler has changed
the face of his home town and demonstrated for many other civic
leaders how to revitalize an old city with great potential. Mr.
Adler's major accomplishment involves the renewal of two
different areas in Savannah, Georgia.
He was the driving force behind a remarkable experiment in inner
city revitalization; the success of his work was recognized by
the U.S. Department of the Interior, which designated the
historic section of Savannah as a "National Historic District.
Mr. Adler was also able to take a Victorian district of the same
city, composed of low income housing in slum conditions, and
renovate nearly half of the 1000 structures in that area -- many
of "gingerbread" style -- eventually returning the homes to the
poor black tenants and subsidizing their rents through federal
funding. The remainder of the buildings were owned by middle
and upper middle income citizens who have been inspired to
continue the revitalization of that area. This unprecedented
project implemented in 1974, continues to serve as a model for
the country.
Leopold Adler has worked as past director and board member of
the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce and organized the Tourist
and Convention Bureau on which he served as President for six
different terms during the 1960s. He has been active
nationally, serving as a trustee for almost a decade (1971-80)
for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Currently he
serves as Chairman of "Americans for Historic Preservation", and
lectures extensively on preservation throughout the country.
His honors include the following: the Order of Griffon Award
from the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce (1962); the
Outstanding Citizen "Thomas H. Gignilliat Award" for
contributions in the field of Culture in Savannah (1963); the
Davenport Trophy for outstanding contributions in the field of
Historic Preservation (1967) a National Recognition Award from
the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development given by
President Reagan in 1983; the Freedom Award from the NAACP
(1984), ; the Mary Gregory Jewett Award for distinguished service
in the field of preservation (1984); and the Louise Dupont
Crowinshield Award (1984), which is the highest award given by
the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
AUTHORIZED
DAYTON HUDSON CORPORATION
Dayton Hudson Corporation, one of our Nation's major private
sector supporters of the arts, is based in Minneapolis,
Minnesota and operates three companies which include the Dayton
Hudson Department Store Company, Mervyn's and Target Stores.
Since 1980 the corporation has contributed nearly 70 million
dollars to arts programs in the United States.
Dayton Hudson has a long time interest in the communities in
which its stores are located; it is on record for supporting
resident art programs of quality -- grant monies are targeted to
fund "artistic excellence and stronger artistic leadership,"
and/or "to increase access to and the use of the arts as a means
of community expression." This support is based on the
conviction that: a community encourages the creativity of its
people through the arts, communities of creative people are more
vital places for people to live and work, and vital lively
market communities are crucial to Dayton Hudson's success.
For forty-three years, Dayton Hudson Corporation has
strengthened its communities and its business through a vigorous
program of community involvement. The corporation contributes
5% of its federally taxable income to community programs -- and
of the 5%, 80% goes to arts and social action programs with the
remaining 20% to special community needs and opportunities.
During 1988 Dayton Hudson awarded $7.4 million to 580 arts
organizations and programs in 37 states and the District of
Columbia, with grants ranging from $1,000 to half a million
dollars. Included were grants to the following arts
organizations: The Guthrie Theater, Dance/USA, Film in the
Cities, Minnesota Public Radio, Poets & Writers, Theatre
Communications Group, and the Walker Art Center.
Two other funding programs which demonstrate the range of Dayton
Hudson's giving are: the Comprehensive Arts Support Program
(CASP) which supported seven arts organizations in 1988 for a
total of $1,024,300; and the Dayton Hudson/General Mills/Jerome
Travel Study Grant Program (initiated in 1986), which supports
the work of individual Twin City artists in the disciplines of
dance, visual arts, literature, theater, music, and media arts,
during significant periods of their professional development.
During 1986-1988, Dayton Hudson contributed $154,000 to support
this program.
By its contribution of nearly 70 million dollars to the arts in
less than a decade, Dayton Hudson has developed a truly
exemplary comprehensive program for corporate funding of the
arts in this country.
ALFRED EISENSTAEDT
ALFRED EISENSTAEDT is the quintessential photojournalist who
pioneered in the introduction of the candid camera technique
into news reporting. He was born in 1918 in Dirschau, West
Prussia.
At the age of twenty-nine he photographed a female tennis player
and sold the picture to Der Welt Spiegel, an illustrated weekly,
thus launching his career as a professional photographer.
In 1929 he became a special photo reporter in Berlin for Pacific
and Atlantic Photos later to evolve into Associated Press.
Eisenstaedt and his colleagues experimented and their
photojournalism work began to appear with regularity in
different German publications.
He emigrated to the United States in 1935 and one year later
became one of the original photography staff of the newly
created Life Magazine, an association he continues today. He is
one of a handful of photographers who has produced a truly
classic photograph of an image that will survive the test of
time. Eisenstaedt's most famous photo is that of the sailor
kissing the nurse in Times Square at the end of World War II.
As a photographer he has won almost every major award given to
those in his profession. Now, at the age of 90, he can claim to
have covered the significant events of the past 50 years and has
left us as his legacy portraits of those individuals connected
with numerous historic events including World War II, the
post-war era in Japan and the rise of the independent African
states.
He is the author of some 12 books published from 1966-1988,
including "Witness To Our Time" (1966), "Wimbledon: A
Celebration" (1972) and "Eisenstaedt on Eisenstaedt" (1985).
His (1988). most recent work is a photo essay on "Martha's Vineyard"
His many honors include being named Photographer of the Year by
the Encyclopedia Britannica (1951). In 1952 Popular Photography
Magazine acknowledged him as one of the world's ten great
photographers. In 1962 he was the recipient of the Cultural
Prize Award from the German Society for Photography and in 1987
E. Leitz honored him with the Gold Leica. One year later he
received the Master of Photography Award from the International
Center of Photography as well as a lifetime achievement award
from the Mayor of New York.
He has left the world an extraordináry photographic record of
the writers, musicians, statesmen, scientists and educators of
our time.
AUTHORIZED
JOHN BIRKS "DIZZY" GILLESPIE
JOHN BIRKS "DIZZY" GILLESPIE, virtuoso musician, pioneer and
innovator, composer, arranger, bandleader, reconteur, consummate
entertainer and cultural ambassador extraordinaire, was born in
Cheraw, South Carolina in 1917. Throughout an illustrious
career, now in its sixth decade, Mr. Gillespie has been at the
forefront of 20th century contemporary music.
Mr. Gillespie has performed before numerous royalty and
countless world leaders, including four American Presidents; has
appeared as guest soloist with symphony orchestras all over the
world; has won every imaginable award in the field of jazz; and
has received fourteen honorary doctoral degrees. This year, Mr.
Gillespie was honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts
and Sciences with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
More than forty years ago, Gillespie began to explore the varied
music of countries and cultures throughout the world, and is
universally credited as the catalyst and most prominent artist
who incorporated Afro-Cuban, Brazilian and Caribbean music and
rhythms into the jazz idiom. He steadfastly believes that jazz
"celebrates the internationality of music -- our common
language, our common bond." To this day, Dizzy Gillespie is
acclaimed, not only as the founder, with the late Charlie
Parker, of Bebop, but also is the visionary risk taker whose
daring integration of ethnic influences added a vibrant and
indelible dimension to jazz, and to music in all its popular
forms. His spectacular all-star United Nation Orchestra, which
exemplifies the essence of Mr. Gillespie's musical philosophy,
has performed to international acclaim in 14 countries on 3
continents since its inception in 1988.
In 1956, Dizzy Gillespie was the first jazz artist appointed by
the Department of State as Cultural Ambassador to tour on behalf
of the United States of America. His resoundingly successful
tours through the Near East, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin
America were early landmarks in what has been a virtual lifetime
of cultural statesmanship by the inimitable jazz master on
behalf of his country.
In January 1989, Mr. Gillespie once again was asked to represent
the United States, and embarked on a ground-breaking, month-long
tour of Africa, sponsored by the United States Information
Agency/Arts America Program.
On June 13, 1989, Dizzy Gillespie was awarded the highest honor
in the arts in France, when the Minister of Culture bestowed the
Commander of the Order of Artes and Lettres upon him.
Mr. Gillespie's synthesis of the African/American and Afro-Cuban
experience is the subject of the award-winning film, "A Night in
Havana," directed by John Holland, which is currently in
theatrical release throughout the world.
AUTHORIZED
LEIGH GERDINE
LEIGH GERDINE, an outstanding civic leader who has paved the way
for the development of every major performing arts institution
in St. Louis, was born in Sheyenne, North Dakota in 1917 and has
lived almost four decades in St. Louis, Missouri.
Educated at the University of North Dakota with a music degree
from Oxford and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, he is a
much decorated war hero, who served during World War II in the
Air Force Intelligence as an Interrogator of Prisoners of War
and as Aide to the Commanding General, U.S. Air Forces in
Europe. Prior to WW II he taught at Mississippi State College
for Women and later for two years at Miami University in Oxford,
Ohio before moving to St. Louis.
For twenty years he worked in many capacities including Blewett
Professor of Music and Chairman of the Department of Music at
Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri (1950-1970); today he
is President of Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri, a
position which he has held for 20 years.
Many believe that Leigh Gerdine has shaped the cultural
activities of St. Louis and provided a level of leadership which
has enabled the city to become a major arts center in our
country. His patronage has been felt by all the major artistic
institutions in the city, many of which he helped create and
maintain.
The St. Louis Symphony has benefitted from his leadership: first
when he served as its Acting Manager from 1966 to 1967; later
when he attracted Peter Pastreich to modernize its management;
and by his support of the acquisition of Powell Hall, which was
discovered to be acoustically ideal for performances.
Mr. Gerdine's help with the establishment of theater in St.
Louis came in the form of providing ideas for formulating the
structure of the St. Louis Repertory Company, and assistance in
securing board officers and chairing the search committee for
the first artistic director. In his capacity as President of
Webster University, he persuaded the University to provide rent
free space for the Company's administrative offices as well as
free use of the campus' Loretto-Hilton Theater.
Mr. Gerdine contributed to the establishment of opera in St.
Louis by providing leadership as the founding chairman of the
St. Louis Opera Theater, now one of the most widely acclaimed
companies in the country. In addition, Webster University
offered a rent free home for the administrative offices as well
as free use of a theater for performances.
AUTHORIZED
MARTIN FRIEDMAN
MARTIN FRIEDMAN, one of our Nation's most innovative and
scholarly museum directors, was born in 1925 in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania and lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota today.
He studied as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania
and the University of Washington where he received a degree in
1947. After completing a master's degree at the University of
California, Los Angeles in 1949, he worked from 1956 to 1957 as
a Fellow at the Brooklyn Museum while doing graduate studies at
Columbia University. He then spent a year in Brussels on a
Belgian-American Educational Foundation Grant. He settled in
Minneapolis as a Senior Curator at the Walker Art Center
(1958-60).
Mr. Friedman, internationally known for his leadership in
contemporary art, has served as Director of the Walker Art
Center since 1961, transforming that institution into one of the
premier museums in this country -- not only in terms of its
collection and its exhibitions and catalogues dealing with
contemporary art, design and architecture, but as a major
presenter of performing arts, film, and inventive education
programs.
Exhibitions at Walker Art Center that he has organized and
coproduced include: "The Precisionist View in American Art";
"Eight Sculptors: The Ambiguous Image"; "Art of the Congo"; "14
Sculptors: The Industrial Edge"; "Works for New Spaces";
"American Indian Art: Form and Tradition"; "Nevelson: Wood
Sculptures"; "Naives and Visionaries" -- a show on American
grass-roots environmental artists; "Oldenburg: Six Themes"; "The
River: Images of the Mississippi"; "Noguchi's Imaginary
Landscapes"; "Tokyo: Form and Spirit"; and "Sculpture Inside
Outside." In addition to his curatorial efforts, Mr. Friedman
has written extensively on a variety of topics related to
contemporary art.
Formerly on the Board of Directors of the College Art
Association of America (1973), he has also served as Commisioner
of the American exhibition of Sao Paulo Bienal (1963) ; a member
of the Commission on Foundations and Private Philanthropy
(1969-70); a trustee of the Spring Hill Foundation (1970-81); a
member of the International Exhibitions Committee (1976-78) a
museum panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts
(1977-78); and as a Presidentially appointed member of the
National Council on the Arts (1978-84).
Mr. Friedman has served as President of the Association of Art
Museum Directors (1978-79) and is currently a member of the
Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions (1987-)
and the Smithsonian Council (1988-).
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A recipent of honorary doctoral degrees from numerous colleges
and universities, he was made an Officer des Arts et Lettres by
the French Ministry of Culture in 1984.
One of Mr. Friedman's recent accomplishments, working with the
Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, was the creation of the
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, a seven-and-one-half-acre urban
space containing works by leading twentieth century American and
international artists.
WALKER KIRTLAND HANCOCK
Walker Kirtland Hancock, a renowned sculptor whose work spans a
period of 70 years, was born in 1901 and raised in St. Louis,
Missouri. He lives today in Gloucester, Massachusetts where he
raised his family and first apprenticed to Charles Grafly.
Recently the Cape Ann Historical Society in Gloucester honored
him with with a major retrospective show.
Mr. Hancock's career began when he sculpted a bust of a
American-Finnish orphan and was awarded a Prix de Rome while he
was still an apprentice -- the award allowed him a three year
study period in the late twenties at the American Academy in
Rome. During this time he learned Italian and studied classical
art. Upon his return to this country he started receiving
commissions and in 1929 also began his teaching career when he
replaced his ailing mentor, Charles Grafly, as a teacher at the
Pennslyvania Academy of Fine Arts. Later during WWI, Walker
Hancock served as a Monument Officer for the Allied
Expeditionary Force. He married Saima Natti, a teacher of
Finnish background who came from Gloucester and became an
important critic of his work. Mr. Hancock studied art and
languages at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts at Washington
University; sculpture as an apprentice with St. Louis sculptor
Victor Holm and for four years with Charles Grafly at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. There, as a student in 1925,
he received a gold medal in a national competition for a bust of
a young man in Florentine Renaissance style. He was invited by
Grafly to work in the summers at his studio in Gloucester.
During his career he also served as a resident sculptor for the
Stone Mountain Memorial project in Georgia (1964); resident
sculptor for two periods with the American Academy in Rome
(1956-7 & 1962-3) and four years as head of the sculpture
department of the Pennsylvania Academy (1929-68).
His work, which is part of American and international
collections, includes portrait busts (some full length figures)
in terra cota, plaster and bronze; monuments in bronze, bronze
relief, and stone (limestone, abbruzi and sandstone); and medals
primarily of bronze. In 1971 he commented on the similarity of
his philosophy on sculpture with that of the Greek civilization
-- he observed that the Greeks were the ones who "began to carve
images in honor of ordinary mortals" -- "making heroes of them,
and he told his audience that celebrating heroes was "still one
of the worthy functions of sculpture."
Walker Hancock, who began his first official commission by
sculpting a World War I Memorial Tablet for a high school in St.
Louis, continued to do memorial friezes for schools and churches
well into the late forties. At the same time he began sculpting
informal poses of ordinary people such as the 1932 marble
entitled "Boy and Squirrel.' He has made portrait busts of the
famous and the unknown: Booth Tarkington, the author, who
commissioned a work in 1934, a "Young Lobsterman". (1934), Robert
Frost (1950), John Paul Jones for Fairmount Park in Philadelphia
(1955-57), a full length statue of Abraham Lincoln for the
Washington Cathedral in Washington, DC (1978-83), and marble
busts of Vice President Hubert Humphrey (1981-3) and Vice
President Gerald R. Ford (1983-5), and Chief Justice Warren E.
Burger (1983). One of his most dramatic and monumental
sculptures was the thirty-nine foot Pennsylvania Railroad War
Memorial, commissioned for the 30th Street station in
Philadelphia, cast in the lost wax process; it depicted a figure
of an angel holding a dead soldier.
Walker Hancock also created commemorative medals. He began his
numismatic career working on the "U.S. Air Mail Flyers" Medal of
Honor in 1932-3; and later did a medal for the Society for
Medalists (1940), the Bruning Medal (1947); a medal in plaster of
his daughter, Deanie (1950) i the Dwight D. Eisenhower Inaugural
Medal (1950); and Stephen Collins Foster Medal (1964).
Walker Hancock has spent a life time sculpting in a naturalistic
manner both in the Renaissance style of Florence, as well as the
20th century, and the spectacular and heroic style of
traditional commemorative art. Over 268 pieces are described in
the comprehensive 1989 catalogue of his work. His subject
matter has been primarily of governmental and historical figures
but also of unknown citizens and friends, who fascinated him
with their classic features. His honors include the Widener
Gold Medal (1925) i the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Medal
of Honor (1953) i and the Medal of Honor of the National
Sculpture Society (1981).
AUTHORIZED
CZESLAW MILOSZ
CZESLAW MILOSZ is a poet and educator who was born in Lithuania
in 1911 and emigrated to the United States in 1960, becoming a
naturalized citizen in 1970. In his poetry, Milosz tries to
push his art to its limits in order to express the experience of
life in this century. Joseph Brodsky has called him "one of the
greatest poets of our time, perhaps the greatest.
.
Known as one of the leaders of the avant-garde poetry movement
in Poland during the 1930's, Milosz lived in Warsaw during World
War II where he edited an anti-Nazi anthology, "Invincible
Song, and struggled in his own poetry to find words as
testimony to the catastrophe surrounding him. From 1941 to 1951
he served in the Polish diplomatic service.
Milosz' poetry in English translation embraces "Selected Poems;
=
"Bells in Winter;" "Separate Notebooks; "Unattainable Earth;
and recently a large volume of "Collected Poems. Among his
books in prose, the best known are "The Captive Land; "Native
Realm; N and a novel, "Issa Valley.
In 1978 he received the Neustadt International Prize for
Literature; and in 1980 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Milosz is Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages at the
University of California at Berkeley.
AUTHORIZED
ROBERT MOTHERWELL
ROBERT MOTHERWELL, an artist of international stature, is
renowned as one of the founders of American Abstract
Expressionism, the first American art movement to receive
recognition internationally as being the leading edge of world
art. Born in 1915 in the State of Washington, as a small child
he moved with his family to California where he grew up.
Motherwell lives and works in Greenwich, Connecticut except
during the summer which he spends in Provincetown on Cape Cod.
After receiving a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from
Stanford University in 1937, he pursued graduate studies at
Harvard. He then spent a year in Paris, and moved to New York
in 1941, where he studied art history with Meyer Schapiro at
Columbia University, and became friendly with the great European
artists in exile during World War II, especially the Surrealists.
He is best known for a series of monumental paintings on the
"Spanish Elegy" theme, for a series of very abstract paintings
called the "Open" series, and as a master of the strictly
twentieth century medium called collage. He is not involved in
Americana, but is profoundly committed to the international
movement in the twentieth century called "Modernism" which is
transnational in its fundamental aspects.
Retrospective exhibitions of his work have been held around the
world; the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1965; the Stedelijk
Museum, Amsterdam in 1966; the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London,
1966; the Malais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, 1966; the Museum
Civico, Turin, in 1966; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,
1974 and 1983; the Museo de Arte Moderne, Mexico City, 1975; the
Stadtische Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf, 1976; the Musee de la Ville
de Paris, 1977; the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1977; the
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1978; the Fundacio Juan March,
Madrid, 1980; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984; the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1984; the Corcoran Gallery
of Art, Washington, D. C., 1984; the Guggenheim Museum, New
York, 1985; the Bavarian State Museum of Modern Art, Munich,
1983; the Padiglione d'arte Contemporanea, Milan, 1989.
Motherwell's work is in the permanent collections of dozens of
museums, including more than fifty works in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His
"Reconciliation Elegy" was commissioned by the National Gallery
of Art in Washington, D. C. in 1977.
-2-
Motherwell also has a deep affinity for modern poetry and has
devoted works to such writers as Edgar Allen Poe, T. S. Eliot,
to two great living poets, the Spaniard, Rafarl Alberti, and the
Mexican, Octavio Paz, and various works throughout his career to
the great Irish writer, James Joyce.
Motherwell's career now encompasses five decades, during which
he has received virtually every honor accorded a living artist.
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters; the
Royal Society of Arts, London; the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, Cambridge; Officier des Arts et des Lettres, Ministry
of Culture, Paris; he was awarded the Gold Medal of Fine Arts of
Spain by King Juan Carlos (in the Prado Museum) in Madrid in
1986; and in 1989 he received the Centennial Medal from Harvard
University.
AUTHORIZED
JOHN UPDIKE
JOHN UPDIKE, the author of over thirty books -- novels and
collections of poems, short stories, and essays -- was born in
Shillington, Pennsylvania, in 1932. He attended the public
schools of that town, Harvard College (A.B. summa cum laude
1954), and the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford,
England, on a Knox fellowship. He married in 1953 and is the
father of four children. After two years in New York as a
reporter for The New Yorker magazine; he moved in 1957 to
Massachusetts, where he has lived ever since, as a free-lance
writer. In 1982 he and his second wife moved to Beverly Farms.
His fiction has tended -- though not exclusively -- to deal with
the American middle class and its relatively unspectacular
crises. His first novel, The Poorhouse Fair (1959), is set in
the future and concerns a single agitated day in an old people's
home. His next novel, Rabbit, Run (1960), portrays the domestic
and spiritual maladjustments of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, the
hero also of Rabbit Redux (1971) and Rabbit Is Rich (1981). The
Centaur (1963) views an autobiographical father-son relationship
through a scrim of mythological reference, and The Coup (1978)
takes place in the imaginary African nation of Kush. Couples
(1968) explores the disruptive effects of sexual adventure upon
middle-class domiciles, a theme central as well in Of the Farm
(1965), Marry Me (1976), and The Witches of Eastwick (1984). A
triology of antic first-person novels, A Month of Sundays
(1975), Roger's Version (1986), and S. (1988), considers the
triangle in Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter from the standpoints of
the three main characters.
Throughout his career as a novelist Updike has continued to
write short stories, most of which have appeared in The New
Yorker. Two books of linked tales, Bech: A Book (1970) and Bech
Is Back (1980), sketch the erratic career of an imaginary Jewish
writer. Other short stories are collected in The Same Door
(1959), Pigeon Feathers (1962), Olinger Stories (a selection,
1964), The Music School (1966), Museums and Women (1972), Too
Far to Go (a selection, 1979), Problems (1979), and Trust Me
(1987). His book reviews, humorous essays, and occasional
journalism have been collected in Assorted Prose (1965),
Picked-Up Pieces (1975), Hugging the Shore (1983), and Just
Looking (1989).
His one play, Buchanan Dying (1974), about the fifteenth U.S.
President, has never been produced in full. A brief historical
pageant was staged in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1968 and his
libretto for a children's opera was performed in Boston in
1970. An unsuccessful motion picture was made by Warner
Brothers of Rabbit, Run, and a (commercially) successful one of
The Witches of Eastwick. In the 1960s Updike wrote four books
for children. His first published book was a collection of
verse, The Carpentered Hen (1958), followed by the poetry
collections Telephone Poles (1963), Midpoint (1969), Tossing and
Turning (1977), and Facing Nature (1985).
Updike's honors include the Rosenthal Award for The Poorhouse
Fair, the National Book Award for The Centaur, election to the
National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1964, the MacDowell
Colony Award in 1983, the Distinguished Pennsylvania Artist
Award in 1983, and the Bobst Award for Fiction in 1987. In 1982
he received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the
American Book Award for Fiction and the National Book Critics
Circle Award for Rabbit Is Rich. Two years later Hugging the
Shore won the National Book Critics Circle for Criticism.
Earlier this year he published a book of memoirs, entitled
Self-Consciousness.
AUTHORIZED
KATHERINE DUNHAM
KATHERINE DUNHAM, an innovative and outstanding dancer and
choreographer, lives in East St. Louis and Haiti, and was born
in Chicago, Illinois, on June 22, 1909, moving to Joliet,
Illinois, with her family when she was seven. She later
returned to the city of her birth where she studied dance with
Ludmilla Speranzeva and Vera Mirova. Her graduate work in the
field of anthropology at the University of Chicago focused on
the Haitian dance and in later years helped her in formulating
her dance technique based on Primitive Rhythms.
Her research in the Caribbean and Africa led to the formation of
the Dunham Technique which is described as a "style of dance and
a philosophy of life. She founded the Ballet Negre in Chicago
in 1931 and the Negro Dance Group in 1937. She later transposed
the rituals she had studied into a personal dance theater which
the Dunham Company, the first Black professional dance company
in America, performed throughout the world from 1938 through
1963 presenting the dance, music and folklore of Third World
countries and the United States. In a 1939 opening at New
York's Windsor Theatre, she created a program called "Tropics
and Le Jazz Hot," which was well received. For over thirty
years, Ms. Dunham maintained the only permanently
self-subsidized dance troupe in America, keeping the Company
going with night club engagements, Hollywood appearances,
literary writings and lectures.
In 1943, she established in New York the Dunham School of Arts
and Research, which offered studies in the performing arts,
applied skills, humanities and Caribbean research. The school
became a reservoir of talent for Broadway, Hollywood and the
world, attracting World War II veterans, actors, musicians, and
choreographers. Individuals such as Marlon Brando, Eartha Kitt,
Jose Ferrer, Betta St. John, James Dean, Silvana Mangano,
Marcello Mastroianni and Shelly Winters became celebrated in
their own right. It has been said that Ms. Dunham developed the
style of "show business jazz dancing." Many of our present day
artists create works for the stage and film which reflect her
profound influence. Her choreography for the Metropolitan
Opera's AIDA was of great importance in the history of that
work. While a professor at Southern Illinois University, she
formed a Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis.
There, as President of the Dunham Fund for Research and
Development of Cultural Arts, she established a museum and
children's workshop which exists today.
Her diverse and multi-faceted career includes serving as
Director of the WPA Writers Project and subsequently as Director
of the WPA Federal Theatre Project in Chicago; creating the
dramatic role of Georgia Brown in the Broadway production of
-2-
"Cabin in the Sky;' appearing in such Hollywood films as "Stormy
Weather;" producing New York musicals such as "Tropical Review"
and "Bal Negre" and "Deux Anges Sont Venus" in Paris and
authoring several books, among which are: Journey to Accompong
(1946), Las Danzas DeHaiti (1947), Island Possessed (1969), and
Kasamance (1974), and The Dances of Haiti (English) (1983).
She has also served as Technical Cultural Advisor to the
Presidency, Republic of Senegal, and Consultant, International
Institute of Ethnomusicology and Folklore, Caracas, Venezuela.
In addition, she was the Fulbright Distinguished Fellow to
Brazil for the commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the
Fulbright Commission, and has lectured extensively in the United
States and abroad.
Ms. Dunham holds membership in numerous organizations including
the American Guild of Musical Artists, the American Guild of
Variety Artists, the American Society of Composers and
Publishers, the Screen Actors Guild, Actors' Equity and the
Royal Society of Anthropology, London. She has been the
recipient of 14 honorary degrees and has had countless awards
bestowed upon her at home and abroad. These include the
Chevalier, Officier, Grand Officier and Bandolier of the Grand
Croix of the Haitian Legion of Honor and Merit; the Southern
Cross of Brazil, and the UNESCO/Brazilian Committee on Dance
Gold Medal Award; the Officer in Arts and Letters of the Legion
of Honor and Merit of France; Choreographer Laureate of the
Lincoln Academy; the Albert Schweitzer Music Award; the
Distinguished Achievement Award, National Association of Negro
Musicians; the Candace "Trailblazer" Award, National Coalition
of 100 Black Women; America's Top 100 Black Business and
Professional Women; the Kennedy Center Honors Award; The
President's Award, National Council for Culture and Art, Inc.;
the Samuel H. Scripps Award, American Dance Festival; and was
inducted into the National Museum of Dance Hall of Fame in
Saratoga Springs, New York, and the National Dance Gallery's
Concrete Circle, Los Angeles, California, and the Walkway of
Fame of University City, Missouri.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 15, 1989
INFORMATION
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
CHRISS WINSTON cw
FROM:
MARY KATE GRANT mkg
SUBJECT:
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
I. SUMMARY
Attached are proposed remarks for the National Medal of the
Arts Awards ceremony, to be held Friday, November 17, at 12 noon
in the East Room (lunch will follow in the State Dining Room.)
The First Lady has agreed to the format set during the previous
Administration: You will deliver opening remarks from cards; she
will read the biographies and medal citations; you will hand the
recipients their medals and shake hands; then you will thank the
participants and end the ceremony.
II. DISCUSSION
This is the fifth annual presentation of the National Medal
of the Arts, begun under President Reagan. They honor great
artists as well as patrons of the arts; a posthumous medal will
also be awarded to Vladimir Horowitz. Your remarks discuss the
role of the arts in our society and the unique place they hold in
American history.
The attached biographies will be sent to Mrs. Bush on
Thursday.
Grant/Simon
November 15, 1989
Draft three
A:medal
REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
AWARDS LUNCHEON / EAST ROOM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
12:00 NOON
Thank you, all of you, for being here today for the fifth
annual presentation of the National Medal of the Arts. It's a
great pleasure and an honor for Barbara and me to welcome you to
the White House. I would like to thank the National Council on
the Arts, the Committee on the Arts and Humanities, as well as
John Frohnmayer, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts,
and, of course, Hugh Southern, for the support and encouragement
of America's cultural life.
Dante once wrote that "Art imitates nature as well as it
can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of
grandchild of God." As this "grandchild of God," art embraces
our values and history, gives meaning to our existence and
illuminates the basic human truths which give us purpose. In a
way, art defines our civilization.
But in another, more personal way, art opens entire new
worlds for each of us, letting us see and hear and even feel life
through the mind of someone else -- from new perspectives.
Instead of seeing a single world, we can see as many worlds as
there are artists and writers, dancers and musicians.
The diversity of art in this Nation is truly a product of
the diversity of our democracy. The American arts, like a many-
2
faceted mirror, have been a colorful reflection of our Nation's
history. The music of the frontier led to the blues of the
bayou, and the swing bands of the cities. The primitivism of the
early painters gave way to the romanticism of the Hudson River
school and later, American impressionism and abstract
expressionism. In architecture, Americans see everything from
the Federal style to post-modernism. Modern photography and
filmmaking have their roots in the tintypes of the Civil War era.
And from our earliest writings to this week's bestseller list,
we've seen American poetry, novels and short stories earn a
unique place in the literature of the world. Cities like New
York and Los Angeles have become art capitals of international
importance, and regional orchestras, museums, dance troupes and
opera companies have enjoyed spectacular successes.
We need to make this great diversity of art more a part of
the lives of all Americans. We need to begin this effort in our
schools so that our young people will have a sense of their
heritage and the creativity of the present. And we need to make
special efforts to reach out to those who do not regularly
participate. The work of the National Endowment for the Arts is
especially important in these areas.
Today, we honor a group of men and women whose creative
ideas, talent and passion have added so much to the rich tapestry
that is our Nation's cultural heritage. Their work is not just
of the mind but of the heart and of the soul.
3
Some have challenged us. Some have amazed us. Some have
brought remarkable beauty of sight and sound to us. But all have
helped us to think and to dream and to understand ourselves and
our world a little better.
Today, we honor Alfred Eisenstaedt for his photography,
Dizzy Gillespie for his jazz innovations, and John Updike for his
prose. Katherine Dunham for her dance and choreography, Walker
Hancock for his sculpture, Czeslaw Milosz for his poetry, Robert
Motherwell for his paintings, and Leopold Adler for his historic
preservation. ( (And we honor someone whose great talent and
energy will live on, long after the thunder of his music has
faded -- the late Vladimir Horowitz.)
And we honor the patrons of the arts -- those who understand
that without the artistic creativity of its people, no nation can
be whole -- and those whose dedication, energy and commitment
have sustained that creativity over the years. We honor Martin
Friedman of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Leigh Gerdine
of Webster University in St. Louis, and the Dayton Hudson
Corporation. And now, Barbara will read the citations for
National Medal of the Arts to our recipients.
( (FIRST LADY READS CITATIONS. ) )
( (BACK TO THE PRESIDENT) ) Thank you, Barbara. I
congratulate each of you, for your achievements, your dreams and
your passion. You have honored this Nation, and America is
grateful to you. God bless you, and God bless America.
Congratulations once again.
NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS AWARDS
((THE FIRST LADY))
Leopold Adler, II is a nationally recognized expert in
historic preservation, and a native of Savannah, Georgia. Mr.
Adler changed the face of his home town and demonstrated for many
other civic leaders how to revitalize an old city with great
potential. He was the driving force behind two remarkable
experiments in inner city revitalization: one resulted in the
designation of the historic section of Savannah as a "National
Historic District"; and the other in the renovation of low income
housing in the Victorian district of the city. Mr. Adler has
also served as a trustee for almost a decade for the National
Trust for Historic Preservation. To Leopold Adler for his civic
leadership in preserving for all time the beauty of Savannah,
Georgia, and for making that city a model of the art of historic
preservation.
Katherine Dunham is an innovative and outstanding dancer and
choreographer. Born in Chicago, she founded the Ballet
Negre [NAY-grh] there in 1931. The Dunham Company, the first
Black professional dance company in America, performed throughout
the world from 1938 through 1963, presenting the dance, music and
folklore of Third World countries and the U.S. For over thirty
years, Ms. Dunham maintained the only permanently self-subsidized
dance troupe in America. She also founded the Dunham School of
Arts and Research in New York. The Dunham Technique is described
as a "style of dance and a philosophy of life," reflected in many
of our present day works on stage and screen. To Katherine
2
Dunham for her pioneering explorations of Caribbean and African
dance which have enriched and transformed the art of dance in
America.
Alfred Eisenstaedt is the quintessential photojournalist who
pioneered the introduction of the candid camera technique into
news reporting. After emigrating from West Prussia in 1935, he
joined the original photography staff of the new Life Magazine.
The photo of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square at the end
of World War II, is Eisenstaedt's most famous photo and it
embodies America's joy and relief. As a photographer, he has won
almost every major award given to those in his profession. Now,
at the age of 90, he has left us as his legacy a photographic
record of the writers, musicians, statesmen, scientists,
educators and people of our time, and the historic events
surrounding them. To Alfred Eisenstadt for the extraordinary
photographs that document the tragedies and triumphs he has
witnessed over a lifetime.
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie is a world famous jazz
trumpeter, who began working with a trumpet at the age of 12.
Mr. Gillespie is a pivotal figure in 20th Century American music,
and an innovator in the "bebop" movement in modern jazz. While
playing with Earl "Fatha" Hines, he developed a radical new
approach to improvisation that was to change the course of modern
music making. Over the years, he has been the featured trumpeter
with many of America's leading swing orchestras. Dizzy Gillespie
is credited with introducing Afro-Cuban rhythms into jazz in 1947
and the South American bossa nova to the United States. To John
3
Berks "Dizzy" Gillespie for his trail-blazing work as a musician
who helped elevate jazz to an art form of the first rank, and for
sharing his gift with listeners around the world.
Walker Kirtland Hancock is a renowned sculptor whose work
spans a period of 70 years. He began it by sculpting the bust of
an orphan and was awarded a Prix de Rome while still an
apprentice. He has spent a lifetime sculpting over 268 pieces --
many of them portrait busts, monuments and medals -- in the
heroic Renaissance style of Florence. Mr. Hancock has sculpted
busts of John Paul Jones, President Abraham Lincoln, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey, then-Vice President Gerald Ford, and
Chief Justice Warren Burger. Commenting on the similarity of his
philosophy on sculpture with that of the Greek civilization -- he
observed that the Greeks made heroes of ordinary mortals making
heroes of them. He said that celebrating heroes was "still one
of the worthy functions of sculpture." To Walter Hancock for his
extraordinary conribution to the art of sculpture, and for
demonstrating the enduring beauty of the classical tradition.
( (Vladimir Horowitz biography to come) )
4
Czeslaw Milosz is a poet and educator, whom Joseph Brodsky
has called "one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the
greatest." Mr. Milosz was born in Lithuania in 1911 and
emigrated to the U.S. in 1960, becoming a naturalized citizen in
1970. Known as one of the leaders in the avant-garde poetry
movement in Poland during the 1930's, Mr. Milosz served in the
Resistance during World War II and edited an anti-Nazi anthology,
"Invincible Song." He has written several works in English, and
in 1980 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. To Czeslaw Milosz
for glorious poetry and prose that celebrates the freedom-loving
spirit not only of his native Poland but that of his adopted
country, the United States.
Robert Motherwell is a great painter known throughout the
world as a leader in the New York School of Abstract
Expressionism. Mr. Motherwell's first shows occurred in Paris in
1939 and in this country in New York in 1944. By the 1960's and
1970's, his work was featured in most of the major museums and
galleries in the United States. In the 1940's, Mr. Motherwell
created "monumental canvases" from his collages, often in stark
black and white. By the 1960's he was producing large scale
works, such as the "Open" series done with a monochromatic
palette. To Robert Motherwell for reflecting in his art the very
essence of American freedom, with paintings that have found a
distinguished place in collections everywhere.
5
John Updike is the author of over 36 books of poetry,
novels, short stories and essays. He began as a writer for the
New Yorker Magazine, then authored the novels The Poorhouse Fair,
Rabbit, Run, and among many others, The Centaur. His 1984 novel,
The Witches of Eastwick was made into a major motion picture. In
1982 Mr. Updike received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well
as the American Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle
Award for writing Rabbit is Rich. To John Updike for novels and
stories that over a forty-year career have given us a wryly
affectionate yet penetrating analysis of the complexity of life
in today's America.
Martin Friedman is one of our Nation's most innovative and
scholarly museum directors. Mr. Friedman has served as Director
of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis since 1961, making that
institution into one of the premier small museums in this country
-- in exhibitions as well as a major presenter of performing
arts. He has served as a Presidentially appointed member of the
National Council on the Arts, and was made an Officier des Arts
et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 1984. To Martin
Friedman for opening the doors of his museum to the best of all
of the arts of our time -- from painting and sculpture to film,
video and performance -- and for opening our eyes to the vital
connections between these forms of expression.
6
Leigh Gerdine is an outstanding civic leader who has paved
the way for the development of every major cultural institution
in St. Louis. A 40-year resident of that city, he was professor
and chairman of the Department of Music at Washington University;
for the last 18 years, he has been president of Webster
University. Leigh Gerdine has helped shape the cultural
activities of St. Louis and has provided a level of leadership
which has enabled the city to become a major arts center. Mr.
Gerdine has been deeply involved in the St. Louis Symphony, the
St. Louis Repertory Company, and was the founding chairman of the
St. Louis Opera Theater, now one of the most widely acclaimed
companies in the country. To Leigh Gerdine for his distinguished
career as a musician and educator, and for the enlightened
patronage which has earned him the title of "spiritual father of
the arts in St. Louis."
Dayton Hudson Corporation has been a leader in corporate
giving for 42 years -- giving five percent of its Federallly
taxable income for worthwhile community programs and currently
forty percent of that figure to the arts. Dayton Hudson's has
targeted support to programs and projects that increase, on a
long-term basis, a community's resources making it a more vital
place in which to live. Artistic leadership and increased access
to the arts are primary goals of the funding. Dayton Hudson's
dollar support for the arts ranks among the top five art
supporters in the country -- having contributed over the last ten
years $60 million to art programs in 48 states and the District
of Columbia. To Dayton Hudson Corporation for helping to forge a
7
vital partnership between the corporate sector and the arts
community, and for demonstrating how both can benefit in the
process.
and
Grant/Simon
November 8, 1989
Draft one
A:medal
REMARKS: NATIONAL MEDAL OF THE ARTS
AWARDS LUNCHEON / EAST ROOM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
12:00 NOON
Thank you, all of you, for being here today for the fifth
annual conferring of the National Medal of the Arts. It's a
great pleasure and an honor for Barbara and me to welcome you to
the White House® today. I would like to thank the National
Council on the Arts for its list of nominees; and the Committee
on the Arts and Humanities, as well as ((name) ) chairman of the
National Endowment for the Arts, for all their hard work.
Great art is a service rendered to the public. It embraces
our values and history, gives meaning to our existence and
illuminates the basic human truths which give us purpose.
and
embertic
Great art is ennobling. Great works of art embody great
ideas, and the inspiration for creativity comes from the power of
those ideas.
Great art is uplifting. It brings joy through the mastery
of the artist, but more importantly, it should define the ideals
a
is
of the people. In this way, art gives definition to our
civilization.
lettery
and hear and even feel life
Through art, we see through someone else's eyes. Entire new
worlds are opened for, us, from new perspectives, and different
angles than ours. Instead of seeing a single world, we see many,
as many as there are artists and writers and dancers and
But in another more personal way, art opens
3
Today,
We are honoring Leonard Bernstein for his compositions and
conducting, Alfred Eisenstaedt for his photography, Dizzy
and
Gillespie for his jazz innovations, John Updike for his prose
we honor
Katherine Dunham for her dance and choreography, Walker Hancock
for his sculpture, Czeslaw Milosz for his poetry, Robert
Motherwell for his paintings, and Leopold Adler for his historic
smotems
building renoyations. And we are honoring the patrons of the
and whose generalty and commutment
to that
arts - those who continue the uniquely American tradition of
creatrity
private support for the arts -- Martin Friedman of the Walker Art
Center in Minneapolis, Leigh Gerdine of St. Louis, and the Dayton
Hudson Corporation. And now, Barbara will award the National
Medal of the Arts to our recipients.
( (FIRST LADY PRESENTS AWARDS. SEE ATTACHED CITATIONS))
( (BACK TO THE PRESIDENT)) Thank you, Barbara. I
droms
congratulate each of you, for the your achievements you your have made in
and your possion.
your respective fields and the examples you have set for future
generations. Dante once wrote that "Art imitates nature as well
as it can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of
grandchild of God." God bless each one of you, and God bless
America. Congratulations again, and thank you.
N
Asa
of god.
# # #
those W Lo without the
certistic creativity of its people, no
nation contr whole
2
musicians.
Art is the passion within each of us, both to create
and to interpret. The diversity of art in this Nation is Varuey a
product of the diversity of our democracy
Why do we honor the arts today? Because the arts allow us
to dream of all we have been and all we can be. They are at the
core of the American culture, and they enable us to reach out to
other cultures -- both to enrich ourselves and others. We honor
the arts not because we want to honor our own great achievements,
but because we are a free people with an enduring national
heritage. The arts are our past and our future.
rus
American arts have grown tremendously throughout the history
the (wericon arts, like a money ficited merror, have been a colorful
of this nation. The music of the frontier led to the blues of reflection
of am
the bayou, and the swing bands of the cities. The primivitism of nations
the early painters gave way to romanticism of the Hudson school
history
and later the abstract expressionism of recent times. In
architecture, Americans see everything from neoclassicism and
modernism. Modern photography and filmmaking have their roots in
the tintypes from of the Civil War era. From the first writings of
learless when
our Founders to this week's bestseller list, we've seen American
unique
poetry, novels and short stories earn a place in the history of
literature. Cities like New York and Los Angeles have become art
capitals of world importance, and regional orchestras, museums,
dance troupes and opera companies have enjoyed spectacular
successes.
To day, we honor a group of men and women
These are the distinctly American aspects of our culture,
whose Creative cheas, talent are passion have added
and we honor the artists who have given so much of themselves --
so much to this rich topestry that 10 our nations cultural
their ideas, their talent, and their passion to this nation.
hontage
Today, we honor a group of men and women whose creative
ideas, talent and passion have added so much to this rich
tapestry that is our nation's cultural heritage. Their work is
not just of the mind but of the heart and of the soul.
Some have challenged us. Some have amazed us. Some have
brought remarkable beauty of sight and sound to us. But all have
helped us to think and to dream and to understand ourselves and
our world a little better.