The first time Sweet Briar College studio art professor Laura Pharis saw an engraving by the late Daniel Wilkerson she was amazed. It pictured big fish eating smaller fish, and as Pharis examined the piece she thought, “I want that,” which she considers the highest of compliments for an artist.
She also thought, “There has to be a show of his work.”
Wilkerson’s engravings, as well as some of his paintings, drawings and sculptures, will be on display Aug. 19 to Oct. 8 in the Babcock Fine Arts Center Gallery at Sweet Briar College. “It’s a shame that he’s not here to enjoy it, to reap the kudos,” Pharis said of the artist, who died of cancer in 2003 at age 41. “It’s too good to be hidden under a bushel.”
Pharis discovered the artist’s work about a year ago while teaching a class at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lynchburg. After receiving a call from Wilkerson’s mother, Elizabeth, about an etching press she wanted to donate to the Academy, Pharis and May Carter, director of arts education for the Academy, went to look at it.
As they were standing in an outbuilding inspecting the press, Elizabeth Wilkerson asked her guests if they would like to see some of her son’s work. “She pulled out this amazing engraving,” Pharis said. “I was just knocked out.”
This engraving print is one of approximately 21 pieces on display.Pharis compared Wilkerson to Northern Renaissance artists Albrecht Durer, Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel, and said while his artwork sometimes has a dark quality — with fantastic images of skulls, knives and such — she doesn’t find it depressing. “It’s not menacing or scary. It’s more like he shows you what he was going through, but doesn’t put you through it.”
The artist, who was largely self-taught, suffered from bipolar disorder and depression. Although he made his living engraving high-quality knives, there were times when he couldn’t work and he was once hospitalized for his illness. “I suspect his artwork was what kept him going,” Elizabeth Wilkerson said. “He expressed most of his feelings through his artwork.”
She also aid her son was “very introspective,” and she hopes visitors to the exhibit will “see the type of person that he was.”
Regrettably, Pharis never met Wilkerson but said his work reveals a generous quality seen in great artists. “If you look at a really good artist’s work it’s like they’re giving you all that they have — a cornucopia,” she said. “His work has that kind of generosity.”
Gallery hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Friday and 1 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Admission is free.
A reception, including a talk by Pharis, will be held 5 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 7 in the Babcock Fine Arts Center Gallery. The event is open to the public and admission is free. For more information, contact Rebecca Lane, Sweet Briar art galleries director, at (434) 381-6248 or
rmlane@sbc.edu .
– By
Suzanne Ramsey,
SBC staff writer
