June 15, 2011

Delivered by his colleague Professor of Art Shaw Smith

Also read  "Man of Many Layers," a tribute to Jackson by Charlotte Art Critic Richard Maschal, and an article about Jackson on the art department website.

Jackson at the opening this spring in the Belk Visual Arts Center of an exhibitiion of representative works through his 50 years of painting.

This year marks the final year of Herb Jackson's four-plus decades as a member of the Davidson College faculty. Many have done much for this college, but there is no one person who has done more than Herb to revolutionize our ways of teaching the liberal arts. He has taught us that there is a reality which is not available to words.

For fifty years Herb has painted without words. In his classroom hangs a warning sign, "A ‘NO LIKE' ZONE." Art critic, Richard Shiff, observes, Herb Jackson's multilayered paintings are not metaphors or veiled allegories; they are "thinking by hand." One colleague remarked, "There is paint-Herb's hand...eye...and discipline." In Herb's own words, I love "a studio session filled with the sounds of Miles Davis which lasts several hours without a verbal thought..."

There have been no bona-fide retirements in the art faculty since Doug Houchens in 1978, name-sake of the professorship which Herb holds...a testimony to the department's stability under his hand and the growth of the department from two to seven professors. He hired most of us.

Arriving from Raleigh, Herb joined the Davidson Class of 1967 and opted for a German major because there was no art major at Davidson at that time. To many of us townies, then in high school, he was a mysterious, bearded figure of artistic bohemianism and flower power, a combination of Zeus and John Lennon. Little did we know then that he was equally interested in stock cars and stock markets. He acquired an MFA at UNC in 1970 and made friends with figures in the art world such as artist Romare Bearden and critic Clement Greenberg.

Portrait of the artist as a young man.

Many of these relationships were fostered through the Davidson National Print Show (1972-1976). Under Herb's guidance these exhibitions became the foundation of our current collection which was transformed from pin-up exhibitions in Chambers to a major venue with an endowment, reviews in the New York Times, a campus sculpture program, and a new national constituency of advocates for the visual arts in the liberal arts.

Like Lefty Driesell in the 1960s, Herb put Davidson on the map...but this time on the map of American visual culture. As Bob McKillop likes to say, "When Davidson wins, we all win!"

In 1989 Herb was chosen by another critic, Donald Kuspit, to be represented in the exhibition, "Painting Beyond the Death of Painting." Held in Moscow, this important international event marked the warming of cultural relations between the United States and Russia. About that same time, Herb orchestrated one of the most stellar moments in Davidson history with an amazing art auction here at the college. Bedecked in a tux emblazoned with his famous lizard pin, he, as a very savvy auctioneer, raised over $200,000 in one night to support the arts at Davidson, a truly Herb-culean feat...You see, he is also pretty good with words, even charming my irascible aunt, Mary Potts, who was Herb's and Laura's next-door neighbor for years.

In 1993 the Belk Visual Arts Center opened with a retrospective of Kenneth Noland's art and an Art History Lecture Series. With Herb at the lead and with the support of many including John Kuykendall, Kat Belk, and Laura Foxx, the VAC initiated a resurgence of other arts-music and theater. Appropriately this year, one of Herb's dearest loves, the art of dance, the most embodied of the arts, has been accepted for academic credit at Davidson, a long journey from a logo-centric campus of a half-century ago.

Jackson enjoys a critique session with students in the old Lingle House art studio.

Between 1967 and today, Herb's career here has had many highlights. In addition to his work being shown all over the world, Herb won the North Carolina Award (1999), the Hunter-Hamilton Award (2003), and the Arts and Sciences Award (2008).

This past February Herb had a glorious, solo exhibition at the Claire Oliver Gallery in New York as well as exhibitions at Davidson. His quiet philanthropy will remain non-verbalized except to say he supports efforts both great and small. A colleague noted, Herb, whose "gruff manner truly masks a heart of gold, has always been there for me."

There are other wide-ranging contributions to the liberal arts that this loyal son of Davidson has made, including his decision as a faculty member to not wear a tie. His brave claim of being "a reverent seeker" during his tenure process opened up an important dialogue about the religious future of this school. As Herb observes about life's journey, "It is not necessary to rob life of its mystery in order to understand it."

Given his travels around the world, it is certainly fitting that arriving passengers at the Charlotte airport are greeted by Herb's monumental painting, Vulcan's Gate, in the international concourse.

A tireless spokesperson for the college in general as well as the art program specifically, Jackson conducted educational sessions at museums around the country for alumni and friends of the college. He is pictured here in Greenville, S.C.

Herb's vision has taught us to plan grandly, to go out of scale from the expected, but to do the hard work necessary for something extraordinary. Our Rodin in the VAC came to us with this urgency. On a separate matter, he told a colleague, "You simply must go to New York for the day and get that project done."

Baudelaire said of Delacroix, "He is passionately in love with passion and coldly determined to find the means to express it." The same could be said for Herb.

He is also a generous friend. When we go "out to dine," I love to hear the remote click that pops open the trunk-lid of his Jaguar. He almost always says, "I brought along a few bottles of wine for the evening!" He is a careful planner, whether it is for the precise lighting on his exquisite works or a trip to his beloved island of Santorini.

We have traveled a lot together, but one story amongst many must be told. Walking silently through the painted, prehistoric caves in southwestern France, we emerged speechless from the darkened cave into the sunlight with tears slowly coming down our cheeks. In those stunning moments we realized that those prehistoric peoples had left in their caves the same gesture that Herb makes in his studio...a mark which transcends language and time. The ineffable action of making a mark is the essential thread of our humanity which connects us all.

And of course there are "Herbisms." Anyone who has talked with Herb knows that he is as skillful with words as he is with paint because he knows the power of silences and spaces.

Jackson in class with a student.

A frustrated student, whining about a studio assignment, complains, "I can think of nothing to do..." Herb, hands touching at the fingertips, quietly replies, "Congratulations! I know Buddhist monks who work for a lifetime trying to think of nothing."

Or, with regard to a frustrating administrative policy, he would often say, "Don't worry. Even presidents and deans come and go..."

Or, to a demoralized rookie professor, "You may be the best teacher in the world, but you are not going to be the best teacher in the world for everyone."

Or, one of my personal favorites, his confident response to the rare question which he might not know how to answer: "I am sure that I have no idea."

But we should also hear from his students...some of whom call him, "Zen master."

One student wrote, "Herb told me, ‘Make something that couldn't be rendered in words or numbers...I am not your teacher. The bad painting is your teacher.'"

Another, "‘Being an artist is something you do, not something you aspire to...No excuses.'"

Another, "...Herb critiqued my painting by saying, ‘The thing about abstract art is, there's a fine line between art and wallpaper!'...Although the comment made me mad, I've been able to rally around that idea many times in life...the ‘just enough to get by' effort isn't good enough."

Another, "I remember asking Herb how he became such a great teacher, and he said that he learned a lot of what NOT to do from bad teachers that he had along the way!"

And another, "...Herb took any effort you made very seriously and as a result you began to take yourself more seriously..."

Finally, as one former dean has said, "In the end we are all just visitors here."

But Herb paints. He painted as a young boy in Raleigh. He painted as a student at Davidson. He painted when he married a painter and began other generations of painters at home with his sons and at school with his students. He paints as a teacher at Davidson. He paints while traveling. He paints.

Jackson has been admired for his changing hair styles. This was the 1984 edition.

These many contributions over the past fifty years open the door to Herb's new life, but Herb paints still with "constant discoveries." As Donald Kuspit has recently proclaimed, "The paintings of Herb Jackson are the future of abstract painting." And thus we move on. But then what really is the purpose of these tributes if they are not to help us become better teachers as we practice our own disciplines and improve those lives around us? I know he has done this for me, "Run, Run," my name given by Herb.

What more can I say, but "Thank you, Chief." Hardly the last word, because Herb paints.

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,900 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages, giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding Honor Code is central to student life at the college. ###