For Carl Chiarenza, being appointed an artist-in-residence is a dream come true

by Jason Hammersla '99

Photo by James Via Chiarenza: "I have always started with the known in hopes of finding out about the unknown."

A fter 35 years as an educator in the field of art history, Fanny Knapp Allen Professor Emeritus of Art History Carl Chiarenza has retired from teaching to concentrate on his art. He has been named an artist-in-residence, a position that allows him to maintain a studio and pursue his creative genius on campus.

Chiarenza is a renowned photographer and art historian with an extensive and unique body of work. He makes collages out of everyday material, uses light and shadow to modify the collages, and creates black-and-white negatives and prints that are further modified by controlling light. The result is an abstract work that engages the viewer.

In the preface to the 1988 book Chiarenza: Landscapes of the Mind, he wrote: "I still look forward to the day when I will be a full-time artist." This new position, Chiarenza says, is the realization of that vision. Here, he talks about his new role.

Why has your role changed?
At age 63, I decided I wanted to be an artist full time. I have been making art for my whole life; I've done that all the time I've been a teacher of art history. This institution recognized the fact that I have two careers. As I got closer and closer to retirement, I was thinking that I would do more art and less art history. So I've gone through this transition of giving up my career as an art historian and keeping my career as an artist.

What exactly do you do as artist-in-residence?
I have two students this semester who are doing internships and one student who is beginning to embark on an honors thesis. I'm also having an open studio for students in classes, particularly in the studio program, who are studying photography. The rest of the time I'm working. The clearest equivalent I can make is the research professor in the sciences who has a laboratory and does research. I'm here in my laboratory, all day long, doing research. And I'm not through exhibiting my work.

How are you influenced by the college setting?
I've been in academia all my life. I think you would have to say that everything about me has been influenced by academic life. Being in the university setting and school before that has been where all of my ideas have come from. Being on campus at the University of Rochester is important to me because I've spent my whole life being involved with people who teach, who learn, who experiment, and I like this atmosphere. There's always something creative going on, there's always something to hear, there's always something to do.

But you won't be teaching anymore. What will you miss about it?
I already miss having a lot of students around. I miss having discussions in the classroom, the corridors, and in my office. What I don't miss is the pressure of teaching, the harder parts of teaching. Judging people, giving exams--I don't like doing that and I never did. But I will miss reading the good research papers produced by students, because that always taught me something as well as, hopefully, teaching them, too.

How is your work changing?
I'm just starting to work with the computer, exploring Adobe Photoshop and other things that make pictures through the digital medium. In a sense, part of being an artist-in-residence is to do research and to have the time to experiment with new things. One of the reasons I'm trying this is because it may open up a whole new realm of possibilities that I don't know about yet, and that would be the most exciting thing that could happen. I have always started with the known in hopes of finding out about the unknown.

How long do you see yourself holding this position?
As long as the University will let me. I don't know that there's an end to it, other than death. I wouldn't know what to do with total retirement.