#JesuitMuseums: Fourth Friday of Lent
AJCU’s #JesuitMuseums series returns for Lent. Today’s post on Light from Darkness comes from the Georgetown University Art Collection.
Helen King Boyer, Light from Darkness, 1960. Aquatint. 22 x 18 inches. 1988.35.1359.
Helen King Boyer (1919–2012) was born to a family of artists in Pittsburgh. As a child, she suffered from illness and isolation, and found solace in reading and studying art reproductions in books. Boyer followed in her mother’s footsteps and became a skilled etcher, working on anodized aluminum plates on the etching press in her family home. Her creative spirit led her to experiment with a variety of media including encaustic and textile. To support her artistic calling, she taught art and worked for twenty-five years as a toy designer with different companies in New Jersey, New York and Kansas City (MO).
At the age of twelve, Boyer began exhibiting her work alongside the works of her parents, and had her first solo exhibition at the age of sixteen. Starting in the 1940s, her etchings began to attract critical attention. In 1941, she won a purchase prize from Allied American Artists in Johnstown, PA (i). Two years later, her etching, Le Sacre du Printemps, was exhibited at the Library of Congress in the first National Exhibition of Prints and won third purchase prize. Boyer also won distinctions from the Society of American Etchers (known today as the Society of American Graphic Artists), which was led, at one point, by the consummate etcher, John Taylor Arms, who acquired Boyer’s print, Tinsel Stars, which was later bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Arms held Boyer in high regard: “From child prodigy to mature artist, she has used her technical brilliance and luminous color to express her belief in the power of individual genius and her reverence for the complex flow of interlocking life (ii).”
Aquatint is a form of etching involving heating rosin particles on the metal plate that will create a tonal effect when inked and printed. It is used to add color to the plate to mimic the look of a watercolor. Boyer’s mystical aquatint, Light from Darkness (1960), was printed in a variety of color combinations: today, the Georgetown University Art Collection holds six differing impressions (iii).
I selected this particular impression for today’s #JesuitMuseums reflection for its dramatic application of color. Glowing red and orange light suggests the forces of the universe in the hands of the Creator as newly born stars illuminate the darkness of the cosmos.
We hear the expression “light at the end of the tunnel” a lot these days, as we see a gradual progression toward vanquishing the spread of Covid-19 through life-saving vaccines. The symbolism of light during this time of Lenten reflection can signify unity with God and inner vision.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus spoke of his being as a “light come into the world”:
…And men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (King James Edition, Verses 19–21)
(i) Reese, Albert. American Prize Prints of the 20th Century (New York: American Artists Group, Inc., 1949), 28. (ii) Artist biographical notes (Georgetown University Art Collection curatorial file). (iii) Helen Boyer’s prints have been featured in three exhibitions at Georgetown University Library: The Boyer Family: Pittsburgh Printmakers (1987), The Boyer Family: Mother-Daughter, Innovative Printmakers (2012), and Undiscovered Printmakers: Hidden Treasures at Georgetown University Library (2016). The Library has a substantial collection of Boyer’s artwork, along with that of her parents, as well as correspondence preserved in the manuscripts repository.
Contributed by LuLen Walker, Art Curator of the Booth Family Center for Special Collections at Georgetown University.
