JORDAN PATTERSON
Assistant News Editor
Dunkirk native George William Eggers’ art exhibit opened as his past work was remembered on Friday during a lecture given by Dr. James Welu.
G.W. Eggers was known for his artistry, as well as for the decisions he made while director of esteemed art museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Denver Art Museum and the Worcester Art Museum. The reason Welu would be giving the lecture is that he is the current director of the Worcester Art Museum and has studied Eggers’ career.
“It’s a real pleasure to come here,” said Welu. “George Eggers is someone I heard about when I came to Worcester many, many years ago.”
Formerly known as The George W. Eggers Michael and Kaie Smith Collection at the Fredonia Incubator in Dunkirk, that solely features work done by Eggers and photographs of himself, including some taken by his father, George A.H. Eggers, will be open through Sept. 30.
The official opening took place on Sept. 16, with a reception and time to browse the Eggers collection on display before the scheduled lecture. Michael Eggers, who is the grandson of Eggers and his wife Kaie, were in attendance for Welu’s lecture.
Also in attendance was Fredonia’s very own President Virginia Horvath, who was happy to see the University and the Dunkirk community working together.
“[The exhibit] is a good example of the Incubator trying to pull people in from community and to show how local organizations are apart of what the Incubator does,” Horvath said, referring to the Historical Society of Dunkirk sponsoring the entire event.
After the reception, Welu was introduced by Diane Andrasik from the Historical Society of Dunkirk, who was more than delighted to meet Welu and have him as a guest speaker.
“I’ve had an opportunity over the last couple three hours to speak with him at the museum … We had some very interesting conversations, and I’m very pleased that he’s here tonight,” Andrasik said.
Welu’s lecture focused primarily on the foundations of what would become Eggers’ career.
He was born in Dunkirk and raised in a little house on Swan Street. His father was a photographer during a time when photography was really considered art. According to Welu, Eggers would have gotten his artistic side from his father, as he would spend a great deal of time with his father in the studio.
Eggers was recognized as a great artist, but what Welu emphasized were his contributions as a director.
He championed artists like George W. Bellows, Vachel Lindsay and photographer Laura Gilpin which, at the time, was a very progressive thing to do.
Along with being interested in film and photography, another progressive aspect of Eggers’ career was his bringing of pre-Columbian art into modern museums, which was typically frowned upon at the time.
The last contribution that Welu talked about was Eggers’ acquisition of a medieval chapter house sold to him by another artist, George Barnard, from France, which was incorporated into the Worcester Museum’s new addition. This is significant because, during the 1920s and 1930s, France was starting to realize they were giving away potential pieces of art and were starting to ban the sale to other countries. Eggers and Worcester were the first to bring over a medieval building to North America.
Welu mentioned that Eggers would leave Worcester to work at the City College of New York for 18 years, which can be attributed to his passion for creating his own artwork.
“I’m so happy to be in Dunkirk to see the family home of George Eggers because, as one of his successors, I have to say, I owe him a lot,” Welu said.