The work in wood of Elfriede Abbe '40, illustrator, printer and sculptor, is being cel ebrated in an exhibition at the Carl A. Kroch Library through March 27. The exhibition encompasses Abbe's private press books, wood block prints and wood sculpture from 1950 to 1994. A reception for the artist will be held Thursday, Feb. 15, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Kroch Library.
Abbe, who earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Cornell, was employed by the university as an illustrator from 1942 until her retirement in 1974. Since then, she has worked exclusively in her Vermont studio, printing her own private press books and sculpting.
The exhibition, curated by Ruth Copans, a humanities and special collec tions librarian at Skidmore College, and Donna Hassler, a doctoral candidate in art history from the City University of New York, is drawn from the Cornell University Library's extensive Abbe archival and book holdings, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and the artist's own collection. In cluded are a variety of works of art in different media, ranging from her early woodcut illustrations to her wood sculptures of animals and figures. The exhibition highlights the breadth of skill in the artist's work, demonstrating her versatility in typesetting, printing, illustrating and binding her own private press publications.
Examples of her graphics and sculpture can be found in collections in this country and abroad, from Washington, D.C., (National Gallery of Art) to Wolfenbüttel, Ger many, (Herzog August Bibliothek). Locally, her work can be found in the Unitarian Church, the Tompkins County Public Library and Cornell's Albert R. Mann Library.
For more information on the exhibit, contact Thomas Hickerson, director, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, at 255-3530 or by fax at 255-9524.