November 21, 2005

‘Caretaker of the garden of art’

By Vickie Aldous
Ashland Daily Tidings

Josine Ianco Starrels, curator of the Schneider Museum of Art at Southern Oregon University, spent years putting together art shows in Southern California before moving to Rogue River. Her aim is to be selective when putting together displays, while at the same time making sure that art is accessible to everyone. Photos by Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings

Josine Ianco Starrels doesn’t subscribe to the feel-good notion that all art should be equally valued.

One of the West Coast’s preeminent curators, the city of Rogue River resident ruthlessly picks through art before making her selections for exhibits and juried shows.

“You become like the caretaker of the garden of art. You don’t let junk in,” Ianco Starrels said. “That junk may have been made with the best of intentions. I’ve never minced my words. There have been times that people left my office hating me. But then they have come back two or three years later and said, ‘I know you were right. I know why you said what you said.’”

As difficult as it is to watch crestfallen artists walking away with their paintings clutched to their chests, she said her approach is necessary in a world where even the best artists must supplement their incomes through teaching or other jobs.

“There’s only one excuse for being that ruthless,” she said. “The excuse is that you reward the best work — which needs to be supported, which needs to be showcased, which needs to be singled out.”

Ianco Starrels may be tough, but she is no elitist holding narrow views on what makes for good art. Her tastes are international, cross all ethnic lines, and embrace no “isms” to the exclusion of other styles.

Relentlessly curious, Ianco Starrels is continually amazed by what she calls “the infinite possibilities in art-making.”

Artists don’t have to be well-established to catch her eye.

Her long career has been marked by key discoveries of talented young artists, according to John Davis, the owner of the Davis & Cline Galleries, where Ianco Starrels juries the annual exhibit of top Southern Oregon University and University of Oregon art program graduates.

“What she really did is she found unknown and struggling artists and gave them shows and really helped their careers. Now they are big super-stars,” Davis said. “For many significant artists today, she is the one who first saw and recognized their work.”

SOU’s Schneider Museum, where Ianco Starrels is curator, is reaping the benefits of her history of support for emerging artists.

“She’s been a real asset to us because of the caliber of work she’s been able to bring here,” said Mary Gardiner, museum director. “Those emerging artists are now established. They’re willing to have their work exhibited in this community because of her reputation.”

The current show, “Landscape: Theme and Variations,” is a case in point.

Internationally known eco-artists Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison are showing work in the multi-artist show, which runs through Dec. 10. Many of the other well-known artists in the exhibit have decades-long relationships with Ianco Starrels.

When Gardiner suggested Ianco Starrels create a show around the theme of landscapes, the curator used her encyclopedic knowledge of artists to assemble the exhibit.

“Some people have money in the bank or stocks and bonds,” Ianco Starrels said. “I have artists in my head. If you say one word, within half an hour, I will think of 12 artists who do work related to that theme.”

Passionate beliefs

Ianco Starrels embraces new artists, but also gives veteran artists their due — even if she wasn’t the one to cultivate their careers.

It was her idea to stage an exhibit at the Schneider this summer honoring the work of Ashland septuagenarian Robert Emory Johnson.

She dedicated herself to making selections from his vast oeuvre and tracking down pieces scattered in collections far and wide.

“Sometimes we had great disagreements,” Johnson recalled. “To be fair, there were so many more paintings than could be put in the museum. She wanted it to be perfect. Josine is a very powerful woman in her attitudes and drive. Her choices were decisive. She knew what she was doing. Many of my friends and family members were very excited and pleased with the results.”

Johnson, who had only met Ianco Starrels a few times at gallery openings before they began working together on the exhibit, said he now counts her as a dear friend.

They continue to talk about their families, the art world and current affairs, and yes, they still have debates.

“There’s never anger. It’s just intellectual. But usually it can be worked out,” he said.

Steeped in art

Davis said Ianco Starrels is known for having a “great eye” — the ability to immediately spot quality in new work.

She has had literally a lifetime to hone that skill.

Ianco Starrels was born in Romania to a Jewish father and Catholic mother. Her father, Marcel Ianco, was a leader of the Dada movement and surrounded himself with artists, poets and musicians. Under threat from Nazism, the family left Europe during World War II and settled in what was then known as Palestine, now the state of Israel. Ianco Starrels later lived in Paris, followed by New York and eventually Los Angeles.

“I saw a lot of American movies. I thought all of you people danced in chiffon dresses in the moonlight,” she recalled. “I was very disappointed when you didn’t.”

Ianco Starrels got her start curating when her then-husband, who had been hired to run an art center, became ill with cancer. In her early 30s, with two small children, she had to fill in.

“I was scared to death. It was a situation I felt I couldn’t cope with,” she said. “But when it came to exhibitions, suddenly it felt wonderful. From that point, there was purpose in my life.”

During her career, Ianco Starrels has held a number of positions, including director of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.

But she left Los Angeles and settled outside Rogue River in 2000 so her family members could be closer together. In doing so, she found herself moving from an epicenter of West Coast art to an isolated country home outside a town that itself is barely noticeable from Interstate 5.

Life without the stimulation of reviewing artwork, researching art history and selecting and arranging pieces in preparation for an exhibit was unthinkable. Ianco Starrels offered her services to Davis to help stave off her isolation, and later was asked by Schneider Museum officials to curate exhibits.

“She’s a no-nonsense person. She has spent her life promoting fine quality art. She just lives to do this,” Johnson said. “She can’t sit still or relax unless she’s working on another project. She has projects lined up.”

Ianco Starrels herself compares the run-up to an exhibit to the feelings a bride experiences when planning her wedding. After the frenzy of activity is over and viewers are milling past her selections, she said she experiences an emotion almost like post-partum depression.

“One of my husbands said to me, ‘The only time you’re happy is when you’re doing an exhibit,’” she said.

Art for all

“The Green Pool” by Christel Dillbohner is on display at the Schneider as part of the “Landscape: Theme and Variation” exhibit on display through Dec. 10.

That may be a bit of an overstatement, she said, but it is true that she has found no activities that are as satisfying as curating.

Her love of arranging exhibits is perhaps only matched by her enthusiasm in passing on her appreciation of art to others.

“She is able to talk about the artist and the work in a way that anyone can understand,” Gardiner said. “No matter what the person’s understanding of art is, she can make it accessible.”

Ianco Starrels is apt to gently grasp a museum visitor by the arm and, peering up intently into the person’s face, explain in clear and eloquent terms the meaning of any given piece and the artist’s motivation in creating it. Her descriptions are sprinkled with personal anecdotes about the artists — who has covered nearly every surface in his house with paint, who never answers the phone, who got dumped by her gallery when her paintings turned political, etc.

With her words flavored by an eastern European accent, the effect is that of a wise guide demystifying a rarefied world.

“My father’s friends were always talking in riddles. One of the most difficult things in life is to make things clear. I don’t want to equivocate and hide behind words,” Ianco Starrels said. “If it’s intimidating, they’ll hate it. They’ll say, ‘My child could do that!’”

She has faith that anybody, whether they’ve taken an art class or not, can understand and interpret art — as long as they give up the notion that there is one “right way” to read pieces.

Ianco Starrels told of one man who used to come to a museum where she worked. He was perplexed by abstract work and asked her for help in understanding it. She explained that just as a mother sometimes hums songs to her children without using words, artists sometimes create paintings without replicating the appearance of things in everyday life.

The man then asked her what she got out of the work, and she delicately stroked his cheek with the back of her finger.

“He said, ‘I see. That’s nice,’” Ianco-Starrels recalled. “I wish we could do that with everyone who walks into a museum.”

Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or valdous@dailytidings.com.