Opening Reception: Touchstones

Sheehan Gallery presents
Touchstones: The process & Person of Photographer Mary Randlett

January 31 - April 10, 2020

Curator's Talk by Sheehan Gallery Director, Daniel Forbes: Friday, March 6th @ 5:30pm in Olin 138

In 2019, Whitman College was gifted an extraordinary archive of materials centered on renowned Northwest photographer and Whitman alum Mary Randlett '47.

Born in Seattle in 1924, Mary Randlett grew up in an artistically-engaged environment. Her mother, Elizabeth Bailey Willis, was the second curator of Washington University's Henry Art Gallery and an enthusiastic promoter of Seattle's Northwest School artists. Randlett's own interest in art through the medium of photography emerged early (she produced her first photo album at 10 years old). Even during her time as a Whitman student, it was remarked that she could often be found in what was then the Billing's darkroom, processing her latest batch of photos.

After graduating from Whitman, over the course of her life, Randlett's photographs were the subject of over 30 solo exhibitions and her images have been featured in numerous books. She was also the recipient of several prestigious honors, including an Anne Gould Hauberg Artist Image Award.

Among her many photographic genres, Randlett is known as perhaps the most significant visual documentarian of Seattle's creative community. A master of portraiture, her photographs immortalized significant Northwest artists and poets like Mark Tobey, George Tsutakawa, Viola Patterson, Jacob Lawrence, and Theodore Roethke. Among the many artists she worked with, in the early 1960's, Randlett struck up a friendship with Northwest School painter and later Walla Walla resident Neil Meitzler. These two artists went on to share an enduring creative camaraderie that spanned close to half a century until Meitzler's death in 2009.

An avid correspondent, in addition to letters, over the years Randlett shared exhibition announcements, news clippings, and handmade cards with Meitzler and his partner, artist and ceramics expert Ikune Sawada. She also sent prints of her work, contact sheets, and darkroom "mishaps" she found interesting. In captions on the backs of some of the photographic prints she sent, 

Randlett credits Meitzler for helping her hone her own visual acuity in landscape photography, another genre she became renowned for. A comparison of her landscape photos and Meitzler's canvases offers clear evidence of how these two artists inspired each other.

Following Randlett's passing in January 2019, this treasure of her correspondence and artwork has been donated to the Sheehan Gallery by Ikune Sawada in memory of Neil Meitzler and in honor of Mary Randlett. In Touchstones, selections of these materials are formally presented, supplemented with borrowed images from Randlett's portfolio held by the University of Washington.

The resulting exhibit offers a rare glimpse into a remarkable friendship between artists. It also provides intimate and illuminating insight into Randlett's personal creative process. All together, this assembled archive paints a picture of an iconic Northwest photographer as striking as one of Mary Randlett's own photographic portraits.

Sheehan Gallery is located in Olin Hall on Whitman College campus. The gallery is free and open to the public. 

Open Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 12:00-5:00pm, Saturday/Sunday, 12:00-4:00pm or by Appointment.

Please visit www.whitman.edu/sheehan for more information, or call 509327.5249 or 509.527.5992