With a heavy heart we report the passing of Leslie J. Garfield, ’53, a longtime friend and benefactor of the Chazen Museum of Art. Garfield and his late wife Johanna were dedicated council members since 1992, and respected art collectors with a particular love of twentieth-century prints. The Leslie and Johanna Garfield Galleries on the second floor of the Chazen building were named in honor of their support for the museum’s expansion building. Garfield also served on the Tandem Press Advisory Board. He is survived by children Jed (Karen), Cory, and Clare; and grandchildren Clay and Charlie. His beloved wife Johanna died August 5, 2021. His obituary appears here.

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Haeberli, a distinguished nuclear physicist who taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1956 until 2006, died in 2021. He gave the collection of works in memory of his second wife, Gabriele S. Haberland, who died in 2017. Haberland collected African artworks, owned a contemporary art gallery in Switzerland, and served on the Chazen Council.

Haeberli was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He won the American Physical Society’s Bonner Prize in nuclear physics in 1979. He taught a very popular course, “Physics in the Arts,” with Professor Ugo Camerini and later Professor Pupa Gilbert.

The twentieth-century African objects include masks by the Gueré, Kuba, Bobo, Dan, and Yaka peoples, along with a Baulé spirit spouse, a Yorùbá staff, and an Asante chief’s bracelet.

Among the new works are:

• Warhol’s Hammer & Sickle (Special Edition) (1977), a five-print series inspired by the variability and repetition of the Communist symbol the artist encountered on a trip to Italy.
• Nightscape XII (1974) by Louise Nevelson, which joins several other Nevelson works from the late 1950s and 1960s in the Chazen’s collection. Whereas Nevelson’s earlier wooden constructions of found objects explored depth, her Nightscape series delves into surface using curvilinear forms to contrast with a rectangular grid.
• A Yorùbá staff depicting Sàngó (or Shango), the deity of thunder and lightning known for his wrath as well as his life-affirming qualities. Staffs like these would have been carried by followers of Sàngó during annual festivals and were also used to decorate shrines.
• Frank Stella’s Montenegro II, (1975). One of his Brazilian series of elaborately constructed metal “paintings,” this structure represented a sharp departure from Stella’s previous minimalist, flat, linear approach to painting.

The works will be on view throughout the fall semester.

Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987), Hammer & Sickle (Special Edition), (1977), color screen prints, 30 x 40 in., gift of Willy Haeberli in memory of his wife, Gabriele Haberland, 2022.24.4a-e

Frank Stella (American, b. 1936), Montenegro II, from the Brazilian series, (1975), Mixed media on etched aluminum, 92 x 117 x 11 in., gift of Willy Haeberli in memory of his wife, Gabriele Haberland

Louise Nevelson (American, b. Ukraine, 1899–1988, Nightscape XII, (1974), wood, paint, 102 x 59 1/8 x 11 1/8 in., gift of Willy Haeberli in memory of his wife, Gabriele Haberland, 2022.24.1

Unknown artist (Nigerian, Yorùbá People), Sàngó Staff (osé Sàngó), 20th century, wood, kaolin, pigment, 15 x 4 x 2 in., gift of Willy Haeberli in memory of his wife, Gabriele Haberland, 2022.24.13

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Leslie J. Garfield ’53 recently made two gifts in honor of his wife Johanna “Jo” Rosengarten Garfield, who passed away on August 5, 2021. The two met at UW–Madison in 1950 and were married for more than 60 years.

Johanna (l) and Leslie (r) Garfield are seen with Bucky Badger at a celebration marking the Chazen Building’s fifth anniversary.

Leslie’s generous contributions have made possible the purchase of six prints from the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies at the Columbia University School of the Arts for the Chazen’s permanent collection. Remaining funds from the purchase will further support the Chazen by helping to purchase additional prints.

Leslie and Johanna Garfield shared a passion for print collecting, and together they built an exceptional collection of modern and contemporary prints. Leslie’s recommendation that the Chazen acquire prints by John Walker and Korakrit Arunanondchai reflects both his deep knowledge of printmaking history and an awareness of printmaking’s continued evolution in the twenty-first century.

The prints by Walker relate to a body of work contemplating the ecosystem of coastal Maine, where the artist lives and works. Walker chose woodcut—the earliest method of printing images—to create expressive, abstract interpretations of the seacoast that are raw and emotional rather than picturesque. Visual elements recur across the three prints, yet the images differ. Together the woodcuts narrate a story about continuity and change in the natural world.

The three prints by Arunanondchai are quite different. They relate to videos and performances that the Thai artist created between 2014 and 2017. Rather than using a single printmaking method, Arunanondchai integrated digitally printed video stills, screen printing, and unconventional materials. In There’s a word I’m trying to remember for a feeling I’m about to have (A distracted path towards extinction), pieces of bleached denim, a cut photograph, and a piece of faux fur, have been collaged to the surface of a digital inkjet print. The flat, glossy photograph of a weathered hand appears to be holding and feeling the thick fur. Arunanondchai’s juxtaposition of tactile materials with digitally generated images evokes his multimedia installations addressing the complexity of our digital age, marked by the hybridization of physical and virtual experience.

“These gifts continue to strengthen the impact that Leslie and Jo Garfield have had on the museum’s collection, as outstanding examples of their unerring eye for quality and innovation,” said Chazen director Amy Gilman. “I cannot think of a better way to honor Jo’s incredible intellect, generosity, and ability for storytelling than these works.”

The Garfields have provided many years of service on the Chazen’s Advisory Council, for which Leslie continues to serve, and have given tremendous support to the museum over the years. The Leslie and Johanna Garfield Galleries, named in recognition of their generous gift towards the museum’s 2011 expansion, can be found on the second floor of the Chazen building and serves as a main space for rotating exhibitions.

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Pamela and Stephen Hootkin

Since the early 1980s, Stephen and Pamela Hootkin have been collecting contemporary ceramics and ceramic sculpture. While they began collecting ceramic vessels, by the end of the decade they moved toward an edgier kind of work, with narrative content and strong psychological and existential overtones. Along the way, they befriended many of the artists they collected and formed deep and lasting relationships. Highlights of the collection include works by Robert Arneson, Beth Cavener, Viola Frey, Peter Gourfain, and Michael Lucero. Their vision in forming the collection was incredibly cohesive and focused. Stephen is an alumnus of UW–Madison, graduating with a BS in political science in 1964.

In 2014, the Chazen Museum of Art exhibited the Hootkin’s collection in The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection of Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture. Portions of the collection were donated to the Chazen Museum between 2012 and 2017 and the remainder of the collection is a promised gift.

“Stephen and I are both very visual people. Without deep pockets early in our career, we didn’t have a big budget for art. As we went to galleries, it seemed that our tastes in two-dimensional art were not always in sync. One afternoon, we happened to be walking through Soho and stopped in a gallery called Convergence, which was owned by Don Thomas and Jorge Cao. There was a show of work by Bruce Lenore. He was a young man from RISD [Rhode Island School of Design] who made vessel forms, beautifully glazed raku. We walked through the show and at the end we compared notes and found we liked the same piece. We realized that for some reason—whether it was the three-dimensional form, whether it was the ceramic medium or the combination of the two—we both reacted visually to the same thing. We loved the color, loved the depth of the glazes, the forms, and the material. We bought a piece from the show, which we still have. That’s how we started.” –Pamela Hootkin

Q: Is your entire collection on display, or do you have some works in storage?

P: Not everything is on display. The totality of what we own of ceramic pieces is closer to 300-plus. There are many pieces on view at the Chazen, and in our loft…We have these John Gill vases—12 or 14 of them—and when I was working, I had them build shelving in my office and displayed them there. It was a joy to be able to sit across from them at work every day. There are pieces that we’re still attached to but don’t have space for and are still in storage.

S: There are some larger pieces that we bought knowing we would never have room for them in our loft—Humiliation by Design and L’Amante by Beth Cavener, and The Fools’ Congress by Arnold Zimmerman. We shipped them directly to the museum.

P: Even if we didn’t have space for it, nothing stopped us from collecting.

The Hootkins live with their extraordinary collection of contemporary ceramic sculpture in their New York City loft.

Q: Have you ever collected based on specific spaces in your home that you were looking to fill?

P: No. We never said, “Oh we need a pink painting over the couch.” We always responded to the work and then brought it home and figured out how we could integrate it into what was already there.

S: We spent days or weeks moving things around when we bought a new piece to make sure it fit in holistically with the entire collection. Fit in but didn’t disturb anything. We spent tons of time making sure it is just perfect in our eyes.

P: What is interesting in that process is that when you bring a piece in to your home you then begin to notice how it speaks to other pieces in the collection—in form, color, shape, structure or aura. That was a very interesting outgrowth of acquiring new work, seeing the existing pieces in a new light.

“Cabbage Man” and other shard sculptures by Michael Lucero, along with “Torsos” by Judy Moonelis keep the Hootkins company.

Q: What is the “strangest” place you have displayed artwork in your home?

P: We have a work in our bedroom of 10 torsos by Judy Moonelis which she made after reading letters from her father, who had freed people from concentration camps in Germany. The context of the pieces is heavy and sleeping with something above your head may be deemed a little strange. That, coupled with the fact that we have 4 of Michael Lucero’s hanging shard pieces—the Devil on one side, Jesus on the other and a few others for good measure—people have come in our bedroom and said “I can’t believe you sleep in that room, you must be very well adjusted!”

Q: Has there ever been an accident with a work in your collection?

S: In a previous apartment, while I was sleeping all of a sudden I heard a crash and woke up and said “Oh my god! Oh my god!” One of the pieces—Cabbage’s Revenge by Michael Lucero—had fallen to the ground and shattered some of the leaves. I was totally upset! (The piece has since been meticulously restored).

P: We’ve had other small incidents, and we have come to learn that it is part of the delicate medium [of ceramics].

Q: The display of artwork in your loft is pretty dense. It might be hard for someone who doesn’t collect art to imagine living in a home full of all of these wonderful, and delicate, 3-D pieces. 

P: That’s one of the greatest things about living with this work. You live with it and can engage with it at any time. When we built the loft and moved in before the artwork came over, Stephen had the shakes. He could not stay in the apartment because there was no art in it yet. For one day in the empty apartment I said, “This is great, it’s like being at a spa, it’s so zen.” But we both missed the art.

Q: Is there a work or an artist that has surprised you in their notoriety since acquiring them?

S: We didn’t realize that L’Amante would be so popular and become one of the most asked-about works at the Chazen.

Q: Do you have any memorable experiences from acquiring a work of art in New York?

S: Yes we do. But back then the East Village was a very difficult place. There were a lot of drugs, vacant buildings, and empty lots. I came from my office wearing a suit. I got off the subway and started walking towards Avenue B or C. A policeman stopped me and said, “Where are you going?” I said I was going to see my friend. He said, “Let me escort you. You shouldn’t be walking around here wearing a suit.” So the next time we went to visit Michael Lucero’s studio we put on our torn blue jeans. I put money in the bottom of my sock, we put on our oldest clothes and we walked through that neighborhood. That’s just a little aside of how far off the beaten path we were willing to go to visit our artist friends.”*

Q: What advice would you give to new, or aspiring, collectors?

S: Follow your heart. Don’t listen to anybody—a gallerist, a friend, anybody else. Just do what you like. It takes a while to build up confidence and buying based on emotional connection, not just what someone else tells you is great.

P: We trusted our own instincts and always bought what we responded to, so it made (the collection) cohesive when it all came together.

Q: Do you think sharing your collection helps people to better understand you as individuals?

S: Every once in a while, someone in Pam’s office or my office would come over and they could not reconcile how we looked in the corporate office and how we looked with, what they called, “stuff” in our home. It took them a while for them to adjust.

P: It balanced our lives—corporate suits on the one hand, and our relationship with artists and living in the art world on the other.

Q: Do you have any favorite works in the Chazen’s permanent collection?

S: The Lane Collection is, for us, the most important collection at the Chazen.  Having the finished works alongside the behind-the-scenes material is extremely important historically, visually, and for the Chazen’s education mission. We always walk through those galleries when we visit.

P: Also, Zelda [Untitled #1378 (Zelda Fitzgerald)] by Petah Coyne. I could stand and look at it for a long time and marvel at it visually and conceptually in terms of her process. It’s a masterpiece.

*Portions of the Q&A include excerpts from The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection, which can be purchased at the Chazen Café.

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Image courtesy of Jane Hamblen

“I support the Chazen, both financially and as a docent, because it is a remarkable institution that enriches the lives of its countless visitors. The collection is diverse, spanning many different historical periods, cultures and geographic locations. The free admission policy makes the educational, cultural, and social opportunities of its very fine collection and impressive facilities available to everyone in the Madison community and beyond. Currently, as governmental and institutional support for the arts continues to decrease, the financial support provided by individuals is more important than ever.”

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Jon Sorenson (Image by Dana Crary)

When Jon Sorenson ’85 and David Bedri met in San Francisco in 1997, it was love at first sight. For the 20 years that followed, they were partners in all things until Bedri’s passing in January 2018 from a rare form of pancreatic cancer. Having a full year together before Bedri died granted them the chance to plan and prepare bequests to uphold arts initiatives at UW–Madison — a legacy to sustain some of the things that held the most meaning for them.

“In terms of our backgrounds and value systems, David and I both came from families that embraced the arts, and that is embodied in our estate gifts. I love everything that we do at the university — everything it’s about — but so often, the arts don’t get the necessary support,” Sorenson shared.

The youngest of five children, Sorenson grew up in Milwaukee. With a mother and a grandmother who were amateur painters, he has led a life adorned with art and music since the beginning. Early exposure to museum education ultimately led him to earn a BA in art history at UW–Madison. After completing his graduate work at Williams College, Sorenson packed up his 1977 Buick Century with everything he owned and set out for California. It was that adventurous spirit that led him to a successful career in the high-end art world and to broadening his horizons as a fourth grade teacher at a high-needs school in Long Beach.

Similarly, Bedri’s life was steeped in the arts. He was a piano prodigy and many of his family members in Jerusalem have been giving to the arts for generations. His father, a physician, was first violinist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 1920s. After pursuing a liberal arts degree at the University of California–Berkley and completing his MBA at the Wharton School, Bedri built a flourishing Wall Street career in New York before retiring to California to care for his mother who was battling Alzheimer’s disease.

THE ART OF LEAVING A LEGACY

After a life-changing relocation and five years residing in New Zealand, Sorenson and Bedri made their way back to the States where Jon launched what would become a very successful 12-year career in development with the UW Foundation. During that time, Bedri took advantage of being in Madison and enjoyed auditing a variety of classes at the UW, including art history, and went on to become a proud honorary Badger.

“The world of philanthropy came very naturally to me and gave me a sense of purpose,” Sorenson says. “I knew I had found the perfect job when I began working at the UW Foundation. The work I did there — I really feel like it made a difference.”

With a shared love of and respect for the UW, Sorenson and Bedri invested in what meant the most to them: giving back for a better society.

“Our philanthropy is reflected in the Museum Education Fund at Chazen Museum, the Music Professorship for Mead Witter School of Music, and the Tandem Press Fund created in David’s memory. He loved being a part of the wine auction committee, and I love the work that they do,” Sorenson says.

The couple created endowed funds with clear language and intent that the gifts remain as flexible as possible. They understood that needs and priorities change over time and that discretionary freedom would better serve future leaders.

“We wanted our legacy to be that we made a difference in our lifetimes — on the people we interacted with and the work that we did. We have the ability to change lives,” Sorenson shared. They also made a gift to the Hamel Music Center before David passed.

“I gave a gift to name two seats at the Hamel Music Center,” says Jon. “I wanted to have our names attached to something inside the Center. And as long as the building is there, we’ll be next to each other for perpetuity.”

—article by Nicole Heiman, republished with permission from Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association

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Michael Bernhard and Nancy Doll

Consistent annual support from alumni and friends has played a vital role in providing flexibility to address immediate priorities and new initiatives—from ensuring all students who work in the museum are compensated, to creating our new Visitor Services Team. To Michael Bernhard and Nancy Doll, supporting to the Chazen not only enriches the University, but the greater Madison—something they have done every year for the past 17 years!

Michael, a retired psychologist in Madison, serves as a member of the Chazen’s Advisory Council. “I am honored to be a member of the Council. I can truly say we are in a ‘golden era’ in the museum’s history. We possess a stunning world-class museum space, a growing, deep, and multifaceted collection, a dynamic director, and a stellar, fully committed staff. In a city that is fast becoming a ‘best’ destination, we need and deserve a visual arts cornerstone.”

In addition to the Chazen, Michael and Nancy support other arts organizations across Madison, including the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA), where Nancy is a member of the Langer Society.

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Kato Perlman. Photo James Gill

For the past seven years, a generous annual gift from Kato Perlman has ensured that Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen has continued to fill Brittingham Gallery III with live chamber music on the first Sunday of the month (except January). Dr. Perlman has made a remarkable commitment to continue this gift past her lifetime by establishing the David and Kato Perlman Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen Fund, with a future gift through her estate. This endowment will provide permanent annual lead gifts in support of Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen.

Please note: All in-person programming, including Sunday Afternoon Live, has been postponed for the fall 2020 semester. Please check our events calendar for the most up-to-date information.

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Isabella Gilbert, left, and Hattie Grimm were the inaugural Burish Interns.

The Burish Fellowship in Art Education was established by Helen and Mark Burish to support a collaborative fellowship shared between the museum and the art department. The gift provides one year of tuition remission and a semester-long, paid internship at the Chazen Museum of Art for two students. Helen Burish is an art education graduate, chair of the art department’s Board of Visitors, a museum docent, and chair of the Chazen’s Advisory Council. She and Mark are both long-time supporters of the university.

“This fund will allow undergrads to have a genuine museum-education experience and contribute significantly to the Chazen’s programming by exposing them first hand to informal learning settings such as an exhibition or gallery space” said Candie Waterloo, curator of education.

Working approximately 10 to 14 hours per week, interns participate in a museum education “boot camp,” work with museum and art-education staff to develop workshops related to Chazen exhibitions and collections, and facilitate presentations and workshops in the museum education department.

The Chazen Museum of Art and the UW–Madison Department of Art announced the first recipients of the Burish Fellowship in Art and Museum Education in May of 2019. Art education majors Hattie Grimm of Oak Park, Ill., and Isabella Gilbert of Elk Mound, Wis., were chosen as the inaugural interns.

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Joen E. Greenwood (’56, MA ’57) was a Wisconsin native and UW–Madison alumna who received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics. She attended graduate school at the University of California at Berkley, where she received a Fulbright Scholarship to Cambridge University and studied economics at Newnham College. She went on to teach economics at Wellesley College for several years before becoming a consultant at Charles River Associates in Boston. Despite her departure from the Midwest, Greenwood maintained constant ties to her alma mater, serving on the Women’s Philanthropy Council of the University of Wisconsin Foundation, the University of Wisconsin Alumni Association Board of Directors, and as president of the WAA Greater Boston Chapter. Throughout her long career in finance, Greenwood sustained a strong commitment to the arts, particularly those created by female artists. She established the Joen Greenwood Fund for the Chazen to support “the purchase or exhibition of art created by contemporary women artists” or to fund publications.

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