Saint Mary’s College and Colfax Campus Gallery to host work by late artist Bill Sandusky

May 31, 2018 (Notre Dame, IN) — A special exhibition by the late artist and longtime Saint Mary’s College professor Bill Sandusky will be presented at the Colfax Campus Gallery. The exhibition opening takes place Friday, June 1 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Colfax Cultural Center, 914 Lincoln Way West. The theme of the exhibition, which runs through June 15, is “Celebrating Bill, His Lifelong Work.” 

This exhibit is in conjunction with the unveiling of Sandusky’s The Brancacci Project on Saturday, June 2 from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in O’Laughlin Auditorium, Moreau Center for the Arts, Saint Mary’s College. The Brancacci Project, a permanent installation, was Sandusky’s reinterpretation of the fresco cycle painted in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, which influenced artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael. The Brancacci Chapel scenes depict stories from the life of Saint Peter, with many of the figures painted in Italian dress and locales of the time the works were done. 

Sandusky likewise used contemporary figures, — including Saint Mary’s President Emerita Carol Ann Mooney and the late Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC —dress, and locales to reinterpret these Renaissance works. With the assistance of Saint Mary’s Student Independent Study and Research (SISTAR) grants in 2003 and 2005, Sandusky, along with former students Jill Feller Rund ’99 and Jennifer Trachy Hakes ’04retained the original scale and compositional elements with the side walls measuring 7.5 feet by 22.5 feet. The panels are painted with acrylic on canvas. 

“Bill was a mentor for young artists,” longtime Saint Mary’s colleague, Professor of Art Julie Tourtillotte said. “He created vistas for students and observers alike to make their own connections and relationships with his artworks.”  

Rather than a “master-apprentice” relationship with students, Sandusky guided young artists to cultivate their own vision. Sandusky said students “have their own particular life experiences and ambitions, so they should also have their own way of doing things.”

Sandusky received a Master of Fine Arts from Tulane University and taught at Saint Mary’s from 1981-2014. Throughout his 33 years at the College, he combined teaching with a successful career as an artist. Before coming to Saint Mary’s, Sandusky worked in Italy for nearly a decade at the Santa Reparata Graphic Art Centre in Florence, where he taught etching, lithography and drawing, and was a principle printer of etchings and lithographs. 

“Celebrating Bill, His Lifelong Work” spans Sandusky’s career, reflecting his early years in Florence and more than three decades at Saint Mary’s College.