Maveety, Patrick J. and Darle Maveety
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In this oral history from 2016, Patrick J. Maveety, Curator Emeritus of Asian Art at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Center (previously the Stanford Museum of Art), and his wife, Darle Maveety, offer vivid memories of their long association with Stanford, beginning with their time as art students in the years immediately after World War II. Thinking back to his childhood in San Diego, Patrick recalls taking Saturday morning art lessons at the Fine Arts Gallery in Balboa Park. Darle, who grew up in Portland, Oregon, left high school with a passion for art and a plan to become an art teacher. Both paint vivid pictures of life at Stanford in the postwar years. Darle, for example, remembers wearing skirts, even to paint, and dressing for class in cashmeres and sweater sets. Early in their friendship, she helped Patrick create a model of a cabin for one of their art classes. Patrick recalls taking a figure drawing class as an undergraduate from John LaPlante, along with anecdotes of other early faculty members. In those days, the Department of Art had three classrooms near the chapel at the back of Memorial Church, Darle recalls, and each year the art students put on a costumed Beaux-Arts Ball. Although the Stanford Museum was virtually destroyed in the 1906 quake, Darle remembers doing housekeeping chores there, as well as the spooky feeling if she was caught after dark in rooms full of Indian remains and antique furniture--she took a flashlight because the building had no electricity. The two talk about their separate roads between acquiring bachelor’s degrees in 1951 and getting married at Memorial Church in 1958. Darle describes traveling to Europe in 1952 during her studies for a master’s degree, then returning to Portland to teach. Patrick tells colorful stories about his twenty-year career in the U.S. Navy, ending in 1972. Still interested in art history, and especially East Asian studies, Patrick says he decided to pursue a doctorate, and the couple describe the “revised” Stanford they found: a larger Art Department, near the restored and revitalized Art Gallery. Lorenz Eitner, who was responsible for many of those changes, encouraged Patrick’s interest in further studies. Darle describes Eitner’s contributions and tells an interesting anecdote about Albert Elsen’s lecturing techniques. The Eitners also became friends; Darle remembers taking a Stanford Travel/Study trip in the Netherlands when Eitner was the faculty leader of the trip. Patrick describes his studies with Michael Sullivan, who was Christensen Professor of Chinese Art at the time. When Sullivan left unexpectedly, Eitner invited Patrick to become curator of Asian art in 1978, and he says he agreed to work as a volunteer in return for staff privileges. Patrick discusses his work at the center, including his favorite piece, an eighteenth century Qing Dynasty vase that is often mistaken for Japanese. In particular he remembers an unannounced gift of a Tang horse from Richard Gump, president of Gump’s, San Francisco; and an exhibition of blue and white ceramics from Thailand.
Description
| Type of resource | mixed material |
|---|---|
| Date created | February 16, 2016 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Maveety, Patrick J. | |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Maveety, Darle | |
| Contributing author | Fryberger, Betsy | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | Patrick J. Maveety |
|---|---|
| Subject | Darle Maveety |
| Subject | Stanford Historical Society |
| Subject | oral histories |
| Subject | interviews |
| Subject | higher education |
| Subject | universities and colleges > administration > art administration |
Bibliographic information
| Related item |
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|---|---|
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/px722fr3509 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
Maveety, Patrick J. and
Maveety, Darle. (2016). Oral History. Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program
Interviews (SC0932). Department of Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford
University Libraries, Stanford, Calif. Available at:
https://purl.stanford.edu/px722fr3509.
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
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- Contact
- universityarchives@stanford.edu
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