Richland art exhibit to highlight work of late WSU professor

Dave Fitzsimmons helped his mother clear out her Pomeroy farm house a few years back and came across a couple of portfolios.

“She said they were Vivian and Griff’s, and if I didn’t take them, she was going to throw them out,” the Pendleton man recalled.

So he took them. And inside, he found some treasures — ones that will be on display starting next week at The Art Center at Washington State University Tri-Cities.

Worth D. Griffin — who was married to Vivian Kidwell Griffin, a cousin of Fitzsimmons’ mother — was an accomplished artist and longtime art instructor at WSU in Pullman.

He spent about nine months in southern Mexico in the mid-1930s, making portraits and sketches of the people and things he saw.

Those pieces ended up with Fitzsimmons’ mother after Vivian and Griff died.

And Fitzsimmons felt they should be shared.

“Why do you make art? Just to close it in a portfolio and leave it there for years? I don’t think so. You make art so people can enjoy it. So people can receive the message you’re trying to send,” Fitzsimmons said.

The WSU show, called “Worth Griffin in Mexico, 1935,” opens Nov. 2 at the art center on the Richland campus.

A reception is from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Nov. 5. Admission is free, and the public is welcome.

The show features about 37 pieces, largely from Griffin’s time in Mexico.

“They really show what people were like in those times. They’re people doing things in daily life, like carrying water from a well or washing laundry, or going to market or preparing for market,” Fitzsimmons told the Herald.

The Richland campus is “pleased and proud to showcase a number of vibrant, representational paintings, sketches, and portraits detailing Griffin’s 1935 residency in Mexico,” said Peter Christenson, an assistant professor of fine arts and the art center’s curator. He added that the works are of “deep cultural and historical significance and highlight WSU’s longstanding institutional commitment to the arts.”

Kidwell Griffin also was an artist, and one of her pieces is included in the show.

Worth Griffin was born in Indiana in 1892 and studied at Oklahoma Christian University and the Art Institute of Chicago.

He made his way west in 1924, joining what was then State College of Washington as part of its arts faculty. He stayed for 34 years, serving as chairman of the art department and working to increase offerings to include a graduate fine arts degree and courses in disciplines from sculpture to interior design.

Not long after Griffin’s Mexico sojourn, the college commissioned him to travel the Northwest painting portraits of prominent Native Americans and pioneers.

Those works are now part of WSU’s permanent collection. Some of Griffin’s other work is on display at the Martin-Zambito Fine Art gallery in Seattle, along with pieces by his wife.

The WSU Tri-Cities show runs until Dec. 11. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and by appointment.

Fitzsimmons said Griffin aimed to reach people through his work, and he can continue to do so through the Richland show.

“He wanted people to enjoy (his paintings) and analyze them and question them and say, ‘What is valuable about this? Why is it something I like or don’t like?’ ” Fitzsimmons said. “He wanted people to think and hopefully understand what he was trying to communicate.”

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 6:28 AM with the headline "Richland art exhibit to highlight work of late WSU professor."