Jon Onye Lockard: Painter, Professor, Activist & Griot

Year
2024


“Lockard the teacher, the mentor and a griot…[Griot—a member of a class of traveling poets, musicians, (artists) and storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history in parts of West Africa.]" – Dr. Ed Jackson Jr.

Artist Jon Onye Lockard At Washtenaw Community College, November 7, 1997

Known for his portraits, murals, and his inspirational teaching style, Jon Onye Lockard was a prolific artist, educator, and mentor. He made countless contributions not just in Ann Arbor, but around the globe. Jon is remembered for his unwavering devotion to teaching and promoting the artistic representation of Blackness, rebutting centuries of racist imagery, with a steadfast commitment to social justice and to the broader civil rights movement: 

“Painting throughout his life different depictions of Blackness in its myriad of possibilities brought him great joy … He wanted the world to see how beautiful Blackness was, because growing up at a time when that was not emphasized impacted him to want things to change and be better.” - Elizabeth James, former student and current staff at the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies [D’AAS]

Mural Painting In Midtown Park At Huron & Main Street, November 1973

Today, murals seem almost commonplace. They are found all around town created by a range of artists, executed in many styles. This was not always the case, and in 1982, former student, artist, and professor Mike Mosher wrote: “the majority of murals in schools, institutions and on the street in the Ann Arbor area, when not directly involving Lockard, are the work of students who’ve passed through his classes and influence.” Though many of these early student murals are no longer here, many of his works remain around town. 

“Working in murals demands a sense of consciousness, a sense of the rhythms happening in the community, the country, or the world.” — Jon Onye Lockard

From the Ann Arbor News, May 22, 1981

Locally, Lockard’s murals can be found at University of Michigan’s residence halls and multicultural lounges in South and West Quad. Numerous paintings and a mural honoring legendary Washtenaw Community College [WCC] faculty member Dr. Morris Lawrence Jr. are on WCC’s campus. Nearby universities and museums proudly present his works, such as his renowned mural ‘Continuum' at Wayne State University’s Manoogian Center. His work is collected internationally and can be found in public and private collections.

The Early Years of John Melvin Lockard

John Lockard, 1949 from the Arrow, Eastern High School

“One must know where you came from to know where you are going” – Jon Lockard

Jon Onye Lockard was born as John Melvin Lockard January 25, 1932 in Detroit to Cecil E. Lockard and Lillian Jones. He was the middle child, with an older brother named Cecil E. Lockard, after their father. Cecil Jr. would also become an influential figure in Ann Arbor, working as a photographer for the Ann Arbor News for decades.

John Lockard was born during the Great Depression, came of age at the start of white flight in the Detroit area, and experienced unofficial segregation at the schools he attended in the region. The young Lockard was educated at Eastern High School in Detroit, where he had already begun participating in the arts, sports, and acted as a member of the yearbook staff, graduating in 1949. 

John Lockard, member of Eastern High School's yearbook staff, 1949

After high school, he began working at Ovelton Sign where he experienced harsh working conditions and segregation. He attended Meinzinger School of Art in Detroit and, shortly after, Wayne State University where he would earn his Bachelor’s. Then, he received his Master’s degree at University of Toronto in 1958 before returning to the Detroit area and establishing himself in Ann Arbor.

Jon Onye Lockard: A Great Teacher Emerges

During this period, John dropped the ‘h’ in his name, officially becoming Jon Lockard. Later in the 1960s, a member of his travel group in Nigeria said he should be “Onye Eje/Ije”, which in the Igbo language means “artistic traveler” or “the traveling artist who has many friends,” a name he would adopt, changing his name officially to Jon Onye Lockard.

In November 1964, Lockard celebrated the grand opening of the Ann Arbor Art Center, (of no relation to the current Ann Arbor Art Center–which was, at the time, the Ann Arbor Art Association) his first studio at 215 S. Fourth Ave. During this time he was working “nine days a week” in Ann Arbor, but he still lived in Detroit. He would move to Ann Arbor by 1971, around the same time his studio moved into the old Ann Arbor Railroad Depot building at 416 S. Ashley.

From the Huron Valley Ad-Visor, September 1, 1965

In 1968, advocacy from Black scholars and students worked to include Black Studies programs and push for higher enrollment of Black students, a movement that was gaining traction across the country. The Daily reported in 1969 that the LSA program would begin offering an Afro-American Studies major. 

Black Artist's Festival Advertisement, Michigan Daily, November 13, 1969

At the University of Michigan, Jon quickly found himself inhabiting several roles: supporting the Black Action Movement, and participating in the first annual Black Artist's Festival in 1969. The following year he co-founded the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies (Renamed D’AAS in 2011) as an interdisciplinary program that would focus on histories that had been ignored—or worse, taught with factual inaccuracy by other history departments. Elizabeth James reflects on the personal significance of this change: “The History of Art department wasn't offering courses in [the African diaspora] at that time, so I checked with the then-Center for Afroamerican and African Studies. Jon Lockard was teaching a survey course on the arts of Africa. It was an amazing experience that transformed my life.” 

In December 1969, Lockard was brought on at WCC as part of the newly founded Black Studies Program. In 1970, Lockard would organize the first show of Black students’ works in an outdoor exhibit, while the campus expanded programs for Black students through the Black Studies Program and the creation of the WCC Black Student Union. 

Lockard continued to teach at both universities for 40 years. His former students fondly remember that he would make sure to play music before and after each of his classes. Elizabeth James remembers: “He always played music before and after his classes began, setting the scene for the lessons to be learned each day. He deeply believed in developing critical thinking skills so that you would remain curious about the world around you.”

Lockard’s reputation for being a “difficult” teacher is also fondly remembered by students. He would not let students get away with lack of participation, and he thereby enriched their educational experiences. Former colleague Bamidele Agbasegbe-Demerson says, "you had to always raise questions because it was through raising questions that you interrogated the subject. You came to some decisions and ultimately, hopefully an understanding.” Mike Mosher recalls that he would not just let students “do their own thing,” that “his classes were dedicated to learning to represent the human figure accurately … you had to demonstrate skill in drawing a model in a full range of values with a single black or brown Conte crayon.”

In addition to his teaching in formal university settings, Jon co-founded organizations such as Our Own Thing, where he offered his knowledge to students participating in scholarship programs. He was a co-founder and acted as Associate Director of the Society for the Study of African American Culture and Aesthetics, and in 1983 was elected president of the African American arts organization National Conference of Artists (NCA). 

'Our Own Thing' Helps Students Study In Arts, from the Ann Arbor News, September 18, 1971

Lockard’s former student and working artist Earl Jackson remembers a trip Lockard led for the NCA to Dakar, Senegal, noting the profound influence it had on his artistic direction. Lockard emphasized the importance of color in his teachings, focusing on the differences in meanings associated with colors across cultures. Lockard’s work participated in a dialogue of artworks by members of the African diaspora, which led to the creation of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s-70s, a movement of art toward an “African American aesthetic” that Lockard helped develop throughout his career along with contemporaries and friends such as Bing Davis. 

In line with his mission to promote an African and African American aesthetic in his work, Jon found inspiration in words and concepts throughout history. Sankofa, for example, was one of Lockard’s most revered philosophies. As he interpreted it, “there is wisdom in learning from the past and one’s roots, to ensure a strong future moving forward.” Lockard used this term repeatedly throughout his career: as the title of his show “Sankofa”, originally aired on Barden Cable Television of Detroit from, and as the title of his biweekly journal. In 2000, the Center for Afroamerican Studies named a gallery for Lockard that launched with an inaugural exhibit titled “Looking Back but Seeing Ahead: Sankofa and Creativity.”

A Case for the Inseparability of Art & Politics

In 1983, a year after an unsuccessful lawsuit against the Ann Arbor Street Fair, Lockard spoke with Susan Nisbett of the Ann Arbor News. She wrote: “Lockard expressed a desire to talk about art, rather than politics,” followed by the statement: “In the broadest sense, however, to talk about the one with Lockard is to talk about the other.” Lockard’s artistic philosophy and choice of subject matter from the beginning was focused on Black and African American representation. He knew that his works were provocative and made white audience members uncomfortable at times, but that above all else “art has a responsibility to tell the truth.”

From the Michigan Daily, June 16, 1982

In his early career, Jon Lockard was known as a traveling portraitist, having attended the yearly show at the Ann Arbor Street Fair since its founding. His on-site portrait work was so popular it was known to have drawn large crowds, with art fair organizers strategically placing Lockard’s booth to draw visitors to the far reaches of the event. Though Lockard had by all accounts been a cherished member of the annual art fairs, a legal battle erupted when in 1982, the Ann Arbor Street Fair Jury rejected Lockard as a participant for the first time in 22 years. The rejection of Lockard’s application was based on charges of exhibiting “commercially printed prints” and works by other artists. Lockard did in fact exhibit the work of another artist: a student who had reproduced Lockard’s works as stained glass “faithfully transcribing” from Lockard’s original paintings. 

An ad hoc committee was quickly formed in support of Lockard after his rejection from the fair. The Committee for Salvation of the Human Experience in the Visual Arts (SHEVA) members included Bob Medellin, Leslie Kamil (then Kamil-Miller), and Bamidele Agbasegbe-Demerson. The art fair at the time noted that this was a routine experience for veteran exhibitors, one that would continue to amplify in the following years. Lockard and his committee, however, weren’t the only ones to push back. Carolyn Kilpatrick, a democrat from Detroit at the time and House majority whip, commented in support of Lockard and his cause along with the mayor of Ypsilanti and many Ann Arbor residents. Critics pointed out that in a typical fair of 300 exhibitors, it was estimated that a maximum of four artists were Black each year.

A New York-based law firm, the Center for Constitutional Rights, founded by William Kuntsler also found the case to be worthwhile, and lawyer Mike Gombiner made a case that the jury had violated the artist’s due process freedom of expression on the basis of racial discrimination. Though the case was unsuccessful for Lockard's reinstatement in the fair, it had a lasting impact, and not only on the jurying process. After the case was dismissed, the Art Fair’s lawyer James Erady responded that procedures for jurying were under review. Leslie Kamil notes that “the beauty of the case is that it created the need and the requirement for art fairs to have standards and screening criteria.” Change was introduced locally when City Councilman Larry Hunter proposed that the Art Fair Jury annually submit its findings to the City Council for review ‘to make a public matter public’, but also for the nation as a whole, raising awareness on the potential for bias and discrimination in jurying processes. 

The Later Years: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial & Continuing Legacy

Artist, Jon Lockard's Studio Door With Message About Martin Luther King Jr.'s Death, April 1968
When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968, Lockard placed a sign on 215 S. Fourth Ave studio: “Closed due to the death of a friend Dr. Martin Luther King.” Nearly twenty years later in 1996, Jon Lockard was chosen as one of five African American men to advise on the creation of a national monument honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Senior Art Advisor for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. 

Lockard worked alongside Dr. Ed Jackson as the Executive Architect and Taubman College Professor Emeritus of Architecture James Chaffers Jr. to select an artist to produce the statue, which would be unveiled in 2011 in Washington D.C.’s National Mall. 

Jon Onye Lockard & James Chaffers, September 7, 1998

Lockard worked on various aspects of the project, from planning to fundraising to construction. The group worked on determining the monuments’ final location, had a design competition and then selected the sculptor, Lei Yixin, a Chinese artist who was the best of the best of artists working in granite globally. Lockard went with members of the committee to China to see a mockup of the statue and offer comments on changes. Leslie Kamil accompanied Lockard, and recalls that he and others in the group had a tense discussion about what expression Martin Luther King Jr. should have, ultimately dissuading the artist from his original design that portrayed King as a “warrior.” Dr. Ed Jackson Jr. remembers Jon throughout the process as “my rock, my defender, my linebacker”, additionally noting that his project marked “the first time a group of African Americans have attempted to build a memorial of this scale on the national mall” and faced national scrutiny. 

"It's only a journey when you have a destination." – Jon Lockard

Portrait of Jon Lockard, date unknown

Jon Onye Lockard died March 24, 2015 in Ann Arbor and is buried at Washtenong Memorial Park and Mausoleum. His legacy continues with his three children, his works of art and murals, his students, and Lockard’s Visions of Destiny (DBA), now protected by the Jon Onye Lockard Foundation. His students, colleagues, and family remember him fondly, with a nod toward his lasting impact on their lives and the lives of others through his questioning nature and unending passion for teaching. Elizabeth James wrote: “I can't think of a time when he didn't ask some question that would leave you pondering the answer. He was a griot and a visionary all at once.” 

Bamidele Agbasegbe-Demerson remembers that Jon, while he was a professor and academic, was ultimately a “Ph.B,” a play on “Ph.D., the Doctor of Philosophy. But John would say that he is a Ph.B., a practicing human being.” This approach to life, “embodies in some ways the totality of all the different hats that he wore … whatever he did. He always strived to be a human being, a practicing human being, a Ph.B.” Today, Lockard’s legacy continues to influence new generations with his vast contributions to the art world and civil rights, which beg audiences to continue asking questions and seeking answers, but most of all creating a dialogue with one another.

Emil Weddige: Ann Arbor's Pre-eminent Lithographer

Year
2024

​​
Emil Weddige was known as an impactful artist with a particular finesse with color and shade in his prints, technically skilled, a leader in the field of lithography. Weddige was not only among the first to teach lithography in American universities, but he is also among those credited with the revival of stone lithography in North America and Europe.

Emil Weddige in his Studio with his cat Tarzan, March 1992. Photographed by Carrie Rosema for the Ann Arbor News
In a personal essay for his 1986 retrospective exhibition at Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor’s world-renowned lithographer wrote:

“I have worked without major interruption since a child of one and one-half years old. The records of these drawings are in the Archives of American Art. I was told that I learned to talk by hearing adults say the names of what I had just drawn.” Whether this bit of family lore of Weddige’s artistic origins is true or not, it is clear that he fervently devoted himself to a life of both creating art and sharing his passion with others through teaching. 

1907-1942: The Early Years

Emil Albert Weddige was born to Marie Emma Boismier and Carl Albert Weddige in Sandwich, Ontario on December 23, 1907. By 1909, the Weddige family had immigrated to Detroit, where Emil would grow up and attend Neinas Elementary School and Western High School. 

Emil lived in Ypsilanti by 1928, confirms a January 25 Ann Arbor News article citing his weekend visit to his parents in Pinckney. He also appears in the 1928 Aurora yearbook, having entered Michigan State/Ypsilanti Normal College (now known as Eastern Michigan University) as a freshman that year to study fine arts. Weddige would not stay long, though, and by December 1928, the Ann Arbor News reported that Weddige was attending Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, PA, for a brief period. 

By 1932, Emil’s parents Marie and Carl had relocated to Ypsilanti, where the following year Emil would again begin attending Ypsilanti Normal College to continue studying fine arts. During his junior and senior year there, he was active in the Art Club, acting as treasurer in 1933 and president in 1934.

Emil Weddige, Eastern Michigan University Aurora, 1934
He was also involved with the school yearbook, The Aurora, and in 1934 was cited as the staff artist. It was also during this period that Emil won his first award, in 1932, for an oil painting of his grandfather titled “Pipe”.

Emil married his first wife, Ann Marcus, on August 17, 1933 in Crown Point, Indiana. The following year, Weddige graduated from Ypsilanti Normal College with a Bachelor of Arts. 

Education: Toward an “everyperson kind of art”

“I’ve always tried to create art that is accessible to all people. That is why I am a stone lithographer.” – Emil Weddige

Initially, Weddige was interested in pursuing painting, but later wrote of his turn away from the medium: “In the ‘twenties’, I became very interested in the need for an everyperson kind of art.” This kind of art was one that could be, by design, reproduced in high quality and distributed as originals in larger numbers than a single painting. 

Emil Weddige, date unknown, photographed by Ralston Crawford, Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library
Weddige was initially introduced to printmaking by Orlo Gill during his time at Ypsilanti Normal College. Weddige also credited his love of printmaking to a chance encounter with Carl Zigrosser, future curator of prints for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Though he does not cite when this encounter occurred, it is possible that this was during his brief studies at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh at the onset of the Great Depression.

The ever-busy Weddige also studied at the Art Students League in New York, where he experimented with etchings, woodcuts, and silkscreen prints. There, he studied under Morris Kantor and Harry Sternberg. From there, Weddige traveled to Woodstock and met Emil Ganso, a lithographer. Ganso first introduced Weddige to the medium that would define his career as an artist. Weddige wrote “I have been in love with Lithography as a form of Art from that day.” Weddige noted in a September 29, 1989 Central Michigan Life article that he pursued his “most important studies” at both the Art Students League and the Academy Julian in Paris.

Emil notes in his personal writings that “During the three years after graduation, there was a rapid advancement.” In this time, he received his first job teaching art, English, mathematics, and civics at an intermediate school in Dearborn. Weddige worked as a self-described unorthodox teacher at

Emil Weddige, Art Teacher, Dearborn High School Yearbook, 1937
Dearborn High School before being appointed Art Supervisor for Dearborn Schools, where he worked for one year before becoming a teaching fellow and graduate student at University of Michigan in 1937. Many biographical accounts suggest that he began his graduate work at the University of Michigan and received his Master of Arts in 1937. However, as reported by the Ann Arbor News on June 17, 1938, he officially earned a Master of Design degree a year after he began his graduate work. 

By October 12, 1939, the Michigan Daily announced the appointment of Emil Weddige to instructor at the College of Architecture and Design. By 1941, he had received an additional promotion at the university, and was involved with the Ann Arbor Art Association, acting as vice president.

In the early 1940s, Emil would go through several significant life changes. In August 1942, at the time of his father Carl Weddige’s death, Emil was living at 1404 Broadway. There, he lived with his first wife Ann until their divorce (after ten years of marriage) on August 27, 1943. Then, on December 29, 1943,

Emil and Juanita Weddige, date unknown, Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library
Emil married his second wife, Juanita G. Pardon; she would play a crucial role in his life as his partner of 48 years until her death on October 6, 1990. Juanita acted as Emil’s business manager, and is said to have organized over 600 one-man shows for the artist while she was alive. The newly-married couple then moved next door to 1400 Broadway, where they would remain until 1949.

Lithography: A True Painters Medium

Weddige deemed lithography “a painter’s medium, alive to every whim of the artist and anything in painting or drawing or in combinations is possible."

Lithography was first developed in in the late 1790s by Alois Senefelder in Germany. The process of lithography was the first mass-production printing process for images, aside from hand engraving. The process also allowed for greater control over the image than previously possible. This new technique revolutionized printing until the introduction of offset printing in 1875 on tin, and 1903-04 on paper. When Weddige was first introduced to the lithographic process, it was a holdover from a bygone era.

The process of lithography involves one or more polished stones (in the U.S., historically Bavarian limestone) that act as the composition surface. The stones are heavy, typically weighing anywhere from just over 10 pounds to over one thousand pounds.

G. Ruse and C. Straker. Printing and its Accessories. London: S. Straker & Son., 1860. Robertson Davies Library, Massey College. University of Toronto.
Before working, Weddige would grind the surface of his stones to make them more receptive to the grease-based pigment. Using a wax crayon or “tousche”, a liquid crayon, the artist applies his drawing. Then, the stone is treated with an acidic wash and gum arabic that helps the areas untouched by the wax further absorb water, and those with wax repel it. Water is placed on the surface of the stone before adding ink. The oil-based ink sticks to the grease left by the crayon, and the spaces untouched by crayon repel ink, creating an imprint of the artists’ drawing.

It was typical for Weddige to use at least six to eight stones and 12 colors for one composition in order to incorporate several layers of complex drawings. Developing the precision and skill required to produce these prints was a lifelong process. He was creating lithographs as early as 1939, but was dissatisfied with his technical skills and continued to seek training to perfect his approach.

Lithographs by Emil Weddige, December 14, 1945, The Ann Arbor News

Because the process of color lithography was so uncommon, and his approach so tied to painterly tradition, Weddige wrote that in an early exhibition he participated in, his work was taken off the wall. He was charged with using watercolor. He said “The work was removed from the frame and it was verified that the work was an original from stone in color and instead of being disqualified, it was given an award.”

In post-WWII Paris, what Weddige would later deem a “renaissance” of lithography was taking place. He asked the dean of the University of Michigan to take a semester leave to study lithography in Paris, unsure if he would have a job when he came back. Selling his car and their home, Juanita and Emil traveled on the RMS Queen Elizabeth from New York to Cherbourg, France on February 18, 1949 for a duration of five months. During this time, the couple stayed in Paris, where Emil studied under Edmond Desjobert. Thus began a long tradition of travel to Paris, where Emil would visit yearly for around 4-6 weeks. In a personal essay, Weddige wrote: “Without question, the work and friendship of Edmond and Madam Desjobert changed the entire course of my life.” 

Eastern Today Cover, Winter 1987

And so, in 1949, Weddige began a multi-decade partnership with the Atelier Desjobert, where artists such as Fernand Léger, Jean Cocteau, and many others were working. In the Winter 1987 edition of Eastern Today, Weddige said “[to create] a catalog of the names of the artists who have worked in this studio would be equivalent to naming the printmakers of the 20th century”. This relationship was advantageous for many reasons, but particularly because artists’ assistants helped with much of the heavy lifting, literally moving the stones and providing materials and equipment. 

"Le Colosseum", 1949, color lithograph on paper, Krannert Art Museum

In 1998, George H. Roeder Jr., an instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, wrote for Weddige’s one-man show at Jean Paul Slusser Gallery: “his long relation with Desjobert studio is one of the most successful examples of trans-Atlantic collaboration in all of art history.” By the time he was collaborating with Desjobert studio, Weddige had already achieved numerous honors, including his sale of the print “Le Colosseum”, which was purchased by the Library of Congress in 1950. 

Mid-Century: Making a Life of Art

Though threatened when he proposed a leave in 1949, Weddige did not lose his position at the university. He was instead promoted within the College of Architecture and Design, announced in the July 22, 1949 issue of the Michigan Daily. Upon their return to Ann Arbor, the Weddiges built a home at 870 Stein Road, where they would live together for many years, eventually expanding to include an on-site studio at 850 Stein Rd. 

In a 1956 article by the Ann Arbor News, Weddige was interviewed about his process. At this time, the artist had made around 100 lithographs, only considering 40 of those successes. He noted that the process of lithography is difficult to learn, stating: “One could read all the books on lithography and still not be able to print, everywhere I kept running into a closed shop attitude.” He would work to change this over the course of his career. Weddige often referred to lithography as a “democratic art”, stating that “it would be impossible for many of us to buy a drawing or painting by many artists, and yet we can afford lithographs, which are the direct product of an artists’ work”. In 1975 Weddige said “the older I got, the more I believed that art belonged to the people.” In keeping with this ethos, Weddige taught stone lithography at the University of Michigan as long as he was there.

Lithography in the Classroom, from the Michigan Daily, November 6, 1955

In another attempt to bring art to the public sphere, Weddige was active in several local and state-wide organizations dedicated to the arts. Early in his career while he was still an assistant professor at U of M, he was elected to membership for the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters. He co-founded the Michigan Printmakers’ Society in 1952, and acted as founder, president and chairman of the Michigan Watercolor Society in 1947.

In addition to his involvement in community groups and development of his own artistic practice, Weddige also worked on art restoration. In 1963, a touring collection of restored lithographs debuted at the Dearborn Historical Museum. The show--which was commissioned by Heritage Workshop--selected a sampling of stones from over 5,000 specimens, and was the culmination of several years of work spent researching and developing a chemical process to pull prints from a collection of “abandoned limestone lithographs.” Weddige used a hand press that “is as old or older than many of the stones themselves.” The process of lithography also relies on the artist’s skill and knowledge, as the “chemical balance of the work and the stone can alter radically with the slightest change in technique.” Weddige published a book three years later, in 1966, titled Lithography. This volume cataloged his technique and approach to printmaking, and is considered a definitive work on the medium.

Emil Weddige, Still Life with Lemons, color lithograph, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Commissions & ArtTrain: Bringing Art to the Public

In another effort to make his art “work” for the people, Weddige participated in fundraising and scholarships over the course of his lifetime. Among Weddige’s numerous significant commissions was his 1967 series observing the sesquicentennial of the University of Michigan. Over a two year period, he produced 300 sets of lithographs which consisted of 11 prints, for a total of 3333 individual works. The prints were produced in his Paris studio using 74 individual stones, with each print being run through 6-8 times, requiring precise registration, or the “matching of images”. For this series, Weddige pulled somewhere around 23,000 individual prints to create the final sets.

In March of 1992, Weddige exhibited 74 works at The Workbench in Kerrytown in order to raise funds for the University Musical Society. In the end, Weddige raised $43,500 for UMS. By October, Weddige was collaborating with John W. Barfield of Ypsilanti in hopes of raising $150,000 for the United Nego College Fund.  In 1974, Weddige donated 10 works to Eastern Michigan University, including “Still Life With Lemons”. 

In keeping with Weddige’s mission toward a democratic art, in 1971, Weddige helped form ArtTrain (also spelled ArTrain) with an eye toward exposing small, rural communities without museums to artworks that they might not otherwise get to engage with. On October 8, 1999 in Detroit, Weddige was honored as artist of the year by Artrain USA and recognized for his work conceptualizing the initial exhibit that launched ArtTrain.

Detail from the Ann Arbor News, December 25, 1969

He was tasked with the creation of the original designs for the inaugural exhibition in 1971, when it made its first tour. Stopping first in Traverse City, the train was dedicated by then governor William Milliken and first lady Helen Milliken. Weddige designed three of four exhibit cars in the first run, which included “an Egyptian mummy,” that today we would likely not encounter in any museum setting, and “a Greek head of Apollo over 2,000 years old, a Ming Dynasty Chinese terra cotta, African carvings and a group of contemporary paintings.” 

Also during this time period, Emil Weddige was awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Fine Art, from EMU on April 15, 1973 at the same time as Fred Rogers of PBS fame. Then, in 1974, Weddige was named Professor Emeritus of Art and retired from University of Michigan, but remained active in the local arts community. 

"...and a Host of Angels", First Day UNICEF Stamp Cover, 1982

Weddige’s work, having been internationally renowned for decades, was awarded a new honor in 1982. A few years before, in 1979, Weddige had been commissioned by the Methodist Children's Home in Detroit to create a series of lithographs, among them “… and a host of Angels”, which was selected for the “first day” collection of UNICEF flag stamps released September 24, 1982. 

The Final Years & Ongoing Legacy

Weddige was, even in his lifetime, considered a very accomplished artist with immense devotion to his craft. His works remain in countless collections across the globe. At the age of 90, Weddige recalled that he could “modestly” estimate that over his lifetime he created over 700 print editions. His lithographs were typically released in small editions of 300 or less, but even with a conservative estimate of 700 editions at 100 prints in each edition, he would have personally pulled at least 70,000 prints. 

Weddige died in Ann Arbor, Michigan on February 11, 2001 at the age of 93. Upon his death, he left charitable gifts to many organizations, and left scholarship funds at Washtenaw Community College, Eastern Michigan University, and the Schools of Music and Art at University of Michigan. Emil remained active in art up until the end of his life. His final show while he was alive was held in December, 2000 in Saline, just months before his death. 

Not only was Weddige a true leader in his field, he was committed to a democratic art, to conservation of the environment, of historical art processes and artworks, and bringing his love of art to a wider audience. 

Emil Weddige, date unknown, Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library


AADL Talks To: Robin and Jamie Agnew, owners of Aunt Agatha's

In this episode, AADL Talks To Robin and Jamie Agnew, owners of Aunt Agatha’s, their specialty mystery bookstore. The business began in Ann Arbor in 1992, and operated as a brick and mortar for 26 years before moving online in August 2018. Robin and Jamie talk about their experiences working in the store, their favorite memories here in town, and discuss some of the changes in the mystery book genre and bookselling business over the years.

Find more about Aunt Agatha's in our archival collections.