Constance DelVecchio/Maltese

Constance DelVecchio/Maltese
AN EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES
November 29, 2006 through January 12, 2007 ❖ Curator: Maria Cocchiarelli
Italian American Museum
Board of Trustees
Joseph V. Scelsa, Ed.D., President
Philip F. Foglia, Executive Vice President
Cav. Maria T. Fosco, Secretary and Treasurer
Massimo DiFabio, Vice President
Eugene M. Limongelli, Vice President
Ralph A. Tedesco, MFA, Vice President
Curator of Collections
Maria Cocchiarelli, MFA
Generous Funding for the Exhibitions
and Programs has been provided by
Patron The Columbus Citizens Foundation, Inc.
This Exhibition is also made possible (in part)
by the New York City Council; City of New York
Department of Cultural Affairs; Tiro A Segno
of New York, Inc., UNICO National Foundation;
Coalition of Italo American Associations, Inc.;
National Italian American Foundation; Queens
College, The City University of New York; John D.
Calandra Italian American Institute; Lawrence
E. Auriana; Federated Kaufmann Fund; New York
State Governor George E. Pataki; New York State
Senator Serphin R. Maltese; New York State
Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio; New York State
Assemblyman Michael R. Benedetto; Joseph J.
Grano, Jr.; Louis J. Cappelli; Richard A. Grace;
Alitalia; Paul David Pope; Katherine & Vincent
Bonomo; Ilaria, Susy and Vincenzo Marra; Mr.
& Mrs. Vincent Morano; Donovan & Giannuzzi;
The Frank J. Guarini Foundation; Mr. & Mrs. Matt
Sabatine; Baronessa Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimò;
Excavators Union, Local 731; Louis Tallarini;
Lidia Matticchio Bastianich Foundation; Alfred
Catalanotto; Queens Council of the Arts; Jolly
Madison Hotel and Towers
ON FRONT COVER
Sondra Reading: Wistful Reader,
Pastel on Board, 27 x 32 in., 2005
Constance DelVecchio/Maltese
AN EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES
November 29, 2006 through January 12, 2007
Italian American Museum
28 West 44th Street
New York NY, 10036
Tel. 212.642.2020
www.italianamericanmuseum.org
C U R AT E D B Y M A R I A C O C C H I A R E L L I
In Her Own Words, an interview with the Artist
Maria Cocchiarelli
Constance DelVecchio/Maltese: The Journey Continues
A Biographical Sketch of the Artist
Carol Gordon Wood
Constance DelVecchio/Maltese
Dr. Anne Paolucci
Printed in the United States of America.
Published by the Italian American Museum
Graphic Designer: Michael Esguerra
Exhibition Installer: Barry W. Schrager
Printer: Dover Litho Printing Co., 2000 copies.
© 2006 by the Italian American Museum. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or
transmitted in any form without the prior permission, in writing, of the Italian American Museum.
Rebecca’s Retreat,
Oil on Canvas,
88 x 30 in., 2006
2
In Her Own Words, an Interview with the Artist
BY MARIA COCCHIARELLI
C
onstance DelVecchio Maltese venerates human achievement—painting subjects who illustrate
potential made manifest. Many of the paintings, drawings and pastels on view at the Italian American
Museum from November 29th, 2006 through January 12th, 2007 were selected from Maltese’s
“American Women” series. Included amongst these portraits are such contemporary notables as: Dr.
Anne Paolucci, Councilwoman Melinda Katz, and Senator Mary Lou Rath. Each tells herstory by Maltese’s expert
narration with clues described pictorially within these complex compositions.
Preceding these works she produced a project of grand magnitude “The Age of Discovery Navigators.” For
these Maltese drew upon written and visual records to offer her audience a unique vision of each of the New
World Navigators. These were composed with many pictorial vignettes of varied images to create the whole
picture. As in the rich traditions of Roman Portrait busts the personalities in these become enlivened by their
expressions and characteristics unique to their physical appearance. In a way, Constance DelVecchio Maltese
creates portraits based on her interests in history, her personal past, and current events that allow her to grow as a
painter. Ultimately as she expresses in the following interview, she is interested in art for art’s sake, not idealizing
her subjects but treating them as the raw material for art making. Contained within the following is an attempt
to unveil a complex artist intent on creating work unique to her sensibility, modern in approach and responsive
to contemporary issues.
Maria Cocchiarelli: Constance, can you
tell me when you approach a portrait
subject, what is your interest in painting
him/her?
Constance DelVecchio/Maltese: To be
able to capture the character of the person
more than just the visual effect that they
make superficially.
MC: Can you define what you mean by
character?
CM: Their characteristics, if they happen
to have a habit, for instance, when you’re
talking to them, as I do… using their
hands. Of course if they make gestures,
that maybe it would be a good idea
to utilize that particular gesture in the
portrait itself, or if they have an unusually
a raised eyebrow, and you do that, it gives
them more meaning to the way they
really are and the people that know them,
as soon as they look, they say, “Oh yes
that’s them.” And it doesn’t necessarily
have to have every hair in place as they
would be, but their attitude comes
through. A friend of mine used the word
“essence” and I think that’s a good one.
MC: Are you interested in their
psychology at all, or their inner angst?
CM: …Feelings?
MC: Or struggle?
CM: It’s not so much angst but the way
they feel about themselves, an example
would be the portrait that I did of the
athlete. When I first saw her she worked
for my husband as an intern, and she
3
Marie Palmintieri:
The Champion Runner,
Oil on Canvas,
30 x 42 in., 1996
Dr. Anne Paolucci:
A Woman for All Seasons,
Oil on Canvas,
40 x 50 in., 1995
had beautiful dark eyes and she had this
upswept hairdo and the way it looked,
she looked like a Gibson girl. And I asked
her, “Marie, would you mind sitting
for me?” And I had the outfit for her, I
had the pink blouse with the high-neck
collar with buttons, a little of a flared
kind of dirndl skirt that flares out, and I
had her hair up with little pearl earrings.
She sat for me, but I could see that she
was rather tense, and she had a really sad
look on her face. I said, “Marie, what’s
the matter?” “Well, you know I’m a little
uncomfortable, and this is not the way I
normally dress, it’s not really me.” And
I said, “Well, what would you like to
dress in?” She said, “Well, I’m a runner,
supposing I come in my running clothes.”
So I went along with it, and I said,
“Okay, it’s not the side of you I’ve ever
seen.” Because she was an intern in my
husband’s office, I didn’t know she was
a runner. In fact she had won a couple
4
of medals so I said good, bring them
along. And then she came back with it all,
put it on, and she stood with her hand
on her hip and she looked at me with
great confidence, as would a champion.
I said “Okay this is the way we’re going
to depict you.” And it was great because
then I could see that now she is who she
really is, and it wasn’t my making her
something that she wasn’t, (which was
the interesting part of it). I kept both
paintings. People looking at them both
together wouldn’t even know that it’s the
same person.
MC: I see. So often people have different
sides to their personalities—
CM: Everybody sees you differently.
MC: Is that why you chose to depict Dr.
Anne Paolucci surrounded by many views
that suggest different aspects of her career?
CM: Since I now wanted to do the
American Women Series, what better
woman to ask to be represented than Dr.
Anne Paolucci, founder of the Columbus
Countdown, who has pages and pages
of all that she has accomplished in her
lifetime and is still going strong. And
what better way to represent those
accomplishments than in the manner
of the Legend around the subject? It
seemed a natural. I had Anne sit for me
in her home, in her surroundings where
she would be most comfortable. I made
preliminary sketches of her, took many
photographs in various poses. I also asked
her for her bio, so that I could choose
from that other objects of interest that
would be surrounding her for the Legend.
After I put all the information before me,
I chose those things that would make an
interesting composition around the figure
of Anne. When I started the sketch of
Anne, I really liked the pose that caught
her essence immediately. That was her,
hands clasped and talking to me as I
sketched. She was looking slightly to
the left, where she had the copies of the
series that I did for the Discoverers on
her wall. She was explaining to me how
her mother, who was living with her at
the time, would come into the room and
examine each one with such interest, and
always finding something else she had not
noticed before. I liked that particular pose
although I felt that I should somehow
explain what it was she was looking at.
I decided to make a second picture of
Anne (front view), in the small oval
frame within the canvas and have her
looking at herself as though explaining
her own accomplishments to the viewer.
She would be saying, “Here I am and all
that I have done!” I also enjoyed doing
the TWO poses of Anne since it gave the
viewer the opportunity to see the full Dr.
Anne Paolucci. I first did a pencil sketch
to create the composition. Then did a
slightly altered version in pastel so as to
Mare on the Hill,
Oil on Canvas,
25 x 30 in., 1995
include the color. There were so many
things to include in the Legend that I
had to pick those things that I thought
were more important than others. I also
included her husband at her elbow in the
finished version, because Professor Henry
Paolucci and Anne worked so closely
together that it was like “hand in glove”.
(After her husband passed away, Anne
commissioned me to create a similar type
of painting of Professor Paolucci. She has
them both hanging in her living room,
side by side.) Anne has always been a
great supporter and mentor to me, and
in fact she refers to herself as being my
Godmother. She certainly is.
MC: Are you interested at all in upholding
any type of academic system in your
work? Would you consider yourself a
realist, a hyperrealist, do you categorize
yourself as anything?
CM: No, that’s a good question, because
people have asked me the same question
and I come back with only that same
quip which is I think I’m in the cracks.
Somebody once said that about piano
playing, were you interested in the white
keys or the black keys. And he said I’m
more interested in the cracks, and it
was a joke of course. I’m somewhere
in between, which is the meeting of
all of that. I pick up a little of one side
because I did graduate from Parsons and
I was good at anatomy and I did all the
traditional drawing, the classical drawing,
and I admire it and I like to utilize it.
But, then I like to bring it one step
beyond and I enjoy the Impressionist
attitude, the freeness, and the color. And
so I try to incorporate all the things that
I like into what I do. And what I do,
I like to think, is a little different than
most people—I don’t like to be put into
a slot.
MC: I’ve noticed that your interest in
light is very apparent in your work.
Your paintings seem to be about
light—perhaps a metaphor? Rather than
a descriptive narrative of your subjects.
Does light suggest something other than a
fundamental element of art?
CM: Right, they’re a reason for
everything. I can see that, I never
examined that idea but it’s true I like
to… I think its dramatic when you can
bring the sun in and how it affects the
various different colors from the cool to
the warm.
CM: How the light affects the shadows.
MC: Yes, then there’s the question of
subject matter, the people as subject
matter.
MC: Your color sense also is pretty
striking, in the sense that you are able to
paint realistically, you achieve the feel of
the place and then you allow the viewer
5
(below and bottom) Cover and inside
page illustrations for The Magic of
Sight, Instructor’s Folder, National
Society to Prevent Blindness, 1980
(below) Cover illustration for
Super Miniature CRT Assembly,
Thomas Electronics, 1980
did not work as a court illustrator, per se.
I did it for an annual report of a company
that had some of that aspect as part of
their company and they wanted visuals to
depict what a court illustrator does.
MC: Oh, I see. I thought I remembered
something like that.
CM: A friend of mine works for the
society of illustrators, as I have, and she is
also a court illustrator. She is very good at
it and grabbing the action quickly, so…
MC: Ah ha—that’s exactly what you do,
you’re very quick when you paint. You get
it down quickly and then you work into
it. And during those years that you did
work as a professional illustrator, what
was your experience…you recounted one
to me about using your initials not to be
known as a woman.
to get into the picture plane. Once in, they
begin to experience something similar to
the people depicted. There’s a relationship,
a conversation that you set up, a narrative.
Would you consider yourself to be a
narrative painter? Are you interested in
telling stories about these people?
CM: Well maybe that has something to
do with my illustration background and
the fact that I was an illustrator before
I was a portrait painter. And a lot of
the children’s textbooks, working with
children and the little things that they do,
the animals that are involved with them,
and how they react to one another so you
see different facial expressions. One of the
project designers, whom I worked for at
Harcourt Brace, would criticize the fact
that one eyebrow may be taller than the
other or something, but I would explain
that’s the method for visually describing
actual surprise.
6
MC: One eyebrow is higher than the
other?
CM: Right, you have to show that
expression. You know, you’re not going
to see the same area of white in one eye
as you do in the other. She was very
exact and very precise. But you know
when you’re a commercial illustrator
and if you’re working for someone,
they’re paying the bills and you have to
compromise.
MC: Adhere to their requirements.
CM: Yeah.
MC: And in your professional work
as an illustrator, in those early years of
your career did you also work as a court
reporter? Do I remember that correctly?
CM: I did several sketches that way, but I
CM: Oh, the fact that I had… most…
well that was many years ago, of course
things have changed a little bit since then.
Advertising agencies… they of course
didn’t want anybody to know that but
everybody knew it just the same. If you
brought your portfolio and you were
a woman into an advertising agency
and wanted to see an art director, they
would be polite and look through your
portfolio. But it would be “don’t call me,
I’ll,” you know, “call you.” Or if you were
applying for a position, per se, rather
than just looking on your own, they
would use the excuse, “Well we work late,
the men are all here, they curse, we don’t
want ladies around to listen to this.” You
know, it was always an excuse why as they
didn’t want to have the woman at work.
But at any rate, I had gone into one
particular, I don’t know whether I should
mention the name, he is deceased now, he
was the art director for a large advertising
agency, and he had the account for the
US Marines, Phillips Petroleum, Thomas
Electronics, and various different,
very large accounts. He looked at my
portfolio, and saw something that he
liked. He made the comment to me, he
said “I’d like for you to illustrate this for
me but I would like for you to sign it C.
Maltese, rather than Constance Maltese
because this way they won’t know that
you’re a woman.”
MC: Approximately what was that year?
CM: Um, let’s see, I’d have to go now and
say that it had to be in the late 60s, early
70s.
MC: Wow, hard to believe.
CM: He had to retire as an art director
from the agency but he kept up those
accounts, doing work freelance wise. And
I went to Jersey to his house and picked
up work, and we continued to collaborate
in that way. He was I think a little bit
more before his time—he was interested
in the art work more than he was in the
fact that I happened to be a woman.
MC: When you look at other portrait
artists today who might you consider to
be an important portrait artist of renown?
Is there anything that you are trying to
portray in your work that you don’t find
within the current trends?
CM: Well, the current trend is ultrarealism, and I think many times they get
caught up in showing off how they can
show this little knit fabric well or you
can see every hair on their head, that
that kind of thing can be overwhelming.
You could look at it and say, “That’s
magnificent how he did that.” But you
forget that there’s a person there that
you’re supposed to be looking at and
not the paint. I’m more interested in
getting the character. That’s why I’ve
always admired Sargent, and I’m not
even aware that those paintings looked
like the subjects because it was before my
time but they certainly were dynamic.
He made everyone look like they were
a million bucks, but at the same time
he didn’t go nitpicking. If you ever get
close enough to the canvas, you can, as
I had probably mentioned to you, even
on Madame X, you go there and you
look at her profile and you see her ear, it’s
almost a blob, it’s almost a red cauliflower
ear. But when you bring yourself back, it
elicits an image that is awe-inspiring. You
had mentioned the one that he did where
the girl is walking down the street and the
little flip of her skirt as she’s walking and
there’s a man standing on the side and
(left) Mrs. Pat Bocchino: Lady in her
Solarium, Oil on Canvas, 36 x 25 in., 2006
(above) Self Portrait, Pastel on board,
20 x 24 in., 1997
7
Pat and Her Strays,
Oil on Canvas,
94 x 30 in., 2006
he’s turning around and looking at her.
And that too, the brushwork on it, you
can see, is spontaneous. Now, he may have
worked harder on it than it appears, but he
gave it an air of spontaneity so you felt as
though you were catching the moment.
MC: Ah, so you’re interested in getting a
glimpse of your subjects while they are in
their natural environment and catching
their spirits but also catching the moment
in terms of a relationship between you as
the artist and them as the subject.
CM: It’s like a snapshot of their life.
MC: Right.
CM: Thank you for thinking of that.
That’s good, I’ll remember that one.
MC: You are welcomed. And now, this is
the major jump that I’m very interested
in. The most recent work that you’ve
produced… that will be exhibited in the
show at the Italian American Museum
8
—one is the triptych—Rebecca’s Retreat
the one in a natural landscape and the
other is more of a modernist, pop image
of the subject with flat background…
very contemporary looking. How did you
jump from the historical portraits in the
Discovery Series into the American Women
Series?—into the new paintings? Did the
American Women Series have anything to
do with your experience as an illustrator
and an artist in a male-dominated art
world where you wanted to depict strong
women doing important jobs?
CM: Yes. One of the things that made
me angry is the fact that when I was
working on Columbus, I thought
that these were ordinary people doing
extraordinary things, and I went ahead,
as you probably realized, finding people
who resembled people of that time, to
have them sit for me because I again
wanted the spontaneity of seeing the
person sit there. So I had people that I
knew sit for example, Vasco de Gama,
etc. and I surrounded them with a
history, tried to research human interest
things that would engage people, and
that you don’t learn in school, and maybe
they should start doing things that way
because I was terrible in history and
in geography and it was very dull. Just
remembering names and dates is “blah”.
So I started remembering these little
stories by reading about their lives, such
as Cortez loved his women although he
was married, and he climbed up into a
tree to look into his paramour’s window,
fell down and broke his leg just before he
was supposed to go with Columbus. And
because he broke his leg he couldn’t go
with Columbus and he had to put off his
trip to the New World until the following
year when he made that famous trip into
Mexico to meet Montezuma. Those are
the things that I found interesting, and
those are the things I find that make the
subjects in my paintings human. Human
is what I wanted to relate to the kids
who were growing up today and are in
school now, and also to people who are
living today, to look at these people in
I worked on the series for four years,
and I got it all together, four years of
work almost down the drain because he
took in slaves seems a little bit unfair.
So I began to think that the next series
I do, would not allow anyone to find
fault with, so I went into the American
Women Series. I got just as enthused
about that because there are a lot of
women who do extraordinary things
who aren’t even noticed. These include
the woman who took care of the AIDS
children, the fantastic nurse Yvonne
Plummer and the women in the finance
profession represented by Joyce Lim and
there are women senators, astronauts,
just to mention a few fields we excel in.
Unfortunately, they are not really made
a big fuss over; in fact, they seem to be
glanced over.
history and see that they are not fiction,
they were real, and to get excited about
where this all started. Instead, Columbus
was accused of genocide, also not being
a good man, in other words the idea of
Columbus was boycotted. After I had the
Discovery exhibition at the Intrepid SeaAir-and Space Museum for 2 years, the
museum held an “Age of Exploration”
exhibition. Native American activists
were outside picketing this exhibit every
single day. So all the public interest in
it was dropped because then (1992)
Columbus was not “politically correct.”
That was the catch phrase, “politically
correct.” And that’s what made me angry
because they accused Columbus of
owning slaves—yes he did, but 500 years
ago—everybody did, and it wasn’t against
the law, it wasn’t anything that anybody
at that time thought was so terrible. To
judge somebody today for what they
did 500 years ago, it was a different set
of standards, you cannot do that. So
that really bothered me, especially after
MC: You touch on something that
you’re interested in—humanists who do
extraordinary things. In a similar way
you mentioned in an earlier conversation
that you’re interested in creating art
that is uplifting, that doesn’t remind
us of—maybe—I’m paraphrasing and
(near right) Yvonne Plummer: With Tender
Loving Care, Oil on Canvas,
42 x 48 in., 1997
(far right) Joyce Lim: Woman in Finance,
Oil on Canvas, 36 x 42 in., 1996
9
(below) Doll and
Tilly: A Friendly Lap
on a Rainy Day,
Pastel on Board,
17 x 21in., 2006
maybe you’ll correct me—that perhaps
it may elevate our spirits but it also
reminds us that there are things going on
in the world that aren’t tasteful, that are
distasteful, and your work is meant to
remind people that there is a way,
there are moments in life, even
though the world isn’t perfect,
that may be perfect visually, where
you synchronize the moment, you
create the extreme effect of light
and shadow and your color system
works with your composition
and underlying geometry. Are
you hoping to provide the viewer
a glimpse into a world that
may project something that not
everyone may experience in his or
her lifetime?
CM: Well it might, I think be to
accentuate the affirmative rather
than the negative, and to use
its simplistic—you know that
phrase, “if you’re handed lemons,
you make lemonade”—but you
have always a side to look at
anything that happens. There
are some things that happen that
are terrifically bad, I mean it’s
needless to say, and we all realize
where that is. But at the same
time you don’t have to show it
as a paragon of virtue, you don’t have
to keep reminding and hitting people
over the head with it because there is so
much good that we could be showing
and hopefully if we do enough of that,
that people will start thinking in that way
themselves, instead of thinking the other
way—promoting the good rather than
the bad, the negative. I noticed in your
work that you have the children working
(here Constance is referring to the public
murals and gardens I have created over the
last 20 years, nationally) I think that’s the
best thing. The kids, when they’re putting
10
out their stuff, you can see what they’re
really all about, and it’s wonderful working
with them too because they’re very open,
they absorb a great deal, and they’ll
remember much more than you think.
Years from now when they think about it,
they’re going to remember what they did
with you and with themselves at that time.
MC: Thank you for noting that, and
yes I agree it is important. The other
interesting thing concerning childhood
is so many other artists of stature—Paul
Klee, Picasso, Miro, just to name a few—
were interested in that
that—and Dubuffet—
that interest of that spirit of the child.
That’s an important thing with your work
too because you have children around
you and you have that model of seeing
their wonder. The interesting thing about
your work is that it’s remained constant,
the flow of creativity continues—maybe
that’s why your name is Constance—that
there is a consistency in it while you
remain interested in your own
internal growth. So the newer
work, which I’m very interested
in, even though I’m not
discounting what came before,
promotes the spirit of adventure
that is continued throughout
all of your series. Each series
begins with this extreme sense of
wonder, like a child’s experience,
and I think that’s why you’re so
vital and why you’re still working
because you experience this.
CM: You can’t keep doing
the same thing over and over
again. I think you get bored
with it. Then you’ve learned
something and now you want
to use that and go to the next
and see what else you can do to
make it even more interesting.
You mentioned the fact that
the triptych with Patti with the
strays, the dogs, was flat. Well,
it works because the action
was with the foreground. She
wanted the character of the
dogs to come out, which was quite a
challenge. I don’t know her dogs as well
as she does. So I really had to spend time
with the dogs and find out what kind
of personalities they had and portray
those personalities in the canvas and I
couldn’t do that if I put her and the five
dogs in the same canvas. It would have
been trying to squeeze them all in. And
then I would have had to make them
all in ratio and size. So, how could you
have a small poodle and a large husky
dog without minimizing the value of
that poodle because he’s squished on the
(below) Sondra Reading:
Wistful Reader,
Pastel on Board,
27 x 32 in., 2005
side and this big dog is here and then
you have the shepherd over there. It just
wouldn’t work. And of course I wanted
Pat in it, too. So that’s why I started
thinking in terms of separate canvases,
putting them together and
making a triptych—actually it’s a
quintych—because its five pieces.
A centerpiece with Pat and the
poodle, then there are two dogs
on the left and two dogs on the
right, so that’s how I got the five
dogs all in together. They’re all in
the foreground so that you can
see them sitting on the same eye
level, you see their ratio in size,
and you can see one has a bad
leg. The dog arrived that way.
The way that Pat would take
care of that dog was remarkable.
One leg always jutted out so I
sat him on the extreme right and
his leg was extended so that it
reached into the next painting,
which tied those two paintings
together. Then the other dog was
sitting and looking at Pat with
his food bowl in front of him.
There, I used the food bowl to
extend from his painting into
the next painting, so that if you
put one next to the other it has
the appearance of being one unified
painting. And the leash, I like the idea
of the leash because little Brooklyn, who
I told you was my favorite because she is
a little rascal. If you had a leash on one
dog, she would pick up the other end
of the leash and want to walk the dog,
and that was her little thing. She enjoyed
walking the other dog. So I had the leash
lying on the floor next to Brooklyn and
it extended into Pat’s painting with her
poodle, who has epilepsy. Pat has to hold
that dog practically all the time because
it’s “attached at the hip.” They’re very
affectionate animals and she loves them
all, so that is something that I had to
show, all that and that’s why I kept the
background simple. You have a lot going
on in there and if you put too much
background, you lose it.
MC: This brings up another point for
me. I mentioned another artist—Pat
Steir. In a similar fashion she painted a
mural in which she incorporated children
at play, people who she knew because she
was also promoting a humanist spirit,
during the politically tumultuous time—I
think the Vietnam War was happening
and yet she still expressed that there
were many positive things going on in
daily life. Her work has been reviewed
by critics in a very positive light because
of her political sensitivity at the time.
And on the other hand, your work has
been left out of the discourse due to your
political stance. As you have noted in the
Discovery Series, attempting to show the
positive aspects of the people who were
the discoverers (Columbus, Marco Polo,
etc.) was at a time when it was politically
incorrect to bring them up in
conversation. In a way, that’s a
little like being a revolutionary
because you were going against
the grain and yet the critics
picked up the negative part of
that and spoke about the work
in a disapproving way. Similarly,
you mentioned another article
that came out concerning your
politics. During the time you
were doing the American Women
series—there was mention of you
in the political sphere, which
negated your humanistic spirit.
Because of your political views
you have been excluded from the
art arena. Can you say anything
about that?
CM: That’s difficult because I
think people are too concerned
with labels. I’m a conservative,
I’ve never been ashamed to say
it, but I’m also kind of a rebel
in that cause because I was a
conservative when it was not
popular to be conservative. The whole
point is I always had very strong feelings
of right and wrong. I didn’t like people
who were on the dole that tried to get
something for nothing. I’ve always felt
that if you wanted something, you should
work for it. I was brought up that way,
and I believe that’s the best way to do
it. You don’t wait for someone to hand
you something, if you want it you work
for it. And at that time, I guess I have
ways of expressing myself that seem
to be intolerant, and that’s why I get
labeled. Because as you know, when
Rudy Giuliani was mayor there was a
11
Brooklyn Museum display of the Virgin
Mary that was done in what I would
consider a lousy way, it was certainly
not artistic, not to my view, and it had
condoms hanging from it and they
threw all kind of filth over it—dung as
a matter of fact—and they were getting
public funds. And I was at that time very
involved with the Queens Council on
the Arts because I was their President. It
is with public funds that these different
exhibits are presented. This was done
during a time when it was supposed to
be Black Awareness Month, it was in
February I believe, and you’re supposed
to promote tolerance, that’s the whole
idea. And then to show a piece of art that
is completely intolerant being funded by
public funds, to me seemed to be out of
sync. If you wanted to display this work,
do it in your own gallery, put it in any
gallery—I don’t object to that. If people
want to see it, let them see it and make
their own judgment. But to accept money
from public organizations that have a lot
of Catholics and Christians who would
certainly take offense to this, they go to
the museum with their children to show
them tolerance month and they find
this kind of display there, what kind of
tolerance does this project?
MC: I wasn’t in New York during that
period. I read that there was much
controversy. But, I cannot remember if
the exhibit was finally shut down at one
point?
CM: They found that they were getting
a little bit of heat. They didn’t shut it
down but they did make their big excuses
and didn’t do anything like it again. So
there was a need for Rudy Giuliani’s
panel, which he made me a member of,
because my husband being in politics, he
said, “Well I’ve heard what you say. Are
you ready to put your money where your
12
mouth is because if you are you could
be on this panel? We would be happy to
have you.” And I said fine, I was perfectly
willing to put my name to that; I didn’t
think it was right at the time to publicly
support this.
MC: And that was called the...?
“There is no
such thing as a
woman artist, it
is just an artist.”
CM: Well it was called the “Cultural
Committee,” but our adversaries subtitled
it as the so-called “Decency Committee,”
and that was supposed to be an insult
by the way. I had somebody interview
me, she was with a TV program, and
she said to me “I shouldn’t really say
“Decency Committee,” do you find that
objectionable?” I answered “why should
I find decency objectionable?” I mean, in
itself it says what it should be. Somehow
in this world, decency has come to be
a dirty word. Is that reasonable? No.
That’s what they were trying to say, that
I should object to it because the Decency
Committee has made it sound like
something it shouldn’t be.
MC: And similarly there was another
review or an article or an editorial?
CM: In the New Yorker magazine. I
kept it because they called me on the
phone to give me a phone interview.
John Howard Sanden, who is a portrait
artist who I know too, was also on the
committee. They also interviewed him,
but he was already very well established
as a portrait artist and as a teacher at the
Art Student’s League. I studied with him.
Then, I was still in the midst of getting
into portraiture so I was just finishing
the Discovery and the American Women
Series. So she asked me what I was doing
and what my thoughts were about the
committee and I told her that I objected
to the public funding of exhibitions that
insulted people’s belief system. I told her
exactly what I just told you. Then she
proceeded to ask me on the phone, “How
old are you?” And I told her—I thought
that was an odd question—“What does
that have to do with anything?” But when
the article came out and they used an
illustration of my painting of the older
Columbus—it appeared in the back
section—next to John Howard Sanden’s
portrait of Laurence Tisch it compared
not our skill but choice of subject matter.
The interviewer quoted what Sanden
said concerning his opinion about why
he thought the exhibition was antiChristian, etc. However, much more
was reported regarding his whole list of
important clients and it actually gave him
an endorsement. And then they got to my
review, and it said “Here’s Christopher
Columbus, and the older Christopher
Columbus is a part of a series, and so
on. She is a 63 year old housewife who
paints, or some such thing like that.” It
was such a blatant insult and they made
it so obvious that was exactly what they
were doing, that anything I would say in
retort, would be ridiculous because what
did I know? I was only a 63-year-old
housewife, not a painter, nor a person
with my own point of view.
MC: Meanwhile, you received a degree from
Parsons School of Design when it really
wasn’t fashionable to study art as a woman.
You worked in a field that wasn’t interested
in promoting women. You’ve continued
painting and being interested in the art spirit
your whole life and you’ve made sacrifices
in your life to continue with your work.
You’ve been outspoken and interested in
your community and also the social aspects
of being an artist and being involved in areas
that haven’t always been “politically correct”
and yet gone out on a limb and I think that
should be acknowledged.
CM: Thank you. I appreciate that.
MC: Do you have anything more to add?
CM: No, I think you said it all. I just hope
that it would be nice to be able to put
the artwork out there and that we would
progress to a time when it wasn’t necessary
to have a National Women’s Museum,
which there is in Washington, D.C. The
only reason we have a National Women’s
Museum is because women artists need
help to be recognized. If they were just
recognized as artists, there would be no
need for this. There is no such thing as
a woman artist, she is just an artist. You
know you’re either an artist or your not.
MC: I agree with that. I have hesitated
to get involved in any women’s co-ops,
women’s galleries just for that fact,
because I want my work to be out there
because it’s work, not because it’s women’s
work. And you can see that strength in
your work. You’re interested in being
a painter, not promoting any political
agenda that’s going to involve you in a
clique. That’s too easy. I don’t think you
have ever taken the easy route.
CM: No, I guess I’m a natural born rebel,
one way or another.
MC: And yet, because of your
conservative political affiliations, your
work is seen as parallel to your belief
system. The critics have not grasped your
struggle nor attempted to understand.
is the one we should look at because
he epitomized this conflict within the
human drama. One must dig deeper.
CM: I’ve always made a joke of all the
people that I’ve done portraits of in
the political arena, most of them are
Democrats. My husband is a Republican
CM: In fact there are many areas that
may become blurred.
“I like to think
what I do is a
little different
than most
artists, I don’t
like to be put
into a slot.”
conservative, I’m a conservative, but
I’ve made jokes about the fact when
they ask me, “How come they’re all
Democrats?” I say, “Maybe they’re easier
with their money than the Republicans,
the Republicans are too stingy! They
hold onto it. Especially where the arts are
concerned.”
MC: Although Nixon was the one who
promoted the National Endowment for
the Arts, the National Endowment for
Humanities…
CM: Which proves that you can’t go by
labels.
MC: You can’t go by labels. And he
MC: Even Ezra Pound was a genius poet
who was thought to have had fascist
sympathies and yet his poetry is avantgarde. His politics were not compatible
with his poetry.
CM: You can have a thought in one
direction and another that overlaps to the
other side and I think that is what makes
an individual and why labels are really
bad. It’s not right to slot you and put you
in an area where you don’t belong. As if
one would say she’s no good because she was
on that panel then she stands for censorship.
MC: But, do you support censorship?
CM: No, I just think people should go on
their own dime. That’s the whole thing, if
you want to voice your own opinion - as I
used to be a political cartoonist. So, if you
want to make a political statement, that’s
where it belongs in a political cartoon.
That’s my opinion; in that forum one can
say anything one wants.
MC: Art for art’s sake?
CM: Right. There are some areas that I
think it takes some better taste or a need to
be a little more discreet. There is a lot more
you can get done with honey than you
can with vinegar. You can make in roads
in a gentle way more than you can with a
hammer. It just doesn’t work that way.
❖ Maria Cocchiarelli is the Curator of Collections
at the Italian American Museum in New York City.
Most recently, she curated Painting Up the Town:
The Art of Armondo Dellasanta and John Gambino
(IAM 2006).
13
Constance with
her mother
Constance with
her parents, 1936
Constance with
her parents as a
young woman
Photographs courtesy of the artist
14
Constance DelVecchio/Maltese: The Journey Continues
BY CAROL GORDON WOOD
B
orn in Queens, New York in 1933 to an Italian American father
and a German immigrant mother, Constance DelVecchio
showed an early interest and ability in the arts. Her parents,
who shared a European artistic heritage, supported her
development in both art and music.
She won her first art award in junior high school. Her art teacher
encouraged her to attend the School of Industrial Arts (now the School of
Art and Design) to prepare for a career in art. This relatively new school,
established in 1936, was among the first in the country to offer an arts
curriculum at the high school level.
After graduation, at the age of
sixteen, Constance traveled with her
mother to Germany to broaden her
artistic horizons and to meet members
of her mother’s family, including some
cousins who were artists. Her cousin
Jacob Borsch, a musician and artist
known for his portraits of film actresses
painted during the war, conveys in this
fashionable portrait of Constance an
appealing combination of innocence
and self-assurance. She was struck by the
devastation of Europe following World
War II.
Upon her return, she won a
scholarship to the Parsons School of
Design. Founded in 1896 by American
Impressionist painter William Merritt
Chase as the Chase School, it soon
became the New York School of Art.
Frank Alvah Parsons, director from 1911
to 1930, broadened the curriculum to
include the first interior design, graphic
design, and advertising programs in
the United States, and renamed the
school the New York School of Fine and
Applied Art. In 1941 it was renamed in
his honor the Parsons School of Design.
Its alumni include Edward Hopper, Jane
Frank, and Norman Rockwell. It was
the ideal place to develop the skills and
techniques necessary to pursue a career in
commercial art.
Constance DelVecchio Maltese also
studied at the Art Students League, where
she still attends life sessions to draw and
paint from the model. The League was
founded in 1875 by a group of young
European-trained American artists to
be open to all, unlike the older, more
staid and exclusive National Academy of
Design. With no set curriculum, degrees,
Jacob Borsch
Constance DelVecchio
Oil on canvas, 30 x 36 in., 1949
15
(below left) The artist
posing for a Pepsi Cola
advertisement
(below right) Modeling for
a fashion photograph
or diplomas, it was the only art school
in the country to hold life classes every
weekday. It offered classes in drawing and
painting from antique casts and from
life, portraiture, composition, modeling,
and perspective. Its chief instructor
in its early years was William Merritt
Chase, and many leading artists of the
day joined its faculty. In the 1920s and
30s several members of the influential
realist group the Eight, or Ashcan School,
taught there—Robert Henri, John Sloan,
William Glackens, Everett Shinn, George
Bellows, and George Luks. At the same
time, modernist, abstract painters Max
Weber, Vaclav Vytiacil, Jan Matulka,
Stuart Davis and Hans Hofmann were
also on the faculty. The printmaking
curriculum expanded under graphic
artists Joseph Pennell, Martin Lewis and
George Picken. As president John Sloan
said in 1931, the League “furnishes...
a varied menu of nourishment for the
hungry art student, ranging from the
conservative to the ultra-modern.”1
Constance’s training at Parsons
School of Design and The Art Students
League gave her a solid background in the
classical or academic tradition of anatomy
and life drawing, and a broad command
of media and techniques, while keeping
her au courant with contemporary art.
In the early 1950s she launched her
career as a commercial artist, working
first for Norcross Greeting Cards, then as
Art Director for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.
At this time she met her future husband,
Serphin Maltese, a Korean War veteran.
When they were married in 1955,
Constance continued her own business,
freelancing in commercial art as Maltese
Design Studio, and supporting the
family while her husband attended
college and law school. She also did
some fashion and advertising modeling,
showing the beauty and charm that she
still possesses. Her work was in demand,
16
and she developed an impressive roster
of clients including Random House,
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Regents,
Dodd Mead, My Baby magazine, Johnson
and Johnson, the New York Stock
Exchange, J. Walter Thompson, Kodak,
the United States Marines, Thomas
Electronics, the National Society to
Prevent Blindness, and the New York
Diabetes Association. She pioneered the
inclusion of ethnic minorities in textbook
and advertising illustration. Her work
in illustration honed her observational
and representational skills for figure
and portrait painting. It also showed
imagination and a sense of humor, as in
her poster Courage, which graphically
depicts the notion of Columbus sailing
off the edge of a flat world—a widely-held
belief before his reaching the other shores.
Throughout her career, DelVecchio/
Maltese has been politically active and
deeply engaged in family and community.
In 1962 she was co-founder of the
Conservative Party in New York State
with her husband, Serphin Maltese,
who has served as State Senator since
1988, representing the 15th Senatorial
District in Queens County in the City
of New York. Together they have made
many outstanding contributions to
education and the arts, including the
recent restoration of the monumental
history painting Return of Columbus to the
Spanish Court by the turn-of-the-century
Spanish artist Raimondo De Madrazo
in the Italian Charities of America
headquarters in Elmhurst, Queens.
While raising her two daughters
and working as a commercial artist,
DelVecchio/Maltese produced many
family portraits, which were not publicly
exhibited. She also continued to learn
from other artists, including an art
mentor, Thornton Utz, a portraitist and
Courage, poster
for Coalition of
Italo-American
Associations, 1992
illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post
Post.
In 1987 she was commissioned to create
a portrait of Christopher Columbus. The
commission came through her friend,
Dr. Anne Paolucci, who had founded
Columbus Countdown ’92 to plan
the 500th Anniversary Celebration of
Columbus’s landing in the New World.
Over the next four years this project
evolved into the monumental Age of
Discovery Navigators Series. The thirteen
mixed media portraits in this series drew
on all the artist’s imaginative, design, and
technical skills. They are in effect history
paintings using individuals as a point of
departure for an encapsulation of major
historical events. Widely exhibited and
reproduced, they were the subject of a
major two-year exhibition at the Intrepid
Sea, Air and Space Museum (aboard the
historic aircraft carrier Intrepid, anchored
off Manhattan’s West Side), with
intensive educational programs. The artist
published and documented the series in
her book, An Artist’s Journey of Discovery
(2000). This project enabled her to shift
her focus from commercial art to fine art.
Through portraiture, DelVecchio/
Maltese has come into her own as a fine
artist. Her recent American Women Series is
another example of heroic figure painting
that commemorates history through
individuals. Her selection of women’s roles
to portray in this series includes family
as well as public ones. She chose the
subjects for their outstanding achievement
in their fields, and to represent women
from “all walks of life” and “different
ethnic backgrounds.” She says: “Women
are not only outstanding for being great
homemakers and mothers, but excel as
well in professions that were at one time
reserved only for men. As an artist I was
concerned that the canvas should exhibit
the woman chosen in her best light, and
to execute the composition and technique
of the painting in a painterly fashion.”2
17
The Senator: Olga Mendez,
Oil on canvas,
36 x 46 in., 1995
DelVecchio/Maltese generally works
from life, making a preliminary charcoal
sketch. She may use photographs for
reference as she develops the finished
work. Her sketches are very free and
show her ability to capture a likeness
quickly and with economy of line. While
her primary medium is oil, she also
likes to work in pastel, which supports
the spontaneity that is essential to her
working method.
The artist comments that her
portrait The Senator: Olga Mendez shows
“the many faces” of the subject: “The
main image is Olga at her best as she
speaks with dramatic emphasis at a public
rally.” The secondary images show her
“in her office in deep thought, and on
the phone, communicating with her
constituents. As she is a Native Puerto
Rican, there is a Coat of Arms depicting
that derivation.” Thus the elements of the
composition emblematically tell a holistic
story of the subject’s life.
Mother and Daughter: Victoria and
18
Alexandria portrays Victoria Vattimo,
Communications Director and Albany
Chief of Staff for Senator Maltese, with
her daughter Alexandria. The portrait
highlights the subject’s maternal role
and the intimate relationship between
mother and child. The artist did a second
painting, Alexandria’s Fields, of which
she wrote: “This lovely and colorful
field of flowers was so enchanting, I felt
it necessary to linger longer... so did
Alexandria.”
The subject of To the Music Born:
Councilwoman Melinda Katz is a singer
as well as an attorney, a former New York
State Assemblywoman, and a New York
City Councilwoman since 2002. Her
father, the late David Katz, founded the
Queens Symphony Orchestra in 1953
and conducted it throughout his life.
Her mother, the late Jeanne Dale Katz,
founded the Queens Council on the Arts.
Conceived independently, this graceful
portrait fits well into the theme and
format of the American Women Series.
In Indian Matron in Diaphanous
Attire: Damyanti Ghandali, the artist
portrays the subject in a decorative
setting, using the golden yellows of her
embroidered sari as a foil for the beauty
and dignity of her figure. This work also
reinforces the themes of the American
Women Series, although not originally
part of the series.
In recent years DelVecchio/Maltese
has begun exploring nature and light
in the landscape around her beloved
family cottage, built by her father and
her mother’s relatives near Albany, New
York. In Foggy Day Trees she lets the
white of the paper revealed between the
pastel strokes represent emanating light.
In Morning Lake she creates an almost
synesthetic sense of waves lapping on the
shore, while the image of the beached
birchbark canoe conveys a sense of
stillness and timelessness. She has also
done charming genre paintings of her cats
Mother and Daughter:
Victoria and Alexandria,
Oil on canvas,
30 x 36 in., 1996
Alexandria’s Fields,
(not included in the exhibition)
Oil on canvas, 1996
To the Music Born:
Councilwoman Melinda Katz,
Pastel on paper,
30 x 38 in., 1998
Indian Matron in Diaphanous Attire:
Damyanti Ghandali,
Oil on linen
30 x 36 in., 2004
(left) Foggy Day Trees:
Color Study,
Pastel on paper,
18 x 24 in., 1998
(right) Morning on the Lake,
Pastel on paper,
17 x 19 in., 2006
19
“Mushy” – Best Friend,
Oil on canvas,
18 x 22 in., 2000
Waiting for the Tea Party,
Pastel on paper,
17 x 21 in., 2006
and dolls, like the arresting portrait of her
cat Mushy, and the image of her favorite
doll, Waiting for the Tea Party.
In preparatory sketches and finished
studies the artist has continued to depict
the figure with freedom, certainty and
mastery. This is evident in her charcoal
study of Senator Mary Lou Rath, and
the pastel study Francois, done from a
model at the Art Students League. Her
narrative quintych Pat and Her Strays
(pp. 8-9) resembles a Chinese screen in
the placement of forms near the picture
plane against a blank background. It
places the viewer in empathic connection
with the subject and her love of animals.
As Maria Cocchiarelli has pointed out,
it also parallels artists like Pat Steir in
her sequential works and Larry Rivers in
his triptych, The History of Matzoh: The
Story of the Jews. Art historian Norbert
Lynton has written: “The variousness of
twentieth-century portraiture answers
a variousness within ourselves even as
it satisfies a core and common desire to
meet and know others... It is knowing
others that gives life and purpose to
knowing oneself.”3
The artist’s work has been shown
in museums, galleries, expositions,
exhibitions, and Italian-American
Heritage presentations at the State
Capitol, other states, New York City
Hall, Queens Borough Hall, the Queens
Museum, and Maspeth Town Hall. A
list of her portrait commissions reads
like a Who’s Who in the New York
20
political and legal world, and includes
Judge Dominick DiCarlo, Assembly
Speaker Stanley Fink, Ambassador
Charles Gargano, Assemblyman Anthony
J. Genovesi, Senator Efraim Gonzalez,
Judge Robert Hanophy, Judge Alfred
Lerner, Consul General Franco Mistretta,
The Honorable Susan Molinari, Mrs.
Margaret Pataki, Senator Mary Lou Rath,
(below left)
Study of Senator Mary Lou Rath,
Charcoal on paper, 30 x 36 in., 1996
(below right)
Francois,
Pastel on paper, 24 x 29 in., 1998
and First Speaker of the New York City
Council Peter F. Vallone. Former United
States Representative and New York
Mayoral candidate Mario Biaggi wrote to
her on the publication of her book, An
Artist’s Journey of Discovery: “Thank you
for your incredible ‘Discovery’—a most
extraordinary historical journey. Clearly
it is the sum total of your remarkable
artistic and research skills, truly a work
of art.”4
A member of the Society of
Illustrators, the Portrait Society of
America, and the Art Students League,
Constance DelVecchio/Maltese serves
on the board of the Queens Theatre in
the Park and the Queens Council on
the Arts, which she has also served as
President. Her many awards include an
International Film Festival Award for her
work for Johnson and Johnson; an Arts
and Humanities award from Columbus
Countdown: ‘92; an Artistic Excellence
award from the Columbia Association;
Woman of the Year awards from Italian
Charities, and the Italian Businessmen’s
Association; an Arts and Humanities
award from the Sons of Italy Mario Lanza
Lodge; Citations of Honor from Queens
Borough President Claire Shulman, and
from LaGuardia Community College;
a Flame of History and Culture Award
from the Central Queens Historical
Association; a Lifetime Achievement
Award from the Italian American
Electorate; appointment to the Mayor’s
Commission on the Status of Women by
Mayor Giuliani; and a Governor’s Award
for Excellence from Governor Pataki.
These awards bespeak her community
activism and the contributions she has
made to New York’s cultural and ItalianAmerican communities.
Constance DelVecchio/Maltese
has earned her place as a significant
figure and portrait artist. She invests her
subjects with aspects of history painting
(codified in the 18th century as the
highest form of art) and of narrative,
while keeping her primary emphasis on
their visual qualities. She has persevered
with determination and independence
to chart her own course. The strength
of character that she celebrates in her
portraits is also evident in her life and art.
Notes
1. Quoted in Ronald G. Pisano, The Art Students LeagueSelections from the Permanent Collection, Heckscher
Museum, Huntington, New York, 1987.
2. Artist’s website, http://www.cmaltese.homestead.com/
AmericanWomen.html
3. Painting the Century: 101 Portrait Masterpieces, 19002000, exhibition catalogue, National Portrait Gallery,
London, 2001.
4. Letter, Mario Biaggi to Constance DelVecchio Maltese,
2000, courtesy of the artist.
❖ Carol Gordon Wood is Consulting Curator of
Art at Roberson Museum and Science Center in
Binghamton, New York. She has held curatorial
positions there and at Munson-Williams-Proctor
Arts Institute, Utica, New York.
21
(below left)
Columbus Determined Despite his Chains,
Mixed media on board, 35 x 25 in., 1991
(below right)
Marco Polo,
Mixed media on board, 26 x 24 in., 1991
22
Constance DelVecchio/Maltese
BY ANNE PAOLUCCI
I
have played a number of roles in the life of artist Constance DelVecchio Maltese—long-time friend,
supporter, client, portrait subject—but one that I especially treasure is that of “critic.” Writing or
speaking about her work gives me enormous pleasure, always a sense of discovery, as though I’ve come
upon her canvases for the first time.
There is indeed much to appreciate
and learn each time one looks at a painting
by this talented artist. I had followed
her career for many years and knew the
variety and scope of her paintings when she
undertook, in 1988, what was to become
the acclaimed, award-winning “Age of
Discovery Navigators” series. When I saw
the first of those paintings, “The Young
Columbus,” I realized that the artist had
reached an important turning point in her
work. The subject had inspired her to look at
portraiture in a new and totally unexpected
way. The twelve portraits that followed
confirmed me in my initial response.
THE “AGE OF DISCOVERY
NAVIGATORS”
In this series, the artist has employed a
number of mediums—pastels, oils, pen
and ink, and water colors. The effect,
on the whole, however, is subdued,
reminiscent at times of sepia prints. Too
much color in this particular case would
have overwhelmed the variety of elements
in each painting and distracted from the
central figure.
What first draws attention is the
expression the artist has given her subject.
Each is different; each is powerful; each
gives the effect of a living, breathing
person. This came about by using living
models—acquaintances, colleagues,
friends, her own husband (New York State
Senator Serphin R. Maltese) for “The
Young Columbus” and the “Columbus in
Chains,” the first and last of the thirteen
paintings, and even the plumber who
came to fix her sink. I know some of the
people who posed for her. I see them
in the features and general shape of the
face; but I also see something else, not
theirs: an expression that depicts what the
subject must have been like, the character
animating the face—not the character of
the living model but that of the historic
figure, as the artist has come to know
him. This ingenious combination of real
and imagined gives the work unexpected
immediacy—very different from the effect
produced by so many portraits in corporate
offices and university VIP “galleries,” where
former presidents and board members stare
out at us like frozen masks.
The young Columbus, shown by the
artist as he looks out at the world with
shrewd determination, his face unlined
by cares, anticipation and strength in his
gaze, surely reflects what the Genoveseborn seaman must have been like before he
began to promote the wild notion that he
could reach India more directly by sailing
west. The difficulties and disappointments
he was to experience have not yet left
their mark on him. The dramatic change
between the early Columbus and the
last portrait of the series, “Columbus
in Chains,” is powerful. It doesn’t really
matter what the historical Columbus
looked like; there are no clear descriptions
of him, and only a few details have come
down to guide us. What matters is what
the artist has interpreted in these paintings,
the erosion she records between her
rendition of the intense visionary, ready
to take on the world, and that of the old,
rejected, master navigator, whose dreams
have been so rudely shattered, within a
decade, by misfortune and betrayal.
In all these portraits, the eye is soon
drawn to the surrounding images. In
“The Young Columbus,” we recognize in
the background an ancient map, which
includes the area that was to become
known as “Italy.” In the lower corners
are the Santa Maria and the family coat
of arms. Facing one another, on left- and
right- center, shown in profile, are Queen
Isabella and a native of the new-found
land. The border frame is an authentic
design of the time.
These “highlights” connected
with the life of the subject are not only
artistically interesting but also educational.
They place the central figure in a historical
dimension, a larger context. This aspect of
the portraits proved immensely effective
in the lectures the artist gave on the
“Intrepid” at the time of the quincentenary
(where the series was on exhibit for two
years) and in her talks to community
groups and schools.
One of the most striking examples
of this historical dimension is found in
the portrait of Marco Polo, who left his
23
native Venice at the age of seventeen and
was the first European on record to have
set foot in the land of Kubla Khan, where
he remained for some time, helping that
ruler to ward off the Moslems and acting
as his special emissary. His accounts of his
trip to China, dictated to a secretary years
later, after being captured and thrown in a
Genovese jail, first inspired Columbus —
two centuries later—in his pursuit of the
unknown. The artist has placed the figure
under an elaborately worked arch, turned
slightly to one side, his eyes fixed on some
inner landscape rather than the world
outside. Across the bottom of the portrait,
a parade of horsemen, brandishing spears
and banners, stretches across the canvas,
from right to left.
One of the most impressive things
about these historical highlights is the
meticulous care taken with even the
smallest details. Blown up, any one of
them—the icons on the Columbus
coat of arms, the horses in the parade of
horsemen led by the Kubla Khan—could
be a separate painting. They all have the
same precision and mastery of execution
found in the central figure. They bring to
mind the rich detailed backgrounds found
in so many Italian Renaissance paintings
of Madonna and Child, where a nearby
village or a landscape is seen through an
arch or from a promenade. This is indeed
a collector’s series, a precious acquisition
for any museum.
The “Age of Discovery Navigators”
series won many awards, including the
“Special Recognition in the Arts and
Humanities” award of COLUMBUS:
COUNTDOWN 1992.
“THE AMERICAN
WOMEN” SERIES
The “Age of Discovery Navigators” was
soon followed by a series of colorful oil
paintings of women in different walks of
life, who—as the artist explains—have
24
made an impact on their profession and
their community.
Included in this interesting collection
are portraits of Dr. Ellen Shulman Baker,
the first woman astronaut; financier Joyce
Lim; former New York State Senator
Olga Mendez; and “champion runner’
Marie Palmintieri. As it turned out, I
too became part of the series, but the big
surprise was the artist’s ingenious rendition
of the central figure (my “private image”)
looking up at a smaller portrait of me
(my “public image”) in a rather quirky
way, as though to say “Hey, you can’t fool
me!” There are a number of highlights in
this painting, including a tiny bust of my
husband, Henry Paolucci, the other half of
a long and productive professional “team.”
Unlike most of the other portraits in this
series, mine is in subdued dark colors,
reminiscent in some ways of a Rembrandt
painting. The pose, though casual, has
caught something of the self-directed
irony which I was sure no one else (except
Henry, perhaps) had ever detected in me.
These museum quality portraits
deserve wide exposure and greater
recognition. Like the Columbus series,
they have historical and archival interest as
well as artistic merit.
RECENT ADDITIONS
TO THE COLLECTION
More recently, the artist has tried her hand
at a variety of new approaches. One such
approach is a triptych, a country scene
mostly in greens. It shows a young woman
in a lounge chair, reading and enjoying
the fresh air and the calm setting around
her. You can almost smell the grass and the
trees.
Another painting shows a young
“dude” in jeans and undershirt, sprawled
in a chair, his legs stretched out in front
of him—an interesting study of a young
confident “macho” type caught in a
characteristic pose. In another of her
recent works, the artist has painted the
familiar view of the lake across from her
Albany home. In still another canvas,
she has immortalized a favorite from her
personal doll collection, as well as her cat.
The cat, the artist explains, had suddenly
jumped up into the doll’s lap. Without
interrupting her work, she simply included
it in the finished canvas. The painting
which graces the cover of this exhibition
catalogue is of the artist’s granddaughter,
Sondra, captured on canvas as she enjoys
one of her favorite pastimes, reading.
This artist clearly is comfortable
painting both historical and casual
subjects, the great figures of the past as
well as friends, family, neighbors, and
strangers. Her work is striking, whatever
the subject or the medium used. She is
unquestionably a master of her craft; but
what makes her work special, what is
ultimately the real test, the full measure of
her worth, is the imaginative way in which
she transforms the familiar world around
us, as well as the distant past, into a vision
that speaks to us all. The great personalities
of the past seem to breathe the same air we
do. Her most humble subjects are made
memorable, forcing us to scrutinize what
we so often take for granted.
That kind of talent is the guarantee
that anyone who sees her work will never
be disappointed.
Comm. Anne Paolucci
October 10, 2006
❖ A distinguished woman of letters, Comm.
Dr. Anne Paolucci has chaired the English
Department at St. John’s University in Queens,
New York, and the Board of Trustees of the
City University of New York. Founder and
president of the Council on National Literatures,
she established the Anne and Henry Paolucci
International Conference Center in Middle
Village, Queens, New York with her late husband
Henry Paolucci.
C O N S T A N C E D E LV E C C H I O / M A LT E S E
Constance DelVecchio/Maltese is best known for
her stunning “Age of Discovery Navigators,” a series
of thirteen paintings commemorating the history
of discovery in the New World. The next series
of paintings featured outstanding women from
various areas of expertise and cultural backgrounds.
Included in this group is a portrait of Astronaut Dr.
Ellen Shulman Baker-depicted with Aviator Amelia
Earhart. Unveiled at Queensboro Hall in celebration of
“Women’s History Month,” 1995.
Previous to producing these two series of important
works, she had a long and successful career as an
illustrator of children’s books and a commercial art
editor for Johnson and Johnson, Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, Random House, King Features, Regents
Publishing and the New York Stock Exchange, to
depict subjects that are more than traditional portraits,
as well as the nationally acclaimed “Wonders Beyond
the Solar System” and the Space Shuttle for Thomas
Electronics. She was also the former Art Editor of My
Baby Magazine.
Winner of an art scholarship from the Parson’s School
of Design, Constance also attended the School of Art
and Design and the Art Student’s League of New York.
She is currently a member of the prestigious Society
of Illustrators. She is a Board Member of the Queens
Theatre in the Park and the Queens Council on the
Arts where she also served as President of the Board for
three years
Among her many awards of recognition are Queens
Borough President Claire Shulman’s Citation of
Honor; the Outstanding Achievement in the Arts
Award of Americans of Italian Heritage; Columbus
Achievement Award OSIA Mario Lanza Lodge;
Italian Charities Woman of the Year Award; and
the Italian American Professional & Business
Association’s Woman of the Year Award. She has also
been awarded the Special Recognition in the Arts
and Humanities Award of Columbus: Countdown
’92; the Columbia Society of the TBTA Award for
furthering the appreciation of Italian American Art;
the Johnson and Johnson TV and Film Festival
Award; and the National Society to Prevent Blindness
Design Award; Women’s History Month Status of
Women Commission—Woman of Distinction Award;
Ridgewood Senior Citizens Woman of the Year Award;
Central Queens Historical Assn Flame of History &
Culture Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award
from the Italian American Electorate Coalition. Her
most recent awards are Governor Pataki’s “Award for
Excellence” and the Governor’s “Special Citation”, as
well as the “Distinguished Service Award of the Italian
Government” and “25th Anniversary Millennium
Award” for her portrait of Dr. Henry Paolucci.
Her work includes portraits of former Presidents Ronald
Reagan and George Bush, former Senator Alfonse M.
D’Amato, Dr. Joyce Brothers, former Assembly Speaker
Stanley Fink, Ambassador Charles Gargano, the late
Assemblyman Anthony Genovesi, Senator Efraim
Gonzalez, Judge Robert J. Hanophy, Jack Kemp, Judge
Al Lerner, former Congresswoman Susan Molinari,
TV’s Ed Newman, Mrs. Margaret Pataki, Dr. Ruth
Westheimer, Senator Mary Lou Rath, Mildred Robbins
Leet, Dr. Henry Paolucci, Generoso Pope, Sr., Judge
Edward A. Rath, Judge Joan Durante and First Speaker
of the New York City Council Peter F. Vallone.
She and Serphin, her husband of 51 years, reside in
Middle Village, Queens. They have two daughters,
Andrea Maltese Spanarkel and Leslie Maltese McGill.
Constance and Serf take great pride in them, their
husbands, Arthur and Jim, and their achievements.
Leslie and Jim presented Serphin and Constance with
two granddaughters, Sondra and Eva and a grandson
James. Andrea and Arthur did likewise with the birth
of Genevieve.