John Robinson Frazier

    He died the year I was born. Still there were traces of him on campus when I arrived at Rhode Island School of Design — I especially recall Frazier Terrace and the Frazier Award for Excellence in Teaching. But I can’t recall anyone talking about him, which now seems odd. Certainly many of my professors had known him, and perhaps even studied with him. The college leaders with whom I worked during my career, some now more than thirty years dead, still inform who I am and how I think about the world. Do I talk about them?       I stumbled across the grave of John Robinson Frazier (American, 1889-1966) in Snow Cemetery last winter, on one of my regular pilgrimages to visit Hans Hofmann’s grave. They’re buried very close to each other — and in proximity to the many other painters and writers buried in that place. I recognized the name, but it took me a moment to recollect.        Frazier Terrace at Rhode Island School of Design. Sculpture by Gilbert Franklin.   RISD’s archive provides a brief biographical note:   “A member of the Class of 1909 (Painting) and 1912 (Normal Art), John R. Frazier served RISD from 1923 until his death in 1966. Frazier joined RISD as Head of the Painting Department and became Chair of the Fine Arts Department in 1946 with the reorganization of the academic departments. Appointed as an interim president in 1955, he served until his retirement in 1962 when he became President Emeritus.“Frazier began his career as an Instructor at the Bradley Polytechnic Institute (Peoria, IL), 1912-1917. He worked at the University of Kansas, School of Fine Arts (Lawrence, KS), 1917-1923, as an Assistant Professor and Head of the Painting Department. From 1912 until the late 1920s, Frazier spent summers on Cape Cod, MA at Charles W. Hawthorne’s Cape Cod School of Art (Provincetown) as a student and an assistant. He established his own Provincetown Summer School in 1930, the year of Hawthorne’s death.   “As President, Frazier instituted collegial ranks for Faculty, began the movement towards a tenure system, and revived faculty meetings that resulted in an independent faculty organization (1960) and a system of governance based upon administration and faculty committees (1962). He oversaw RISD’s first capital campaign “Design for a Decade,” which resulted in the construction of the Waterman Street dormitories and Metcalf Refectory in 1959. The Board of Trustees approved the creation of a Graduate Program in 1957. RISD abolished the Departments of Machine Design, Textile Engineering, and Textile Chemistry during Frazier’s presidency. RISD instituted the European Honors Program, based in Rome, in 1960.   “Frazier served as President of the Providence Art Club, 1945-1947.”   In a sense, Frazier created the modern RISD — the architecture of which is only now being substantively expanded.    The Bert Gallery in Providence RI has a richer biography of Frazier as a painter. I love that Charles Hawthorne was his mentor and that he was friends with Edwin Dickinson.        Raymond Eastwood, Edwin Dickinson, Charles Hawthorne, John R. Frazier, and Dr. H.T. Tracy (friend of John Frazier from University of Kansas) at Dickinson’s Pearl St. studio.   There aren’t a lot of high quality images of Frazier’s work online. With those I have found, I feel a real affinity — which feels odd given he was painting literally a lifetime before mine. Maybe it’s because he painted in my neighborhood, or maybe more of his teaching resonated at RISD than I knew, we seem to have similar preoccupations. That feels rather lovely.        John R. Frazier, The Carter Inn, watercolor       John Robinson Frazier, Goulart House, Provincetown, watercolor, 1921       John Robinson Frazier, Sand Dunes, Cape Cod oil on canvas       John Robinson Frazier, oil on artist’s board depicting large abstract tree in bright summer landscape       John Robinson Frazier, Silhouetted Shacks, oil on canvas       John Robinson Frazier, Footprints in the Sand, Oil/Canvas, 20” x 24”