Karen Jacobsen, Chorus of Tubeworms, w/c, 48x48" Photo:Muscarelle Museum of Art staff

“Intelligence is based on how efficient a species became at doing the things they need to survive.”  ~Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

“The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.” ~ Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

“Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.” ~ Jules Verne , 20,000 Leagues under the Sea

Imagine, if you can, that your destination is a leviathan labyrinth, teeming with “never-before-seen” but now, “never-to-be forgotten”, vegetation, organisms and sea creatures, all thriving in abyssal sea vents, assuming a palette of cool, delicate gray and browns, juxtaposed with ochre, hot pink, red and oranges.

Experiencing Beyond the Edge of the Sea  is to embark on that deep ocean adventure –the thrill of the aqua-blue-through-black descent and search, primordial discoveries, and finally, the artful, intelligently-rendered seascapes that dramatically animate the voyage. artes fine arts magazine

Tu'i Malila Vents, Lau Basin, mixed media, 32x40"

The project is the other-worldly culmination of work by submersible pilot/ marine scientist, Cindy Lee Van Dover and artist/collaborator, Karen Jacobsen. The women have together pioneered numerous forays into the deep, culling their combined efforts’ trove to include 75 (plus five specially-commissioned) mixed media works, for the traveling exhibit–originally exhibited at The College of William and Mary’s, Muscarelle Museum. In speaking of the project’s import, museum director Aaron H. De Groft, references prehistoric cave painters and the likes of Darwin and Audubon, adding that “these two incredible women are as forward thinking and cutting edge for our time as earlier vanguards, Matilda of Canossa, Isabella d’Estes, and Maria de’Medici…”

“The deep sea is not an obvious place to dedicate a life to science . Few of us find our way there. It has none of the enviro-political cachet of an Amazonian rainforest, Alaskan tundra, or Arctic ice shelf. When I first became interested in the deep sea, there was not even the fantasia world tenanted by alien-looking and gigantically proportioned tubeworms to attract notice. Their discovery, among many others, was still several years away.” ~Cindy Lee Van Dover, The Octopus Garden, p.9.

Dr Cindy Less Van Dover, Alvin pilot, Exhibit curator

“My decision [as an artist] is to be in the field amidst my subject matter—this is not a novel inspiration. I follow in the footsteps of other naturalist artists, including the plein air painters, the Fauvists, and the others who have done the same thing for centuries. But my motif, my plein air, is plein eau (water), and I am submerged not at scuba depths but at bone-crushing depths of a mile or more beneath the surface of the sea.” ~Karen Jacobsen, Exhibition Catalogue: Beyond the Edge of the Sea, p. 20.

It was the mid-1970’s when three-person submersibles, Alvin and Cyana, were first built and available to the scientific community, allowing researchers to dive two and one-half miles down for deep sea exploration, revealing a “riot of life” thriving in sulfide-laden geothermal hot springs.

Aosisia species (probably new), Saguaro, Pacific Antarctic Ridge, 2334 meters (2005)

Not surprisingly, Cindy Van Dover was the first woman to pilot the Alvin and has availed her scientific mission of discovery of its technology in over one-hundred dives. Her technical expertise, paired with Karen Jacobsen’s naturalistic, creative sensibility in Beyond the Edge of the Sea, has gained the attention and respect of former NASA Astronaut and fellow-Alvin diver, Dr. Katherine D. Sullivan. She recounts in the show’s comprehensive catalogue, how her own admittedly stale memory of space travel only came to life when jogged, “like a bolt of lightening,” by a piece of inspirational music. And that from the first woman to walk in space! “Nearly a quarter of a century has passed, “she muses, “but this music has lost none of its effect: I’m instantly back in orbit when I hear it, completely absorbed in a flood of vivid memories.”

“Beyond the Edge of the Sea worked similar magic on me,” Sullivan continues, ”transporting me back to the pressure sphere of Alvin …nobody is ‘doing’ art or ‘doing’ science at moments like this. Instead, every fiber and cognitive circuit of your being is alert and active at once…open on all levels to learning, that most quintessential human activity.”

“Reaching the sea floor is a study in understatement. Although the technological feat seems akin to sending a man into orbit about the earth, Alvin dives up to 4,500 meters [14,000+feet] below the surface of the sea, day in and day out, following a routine that is stunningly anticlimactic. There is no countdown, no army of personnel to supervise the launch or recovery. Even the audience of curious scientists diminishes to naught after they have watched one of two launches […] The submersible’s and ship’s crews pride themselves on making the whole operation seem effortless. ~Cindy Lee Van Dover, The Octopus Garden, p.29.

Deep-Diving Human Occupied Vessel, Alvin. Photo: Mark Spear, Woods Hole Oceanographic Instit., MA

“The descent to the seafloor in Alvin is a lesson in the blue color palette, from vibrant tropical hues of cyan, cerulean, and turquoise, into more saturated cobalt, ultramarine, Prussian blue, indigo, anthraquinone deep blue, and on into inky black layers below 500 meters, where the last light fades away and there can be no more color. We sink further into darkness. Cindy slips a tape of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons into the player and the music seems alive as it rolls around the sphere.  Through the view port, small animal—zooplankton—flare like tiny shooting stars through space.” ~ Karen Jacobsen, Exhibition Catalogue: Beyond the Edge of the Sea, p.22.

The exhibition’s vibrant collection is especially attractive and effective in its uniquely intuitive blend of art and science– the “alien” life forms so sensitively and respectfully treated as to take on a naturalistic, rather than freakishly clinical, tone. Jacobsen confirms that she is devoted to striving to “emphasize a specific morphological attribute or behavior….once I immerse myself in an illustration, I always find some marvelous biological ingenuity, something beautiful and unique about the animal.”

Welk Snail, Hermit Crab, 6-Armed Starfish, Bering Sea (2003)

It is with a similarly respectful manner and sense of wonder that Cindy Van Dover shares her bottomless wealth of deep ocean knowledge and interpretation of its creatures, their behaviors and environments. She has also garnered the inclusion of several essays by other prominent members of the scientific community for Beyond the Edge of the Sea.

In his contribution to the exhibit catalogue, NASA’s John D. Rummel recalls chief Galapagos Rift scientist, Jack Corliss’ findings: “While details may be debated, this hypothesis offers a viable explanation of how life could both arise in an energetically and chemically dynamic environment capable of forming new organic molecules and, once established, survive recurrent asteroid impacts of Earth….then life might just as easily arise on other worlds where hot rock and water react to form hot springs.”

“The stunning implication is that submarine hydrothermal systems, fueled by the heat of volcanic processes, can support life in the absence of sunlight. Vent water may be the ultimate soup in the sorcerer’s kettle […] Deep-sea vents may have been the site where life originated on the planet.” ~Cindy Lee Van Dover, The Octopus Garden, p.56.

Eyeless Shrimp, Rainbow, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 2314 meters (2001)

“As we approach the periphery of the vent area, clues tell us we are getting close […] Soon we see the first white clams and mounds of mussels sitting in cracks between pillows of basalt. The sulfur yellow of the mussels against the blackness is a visual delight […] Small snails bejewel the mussels and lobster-like galatheid crabs perch like sentries atop the mounds. This is a warm and colorful oasis of life in a cold desert of black. ~ Karen Jacobsen, Exhibition Catalogue: Beyond the Edge of the Sea, p.23.

That possibility (or, if you prefer, probability) connects NASA’s astrobiological research for extraterrestrial life forms with that of man’s search for earth’s own biological origins.

Since Alvin’s earliest explorations, research from subsequent voyages has yielded and strengthened evidence suggesting that life on earth likely spawned in a young, deep-sea environment, and it has also strengthened Cindy Van Dover’s resolve to continue her ocean mission.

Lavender Octopus on Mussels, West Florida Escarpment Seep, 3293 meters (2000)

“Since the discovery of the hydrothermal vents in 1977,” says Van Dover, “the pace of exploration in the deep sea has steadily increased…Man has observed less than one percent of the seafloor…During the twentieth century, the deep sea became accessible. In this twenty-first century,” she predicts, “the deep sea will become known.”

And, thanks to the collaborative, innovative success of Cindy Van Dover and Karen Jacobsen in Beyond the Edge of the Sea, we, too, are able to share in that knowledge—and beauty—of the deep.

By Katherine Arcano, Contributing Editor

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Beyond the Edge of the Sea will be showing at the Ebling Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from September 16, 2011-January 31, 2012. Beyond the Edge was brought to UW in conjunction with UW-Madison’s Geology Museum, with funding provided by the NASA Astrobiology Institute.

Scientific & Expeditionary Illustrator, Karen Jacobsen, at her shipboard work station (2003)

This exhibition is a collaborative effort involving Cindy Lee Van Dover, U.S. Navy-qualified, deep-diving Alvin pilot-in-command and explorer, with more than one-hundred dives to her credit. She is currently the Harvey W. Smith Professor of Biological Oceanography in the Division of Marine Science and Conservation of the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, where she serves as Chair of the Division, Director of the Undergraduate Certificate in Marine Science and Conservation, and Director of the Marine Laboratory.

Dr. Van Dover is the author of numerous scientific articles, as well as The Octopus’s Garden; Hypothermal Vents and other Mysteries of the Deep Sea. New York: Addison Wesley Press, 1996.

Scientific and expeditionary illustrator, Karen Jacobsen, has worked jointly with Dr. Van Dover for 15-years, accompanying her on numerous dives around the world and recording the findings of the Alvin’s deep sea explorations, both while on board the mothership, the research vessel (R/V) Atlantis, and back in her studio.

Crab species found with Whale Fall #7, Sagami Bay, 923 meters (2006)

The exhibition, Beyond the Edge of the Sea: Diversity of Life in the Deep Ocean Wilderness, curated by Dr. Van Dover, highlights the findings of numerous dives and represents a commitment on the part of these two experts to merge the language of science and art in unique and innovative ways. They bring the little-known and rarely observed world of undersea life to light in dramatic and colorful terms. Cindy and Karen have candidly shared their thoughts, feelings and observations, providing the world with extraordinary documentation of their shared experience, in the hopes of increasing understanding and appreciation for our deep-ocean environments.

The exhibition, Beyond the Edge of the Sea is available for showing at select venues. Please contact traveling exhibitions at the Muscarelle Museum of Art at The College of William & Mary, museum@wm.edu

Or go to the Web site: http//:web.wm.edu/muscarelle/exhibitions/traveling/beyond/images.html

Or contact the principles at:

Dr. Aaron de Groft, Director, Muscarelle Museum of Art: adegroft@wm.org

Dr. Cindy Van Dover: c.vandover@duke.edu or http://oceanography.ml.duke.edu/vandover/

Karen Jacobsen: insituart@gmail.com

In collaboration with: The Muscarelle Museum of Art; The College of William and Mary; Duke University and The North Carolina Maritime Museum.

With financial support from: The National Science Foundation and the NASA Astrobiology Institute

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This tale is, aptly, a tapestry of sorts, as Peter and Sam Ascher told me recently, replete with armies and battles fought, fair maidens, heroes, great houses and even slain “dragons”— all hieroglyphs woven throughout their family saga. 

Left: Antoni Clave, Combat de Coqs (1947), screen-printed on silk crepe (1947).  Find the framed image in the vintage publicity photo, below. All photos courtesy of Ascher family fine arts magazine 

Visionaries, Lida & Zika Ascher, 1946

 It began in 1939 when Zika and Lida Ascher, honeymooning in Norway, learned of the German war machine’s conquest of their beloved Czech homeland. That dramatic turn of events resulted in the Aschers’ immediate relocation to London, where they established a modest textile center, catering to fashion houses, while reinforcing their commitment to artful, exquisite design and print work. 

When Zika finished his military service with British forces, his and Lida’s collaborative venture became a thriving enterprise, renowned for its innovative fabric design, technology and highest- quality product. It was no wonder, then, that the name “Ascher” was on the well-polished lips of ‘les plus hautes’ of the fashion industry! Their trademark was a distinctive combination of sometimes playful, but just as often, important, graphics and art, coupled with fine fabrics for couture design. The houses of Dior, Schiaparelli, Cardin and Lanvin were among their well-heeled clients, and the phrase “fabric by Ascher” became de rigueur for denizens of stylish circles! 

Felix Topolski, London, 1944, screen-printed rayon crepe. The first in the series on rayon, with silk is short supply bacause of the war.

 “My father had an incredible eye for pattern and design,” Zika’s son Peter recalled. “Moreover, he was able to envision exactly which forms, colors and textures would work effectively together, often in repetition, for a given creation.” 

And create they did! Amid London’s rampant patriotism and energy following the war, the innovative husband-wife team embraced the already- popular “commemorative” head scarf—a very practical, even hygienic, consideration for the legion of women then working in previously male-populated industries– making it their own by coupling their already- proven textile production with the burgeoning work of then-quite-accessible contemporary artists. The results were electrifying! A list of project contributors was a virtual Who’s Who of important mid-20th Century talent, including artists Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Alexander Calder, Andre Derain and others.  Feliks Topolski was the first to produce a “square” for the Aschers, aptly depicting a colorful post-war scene, ‘London,1944’, in nostalgic, patriotic fashion. 

Henry Moore, Standing Figures (1946), screen printed silk twill

 Since the war had finally ended, Zika was able to approach members of the French art community for their involvement in the scarf project, but was disappointed with their initial disdain toward his proposal. Quiet by nature, but ever- enterprising, he personally phoned, then met with, Messrs. Matisse, Braque, Berard, Picasso and Derain, all of whom responded favorably. Though, according to the Aschers, a scarf design was never directly procured from Picasso, that artist’s companion, Francoise Gilot, submitted one titled, “Quatre Oiseaux” (below), bearing an uncanny resemblance to her lover’s unmistakable style! Eh bien, d’accord….. YOU decide! 

As for set and costume designer , Denis Malcles, who conjured and contributed the image, “Nocturne”, for Ascher, [producing a] “design of lines, forms and colours…opens new possibilities of creative pleasures…To design a square gives the same pleasure.” So effective was he in evoking a dramatic moment from “La Fiancee du Diable,” on silk crepe, that Sam Ascher called it his favorite of the bunch: “Malcles was able to convey the exact mood of the scene visually and stylistically…very reminiscent of the drama in theater of that era”. 

And then there was Matisse! 

Henri Matisse, Escarpe (1947), screen-printed on silk twill

 Peter and Sam kindly afforded me an up-close glimpse of the Aschers’ copious correspondence with that artist, carefully preserved in a treasured portfolio. The collection comprises handwritten and typed sheets and telegrams, interspersed with business talk, sketches and jovial, light-hearted notes, revealing the close, personal nature of the relationship. In one such communication, Matisse boasts that even though his Ascher-commissioned project is, of course, very important to him, it is, no doubt, even more so, to Zika. The latter, in fact, has been credited with luring Matisse out of a vision-impaired, illness-induced slump: encouraging him to use his remaining creative abilities productively, Zika helped spawn the artist’s “large forms” phase, an integral, dynamic limb of his later body of work. 

The Ascher scarf sensation swept the fashion world, transcending mere headwear, cleverly weaving into one art, textile and haute couture. Indeed, in 1947, dozens of the creations were mounted for display on easels at Le Fevre Gallery, enthusiastically received as hang-able as well as wearable, and appreciated as fine art! The nationalistic pride and esprit de corps that the scarves bespoke and no doubt engendered, as well, only added to their allure! 

Artists' squares displayed in Chicago department store, 1948. See work by Antoni Clave, Combat de Coqs (1947), framed here, above

 In spite of, and perhaps even because of, war-time challenges in obtaining certain dear textiles, the Aschers, already long-experienced with fine wool, silk, linen and other fibers, became forerunners in innovative fabric production. Their use of nylon for domestic products, as an example, in lieu of the silk designated for export, made the scarves more readily accessible in Britain and other still-depressed economic regions; finer pieces were marked for sale internationally, allowing for higher profits from better-off markets farther abroad. 

Though the Ascher scarf saga is aesthetically and historically rich, even more exciting, perhaps, may be its chapters that are yet to be spun! Father-son team Peter and Sam are currently gathering the threads of Zika’s legacy, intending to capture the imaginations of contemporary creators—perhaps channeling the likes of Moore, Matisse, and, dare we presume, Picasso– in a reprisal of Ascher scarves! 

Francoise Gilot, Quatre Oiseaux (c.1947). Not seen since production, until here in this article

 “One of the main goals of our project is to reproduce good art and make it wearable,” confides Sam. “And the scarves will be of the highest quality.” 

No doubt. No corners cut, concessions made or compromise accepted…a true homage to the tale first lived and woven by Zika and Lida , now re-vitalized and re-worked by Peter and Sam Ascher. So, the legend continues….and the tapestry’s fabric materializes slowly, surely…..spectacularly! 

In a slipstream from the cascading silken scarves, I end my visit imbued with a nostalgic glow from the Aschers’ heartfelt rendering of their noble family lore…as well as with a sense of eager anticipation. If past is, indeed, prelude, then surely we are in for something quite phenomenal! 

by Katherine Arcano, Contributing Writer & Editor 

* * * * 

Visit the Acsher scarf site at: www.ascherstudio.com 

Read more about another Ascher-inspired work by Henri Matisse in ARTES, http://www.artesmagazine.com/2010/03/henri-matisse-collage-wall-hanging-debuted-at-armory-show-new-york/ 

Read a museum review in which Ascher scarves were featured at: http://www.westword.com/2007-02-01/culture/fashion-art-ascher-scarves-from-post-war-england-lucienne-day-queen-of-1950s-british-textile-design/

Henri Matisse, Océanie, 'le ciel' (1948) for sale at C|&|Co, NYC

Oceanie is a masterful, two-part work by Henri Matisse, comprising ‘le ciel’ and ‘la mer’; both pieces realizing the artist’s self-described “dream of….an art of balance, purity and serenity…”    

The pair of decorative, mural-sized compositions draws explicitly from ‘reveries’ of his 1930 experience in Tahiti, the exotic iconography of which would become the mainstay of his late-era paper cut-out, collage series. (‘Oceanie’, or the English, Oceana, is a term ascribed to a broad archipelago of  South Pacific Ocean and its islands.)    

Matisse at work cutting paper forms while bed-bound in later life

‘Le ciel’ was recently on display with Chowaiki & Co. Gallery, at New York’s Armory Show—it is a static vision of placid white, aerie forms, suspended in silhouette on golden linen, suggesting otherworldly figures against a sunlit Tahitian sky–visually channeling Matisse’s sensory-steeped memory. ‘Le ciel’ and its counterpart ‘la mer’, are seminal in the artist’s oeuvre, in that the screen-printed linen wall-hangings represent his earliest use of paper-cut maquette, Matisse’s most important means of visual expression through his final years’ work.    

According to John Klein, “In the mid-1940’s, Matisse’s recollection of the exotic nature of Tahiti and his technique of cutting paper to create works of art—two activities apparently unrelated to one another—came together in a broad flow of creativity (‘Zeitschrift’).”  The eventual production of Oceanie was the brain-child of London-based textile printer, Zika Ascher, who proposed that Matisse, by then in declining health, design a fabric wall-hanging.    

The artist’s creative vision demanded precisely the right material—linen specially-dyed to replicate the golden light of the Pacific. Adding to that his ‘new medium’ of ‘painting with scissors’, the resulting Oceanie set was a magnificent dreamscape, replete with a fanciful array of birds, fish, sponges, coral and seaweed. Thirty examples of both compositions were printed at the Belfast Silk and Rayon Company in 1948, each panel inspected, approved and signed by the artist.    

Matisse was delighted with the final silkscreens, which he described in one of his notebooks as his “very successful white and beige wall-hanging.”  He chose to keep half of the edition for himself and urged Jean Cassou, curator at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, to include the panels in an exhibition that he was organizing for the following year.    

At long last, Matisse’s creations had brought to life his memory of an exotic, shimmering Oceanie, very real in its vibrance, but articulated in a surrealistic manner. ‘Le ciel’ and ‘la mer’ were indeed a visual fulfillment of his most intimate reveries of that Tahitian paradise, now come true!    

by KathyArcano, Contributing Editor    

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Oceanie, le ceil can be viewed at the C|&|Co, 500 Park Avenue, New York, NY www.chowaikiandco.com  or by calling 212.319.7333. Price: $ 2,500,000.