Past art dept. chair recognized

The life and art of former chair Heinz Kusel will be celebrated with a display in the Thomas Administration building April 1-29

By Megan Bakker

The Collegian

Currently on display in the President’s Gallery in the Thomas Administration building is a series of paintings consisting of a single black line on a gray background. The black line grows thicker with each picture until the entire canvas is black. Farther down is another painting – an intricately detailed interpretation of a tribal mask.

The artist is the same person – Heinz Kusel – who taught at Fresno State from 1964 until 1984. The gallery show, which runs from April 1st until the 29th, is to honor Kusel. Kusel died last October and the gallery show provides a small cross section of his art from the 1960s through the 1990s.

“He noticed art had a peculiar capacity to change a person,” said Tom Kusel, Heinz’s son.

“Heinz’s art was meant as an exploration into the deepest part of himself,” said Robert Stone, a long time friend of Heinz Kusel and Administrative Director for the Fresno Center for Nonviolence.

“Heinz was always a big supporter of our center,” Stone said. “He gave a lot of encouragement to the work that we were doing.”

During his time teaching at Fresno State, Heinz Kusel was credited with revolutionizing Fresno State’s art program.

“He made Fresno State’s art department one of the most dynamic art departments in the country,” said Tom Kusel.

Joyce Aiken, former teacher and colleague of Heinz Kusel said while he was chair of the art department, he hired Judy Chicago, who began the feminist art movement at Fresno State. Kusel was also responsible for bringing in Wayne Tibo, a well known Californian artist.

“The faculty members were all very dynamic,” said Tom Kusel. “He just happened to be a key player.”

But teaching at Fresno State was part of the end of a long journey for Heinz Kusel. Born in 1916 in Lima, Peru, Heinz Kusel and his family moved to Germany in 1925. As the Nazi party rose to power in the 30s, Kusel returned to Peru to escape the tension. However, once Peru declared war against Germany, even Lima wasn’t safe anymore. In 1943, Kusel traveled into the jungles of Northeastern Peru, choosing to live with an Indian tribe along the Ucayali River for seven years.

Those seven years became key in Heinz Kusel’s life.

“He brought that sense of mystery to his life in Fresno,” Tom Kusel said. It became one of the main principles Heinz used while creating art, combined with what Tom Kusel said his father called the “truth of being.”

“She kind of hides in the shadows of our experiences,” Tom Kusel explained. “Heinz felt if you didn’t have the guts to descend into the dark of your own existence, you would never find the truth.”

Heinz Kusel also believed truth never appeared in the same place twice, so he had to constantly reinvent himself in order to find it.

“He would constantly move from one thing to another to another throughout his entire life,” said Stone.

There’s no over-arching theme in Kusel’s work except for a constant exploration into different mediums, styles, and methods of creating.

“His favorite aphorism,” said Tom Kusel, “was expect the unexpected.”

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