Arnest the Student
Photo of 17-year-old Arnest. Rocky Mountain News, May 23, 1934.
Arnest talents became apparent at a young age. At 17, Arnest showed work at an international art exhibition for high school students at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh.1 The exhibition, hosted by Scholastic at the Carnegie Institute (now the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh), received over 50,000 entries.2 Given the artistic success he saw throughout his life, it is ironic that Arnest later reflected that he didn’t intend to be an artist, but rather “sort of just backed into it.”3 Arnest attributed his move toward the visual arts to his art education at East High School:
When I got into high school… I had the good luck to have a very unusual teacher [Helen Perry]… She was a little irascible, but she was very serious about art. She also had a background that had to do with the practice of art rather than just one of art teaching, like everyone else. At that point, art looked far less demanding and much more interesting than anything else to me.4
As Arnest “backed into” art making, he moved to Colorado Springs to study at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (CSFAC) as it transitioned from the Broadmoor Art Academy. According to Arnest, the school was “somewhat unstructured… much like the block plan… Much less was given [to] students in the way of specific assignments—much more was expected in the form of initiative.”5
The CSFAC thrived during his enrollment, despite effects of the Great Depression echoing globally. Under the direction of Boardman Robinson and with such faculty as Henry Varnum Poor, Frank Mechau, and George Biddle, the CSFAC enrolled young artists from across the country and supplied them with unique educational and professional opportunities. Biddle’s Washington connections helped produce the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), which created highly sought-after employment opportunities for artists. Established CSFAC muralists like Robinson and Mechau ensured that students and faculty alike won commissions across the country. In 1939, Arnest was among the CSFAC art school students awarded a commission for a mural for a post office in Wellington, Texas, which remains to this day.
Following his studies, Arnest earned a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship that funded a two-year stint in San Francisco. The San Francisco Museum of Art hosted Arnest’s first solo exhibition in 1940. Shortly after, he was drafted into the Army “…before [he] could decide whether enrolling in the Fine Arts Center school had been a mistake or not,” he joked.6 Fortunately for the young artist, military service not only allowed Arnest to continue making art but also provided opportunities to advance his career.
The effects of Arnest’s education reverberated throughout his artistic practice and became apparent in his work for the military. His CSFAC instructors clearly influenced his brushwork and approach to composition. “[Boardman Robinson’s] major influence was as a drawing teacher. He was a superb draftsman himself… And since I had a knack for drawing, I took to this, responded to it very, very quickly and appreciatively,” Arnest recalled in a 1982 interview.7 Henry Varnum Poor’s work often consisted of “a terse, convincing impression of… [the] essential in an object, a character, [or] a situation.”8 Poor’s approach, adopted by Arnest, was crucial for helping Arnest meet the goals of the Army Art Program. However, Scenes from Life embody the “terse, convincing impression” more than any other body of work by Arnest. Arnest’s early instruction ultimately informed the suggestion in Scenes from Life that a picture may have “implicit, even hidden, signs and messages that are its ultimate reality.”9
Untitled (War Scene, Wounded Soldier), Boardman Robinson, C. 1944, Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Mountain Crags, Boardman Robinson, 1941, Modernist West.
Approaching Storm, Henry Varnum Poor, n.d., The Phillips Collection.
[1] “Exhibit Work in East,” Rocky Mountain News (Denver), April 22, 1934, 7. https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=RMD19340422-01.2.79&srpos=38&e=--1925-----en-20--21-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22Arnest%22-ARTICLE------2------
[2] Jeanette Jena, “16th Annual ‘Scholastic’ Exhibition Opens,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 10, 1943. https://www.newspapers.com/article/pittsburgh-post-gazette-scholastic-art-e/86089190/
[3] Mary Mashburn, “Retrospective traces Arnest’s career,” The Catalyst (Colorado Springs), December 15, 1980.
[4] Scott Smith, “Artist Enjoys Reward s of Distinguished Career,” Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, April 28, 1984, p. 93. https://access-newspaperarchive-com.ppld.idm.oclc.org/us/colorado/colorado-springs/colorado-springs-gazette/1984/04-28/page-93
[5] Mary Mashburn, “Retrospective traces Arnest’s career,” The Catalyst (Colorado Springs), December 15, 1980, 4.
[6] B.N., “Faculty Profile: Bernard Arnest, Artist and Teacher,” Colorado College Bulletin, December 1981, 15.
[7] Bernard Arnest, interview by Judy Finley, Colorado College Archives Oral History Project, Tutt Library Special Collections, January 12, 1982.
[8] Howard Devree, “Contemporary American Artists: Henry Varnum Poor,” Parnassus 12, no. 5 (1940): 13, https://doi.org/10.2307/772232.
[9] Bernard Arnest, “Statement from Artist,” in Bernard Arnest, exh. cat. (Williams Printing Company, 1980), 3.