World-renowned artist Arnold dies at 94

It would be dif­fi­cult to men­tion Paul Arnold with­out think­ing of some con­nec­tion to Ober­lin — both town and gown — the world­wide art scene and even that of local gal­leries he enhanced such as the Allen Art Museum and the Fire­lands Asso­ci­a­tion of the Fine Arts.

Arnold, the longest con­tin­u­ous tenured of any cur­rent fac­ulty mem­bers at Ober­lin Col­lege, an artist whose work has appeared in more than 225 exhi­bi­tions, died Mon­day, July 2, 2012. He was 94 years old.

Born Nov. 24, 1918, in T’aiyuanfu, Shansi, China, where his father was a YMCA gen­eral sec­re­tary, Arnold grew up mainly in China except for fur­loughs which brought the fam­ily to the United States.

Arnold com­pleted his A.B. in art in 1940, and M.A. in stu­dio art in 1941, at Ober­lin Col­lege, and his M.F.A. at the Uni­ver­sity of Min­nesota in 1955. While his teach­ing career at Ober­lin Col­lege started in 1941-1942, it was inter­rupted for four years dur­ing World War II, when he served in the U.S. Army. Dur­ing 1945, Arnold was involved in intel­li­gence work for the Office of Strate­gic Ser­vices (OSS) in China (for which he received the Bronze Star), fol­lowed by a brief post-war stint in Can­ton, China, ana­lyz­ing the esca­lat­ing con­flict between the Com­mu­nists and Nationalists.

It was at Ober­lin Col­lege where he met his future wife, Sally.

When Arnold returned home in 1946, he became an instruc­tor in fine arts at Ober­lin Col­lege, where he remained through­out his career. He retired in 1985 as a Full Pro­fes­sor, claim­ing the longest con­tin­u­ous tenure of any cur­rent fac­ulty mem­ber. He started as a water­col­orist, but was tapped to teach a print­mak­ing class in 1950, and dis­cov­ered his favored medium.

A sab­bat­i­cal in 1962 con­nected him with famed Japan­ese wood­block printer Toshi Yoshida, who men­tored him, and thus began his love affair with the Japan­ese tech­nique, which he adapted to his own cre­ative needs and prac­ticed until 2011.

Through­out his long career, in addi­tion to teach­ing and work­ing in his stu­dio, he served as act­ing chair of the Art Depart­ment at Ober­lin on three dif­fer­ent occa­sions; illus­trated books; was Vis­it­ing Pro­fes­sor at Tung­hai Uni­ver­sity in Tai­wan, Sarah Lawrence Col­lege and the Cleve­land Insti­tute of Art in Lacoste, France; was project direc­tor of the Ober­lin Col­lege Peace Corps Train­ing Pro­gram (1964-65); served the city of Ober­lin on the zon­ing board, plan­ning com­mis­sion and city coun­cil; was pres­i­dent of the National Asso­ci­a­tion of Schools of Art and Design (1976-1979) and the Col­lege Art Asso­ci­a­tion (1986-1988); served on the boards of the Mid-American Col­lege Art Asso­ci­a­tion, Karamu Foun­da­tion, Ober­lin Shansi Memo­r­ial Asso­ci­a­tion, Fire­lands Asso­ci­a­tion for the Visual Arts, Ober­lin His­tor­i­cal and Improve­ment Orga­ni­za­tion (now Ober­lin Her­itage Cen­ter); led numer­ous tours to China, Tai­wan, France, Thai­land, Malaysia and Indone­sia; was named John and Eva Young-Hunter Pro­fes­sor of Art in 1982; and was com­mis­sioned to design and cre­ate mon­u­ments in Ober­lin to Mar­tin Luther King, Johann Friedrich Ober­lin and the Welling­ton Rescue.

In 2011, he was hon­ored by the Cleve­land Wing of the Com­mem­o­ra­tive Air Force as the Armed Forces World War II Vet­eran of the Year.

His prints are held in 15 pub­lic col­lec­tions, includ­ing the Cleve­land Museum of Art, Bal­ti­more Museum of Art, Allen Memo­r­ial Art Museum, Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Library of Congress.

Arnold and his wife trav­eled exten­sively world­wide. They moved to Kendal at Ober­lin in 1993.

Sur­vivors include broth­ers James (Marna) Arnold of Port Townsend, Wash., and Allen Arnold of Black Moun­tain, N.C., daugh­ters Peggy Arnold of Long­mont, Colo., Tacie (Craig) Hamp­ton of Lorain, Judy (Bill Puett) of Dahlonega, Ga., son Kem­per (Julie) of Rocky River, Ohio, AFS daugh­ter Tsugiko (Bill) Scul­lion of Old Green­wich, Conn., eight grand­chil­dren and eight great-grandchildren.

A cel­e­bra­tion of his life is planned for Sep­tem­ber. Com­mu­ni­ca­tions to the fam­ily can be directed to Kem­per Arnold, 21751 Ken­wood Ave., Rocky River, Ohio 44116 or karnold@ameritech.net. Memo­r­ial gifts may be sent to the Res­i­dents Assis­tance Fund of Kendal at Ober­lin, 600 Kendal Drive, Ober­lin, Ohio 44074; Fire­lands Asso­ci­a­tion for the Visual Arts, 39 S. Main Street, Ober­lin, Ohio 44074; Ober­lin Shansi, Ober­lin Col­lege, 173 W. Lorain Street, Ober­lin, Ohio 44074; or Hos­pice of the West­ern Reserve, 300 East 185th Street, Cleve­land, Ohio 44119.

Posted by Scott Mahoney on Jul 12 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.