It's Sommer in Cleveland!

It may not feel like it to you, but it's "Sommer" in Cleveland, or specifically,

Cleveland Artist Foundation features the Art of William Sommer, in the Virginia Foley Gallery at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood.

Cleveland Artist Foundation commemorates its 25th anniversary year as an arts and education organization with the purpose of preserving, researching, collecting and exhibiting the most significant visual art of Northeast Ohio. The organization had owned 37 pieces by William Sommer, and has acquired another 15 pieces. CAF usually shows a group of work that has a common theme by a collection of artists, but this approach never digs deep enough into the work of any one particular artist. Digging deep into William Sommer's work and life, they have unearthed treasure right here in Northeast Ohio.

William Sommer came to Lakewood in 1907, when he was forty years old, to work as a professional lithographer, printing other people's work while painting and drawing on his own time. In the fine art world, Sommer might be considered a late bloomer. He did not have his first solo exhibit until he was 50 years old, and his second exhibit when he was 59. During this time he met a young lithographer and artist, William Zorach, whom he took under his wing.

Though Sommer's view of the world of art at the time was from a Cleveland perspective, Zorach had studied in Europe and met Cleveland artist Henry Keller there, as well as having exposure to the exciting work of European artists, including Cezanne. This exchange of Sommer's experience and philosophy and Zorach's exposure to the larger world of art and artists proved fruitful for both men.

In time, Sommer accumulated a following of more young people, and he moved to Brandywine, a rural farm community near the falls, just south of Northfield. This pastoral setting proved to be an ideal spot for creating artwork and cultivating artistic inspiration in his young associates. His studio was surrounded by apple trees, and Sommer was known to share the bounty of his land with young subjects while passing on the legacy of his experience as an artist of the region. This informal group he mentored came to be called "The Cleveland Rennaissance." The seeds he planted in this young field of apprentices proved to yield an artistic bounty in our region and beyond, throughout the twentieth century.

Mr. Sommer did not behave as his artistic contemporaries. Most artists make a business of getting noticed, but he was more interested in creating art and promoting the emerging artists around him. To demonstrate the extreme degree of his disinterest in recognition, his young associates were known to rummage through his studio when it was time to enter work into the May Show, entering his work for him; and these pieces often won a prize in the shows. He believed that art is about living the life of an artist and creating art, not about fame.

William Sommer admired those who were unaware of their own beauty and talent. You can take note of this reluctantly celebrated artist's work, many of which expose his love of the land and its produce, with names like Pear Season, Still Life with Three Pears and Apples, and Landscape with Autumn Leaf.

You too can continue the legacy of promoting artists of the region like William Sommer did, and Cleveland Artist Foundation still does, by becoming a member. CAF's varied events include gallery, corporate collection and house tours, and dinners and gallery talks (like the one about Sommer and his works by William Busta, curator of collections and exhibitions), which are designed to expose Northeast Ohioans to the vital visual artwork of the region.

William Sommer's loosely-rendered, transparent watercolor and guache paintings, and spontaneously-executed drawings are on display through February 6, 2010, in the Virginia Foley Gallery at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood. http://www.BeckCenter.org

Image: Not So Still Life, c. 1920, by William Sommer (1867-1949), watercolor

Carol Drummond has been a professional designer for 25 years. Prior to starting her award-winning graphic design studio 15 years ago, Drummond Design, she graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, worked at a graphic design studio, a video production company, and a consumer products company. She has been an art docent for Mayfield City Schools and currently serves on the COSE Arts Network Advisory Committee. http://www.DrummonDesign.com