"The Pali," 1941, seen through the eyes of Huc Luquiens.
Window to the past
By Nadine Kam
Star-BulletinLike so many artists before and after him, Huc Mazelet Luquiens came to Hawaii from Massachusetts in 1916 and knew it was home. It didn't take him long to secure a job teaching at Punahou before moving on in 1924 to organize the art department for the fledgling University of Hawaii. But his best work may have been extra-curricular. Between 1918 and 1950 Luquiens found time beyond classes and campus politics to work on his craft and he's left an impressive legacy of images of a youthful Hawaii, one we still recognize, even if the old profile has forever changed.
An exhibition of 327 prints by Luquiens opens Sunday at the University of Hawaii Art Gallery. The number represents about half of the collection bestowed to the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts in 1968 by the artist's widow, Elizabeth Luquiens.
The works include etchings, aquatints and lithographs created before the modernization of Hawaii. These showcase Luquiens' skill as a master printmaker who co-founded Honolulu Printmakers, a group still active today.
"There's clarity and variety in the lines he created, there's movement and an assuredness that is very evident," said UH Art Gallery director Tom Klobe.
"There's an advantage to showing the full scope of the work because that alone can be inspiring, how someone could be so dedicated and work so hard over the years to leave us this gift."
The show is set up geographically to take gallery patrons on a tour of the islands in the early half of this century.
"People will start to recognize the sites, then realize that some of it is gone forever, just a part of some peoples' memories," Klobe said. "It starts with Diamond Head - the cliche - but it's pretty dramatic because the change is most dramatic there."
The show then takes viewers to the Big Island and to Maui, where Luquiens even goes to the other side of Haleakala beyond Hana.
"It's time that the community gets to see this. I keep saying we have to go back and look at our roots a little bit," Klobe said. "This show is a wonderful reminder that we have to start thinking seriously about preserving what we have."
What: Huc Luquiens' Hawaii: Prints 1918-1950
