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David Aronson
Boston University
October 15, 1987
Somewhere in a good book it is written, "By their works shall ye know them." This is formidably applicable to the artist, for everything that he is, does and believes is revealed in the work that he makes. His art is autobiographical. It is all there for all to see and there is no place to hide. It is apparent to so many of us that Robert D'Arista's life, as revealed in his work and his teaching, was dedicated to the constant acknowledgement of the nobility and the grandeur of the arts he so dearly loved.
From a very early age, Bob developed an abiding respect for tradition as the touchstone for judging authenticity in life as well as in art. He would speak fondly and respectfully of his parents, his brothers and his sisters and an environment which immersed him in the European culture and the time honored values which were to fashion his attitudes about life. It was a milieu which simply didn't allow one to lose sight of that body of knowledge and those patterns of behavior which embody the aspirations and ideals of a society.
Bob began to paint and draw at a very young age. He attended the Art Students' League in New York, the art schools of Columbia and New York universities and the Academie de la Grande Chaumière in France. He studied with John Heliker, Earl Kirkam and Philip Guston with whom he carried on a running art dialogue for most of his life. He loved to talk about art and his prolonged discussions took on the character of Talmudic disputations with his good friends Philip Guston and Herbert Katzman serving as sparring partners through the years.
Bob had an early success as an artist. At the age of twenty-four his work was included in the Guggenheim Museum's "Young American Painters" exhibition. Two years later he held his first one man show in New York. Other one man shows of his work were later held at the Alan Gallery and Nordness Gallery in New York and a number of other galleries in Washington, D.C. He was shown in the Carnegie International, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Chicago Art Institute and numerous other institutions. His work is in the permanent collections of Yale University, Boston University, the Toledo Museum, the Neuberger Museum, the National Collection of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution and in many private collections. His paintings were seen in Art in America, Life, Time and Fortune magazines. Through the years his work received many awards and honors including a Fulbright fellowship to Italy and the prestigious Rosenthal prize awarded by the National Institute of Arts & Letters. In 1962 he moved to Washington, D.C. where he taught at the American University and served periodically as chairman of its art department.
I personally became attracted to the work of Robert D'Arista while we were both represented by the same New York gallery and it was during this period in the early 1960's that I came to know the painter, the teacher and the person. We at Boston University invited Bob to visit and lecture on several occasions but it wasn't until 1984 that we asked him to join the faculty on a full-time basis.
Teaching was a very important part of Bob's life. As he taught and worked in his studio, he could not help but be profoundly disturbed by an art environment that took on the worst aspects of a troubled society. He witnessed a severe degeneration of artistic standards reflecting the fickleness of the prevailing fads and fashions. In sharp contraposition to what he perceived as the progressive decay in the house of contemporary art he withdrew from active discourse with the art establishment. Which is not to suggest for a moment that Bob became a man of few words. He could set forth with eloquence on a detailed exposition of a Platonic principle or explore the complexities of a late Beethoven sonata or the theatricalism in a Menotti opera. The mere mention of even a third rate Italian Renaissance painter was good for a couple of hours, at least. It was commonplace to see Bob off in a corner of his studio surrounded by a group of students who were seated on the floor wide-eyed and transfixed while he told stories of the great art spirits of the distant past and recent past. He knew his history and he knew how to tell a story. Passing by, one could catch a fleeting reference to the mystical "Golden Section" or to the aesthetic relevancies of arithmetical progressions and dynamic symmetries. He taught through exposition and parable in ways that would provide a dazzling display of possibilities for exciting the students' imagination.
It should not appear that Robert D'Arista was without humor. He had the wit of the man of letters with turn of phrase and sense of restraint that gave form to the most diverting and sharp observations. It was put to use in his view of society and its institutions and even himself.
The name Robert D'Arista calls to mind the picture of a man deeply devoted to his family, his art and his principles. We also see a truly cultured man whose integrity and fierce independence were projected with a dignity and a grace we will not forget.
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