Havighurst family gifts painting to Law School
The family of Clark Havighurst, the William Neal Reynolds Professor Emeritus of Law, former interim dean, and longtime faculty member at the Law School, gifted the Law School a painting by noted artist Martin Canin in celebration of Havighurst’s 90th birthday.
A team from the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University uncrated the piece and installed it in room 4047 during a special gathering attended by the Havighurst family, friends, and Duke Law faculty, including Professors Tom Metzloff, Doriane Coleman, and Joseph Blocher, and Professor Emerita Theresa Newman.
Professor Deborah DeMott, an art law scholar, made brief remarks about the untitled oil on canvas work and the effect of its large color field of vivid ultramarine blue on the viewer and the space. The horizontal color-field painting dates back to the 1970s and is reminiscent of color field artists like Barnett Newman or Jack Bush, though it enhances pure geometry with distinctive lyrical and subtle psychological effects.
Canin’s work is part of the permanent collections at London’s Tate Modern and the Yale University Art Gallery.
