Richard Callner

Callner, Richard ALBANY Richard Callner, artist and teacher, died peacefully on August 31, 2007. He was born May 18, 1927 and was raised in Chicago and Benton Harbor, Mich. Callner served in World War II and received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin. He received a certificate from the Academie Julian in Paris and a master's of fine art degree from Columbia University. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship and traveled to Cambridge, England and France. Callner began his long and distinguished teaching career in 1952 at Purdue University in W. Lafayette, Ind. Callner taught at Temple University's Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and was founding director of Temple University's Tyler Art School in Rome, Italy from 1966-1972. Callner came to SUNY Albany to begin the M.F.A. program, where he taught until retirement in 1993. He received a Fulbright Grant and was the first American artist to lecture at the Hermitage in the former USSR. Motifs in his paintings, prints, etchings, sculpture throughout his prolific half-century career span Hebrew, Greek and Tantric mythology and display an extraordinary mastery of color, line and pattern. Callner's landscape and interior paintings reflect his visits to Italy, Yugoslavia, Spain, Russia, Japan, Turkey and the Hudson Valley. He adapted his painting style to the course of Parkinson's Disease by increasing his use of abstraction and employing bolder use of color. Callner was a beloved teacher and mentor to hundreds of students during his career who remained lifelong friends, as did his many associates. Callner's works are in many prestigious private and public collections in St. Petersburg, Russia; Istanbul; Pristina, Yugoslavia; the Albany Institute of History & Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Detroit Institute of Arts; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the New York Public Library; Yale University Art Gallery; Cincinnati Art Museum; Worcester Art Museum; and the University Art Museum, SUNY. Richard is survived by his wife, Carolyn Konoshima Call-ner. They have two children, David and Joanna (Reiko) and two grandchildren, Saya and Isao Callner. A memorial celebration of Richard's life will take place at the First Unitarian Society of Schenectady at 1221 Wendell Ave., Schenectady, N.Y. at 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 8, 2007.