Biography
Jean Paul Slusser was born in Wauseon, OH in 1886. He attended high school just outside of Chicago, graduating in 1905. Following high school he was a student at the University of Michigan, receiving his BA degree in 1909. In 1909-1910 he studied at Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich, returning to Michigan for graduate studies. He received his MA in 1911.
Slusser's first job in a long teaching career was to teach rhetoric at the University of Texas (1910-1912). Following this, he studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, while serving as art critic for the Boston Herald.
Slusser was in New York from 1914-1924. He taught summer classes at the Art Students League for several years, and took other teaching positions while working on his own art. During this period he was a summer session instructor in drawing and painting at the University of Michigan (1921-1922) and an assistant art critic at the New York Herald (1921-1923).
In 1924-1925 Slusser studied with Hans Hoffman in Munich, returning to Michigan as an instructor in 1925. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1927 and to associate professor in 1935. His one Post Office mural - for Blissfield, MI - was painted in 1935.
Slusser's teaching career at Michigan spanned 36 years, from 1921 until his retirement in 1957. He was promoted to full professor in 1944. He was named President of the Ann Arbor Art Association in 1940 and served on the Association's Board of Directors for many years. He helped establish the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair.
In 1947 Slusser was named Director of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, where he built the Museum's collection with emphasis on Modernist European and American works, Japanese woodcuts and works from the German Expressionist and Belle Epoque eras. Following his retirement, he became the art critic for the Ann Arbor News.
Slusser continued to paint after his retirement, preferring the morning light and typically working from early morning until noon. He described his early work as "descriptive landscape painting" and said that he became interested in abstraction as a way to gain more freedom of expression in his work. During his teaching career he handled classes in drawing, oil painting, watercolors, figure drawing, life drawing, and fresco.
A gallery at the University of Michigan Museum of Art was named in Slusser's honor in 1975. He died in Ann Arbor in 1981.
Critical Analysis
Slusser's greatest contributions were to teaching and stewardship. He was fondly remembered by generations of students at the University of Michigan. And he left his imprint on the collections of the University of Michigan Museum of Art. His own artwork was marked by a preference for saturated colors - whether in oil or watercolor.
Murals
- Blissfield, Michigan - Post Office: Laying the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad
References
- Artwork by Jean Paul Slusser (Savvy Collector).
- Jean Paul Slusser (Wikipedia).
- Jean Paul Slusser papers, 1905-1978 (University of Michigan Library - Finding Aids).
- Jean Paul Slusser, art professor, dies (Ann Arbor District Library).