Art Healing and Friendship: The Doctor Albert Grokoest Collection
Born in 1917 in Lincoln,
New Hampshire, Albert Grokoest graduated from Hamilton College and later
received his MD from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia
University in New York. Trained as a rheumatologist, he served on the staff
at the College of Physicians and Surgeons for over 40 years, and retired
as professor emeritus in 1989. Dr. Grokoest was as devoted to the arts as
medicine. He was widely respected among his colleagues, students and friends
as an accomplished violist and art collector, firmly believing that the
power of art, music and poetry aided the process of human healing.
Although Dr. Grokoest practiced in New York City he never
forgot his connection to New Hampshire. He often summered there and was
a fiequent visitor to the Currier Gallery of Art. Dr. Grokoest's work with
patients, his laboratory research in arthritis, and his teaching, all led
to a deep belief in the connection between a patient's mind and body. He
observed that emotional states such as anger, loneliness, isolation and
fear of abandonment were often subconsciously manifested as physical illness.
As an early advocate of a "holistic" approach to wellness, Dr.
Grokoest emphasized the prevention of illness by teaching his patients to
see themselves as whole systems and to acknowledge that their health could
be influenced by their feelings and concerns.
In addition to Mark Rothko, Dr. Grokoest cultivated the
friendship of many other artists, including Edwin and Mary Scheier, who
lived in New Hampshire and whose works are well represented in the collection.
Art, Healing and Friendship also includes works that Dr. Grokoest collected
by other artists including Polish painter and printmaker Jan Lebenstein.
"Lebenstein created both abstract and representational
works of great psychological power," said Spahr. "His ink, watercolor
and gouache work Figure (Study for Dorsal View of Vertebrate), completed
in 1963, appears skeletal in nature and thus may have been of special interest
to Dr. Grokoest," said Spahr. 
Other works in the collection include New York painter
Jennings Tofel's 1958 oil painting A Time of Perplexity and several
vibrant watercolors by Seattle artist and linguist Pehr Hallsten. "Hallsten
was a long-time friend of abstract expressionist Mark Tobey," said
Spahr. "His works are characterized by bright colors and scenes that
often depicted childhood memories or favorite folk tales of his native Sweeden."
"Although Dr. Grokoest was often intrigued by artists
whose work was out of the mainstream, or perhaps unrecognized by the art
world, he saw in each of these works of art a human life in a relative state
of wellness or illness," said Spahr. "His collection reflects
his fascination with the power of art to unify and express the mind, body
and soul. It is the hope and purpose of this exhibition to invite viewers
to respond, as Doctor Grokoest loved for people to do...to offer their own
diagnosis of the art works," Spahr concluded.
Art, Healing and Friendship: The Doctor Albert Grokoest
Collection is open at The Currier Gallery of Art
through December 14, 1998. The exhibition is supported by the Friends Fund
and is accompanied by the video Nature's Cure created by Ken Browne Productions
with the generous support of State Street Global Advisors.
From top to bottom: Alfred Maurer, Portrait of a Girl, 1929, oil on gesso board, photo: Dave Juvet; Jennings Tofel, A Time of Perplexity, 1958, oil on canvas, photo: Dave Juvet; Pehr Hallsten,Two Figures Exchanging a Pot, 1958, watercolor on paper, photo: Dave Juvet; Pehr Hallsten, Man in a Canoe in Landscape, 1953, watercolor on paper, photo: Dave Juvet; Bernard Walsh, Nightmare, undated, etching, photo: Dave Juvet; Jan Lebenstein, Figure (Study for Dorsal View of Vertebrate), 1963, ink, watercolor and gouache on paper; Ed Scheier, Adam and Eve and the Serpent, undated, lithograph, photo: Dave Juvet.
rev. 11/22/10
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