Celebrating the Muhlenbergs

With its launch of two simultaneous exhibitions - one about a prominent family in Pennsylvania history, the other a sculptor's solo inspired by an ancient epic - Berman Museum at Ursinus College begins its autumn season.

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, a young ordained minister in Germany, accepted an urgent call for a pastor from three Lutheran congregations in Pennsylvania. Arriving in 1742, he so wholeheartedly pursued his ministry for the next 45 years that he's now known as the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America. He and his legacy are explored in the fascinating "Pastors & Patriots: The Muhlenberg Family in Pennsylvania."

The show, which will not travel, contains artworks and documents that focus on the building of this amazingly strong family over several generations, and on some of the 11 children born at the Trappe family home, seven of whom survived to adulthood. Of three sons who became prominent clergymen, it was Peter Muhlenberg who gained widest renown, as the Revolutionary War's "fighting parson." But the Muhlenbergs also, from earliest times, included scholars, statesmen, physicians, soldiers, scientists, and academics (some of them women).

Elsewhere in the museum, Philadelphia sculptor Joe Mooney "retells" episodes from the great Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, one of history's first works of literature, in 17 vigorous abstract sculptures of steel and stainless steel.

Mooney has put in a lot of hard work to "make a statue of my friend." (That would refer to Enkidu, companion of the hero Gilgamesh, and it's also the show's title - " 'Make a statue of my friend': Presenting Enkidu, Re-presenting the Epic of Gilgamesh"). Mooney's work here is especially significant in that it takes a strong stand against today's powerful trend favoring art without humanizing effect. I believe Mooney would agree that art involves imaginative transformation.

Seeing how, or if, the 17 episodes cited find individual expression in the 17 sculptures surely would require very close viewing, preferably with a copy of the epic in hand.

Katie Murken, an emerging installation and book artist with a new installation, "Continua," on view at Gallery 2J, is an especially strong talent. It will be interesting to see what she next comes up with, after this unusual achievement, two years in the making.

Her current systems-based "Continua" project features 24 floor-to-ceiling columns made of reclaimed Philadelphia phone books that no one viewing the show would recognize as such. That's because the phone books - the basic modules of the show - have been transformed into dazzlingly colorful hand-dyed units according to, Murken's preestablished color formula, then stacked by her. For each column, Murken sets forth a unique scale of 24 colors, chosen according to a set of probabilities. The system allowed her to "play" the color spectrum like a musical instrument.

Also on view are diagrams showing the mechanics she employed to create her rich, chordal color shifts.

Murken's interest in color as a continuous element developed while she was teaching at Tyler School of Art's Foundations program, from which she took a leave of absence to pursue the project.

Michael Willse's solo "Dumbstuck/Restruck: repair, recovery and reclamations" at Cabrini College recalls his student days at Mastbaum High in Kensington decades ago, when he was vaguely on track to become an illustrator or commercial artist. Today he has built a strong reputation both for drawing and as a serious printmaker. What made things change?

The turning point occurred at Mastbaum when Willse was entrusted with repairing the school's copy of Rodin's sculpture The Thinker, which had been vandalized. Having that confidence placed in him was a boost that became a fast-forward to gathering his own thoughts and aspirations as a would-be artist.

These 42 featured intaglio prints and four oils on paper show the direction his art now takes.

In the intaglios, the craftsmanship displayed is impressive, providing special pleasure when looked at closely. Willse also displays a talent for capturing a scene with figures and translating it into eloquent, somewhat abstract form, with shafts of light and color playing over the ground.

Showing a deep respect for his subjects, Willse avoids a reportorial look; some prints have a muted quality of memory.