: There is a name behind the faces that currently adorn
the walls in the Athenaeum, and if you’ve not yet heard, that name is Marion
Hewlett Pike.
: Pike, who died four years ago on Feb. 4, 1998, was a third-generation
native Californian and a distant relative to both Kit Carson and
Benjamin Rush. She had lived in Los Angeles and in Paris, though
she traveled frequently across the Atlantic, visiting with friends
and family while embarking on new adventures in her artistry.
: The exhibition of more than 50 of Pike’s paintings at CMC is
a rare treat, as it reflects one of the largest collections of portraiture
by a single artist exhibited anywhere. It also happens to be the
first public exhibition of Pike’s work, says longtime friend
and artist Barbara Beretich, who arranged the Ath exhibit.
: Visitors have already recognized some of the familiar
faces included in Pike’s collection: Bob Hope, Coco Chanel, Lucille Simon,
and Rosalind Russell – legends who were personal friends. During a visit
to the Ath on Valentine’s Day, Pike’s daughter, Jeffie Pike Durham,
provided some of the social history behind the paintings, and shared stories
about what it was like to grow up with an artist mother. “She was always
ready to meet and to help someone with talent,” Pike Durham said of her
mother, who had once helped Beretich (who was 20 years her junior) find a place
to stay in Paris, so she could study there.
: Pike and Beretich had become friends in the 1960s when Beretich
was a young sculptress who had just earned a master’s in fine
arts at Claremont Graduate School (now CGU). When Pike died, Beretich
became curator and custodian of her paintings, a lifetime collection
that includes more than 2,000 works. The portion displayed at the
Ath demonstrates Pike’s creative range, with quiet, calming
pastel pieces juxtaposed with darker, more dramatic and somewhat
mysterious renderings.
: Pike was raised in San Francisco and graduated from Stanford University.
Although she was known to paint into the wee hours of the morning,
she had many interests outside of her artwork. Among them: golf,
tennis, and horseback riding.
: Says Beretich of Pike’s CMC exhibit, “This is but a small portion to be seen of an unbelievable output by a tiny woman: small in stature, great in every other arena of life.”