Author: Nate Madden
Gertrude Quastler led a life that I thought could only exist in stories. She nearly died in her twenties from tuberculosis, married the doctor who nursed her back to health, and escaped Europe and the Nazi Regime just before the onset of World War II. In the US, she studied under famous artists, had shows in major cities across the country, and developed her own style across several mediums. As talented and prolific as she was, her husband matched that in his own profession–medicine. Two people standing on opposite sides of the arts-sciences spectrum that became, by all accounts and action, absolutely inseparable. This is a life undoubtedly worthy of scholarship, but for now, there is unfortunately little information on Quastler.
I would tell anyone who would listen about Quastler, about the wide range of mediums and styles and inspiration she could have pulled from, and about her experiences, how Quastler could switch so seamlessly from a woodcut using old scalpels to creating an impressionist oil painting. Lucky for me, I was not relegated to just friends and family–as part of my internship at the University Art Gallery, I was able to develop a social media presentation on Quastler for the UAG’s Instagram page.
When I started at the UAG, I didn’t know that I’d be working on social media. UAG Director Dr. Rhor and graduate student assistant Janina Lopez encouraged me to use social media as a method of expressing what I find interesting and gearing it towards their audience. They told me that the UAG has so many items stashed in their collections room, and even more in the print room, that they never get a chance to exhibit.
This internship provided me with the opportunity to gain experience and skills in crafting a message and then locating that message within images, but also in how this process works for an arts organization. Each post requires, for example, an image identification and an image description (both, unfortunately, use the acronym I.D.). And each post reveals something and opens the institution up to the world around it, building new interests and renewing the old.
Nate Madden, Museum Studies intern at the University Art Gallery, Spring 2023