This week a researcher visited the Collection. She's writing about an artist who was a close friend of Ade Bethune's from the National Academy of Design and Cooper Union. We have some correspondence between them, but she was also looking for more general information about Bethune. Since Ade Bethune was one of the major influences for the artist she is writing about, she wanted to get a sense of Bethune's thoughts on art.
I brought out the correspondence between Ade Bethune and Graham Carey, which begins in 1935 and runs through 1973—although there are fewer letters from the later years. Bethune and Carey had a prolific correspondence, discussing (among many other things) their views on art in general and Christian/Catholic art in particular. The researcher was impressed with the precociousness and maturity of ideas Bethune expressed, considering she was in her early 20s when they began writing each other. She remarked how it was difficult not to go slowly through the letters, reading every bit. She had to keep reminding herself she is not actually writing about Bethune.
An increasing fascination with Ade Bethune and her work is a common characteristic of visitors to the Collection. Most people who come find much more than they counted on, and more than a few get sidetracked down paths they didn't originally intend. The same happens when I give presentations on her and the Collection, as I did last week to a theology class. Several students expressed an interest in finding out more about her. The infectious power of Ade Bethune is strong, and draws people in to her art and life.
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