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John Clemmer
was born in 1921 on a plantation in southern Louisiana near the small
town of Donaldsonville. His father, a Wisconsin native, married a
daughter of a French-speaking family which traced its presence in
Louisiana back to the 18th century. In 1928, the family relocated
to New Orleans, where Clemmer received a public education. Following
his graduation from high school, Clemmer was awarded a scholarship
to the New Orleans Art School. He moved to the French Quarter and
began his studies with Paul Ninas, Xavier Gonzales, Enrique Alferez,
and others. By 1951, Clemmer was Executive Secretary of the New Orleans Arts and Crafts Club – the city’s first contemporary art gallery – and Director of the affiliated New Orleans School of Art. It was through classes at the New Orleans School of Art that Clemmer met his future wife, Dorothy Iker, a native of Chicago. They were married in 1953, and began spending summers at the Iker family cottage outside of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, near the shores of Lake Michigan. They later acquired the adjoining property where they renovated a second cottage, and built a studio which Clemmer designed. Clemmer’s long affiliation with Tulane University began in 1951 when he accepted a position as Instructor of Drawing, Painting and Basic Design in the School of Architecture. Several years later, he taught Art Fundamentals in the Department of Art of Newcomb College, at that time the women’s college of Tulane University. Clemmer remained a full-time member of the faculty of the School of Architecture for 27 years, attaining the rank of Professor in 1974. When he left in 1978, it was to become the Chairman of the Newcomb Art Department, a position he held until his retirement from Tulane in 1986 as Professor Emeritus. During his Newcomb tenure, he became the first recipient of the Ford and Maxine Graham Chair in Fine Art. Throughout his long academic career, Clemmer maintained a studio away from the University. He exhibited his work regularly at two-to-three-year intervals in local and regional galleries throughout the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, including several shows in the historic Clemmer residence. As his academic responsibilities increased, the solo exhibitions became less frequent, although he continued to show in group exhibitions locally, nationally, and internationally. Following his retirement from academe, Clemmer turned his full attention to his studios in New Orleans and Sheboygan, Wisconsin. (continued) |