JOHN FRAZER

JOHN FRAZER, 82, Wesleyan professor of art, emeritus, who was a teacher, artist, and scholar in painting, drawing, and film, died July 7, 2014. Originally from Texas, he graduated from the University of Texas with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and subsequently continued his studies at the Yale School of Art and Architecture where he earned a Master of Fine Arts. He began his career at Wesleyan in 1959, where he was regarded as a gifted teacher. He retired in 2001 after more than 40 years of service. In his creative work, he was primarily a painter. His paintings found audiences at more than 40 exhibitions throughout the country, with venues ranging from the Yale University Gallery and the Kaufman Gallery in New York, to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and the Kawasaki Gallery in Osaka, Japan. He directed eight documentary films, including Balasaraswati, a study of the South Indian dancer Tanjore Balasaraswati. In addition to his creative work he was a respected scholar, publishing in the area of film studies and art with articles about, among others, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, documentary filmmaking, and the early years of cinema. He was instrumental in establishing Wesleyan’s Program in Film Studies and was commissioned to direct a documentary for the college’s sesquicentennial in the early 1970s. Aside from his professional life, he was an active member of the Middletown community, serving on the Middletown Commission on the Arts and Committee for Design and Preservation. Susan MAT ’62, his wife of many years, who taught French at Wesleyan, predeceased him in 1992. He is survived by his spouse, Will Hall, his daughter, Katherine Frazer Thayer, and her husband, Scott Thayer.