St. Francis Medical Centers’ extensive collection of work by acclaimed artists will be sold to further its mission of long-term care

By Patrick Downes

For sale by auction Here is an incomplete list of the art from St. Francis Medical Centers that will be sold at auction at McClain Auctions in Honolulu, 10 a.m., Sept. 9. Some of the pieces have listed their appraised or estimated worth. “Pieta” -- Jean Charlot, 20” x 24”, oil on canvas, 1940, $18,000 “Pieta” -- Jean Charlot, 20” x 23”, oil on canvas, 1977, $15,000 “Magus” -- Edward Stasack, 12 ½” x 8 ½”, intaglio, 1958 “Saint Joseph and Child Jesus” -- Jean Charlot, 24 ¾” x 20 ¾”, oil on canvas, 1964, $25,000 “For Odilon Redon” -- Ben Norris, 9 ¼” x 5 ½”, paper collage with acrylic polymer plastic, 1959 “Koolau Mountains” -- Antoinette Martin, 12” x 19”, pastel drawing on paper “Hawaiian Petroglyph Series” -- Edward Stasack, Variou sizes, series of nine sepia tone collagraph prints, 1995 “Bamboo Player” -- Jean Charlot, 21” x 18”, print, 1976 “The Turtle Bowl” -- Jean Charlot, 21” x 17”, print, circa 1975 “Drummer Man” -- Jean Charlot, 21” x 17 ½”, black on white lithograph, 1970 “Tuki Derua (Bamboo Pipe Player)” -- Jean Charlot, 21 ¾” x 17 ½”, color lithograph 19/150, circa 1970, $2,000 “Unknown” -- Bernard Buffet, 27” x 19”, ink and paint on board, 1956 “Lavandera” -- Jean Charlot, 7” x 5”, woodcut, circa 1936 “Dark Madonna” -- Jean Charlot, 20” x 14”, color lithograph, 1954 “Kinohi” -- Harue McVay, 51” x 71”, 300 lbs., abstract stoneware sculpture, 1997, $7,000 “Series of 4 temple rubbings, Siam/Indonesia” -- Unknown, 23” x 24”, temple rubbings “Paris Landscape” -- Bernard Buffet, 22” x 30”, lithograph, 1956 “View of Portofino” -- Manfred Kuhnert, 26” x 36”, oil on canvas transfer “Time Has No Journey” -- Antoinette Martin, 32 ¼” x 26”, pastel “Rural Oahu” -- Juanita Vitousek, 19” x 24 ¾”, watercolor, circa 1973 “Blue Sky” -- Juanita Vitousek, 19” x 25”, watercolor, 1973 “Chinese Wedding Procession” -- Unknown, 31 ½” x 202 ¼”, embroidery on silk, late 19th/ early 20th Century “Rest and Work” -- Jean Charlot, 22” x 19 ¾”, oil on canvas, 1937, $20,000 “Hawaii Pali” -- Ben Norris, 11” x 16”, color woodcut, 1957 “Madonna and the Pillar” -- Juliette May Fraser, 13” x 11”, etching, 1971 “Tali Ibe: Weaving Mats” -- Jean Charlot, 21 ½” x 17 ½”, lithograph “Earthseed 9/75” -- Marcia Morse, 26 3/8” x 20 3/8”, print assembled with chine colle process, 1997 “Black Worker” -- Jean Charlot, 20 ¼” x 14 ¼”, color lithograph, 1971 “Madonna and Child” -- Erica Karawina, 15” x 11 ¾”, color lino-cut, 1954 “Lumahai Beach” -- Gary Reed, 19 ¾” x 34 ¾”, giclee print, 1991 “Majesty” -- Steve Kastner, 43” x 57”, photography, 1999 “Moaula Stream” -- Steve Kastner, 60” x 40”, photography, 1988 “Afternoon Shadows, Kupeka” -- Steve Kastner, 29” x 39”, photography, 1988 “Coast of Kalaupapa, Kalawao Colors” -- Steve Kastner, 30” x 75”, photography, 1989 “Coconut Moonset” -- Steve Kastner, 30” x 20”, photography, 1986 “Unknown” -- David Sheppard, 49” x 49”, acrylic on canvas, 1978 “Molokai” -- Peggy Chun, 14” x 21 1/2”, watercolor, 2001 “Halawa Bay” -- Steve Kastner, 30” x 45”, photography, 2001 “The Holy Family” -- Jean Charlot, 23” x 19”, oil on canvas, 1959; $18,000 “Mexican Mother and Child” -- Jean Charlot, 16 ¾” x 12 ¾”, color lithograph, 1948

The Sisters of St. Francis have always incorporated an aesthetic eye in their ministries of compassion. Whether it was dressing their Kalaupapa patients in the latest fashion finery, or enhancing the halls and walls of their medical centers with fine art, they valued the healing properties of beautiful things.

This philosophy has resulted in an extensive collection of commissioned and donated work by acclaimed artists for St. Francis Medical Centers, Liliha and Ewa, that have made the hospitals more comforting and less sterile for patients, families and visitors.

The approaching sale of the two hospitals could have left a large number of valuable paintings, drawings, sculptures and mixed media homeless.

That was until Eugene Tiwanak had a suggestion: “Give them to me.”

As president of the St. Francis Healthcare Foundation of Hawaii, Tiwanak is charged with raising funds needed for the growth and operation of St. Francis Healthcare System.

St. Francis has embarked on a new campaign to build a third hospice, this one to serve the East Oahu community

Tiwanak suggested that the sisters sell the art to raise money for the new hospice.

The hospice is part of the Franciscan Sisters’ effort to refocus their Hawaii mission toward long term care, a shift most dramatically demonstrated by the sale of their flagship hospitals.

The sale of these art pieces would be another dramatic move that could help “further the mission of the sisters,” Tiwanak explained to the Hawaii Catholic Herald July 21.

The sisters agreed and Tiwanak came up a plan, a two-event program that would result in the sale of the pieces, additional contributions, and important attention directed to the new hospice campaign.

Event number one is a live auction at McClain Auctions, on the corner of King Street and Nuuanu Avenue in Honolulu, Sept. 9 at 10 a.m.

The auction will showcase at least 50 major works from the primary St. Francis collection. Tagged by McClain as an “important Hawaiiana art collection,” on sale will be works by Jean Charlot, Edward Stasack, Ben Norris, Antoinette Martin, Bernard Buffet, Harue McVay, Juliette May Frasier, Peggy Chun, Juanita Vitousek, Erica Karawina, Steve Kastner, Marcia Morse and more.

“We have some very, very valuable pieces.” Tiwanak said. “We are trying to reach an international audience.”

The second event is “Art … and All That Jazz,” a gala dinner show, art sale and silent auction, with entertainment by some of Hawaii’s best young jazz artists. In addition to pieces taken from the medical centers, new art work is being solicited for the sale and silent auction.

Not all the St. Francis art will be sold. Some are too big to move or, in the case of frescos, part of the building. Some may be used for the new hospice.

St. Francis hopes to raise at least $500,000 from both the auction and the dinner show.

The St. Francis Foundation is accepting donations of art to be sold at the dinner show. For more information, contact Eugene Tiwanak at 547-6877.