New York native Bonnie Sklarski (born 1943) earned a BFA from Pratt Institute and an MFA from Brooklyn College. Her work (primarily portraiture) was been exhibited in New York City, Philadelphia, and in galleries around the country. Sklarski’s work on Indiana University Bloomington’s campus includes a permanent Franklin Hall installation of the university’s motto, Lux et Veritas, portraits of Nobel Prize recipient Elinor Ostrom and IU Metalsmithing and Jewelry professor Alma Eikerman (both of which are included in the Indiana Memorial Union’s “Women of Indiana University” portrait collection), and three portraits of O’Neill School deans (each of which will be featured on this blog).
Sklarski taught fine arts from 1970-2009 and is a professor emerita of fine arts in Indiana University’s Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture, + Design. She was the first female tenure-track professor in painting (regarded as one of the nation’s best figurative painting programs). She was honored with the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1998 (for her course Anatomy for the Artist, which she taught for 30 years) and the Bicentennial Medal in 2020.
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