By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
GREAT BEND — The Shafer Art Gallery on the campus of Barton Community College opened
in 1992 as a way to permanently display an art collection and present exhibits
from all over the world.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Shafer Gallery Director David Barnes said the
gallery is just starting to reemerge with displays and folks visiting to see the
exhibits.
Over the course of 30 years, the gallery has made an impact on numerous
artists, students and spectators.
An artist by the name of Scott Thein, who lived primarily in New York, had
drawings featured in the Great Bend gallery in 2016.
“Scott was a colorful character,” said Barnes. “We found out he was incredibly
talented and one of the most intelligent artists I’ve ever met.”
Thein passed away in June 2022 from complications with cancer. Before Thein
passed away, he asked Barnes if he could find a home in the gallery for a “special”
painting.
“The painting was done by a relative of Scott’s, by the name of Miksa Timar-Thein,”
said Barnes. “Miksa was a very well-known Hungarian painter. The story is, this
individual left Poland and sought refuge in Paris, France right before World
War II.”
Miksa died in the Holocaust. Several of his paintings were passed down to his
relatives. Scott Thein received one of his works and then gifted the oil painting
to the gallery.
“Scott wanted this painting to be kept in a place that he trusted and valued,”
said Barnes. “On one of his trips from New York, he rolled up the painting and
stuck it in his suitcase. It’s an oil painting and the oil painting cracked.
When he brought it to me, it was a disaster.”
Along with the painting, Scott Thein gave the Shafer Art Gallery at Barton the
finances to send the painting to the Western Center for the Conservation of
Fine Arts in Colorado to have it restored.
Thein also gave the gallery a generous legacy with a fund that can be used for
restoration and preservation of any other works in the gallery’s collection.
“I think this donation is a testament to the way that we can provide a place
for people to trust,” said Barnes. “That’s what was heartwarming to me. Trust
ran through the story so deeply. Scott really trusted us to be able to take
care of this and he knew that we would do it right.”
Barnes referred to Miksa Timar-Thein as a significant artist of the period
between 1874 and 1940.
