Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/William Utermohlen/archive5

The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was archived by FrB.TG via FACBot (talk) 20 January 2024 [1].

William Utermohlen edit

Nominator(s): Realmaxxver (talk) 21:41, 29 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This article is about William Utermohlen, a figurative artist who was diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's disease, and decided to document his mental decline through self-portraits.

This article has been the subject of many failed attempts to get this article featured, and after a look through the sources cited in this article, and generally adding content where I could find it, I am decently sure that this will meet the FA criteria. I say decently because, if the previous four FACs have learned me anything, every single time I thought I was gonna get the star, I failed, so I should never be confident about if it will actually succeed.

Notes:

Image review conducted by Premeditated Chaos in the previous FAC omits three images that weren't in the article at the time: They are placed in the Early life, Legacy and Exhibitions sections.
Concerns about lack of comprehensiveness, based on use of the Laino source (called Neurology Today in previous FACs, in FACs 2 and 4) have been addressed. I have also added some extra content from other sources, which is around 700 words of added content. I have also added a new book source, Zausner 2022.

Thanks, Realmaxxver (talk) 21:41, 29 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

UC edit

Thanks for bringing this up, and I admire your tenacity in persevering with it. It's a sad story and an interesting subject, particularly as an artist who never got to enjoy the considerable recognition he received. I'm not really qualified to comment either on medicine or on art, but will do my best to pick up MoS, prose, clarity and general polish.

Diagnosed in 1995, he had developed progressive memory loss four years prior in 1991: any reason not to go with chronological order here: e.g. "he developed progressive memory loss in 1991 and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1995"? Generally speaking, it's clearer to report things in the order that they happened.

I did this, but Ceoil pretty much reverted it in the copyedit.

Upon receiving his diagnosis he began a series of self-portraits influenced in part by the figurative painter Francis Bacon and cinematographers from the movement of German Expressionism.: I'd look at this one again: it's a bit long and it's not totally clear whether in part modifies just Bacon or both (in other words: was part Bacon and part German cinema, or was there a third part of something else?)

Changed to "influenced by both the artist..." There wasn't really a third part.

the last of his self-portraits were made circa 2001: I'm not a fan of circa in flowing text ("around 2001" is clearer to the minority of readers who don't speak fluent Latin), but should be italicised and linked if we're going to insist.

Linked and italicised

Something's gone wrong at the end of the lead: the semicolon either needs to become a full stop or the last sentence needs a more serious look.

Fixed

At the time, that section of Philadelphia was split along language lines; his family would have been in the German-speaking part of the city, but inward migration across the United States resulted in them living in the Italian bloc.: I don't quite understand this -- are we saying that when they moved there, everyone else spoke German, but then a bunch of Italian speakers moved in, leaving the German-speakers now a minority?

The source states that it was the Germans that moved out of South Philadelphia, and I'm assuming that after that it was primarily Italians. I think inward migration is the wrong term for this, since the article it redirects to (Repatriation) is about when a person goes back to their country; and the source clearly states that these Germans spread out across the US. I have edited the text.

Due to racial tensions, Utermohlen's parents did not allow him to venture outside of his immediate surrounding: not sure racial is quite the right word if we mean German-American vs. Italian-American.

Ceoil also took care of this in the copyedit.

Manu Sharma of the art magazine STIRworld speculates that his parents' protectiveness may have a factor in the development of his artistic creativity: may have been? Does Sharma elaborate at all on how it might have been such, or what it might have done for his art?

Specified.

Speaking to The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2001, Utermohlen said about his childhood: "If you weren't good at sports, you were no good at all".: is U. expressing his recollection of his parents' point of view here, or someone else's? It's not immediately clear how this quotation fits into the story.

Removed

Seems a bit of a shame; it sounds like a quote with a story behind it that could add a lot to our sense of where he came from, as an artist and a person. Was there really no context to it that could be found? UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 23:02, 1 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I would restate U's name at least on first use in a section, and by preference on first use in each paragraph (that is, don't begin a section or paragraph with "he" or similar).

Done. Will soon fix this in later sections.

Utermohlen completed his military service in 1953: was he unlucky enough to be one of the last through the draft? Do we know anything about his time in uniform (I assume he didn't get sent to Korea?)

where he was heavily influenced by the works of Giotto and Nicolas Poussin: per MOS:NOFORCELINK, I'd briefly introduce who/when these people were, as we did for Walter Stuempfig.

Specified.

everybody else... he: the MoS style is a space on either side: everybody else ... he

Fixed

The Ruskin School of Art is not just in Oxford, it's part of the university (which would have made U. an Oxford student). We would therefore say "at Oxford" rather than "at Ruskin" (but "at the Ruskin if we explicitly mean the building). Should this feature in his education in the infobox, and do we know what sort of degree he studied (I'm guessing something like an MFA?)

Ceoil again took care of this in the copyedit he did on the article, I noticed that when I was going to fix it. Also none of the sources I could find specified the degree.

There's no the in Amherst College.

Fixed.

What's the Marlborough Gallery and why should we be interested in it?

I am pretty sure there was mention in one of the sources of it being his first major exhibition. I thought it was in the Studio 360 audio article, but it wasn't. I'll include that the second I find the source for it.

From 1972, Utermohlen taught art at the Amherst College in Massachusetts, where Redmond received her master's degree.: as written, it sound as though these things happened at the same time: is that true?

Yeah it isn't, Redmond got her master's degree in 1975 according to the source, reworded that part of the section.

lived in London where he gained nationality in 1992: needs to be gained British nationality or dual nationality as appropriate.

Fixed to British Nationality

I'm going to stop there for now -- at the moment I'm seeing a lot of spit-and-polish stuff that needs a look, and it wouldn't be fair to generate a colossal heap of it here. Would suggest a good look over the rest of the article for similar things once this lot is handled: please do ping me when you're ready for me to move forward. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 20:58, 30 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

He taught art at the Amherst College in Massachusetts from 1972, where he spent his last year as an artist-in-residence. In 1975, Redmond received her master degree at Massachusetts: this is now a bit confused. From what I gather, U was a lecturer at Amherst (again, no the: just Amherst College like Oxford University) from 1972 until 1974, then (also?) an artist in residence for the 1974–1975 academic year, which was also the year where Redmond took her Master's (note spelling: it's a degree that belongs to a master) there. Could the chronology be a little clearer in the text? In particular, we've talked about "his last year" without being clear as to when that was. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 23:02, 1 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ceoil edit

Echoing UndercoverClassicist, am also very pleased to see the nominator's continued work on such a worthy subject, and noting the improvements based on feedback during and following the last FAC.

As a first comment, the TOC could do with some re-organising; maybe merge life and work so it is fully chronological; currently we have "Early life" - "style" - "late works/death" - "late works". The only sub sect here would move to a second-level would be influences. In other words, suggest...."Early life/Six cycles/Alzheimers/Self-portraits/Influences/Legacy.

I'll do that after this get archived/promoted.

Would cut down info on the early cycles; they are frankly very poor and individually not art historically significant; cover them off as a group, removing irrelevant statements like "Some of the Mummers paintings were stored at a house in Germantown that Utermohlen's parents moved to", "According to the French psychoanalyst Patrice Polini, the Dante and Mummers also alludes to the theme of war."

First one is 100% unnecessary, and also the other part

Key points can be kept like, "cites the Dante cycle as making him into a mature and committed figurative artist", "the inclusion of isolated soldiers represented his feelings of being an outsider", "the cycle was created as a "vehicle for expressing my anxiety", "as an attempt to describe his life before memory loss"

Kept

I think the article is too long, eg a lot of the quotes in the Legacy section could be paraphrased or removed, eg
"caus[ed] a tremendous stir in the artistic and scientific world." replace "tremendous stir" with "media coverage within"

Done
"indicative of a process above and beyond normal aging, particularly given his relatively young age at onset" - could be reworded
Removed the latter part as I felt it wasn't necessary
"a testament to the resilience of human creativity" - what does this mean
"his willingness to work with The Lancet made his self-portraits "free from the diagnostic uncertainty which has made assessment of de Kooning's work so controversial" - - what does this mean Ceoil (talk) 01:25, 1 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hello? Ceoil (talk) 22:55, 15 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Coordinator note: issues still persist after three weeks, and the nominator seems to have abandoned/forgotten about this nomination. I recommend that you work with the reviewers outside the FAC venue and renominate once you receive positive feedback from them. In any case, the usual two-week wait before another nomination will apply. FrB.TG (talk) 18:55, 20 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Closing note: This candidate has been archived, but there may be a delay in bot processing of the close. Please see WP:FAC/ar, and leave the {{featured article candidates}} template in place on the talk page until the bot goes through. FrB.TG (talk) 18:55, 20 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.