As freshmen at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), aspiring artists George Nama and George Romero became friends, often going to movies together and talking about perhaps one day collaborating.
They remained close for years after graduating. Nama became a renowned artist with work featured at museums that include the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Romero filmed “Night of the Living Dead”—perhaps the most influential horror movie ever made.
The idea of working together stayed in the background until 2017, when the pair teamed up for what would be Romero’s final work. “Liberator,” a short story paired with etchings by Nama. His etchings are placed on a spread next to pages with Romero’s text, each framed and signed.
The collaboration is the centerpiece for “George Nama: Sixty Years of Selected Works,” an exhibition of paintings, etchings and sculptures, now running through May 31 at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts gallery in Pasadena.
“I look at this as two friends working together on something that they both have feelings for,” said Nama, 86. “George was my friend the longest of all the people I’ve worked with, and I respected what he was doing and how he stayed with it. I was so happy for his success, and he was very, very supportive of what I did as well. He used to come to all my shows.”
Through the years, Nama has collaborated with several artists, including Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic and Austrian pianist-poet Alfred Brendel.
The artists had no intention of mass publishing “Liberator.” There was a limited printing of a portfolio—35 copies only, according to Rutberg.
“The only way to read his short story is on the wall of the gallery,” Rutberg said. “Even in this age of reproduction and the digital age, there’s still this moment where personal engagement is critical.”
Rutberg has known Nama and shown his work for many years, but he only spoke to Romero once. “It was a telephone conversation,” he explained.
“George Romero was going to be given the star on Hollywood Boulevard, and we timed the reveal of ‘ Liberator’ to coincide with that event. He was very excited and proud of this endeavor with one of his best friends. And I congratulated him about the star on Hollywood Boulevard and he said, ‘Oh, I don’t care about that.”‘
But about a week after the phone call, Romero died. The exhibit became more of a memorial than a celebration. Nama has continued working, but he also hasn’t stopped planning the next part of his collaboration with Romero— a stage production.
The artists discussed turning “Liberator” into an opera. Nama shared the work with his former collaborator, Brendel, who told him he could hear the music as he was reading the text.
A librettist was brought on board, Rutberg said, but the early drafts strayed too far from the original text.
Still, Nama hasn’ t given up on the plan, which was part of some of his last talks with his friend.
“I told him on the telephone that I was going to follow this through,” Nama said. “And it’s a struggle because I’m not mechanically set up for all of this. I don’t even have a computer. But this is why I always think of this as being a work that is still in progress.”
Meanwhile, “Liberator” lives on the gallery walls, and Rutberg is happy to bring it to a new audience. The gallery owner had been a fixture on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles for more than four decades before moving to Pasadena a couple of years ago. He is pleased to be near the Norton Simon Museum and the Huntington Library, which he considers to be “two of the greatest institutions in America.” He hopes showing works such as “Liberator” will help build the city’s reputation for fine art.
Rutberg said that while Nama is an eclectic artist, he is a devotee of printmaking, and has followed the centuries-old tradition of collaboration between printmakers and writers. Rutberg considers this one of Nama’s finest efforts.
“It’s beautifully presented, beautifully printed, from the paper to the typeset and George Nama’s color etchings,” he said. “And there’s no other way to see this.”