A Texas Tech alum took time Thursday to remember his aunt, as he and his sister donated one of her paintings to Covenant Medical Center’s Children’s Hospital. Dr. Robert Salem, chief medical officer of Covenant and a graduate of Texas Tech, and his sister Betty Korioth, donated a painting by their aunt Jennie Haddad entitled “Madonna and Child.”
The painting is located in the lobby of the children’s hospital. Salem said Covenant Hospital was an appropriate setting for the painting because it consists of a merger between Catholic and Methodist entities. Salem and Korioth are Methodists, but their aunt was Catholic. In a presentation, Korioth said family gatherings often included spirited religious conversations between Haddad and their father. These conversations would always result in the two of them “agreeing to disagree,” Korioth said.
Salem said his aunt was a prolific painter. He said at the time of her death, she had nearly 400 paintings in her home.
“The house was just littered with paintings,” he said. “You could hardly find a place to sit down.”
Haddad’s husband died when she was in her 40s and she had no children, so painting became important to her.
“Her paintings became her children,” Salem said, noting that she would only sell paintings occasionally to pay for living expenses.
Haddad was known for painting in a style called “abstract realism” by art critics. She used vivid colors in her paintings, and often painted with religious themes in mind. Salem said her earlier works were unusually abstract.
“She’d paint something and hold it up and ask, ‘Do you like this?’ Then, she would turn it another way and ask, ‘How about now?’” he said.
Korioth said Haddad was a spiritual woman and her art reflected her devotion.
“She saw God in nature,” she said. “She had God on her mind most all of the time.”
Salem and Korioth remember their aunt as caring woman. She left her home studying with a well-known artist in New York City to return to Texas to care for her ailing sister.
“She was very spiritual,” Korioth said. “She loved people and she loved her God.”
The atrium of the Covenant Children’s Hospital contains another artwork by members of Salem’s family. A large, antique “flying machine,” containing toys from the family hangs from the ceiling. It was acquired from an antique shop and restored by Salem’s daughter and her family. The atrium of the Children’s Hospital was designed to accommodate the art.
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