In Memoriam: John Dirks

For nearly 30 years, John H. Dirks was a professor of art at San Diego State University, with several of those years serving as chair of the department. Late last year on Christmas day, Dirks passed away at the age of 94. 

A memorial honoring him will will be held this Saturday, March 28, at 4 p.m., in the courtyard of the Art Building at SDSU.

A resident of the Mount Helix area for more than 60 years, Dirks graduated from Hoover High School in 1932 where he played football and ran track. At San Diego State College, he played football for the Aztecs, at first intending to concentrate on physical education to become a coach. However, professor and painter Everett Gee Jackson counseled him to change his major to art, thus beginning a lifelong friendship between the two artists.

After graduating from SDSC in 1937 with a teaching credential, Dirks taught at Hoover High School before obtaining a job at Consolidated Aircraft, teaching B-24 bomber crews the various aircraft systems. At that time, the U.S. Navy was offering commissions as Naval Recognition Officers to college graduates with degrees in art. Dirks was called to active duty as an ensign on March 1, 1943, and reported to the Naval Air station at Quonset Point, R.I. He was promoted to lieutenant and reassigned to Alameda Naval Air Station in the San Francisco Bay area.

After being released from active duty in September 1946, Dirks returned to San Diego to find a position at what was then San Diego State College, beginning a long teaching career spanning four decades where he encouraged numerous students and mentored many other artists of the next generation.

In addition to teaching, Dirks' efforts focused on designing and building a contemporary house on Alzeda Drive in the Mount Helix area of La Mesa. It was designed to fit on a natural shelf on the hillside among large granite boulders and was made of stone, wood and glass, and shaped by the use of posts and beams, all proportioned to combine utility and esthetic values. The floor plan was arranged so that each room was afforded the maximum view of El Cajon Valley and the mountains to the northeast.

Dirks designed and built his studio just above the house with its own unobstructed view of El Cajon, and it was here that he entered his most productive period of creating architectural sculptures. His lifelong work was recognized in a recent exhibition, "John Dirks, Sculptor – A Retrospective," presented at the Mingei Museum in Balboa Park in November 2006.

He and his father, Henry J. Dirks, established Dirks Design Workshop, which specialized in designing and building furniture and high-fidelity radio-phonograph systems. As a prominent sculptor and furniture designer, he exhibited throughout the western United States, winning numerous awards and recognition for his work in sculptures, wood furniture, ceramics and mosaics. During his most prolific period, he created numerous abstract sculptures of generally geometric and architectural forms, often relying upon the golden mean for their proportions while exploring positive and negative space. His mediums were typically wood, wood and acrylic, or transparent and opaque acrylic.

Dirks served as a juror for numerous exhibitions. He was an invited participant to the First World Congress of Craftsmen in New York and subsequently exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York. He was a founding member of the Latin American Arts Committee of the San Diego Museum of Art and was the last surviving founding member of the San Diego Allied Craftsmen.

Dirks was preceded in death by his wife Ruth and son David. He is survived by his son, Douglas Dirks, daughter-in-law Karen and granddaughter Jelena, all of Chicago, Ill., and grandson Olin of Omaha, Neb.

The memorial will be held at 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 28, in the courtyard of the Art Building at SDSU.

For directions please call (619) 594-1343, or email [email protected]. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the "SDSU Downtown Art Gallery," SDSU – PSFA 212, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-4512.

Dirks himself contributed to the gallery as just one expression of his love for the university and for all of the people therein.