Stanislaus State art department co-founder, renowned printmaker dies at 81

Martin Camarata, who along with founding instructor Ralf Parton built the California State University, Stanislaus, art department from the ground up, died last month after a long illness. He was 81.

For nearly 40 years, Camarata served as an instructor and chair of the department of art at Stanislaus State. He and founding faculty member Parton structured the department, then oversaw it “like a feisty bird guarding the nest,” says a university memo to staff about the death.

He was a Stanislaus State professor emeritus at the time of his death and very involved in the Turlock arts community.

“He was very much paternal and watched out for everybody, and always willing to go toe-to-toe with the administration for all the right reasons – always for the students,” said Roxanne Robbin, current chair of the department of art, who was hired by Camarata in 1990.

“He operated on such a high level in terms of ideas, engagement and expectations of colleagues and students, but did it in such a way that everybody wanted to live up to it,” she said.

“I think of him like the Italian father, the godfather – all the good parts of that in terms of his paternalism. He really did take care of everyone,” Robbin said.

Camarata, renowned nationally as a printmaker, died just days after turning 81 on June 11. He is survived by his wife, Geraldine, and daughters Lauren and Michelle.

A native of Rochester, N.Y., Camarata studied at the University of Rochester and the State University at Buffalo, N.Y., and earned his master’s in art from New York University in 1957.

It was while studying in Buffalo that Camarata met Parton, who made sure Camarata was the Stanislaus department’s second hire, and the two went about building the university’s art program from scratch when the campus moved away from the county fairground site.

“He was a great artist and there’s no two ways about it,” Parton said. “We were as close as brothers. He was a student of mine at Buffalo State and then I was the best man at his wedding.”

Parton was the department chair for seven years, handing the duties to Camarata around 1971.

“Marty and Ralf designed and built both the academic program and the facility,” said Richard Savini, who was hired by Camarata in 1983 and continues to teach painting and drawing. “That’s no small task. What they figured out was all the things that went with the standards and the dimensions of the process. They were very serious about establishing and maintaining standards in art education.”

Camarata’s printwork has exhibited nationally, including the Philadelphia Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. He earned a Fulbright grant in painting and printmaking and used it to study in Rome, and also was awarded a Lily Foundation Summer Grant from Stanford.

Later in his artistic career, he embraced the computer as a creative tool and began to celebrate the endless possibilities of textures, colors, patterns and combinations of imagery generated by digital manipulation.

“He developed the program and he shepherded it through a lot of different times,” Robbin said. “He never compromised, so when you look at the facilities, yes, they’re 50 years old, but everything from the machinery to the type of floor he had put in is very much useful.”

No public services are planned. The family encourages memorial donations in Camarata’s name to the Stanislaus State art department printmaking fund and to Turlock’s Carnegie Arts Center.

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 2:08 PM with the headline "Stanislaus State art department co-founder, renowned printmaker dies at 81."