EXHIBITIONS

I Don’t Get It:
Non-objective Works
from the Permanent Collection

Switzer Gallery
June 6, 2009 – January 16, 2010

Featuring prints, paintings, and sculpture from the Huntington Museum of Art’s vaults, I Don’t Get It: Non-objective Works from the Permanent Collection explores the forms, contexts, and theories of predominantly 20th century art that is independent from our world’s visual references.

 

Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991), Alberti Suite No. 9, 1970. Polymer and acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 inches. Gift of Alex E. Booth, Jr., 1970.10.

Utilizing the basic elements of art and principles of design, non-objective artists have abandoned recognizable subject matter to instead concentrate on an internal logic in their work, revealing the aesthetic strength of art’s basic language of color, shape, and line. Despite its rejection of real world objects as its subject matter, non-objective art certainly does not dismiss artistic theory or invention, and thus the 20th century proves rich in art historical movements and schools, which this exhibition examines in an effort to shed some light on the often puzzling “meaning” behind non-objective work.

Although the preference to create non-objective works is subjective on the part of each individual artist, art historians suggest that the general impetus to depart from real world subject matter for early-20th century painters and sculptors was the development of the camera. Since it was able to capture reality to near-perfection, the camera seemingly made redundant the skills of the realist artist. Metaphorically freed then from the confines of the real world, artists turned their attention to art’s basic building blocks, constructing innovative theories on the dramatic power of gesture and color that filled their work.

The exhibition includes Museum favorite Robert Motherwell’s Alberti Suite No. 9. Known as a color field painter, or one of a group of artists whose work is characterized primarily by flat, solid areas of vivid color, Motherwell’s work at first appears deceptively simple. The rectangle within a larger rectangle is, however, suggestive of the metaphorical theme of a window and wall that was recurrent in Motherwell’s work beginning in the late 1960s. Such a device has been used by artists for centuries to almost physically invite the viewer into the work, and for Motherwell, it allowed him to stimulate emotional and psychological reactions to his art. A brilliant use of color reveals a keen attention to the qualities of brush work as the strokes appear evident and textural throughout.

Franz Kline’s Untitled, c.1961, is a collaged and painted work that reveals the artist’s continued interest in color despite the popularity and commercial success of his trademark black and white works. Vibrant yellows, reds, blues and greens are seen here applied to collaged paper and cardboard from a spiral-bound notebook. Many of these smaller colored compositions served as studies for Kline’s monumental black and white works, the artist believing that black and white schemes were a continuation of color rather than a denial of it.

Other artists featured in the exhibition range from Cy Twombly (American, b. 1928), whose “doodle” art is created from squiggles and calligraphic lines that race across his surfaces, to Helen Frankenthaler (American, b. 1928), whose prints and paintings reveal a fluid sea of color that is often absorbed into her paper or canvas. Sculptor Alexander Calder (American, 1898-1976) incorporated the element of motion in his kinetic pieces, brightly painted groupings of suspended organic forms that are activated by air movement caused by visitors within the gallery.

I Don’t Get It will also feature a board upon which a dialogue between visitors and curator will be opened in an aim to further provide input into the meaning behind art that often appears to be about nothing.

This exhibit is generously supported by West Virginia Division of Culture and History; West Virginia Commission on the Arts; and West Virginia Humanities Council.

Walter Gropius Masters
Artist Series Presents:
Michaelene Walsh: Poetic Objects

Three-day workshop: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. May 15-17, 2009
Public presentation: May 14, 2009, at 7 p.m. Reception follows. Admission is free.
Exhibition: May 9, 2009-July 5, 2009.

Michaelene Walsh, “Elegy,” 2007. Earthenware with glazes, 6’ x 8’. Image courtesy of the artist.

Poetic Objects
poem- n.
1) A composition designed to convey a vivid and imaginative sense of experience, characterized by the use of condensed language, chosen for its sound and suggestive power as well as for its meaning… 4) A quality that suggests poetry, as in grace, beauty, or harmony: the poetry of the dancer's movements.
-The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
 
What is a poetic object and why is it important to consider in our work as makers of objects? In this workshop we will attempt to address how artists begin to create poetic forms. The work and approaches of various artists and how they create poetic imagery will be discussed.  Simple exercises will be introduced, geared to help participants uncover potential poetic images incubating within their own imaginations. Through demonstrations of sculptural hand-building techniques, as well as technical handouts about earthenware clay and surfaces, a good basis will be created for participants to begin fabricating and finishing small, hollow clay sculptures as explorations of their own poetic imagery. Options for the completion and installation of ceramic sculptural work will also be addressed.

 
Michaelene Walsh Background

Michaelene Walsh received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Crafts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from New York State College at Alfred. She is the associate professor of ceramics at Louisiana State University. Ms. Walsh has conducted numerous workshops and her work has been in countless exhibitions, publications and is held in many private collections.

“To best give an overview of my work, I would say that the impetus for it comes from my experience of reading poetry.” Ms. Walsh explains. “I am interested in how poets arrive at compelling poems. A good poet can take an ordinary word or image and put it together with another somewhat ordinary word or image to create a surprising feeling - a sensation in the gut that is unusual, striking, fresh and memorable. My goal as an artist is to try to do this visually - to bring seemingly disparate, ordinary, or unremarkable images together to form something memorable.

If you have eaten ice cream, marveled at a monkey, played with a doll, drawn a heart, or written a secret note on blue lined notebook paper, we have something in common, at least on the surface…

“I think of my best work as creating an opening or clearing a path for what is heartfelt and poetic in the ordinary to come through. Yet, I know too that latent within the ordinary are bittersweet and paradoxical feelings that betray these simple sentiments. Sweetness and pleasure felt in seeing or recalling certain objects or experiences often intermingle with feelings of sadness, loss and regret.”

 

Who’s Who in the Vault:
Portraits from the Permanent Collection

November 15, 2008 – October 18, 2009
Gallery Three

Vincenzo di Biagio Catena (Italian, 1470-1531), Portrait of a Nobleman, 1531. Oil on canvas. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Lincoln M. Polan, 1970.28.

Chuck Close (American, b. 1940), Leslie, 1986. Etching. Museum purchase, 1986.79.2.

According to the Miriam Webster Dictionary, a portrait is defined as “a pictorial representation of a person usually showing the face.” Yet, within the field of art history, the portrait is viewed as much more than just the mere physical likeness of its subject. In addition to capturing the sitter’s corporeal appearance, the portrait has always endeavored to communicate his or her personality and character, often through meaningful facial expressions, or by way of featured accoutrements such as a pastor’s Bible or a stylish aristocrat’s fashionable hat.

Perhaps even more importantly, however, a portrait serves as a time machine on canvas, allowing its audience a rare glimpse into a specific culture at a particular point in history, reflecting the politics, economics, and belief-systems of a sitter’s milieu.

Sir Henry Raeburn (Scottish, 1756-1823), Margaret Wedderburn (Mrs. Philip Dundas), 1792. Oil on canvas. Gift of Mr. George L. Bagby, 1958.13.

And, of course, a portrait reminds us of the changing trends in art throughout the years, with the artist’s choices on how to best represent his subject revealing the various approaches and intentions of art’s historical styles, movements, and schools.

Howard Somerville (Scottish, 1873-1952), Joyce, 1920. Oil on canvas. Gift of Ruth Woods Dayton, 1967.1.234.

Highlighting both popular museum favorites and rarely exhibited works from the Museum’s permanent collection, Who’s Who in the Vault: Portraits from the Permanent Collection explores these various concerns of portraiture. The exhibition includes a diverse selection of the Museum’s portraits, beginning with Italian Renaissance portrayals of important noblemen such as Vincenzo di Biagio Catena’s Portrait of a Nobleman, from 1531. Flattering 18th century likenesses of British aristocracy include that of Margaret Wedderburn painted by the notable Scottish portraitist Sir Henry Raeburn in 1792. Museum favorite Joyce, painted by fellow Scottish artist Howard Sommerville in 1920, reflects the tastes and norms of the early 20th century, while Chuck Close’s thumbprinted likeness of his wife Leslie, created in 1986, suggests the influence of photography and modern technology toward the end of that same century.