East/West/North: A Collaboration
November 20 - December 31, 2011
Presented in partnership with the EVANSVILLE MUSEUM CONTEMPORARIES
EAST/WEST/NORTH: A COLLABORATION has over 40 members of the art faculties from local campuses participating. The eastside campus of the University of Evansville, the westside campus of the University of Southern Indiana, and the northside campus of IVY Tech State College join together to present their current work in this highly anticipated 25th annual collaborative exhibition.
42nd Mid-States Craft
December 11 - December 31, 2011
Juror, Janet McCall
Presented in memory of DOROTHEA JOHNSON SCHLECHTE
The juror for the 42nd Mid-States Craft, is Janet McCall, Executive Director of the Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh.
Before serving in her current position, Janet served as Program Manager at Pittsburgh Glass Center, as Artistic Coordinator for “Aliquippa Embraces Art,” a site-specific, communitybased art exhibition in an aging steel community, and as a freelance contributor of art reviews to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. From 1975 to 1992 Janet worked for Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, in several positions including Assistant to the President, and Director of Public Programs & Services.
A 1986 participant in the Museum Management Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, Janet received her BA from Bowling Green State University, and her MA in Art History from the University of Pittsburgh, writing her thesis on Otto Dix’s Metropolis: Gender and Identity in the Weimar Republic. She received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the History of Art & Architecture Department at the University in 1994. She is currently an adjunct faculty member there, teaching a course on Museum Studies.
The Society for Contemporary Craft (SCC) remains one of the nation’s only non-profit institutions focused on contemporary craft. SCC’s facility houses a professional exhibition gallery, space for educational programs that serve various segments of the community, and a commercial gallery for works of high craft. Since 1986, SCC has organized more than 140 thematic exhibitions featuring work by more than 1400 nationally and internationally renowned artists. Additionally, the SCC’s support of culturally diverse and underrepresented groups has resulted in many exhibitions by self-taught, Native American, Korean, and African-American artists.
Presenting contemporary art in craft media by international, national and regional artists since 1971, the Society for Contemporary Craft offers cutting edge exhibitions focused on multicultural diversity and nonmainstream art, as well as a range of classes, community outreach programs and a retail store.
McCall will visit Evansville in November to make final selections from several hundred entries in the categories of ceramics, wood, jewelry, textiles, glass, and mixed media. She will present an admission-free lecture discussing her selections on Saturday, November 19, at 7:30 p.m.
Over $8,000 in purchase and merit awards, underwritten by Evansville individuals, corporations, foundations and philanthropic organizations, will be presented on the December 10 awards evening.
All Creatures Great and Small:
The Animalier of Antoine-Louis Barye
July 1 - December 31
Presented in partnership with JUDGE AND MRS. RICH D’AMOUR
On loan from a private Evansville collection, the exhibition ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL: THE ANIMALIER OF ANTOINE-LOUIS BARYE will be exhibited in the Museum’s new second floor Alcove Gallery.
Antoine-Louis Barye was the first – and perhaps the greatest – of a group of 19th century French sculptors called “Les Animaliers.”
Animalier was originally a term derogatorily applied to sculptors who saw the subject of animals worthy in its own right of artistic consideration. Traditionally, animals were portrayed only as decorative features or in supporting roles relating to some central theme. In the 19th century, it was unthinkable for the academically trained artist to employ as a major theme the subject of animals. Barye’s miniaturesof animals were criticized as “mere paperweights” and his work was ignored until the revitalization of interest in Natural History at mid-century.
Barye had little formal education. His father was a goldsmith and Barye apprenticed as both a goldsmith and an engraver. He served in the army during the Napoleonic wars and following his discharge studied under the sculptor Basio and the painter Baron Gros. In 1823, he worked on a commission basis for the court goldsmith Fouconnier, and it was during this period that his interest in sculpture developed. His considerable knowledge of animal anatomy and behavior was the result of many hours of study at the Paris Zoo.
In 1848, Barye was named Curator at the Louvre. He was appointed Professor of Drawing for Zoology at the Paris Museum of Natural History in 1854, a post which he held until his death in 1875.
Woven Wonders: Contemporary Japanese
Baskets from the Collection of
Bradley and Jacqueline Gordon
August 28 - November 27, 2010
SOUND OF THE TIDE
Yako Hodo
1980, 29 x 29 x 27 inches
Presented in partnership with an ANONYMOUS FOUNDATION
The idea for the Main Gallery exhibition, was brought to the Museum’s attention by former Museum Trustee Bob Goldman. He explained that his childhood friend, Evansville native Bradley Gordon, had acquired an extensive collection of contemporary Japanese basketry that the Museum might be interested in exhibiting.
For over three decades, Bradley Gordon has been interested in the arts of Japan. Now retired from the bio-tech industry and living in California, Gordon traveled regularly to Japan through the 1980s and 1990s on business. While working in Japan, he developed a great respect and affection for its people, their culture and their varied art forms.
In 2003, after relocating to New York for a new job, he visited the Asian International Art Show and was introduced to the work of Japanese bamboo artists through an exhibition by the Tai Gallery. In the ensuing eight years, he has collected over fifty contemporary baskets made by leading Japanese artists whose artistic expression and technical mastery have created both functional and abstract constructions in bamboo.
Guided in their collecting by their good friends and mentors, the husband and wife team of Rob Coffland and Mary Hunt Kahlenberg, co-owners of the Tai Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Brad and Jacqui Gordon share an unbounded love of the art form and its dedicated and daring artists.
Figuratively Speaking
October 2 – November 13, 2011
SEVEN YEARS
James Viewegh
Oil on canvas
This exhibit is presented in partnership with MRS. JOHN PHILIP ROBERTSON
Since Prehistoric times, humans have been moved to draw or paint images of the people around them. As time went on, those figures began to inhabit environments that tell us much about the world in which the artist lived.
From the Museum’s vast holdings of figurative art, a group of 19th and 20th Century American, European, and Asian paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture have been chosen for the October 2 – November 13 Old Gallery exhibition, FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING. Although a number of the works, such as the lovely James Viewegh painting, Seven Years, were purchases from the Museum’s biennial “Mid-States” art exhibitions, others like the important 1982 lithograph, “Two Nudes with Adirondack Rocker” by the celebrated contemporary artist Philip Pearlstein, are the gifts of private donors.
“It is important,” says Mary McNamee Bower, the Museum’s Virginia C. Schroeder Curator of Collections, “to share, from time to time, works not always on display. Such projects remind us all of the substance and variety of artworks that have been entrusted to our care.”
2011 Working Together
July 31 – September 18
2011 Working Together Best of Show
MY DAD'S DAD, OUR FAMILY STORYTELLER
RHONDA MCENROE, Owensboro, KY
oil
This exhibit is presented in memory of VIRGINIA B. LOWENTHAL
For the 18th consecutive year, regional artists will participate in a juried exhibition entitled WORKING TOGETHER. The Old Gallery exhibition is presented in cooperation with the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana. Juror for this year’s competition is Becky Alley, Exhibitions and Programs Director for the Lexington Art League in Lexington, Kentucky. Alley earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art from Washington University in 2000, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Kansas in 2005. Before joining the LAL staff in January 2010, Alley was the Director of University Galleries at Murray State University for nearly four years. She has organized over 100 shows and has curated several major projects. She has also exhibited her artwork in several galleries across the United States as well as in South Korea and China, and most recently had a solo exhibition titled Count at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania.
The Unexpected Journey of an Art Collector
Sunday, August 28, 12:30 P.M.
CONTINUOUS WIND
2007, 21 x 21 x 30 inches
Mimura Chikuho
Presented in partnership with the WILLIAM C. H. GRIMM, JR. and PHYLLIS R. GRIMM CHARITABLE TRUST
Mr. Gordon will present a lecture about his collection on Sunday, August 28 at the Museum during a Champagne Brunch. In his lecture, THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY OF AN ART COLLECTOR, Gordon will discuss the motivation to make art an important part of one’s life; the choice to build a core collection of Japanese bamboo art; and how his interests and collections have evolved over time.
The Nature of Things: Photographs by Bill Vieth
May 29 - August 14, 2011
Presented in partnership with GAYLE AND MARK PETTINGA
Complementing this Summer’s Old Gallery exhibition focusing on the endangered and threatened birds of Indiana by Patricia Brentano Bramnick, THE NATURE OF THINGS: PHOTOGRAPHS BY BILL VIETH will have a special emphasis on his collection of bird photographs from around the world showing the habitat and behavior of various species.
Since retiring from a career in banking in 1996, Evansville resident Bill Vieth has taken over 10,000 wildlife and nature photographs. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States, shooting photographs across the Rocky Mountain Range from New Mexico to Montana and throughout the State of Alaska, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Denali National Park, home to North America’s highest peak, the awe-inspiring, 20,320 foot Mount McKinley.
Vieth’s travels outside of the United States include the Canadian Northwest Territories; Tanzania and Kenya in East Africa; the Pantanal, the world’s largest freshwater wetland, located in Brazil; Costa Rica; and the Galapagos Islands.
His wildlife photographs and articles have been published in various magazines including Outdoor Indiana, Wyoming Wildlife, Colorado Summit Magazine, and Evansville Living.
In addition to wildlife photography, Vieth has been active in sports photography. He has photographed the U.S. National Men’s and Women’s soccer teams during the Olympic and World Cup Qualifying matches and Major League Professional Soccer in Denver and Dallas, as well as tournaments sponsored by the U.S. Youth Soccer Association. The University of Evansville soccer and basketball teams have used his photographs on its website and in media guides.
We Don't Own Nature. We're Part of It!
May 1 - July 24, 2011
BIRD SCREEN 1, Patricia Brentano Bramnick
Cut paper, 27 x 43 inches
Presented in partnership with the MARTHA AND MERRITT DEJONG FOUNDATION,
the DAUS FAMILY FOUNDATION in memory of JOHN J. DAUS, JR.,
and MR. AND MRS. JAMES OWEN COLEMAN
The Artist’s Residency is sponsored by the ROBERT G. GRAVES FAMILY in honor of VIRGINIA G. AND JOHN H. SCHROEDER.
Patricia Brentano Bramnick has been selected as the Evansville Museum’s 2011 MARTHA AND MERRIT DEJONG MEMORIAL ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE. In conjunction with her residency and weeklong classes, Brentano is creating a site-specific installation for the May 1 – July 24 Old Gallery exhibition.
The Evansville native’s work uniquely expresses the beauty and fragility of Indiana’s 41 endangered and threatened bird species. An accomplished artist, Brentano is deeply committed to environmental concerns. “I want my work to call attention to the plight of the many species of resident and migratory birds that are endangered, threatened, or of special concern due to the loss of habitat, exploitation, disease and contamination,” she said. “The more we can bring these beautiful species into people’s awareness, the more likely we are to save them.”
Brentano cuts the shape of each bird from heavy paper. Suspended from the Old Gallery’s ceiling, the voids in the paper – actual bird-sized silhouettes – will be filled by light and reflections. Paired with these paper cutouts will be drawings and watercolors depicting specific birds’ nests and habitats.
Most recently, Brentano’s work was featured in the inaugural exhibition at the Hoffman Center for Conservation and Environmental Education at the Sherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary in New Jersey. She has exhibited similar series in Connecticut and Massachusetts, receiving the Lillian Heller Curators Award at the Chesterwood Museum for her installation about the endangered birds of Massachusetts.
In 2008, Brentano received a Puffin Foundation Grant to install her “Missing Trees” exhibition in Highland Park, New Jersey. The site had been a landfill, which the borough is transforming into an international garden in collaboration with The Edison Wetlands Association.
Brentano teaches painting and drawing in New Jersey at Kean University and in the Institute for Women’s Leadership at Rutgers. She began her teaching career in 1974 at the University of Evansville after receiving her Master of Fine Arts degree from Tyler School of Art at Temple University.
“My work is about observation, exploration, and a deep spiritual attachment to the natural world. I want to create skillful, innovative work that communicates environmental responsibility and visual literacy.”
Patricia Brentano Bramnick
Two Artists/Two Visions
February 27 - May 15, 2011
MONTRE, Aj Smith
Graphite Pencil, 2005, 46 x 36 inches
CANNAS GLORIA, Marjorie Williams-Smith
Silverpoint on Traditional Gesso ground mix on Fabriano paper, 2009, 46 x 36 inches
Presented in Memory of DR. WILLIAM C. H. GRIMM, JR.
in partnership with the WILLIAM C. H. GRIMM, JR. AND PHYLILIS R. GRIMM CHARITABLE TRUST
Drawings by Marjorie Williams-Smith and Aj Smith are the focus of the Evansville Museum’s 2011 celebration of Black History Month. The Main Gallery exhibition TWO ARTISTS/TWO VISIONS showcases the work of artists who are not only professional colleagues on the art faculty of the University of Arkansas Little Rock, but have a successful 31 year marriage. Each has an accomplished career as educator and exhibiting artist.
Associate Professor of Art Marjorie Williams-Smith earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts, Magna Cum Laude from Howard University and a Master of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She spent five years in New York as a graphic artist before beginning her teaching career in Little Rock.
Williams-Smith’s work has been exhibited on the East Coast and throughout the mid-South region. Her work is included in private and public collections, and, in 1999, she created artwork for the United States Mint which served as the design for the Congressional Medal of Honor awarded to the "Little Rock Nine."
Williams-Smith creates works of ethereal beauty using metalpoint, a slow, unforgiving drawing technique that flourished during the Renaissance. Her delicate renderings of roses, daffodils and carnations are drawn with silver, copper, and gold styluses on gesso-coated paper, a medium that she says “adds to the peaceful and reflective qualities I try to present in my work.”
Professor of Art Aj Smith holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and printmaking from Queens College, City University of New York and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Kansas City Art Institute. A Master Printer, Smith apprenticed with Robert Blackburn, founding Director of the Printmaking Workshop in New York City. Recognized for an extensive exhibition record, his work is represented in public and private collections throughout the United States, including the Library of Congress and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Smith’s large-scale portraits done in graphite pencil reveal the individual’s true inner self. “I feel that through my drawings I am able to show the personal side of my subjects,” he writes. “This is most effective in the drawings of children and older adults. The accepting face of the young child and the aged often reminds us of our own innocence and humanity.”
2011 High School Art Show
March 17 – April 17, 2011
CUTTY SARK, Claire Fox, Signature School
Oil
JOHN W. STREETMAN BEST OF SHOW
Presented in partnership with ROBERT & MARIANNA S. WRIGHT in memory of SHIRLEY K. WRIGHT
in cooperation with the EVANSVILLE MUSEUM GUILD
Now in its 48th year, the HIGH SCHOOL ART SHOW continues the tradition of honoring young artists from our region. Students currently enrolled in Grades 9 through 12 in public and private schools in Vanderburgh, Warrick, Pike, Posey, and Gibson Counties in Indiana entered works in the categories of painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, jewelry, textiles, ceramics, photography and commercial design with 111 pieces accepted into the show.
Through April 17 the Old Gallery exhibition had more than 800 entries reviewed by this year’s juror, Brian Lee Whisenhunt, Director of the Swope Art Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Since becoming the tenth executive director of the Swope Art Museum in June 2008, Whisenhunt has concentrated on refining the Museum’s exhibition schedule, public programs and community profile. Whisenhunt received his Master of Arts degree in art history from the University of Oklahoma and wrote his thesis on earthworks, large-scale sculpture in the landscape from the late 1960s and early 1970s. He has worked in museum education for more than ten years and enjoys the challenge of helping people connect with works of art. Whisenhunt began his professional career at the Wichita Art Museum as director of education. He then became the first manager of public programs at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas, the largest university art museum in the United States, where he was in charge of the development of a new menu of programs for the institution when it opened a new building in 2006.
2010 - 2011 Mid-States Art
December 12, 2010 – March 6, 2011
INCINERATE, Debra Clem, Louisville, Kentucky
Oil on digital image on canvas, 94 x 42 inches
$5,000 Museum Guild Purchase Award
Presented in partnership with an ANONYMOUS FOUNDATION
The 55TH MID-STATES ART EXHIBITION, a regional competition open to artists residing in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, continues through March 6 in the Old Gallery. The juror for this year’s competition was Dorian Bergen, Co-owner and Director of the ACA Galleries in New York City.
Ms. Bergen is an advisor to the Board of Directors of the New York Open Center, one of the largest holistic education centers in the United States. She is on the board of Faith Ringgold’s Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling and is a member of the Art Dealers Association of America and ArtTable. ACA Galleries, founded in 1932, specializes in 19th and 20th century American & European Art and Contemporary Art.
Ms. Bergen visited Evansville in November to make final selections from several hundred entries in the categories of painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture and mixed media. Purchase and merit awards, underwritten by Evansville individuals, corporations, foundations and philanthropic organizations, were presented at the December 11th awards evening to the following artists: Debra Clem, Louisville, Kentucky; Denise Stewart-Sanabria, Knoxville, Tennessee, Amy DeLap, Vincennes, Indiana; David Hannon, Muncie, Indiana; Lowell Tolstedt, Columbus, Ohio; Grace Benedict, Lafayette, Indiana; and Kari Rajkumar, Paris, Illinois.
55 Years of Mid-States Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection
December 12, 2010 - February 13, 2011
Presented in Memory of DOROTHEA JOHNSON SCHLECHTE
In 2010, Evansville Museum celebrates its 55th biennial Mid-States Art Exhibition. The regional competition, open to artists living in the six Midwestern states of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Ohio, provides recognition for emerging artists; a forum for those who wish to be shown with their peers; and the opportunity to receive a purchase or merit award.
This retrospective Main Gallery exhibition, presented in memory of Dorothea Johnson Schlechte (1908-2010), salutes the accomplishments of the artists and jurors who participated in the experience. A leading patron of the arts in Evansville, Mrs. Schlechte supported the Mid-States Art Exhibition for many years through the sponsorship of awards.
Selected for this retrospective are top award-winning works spanning 55 years which provide a unique overview of the development in trends and techniques of artists in the Midwest. Located in the Museum’s permanent art galleries -- the Crescent Galleries -- are many more selections from the Mid-States Art Collection.
Michael Bergt: Bronze Sculpture from Evansville Collections
July 11 - December 31, 2010
FALLEN ANGEL, Michael Bergt
Bronze, 1998
Collection of Tay Ruthenburg
Presented in partnership with RICH and HOLLY D’AMOUR
Visitors to the Evansville Museum will notice a marked difference in one particular area of the second floor Garden Colonnade. As part of the first phase of the Museum’s “Reaching for the Stars” major facility renovation/expansion project, the area just outside the Main Gallery that once featured a “Vivarium” with a small fountain, live cockatiels, fish and turtles has been cleared to make way for a sleek new gallery suitable for smaller exhibitions.
Inaugurating the new space will be an exhibit of small bronze sculptures by the celebrated American artist, Michael Bergt – a longtime friend of this institution, who was featured in a 1998 one-man Main Gallery exhibition, “The Human Pageant” – is also represented in the Museum’s Contemporary American Still Life Painting Collection.
This is the first time that Bergt’s work as a sculptor has received solo attention here. All of the works featured are being loaned by Evansville collectors, including Lisa and Marty Imbler, Tay Ruthenburg, Martha Ryan, Richard and Kathy Wagner, and Kenneth Drew.
Represented in major museum, corporate and private collections throughout the United States and Europe, Bergt is widely admired for the apparent ease with which he moves from one art medium to another. Whether in his egg tempera paintings, which have gained him international acclaim, or his masterfully designed and executed sculptures and works on paper, Michael Bergt demonstrates equal technical authority and vision.
In Crossing Lines, John D. O’Hern’s insightful 2006 book about the artist, the author observes:
Michael Bergt sees with more than his eyes. He sees underlying cosmic design manifested in the human figure and in the flora and fauna around him. He intuits the psychological processes active in his models’ minds and looks for their expression in the subjects’ faces, in their appearances, and in their manners. He uses the figure to express his insights with humor and beauty.
Drawings from Judy Chicago's
"THE DINNER PARTY"
September 12 – November 28, 2010
Presented in Memory of DR. WILLIAM C. H. GRIMM, JR.
in partnership with the WILLIAM C. H. GRIMM, JR. AND PHYLLIS R. GRIMM CHARITABLE TRUST
From September 12 – November 28, the original drawings of The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago will be presented in the Main Gallery. Considered an important icon of 1970s feminist art and a milestone in 20th century art, The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago comprises a massive ceremonial banquet, arranged on a triangular table with a total of 39 place settings, each commemorating an important woman from history.
On loan from the ACA Galleries in New York City, JUDY CHICAGO: SETTING THE TABLE / PREPARATORY WORKS FOR THE DINNER PARTY, includes the entire series of 39 original plate drawings that are the only complete historical record of the iconography of The Dinner Party. Six rare Dinner Party test plates also will be on view.
An artist, feminist, humanist, educator and author whose career has spanned over four decades, Chicago is an internationally acclaimed artist who has had numerous solo exhibitions in the United States and abroad. She is the recipient of many grants and awards, including honorary doctorates from Duke University, Lehigh University, Smith College and Russell Sage College.
Chicago’s work is in numerous collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, the National Gallery of Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, among others. The Dinner Party is now installed in the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/home.php
2010 East/West/North/South: A Collaboration
September 26 – November 28, 2010
Presented in partnership with the EVANSVILLE MUSEUM CONTEMPORARIES
The September 26 – November 28, 2010 Old Gallery exhibition EAST/WEST/NORTH/SOUTH: A COLLABORATION highlights the work of local university art faculties.
Over 40 participants from the eastside campus of the University of Evansville, the westside campus of the University of Southern Indiana, the northside campus of IVY Tech State College, and Henderson Community College in Kentucky join together to present their current work in this highly anticipated 24th annual collaborative exhibition.
Magic & Mystery: The Art of Rob Evans
June 27 - August 29, 2010
INDICATOR, Rob Evans
Watercolor and acrylic on paper, 2000, 21 x 20 inches
Collection of Mr. Martin Murray
Presented in partnership with the MARTHA AND MERRITT DEJONG FOUNDATION,
the WILLIAM A. CARSON FOUNDATION,
the DAUS FAMILY FOUNDATION in memory of JOHN J. DAUS, JR.
and MR. and MRS. JAMES OWEN COLEMAN
The Artist’s Residency is sponsored by DR. AND MRS. SPIRO MITSOS
in cooperation with the ROBERT G. GRAVES FAMILY in honor of VIRGINIA G. AND JOHN H. SCHROEDER
Rob Evans has been selected as the Evansville Museum’s 2010 Martha and Merritt deJong Memorial Artist-in-Residence. In conjunction with his residency and weeklong classes, 35 of Evans’ paintings, which are a 30-year survey, will be featured in the Main Gallery exhibition, MAGIC & MYSTERY: THE ART OF ROB EVANS, from June 27 – August 29.
Artist and independent curator Rob Evans lives and works in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Syracuse University in 1981 and has been awarded grants from the Ford Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and the Pollack-Krasner Foundation. Evans’ meticulous paintings and drawings have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions including the Evansville Museum’s 2007-2009 nationally traveling exhibition, Object Project.
Most recently, Evans’ 10 foot painting, Cicada, traveled to five museums in the state of Pennsylvania as part of the exhibition, Artists of the Commonwealth: Realism in Pennsylvania Painting 1950-2000. His work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Corcoran Museum of Art as well as San Francisco art museums.
Evans offers this insight into his work, “Having been raised by scientist parents, I have always had a fascination with the sciences. For the last 20 years, my paintings have been based primarily on direct observations of the forces of nature at work: the passages of time; the cycles of life and death; growth and decay; changes of season and weather; the mysteries of life.”
Tobi Kahn: Sky & Water Meditation
April 26 – June 27, 2010
OHRA, Tobi Kahn
Acrylic on Canvas over wood, 2003, Each panel 88 x 60 x 2 inches
Collection of Jane Blaffer Owen
Presented in partnership with the SOL & ARLENE BRONSTEIN FOUNDATION
in cooperation with CO-TRUSTEE INTEGRA BANK
TOBI KAHN: SKY AND WATER MEDITATION, an exhibition of seven monumental panels created by the noted New York artist Tobi Kahn, will be presented from April 26 – June 27 in the Old Gallery. On loan from the collection of Jane Blaffer Owen, these paintings are meant to create an atmosphere of contemplation for gatherings of celebration, remembrance and private meditation. Depictions of sky and water, the acrylic panels appear to float off the ground as an enveloping and continuous image. The series, entitled “Ohra,” was exhibited in 2003 at the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, New York.
There have been more than 40 solo exhibitions of Tobi Kahn’s work since his debut at the Guggenheim Museum’s group exhibition, New Horizons in American Art, in 1985.
The Evansville Museum presented a nationally touring exhibition of his work in 2002.
Elizabeth Zutt: A Collector’s Eye
March 28 – June 13, 2010
Presented in partnership with JOHN HARTMETZ & SHIRLEY L. WEBER
in cooperation with JOHN & MONA WHINREY, MICHAEL & PATTY AAKHUS and ALEXANDRA LEICH
Selected paintings, drawings, prints, textiles and sculpture from the collection of Elizabeth Zutt (1915-2006) will be featured in the Evansville Museum’s Main Gallery exhibition, ELIZABETH ZUTT: A COLLECTOR’S EYE, from March 28 - June 13. An Evansville native, Miss Zutt bequeathed to the Museum over 100 works from a diverse art collection developed over a lifetime of travel worldwide.
Miss Zutt was a graduate of the Ward-Belmont School in Nashville, Tennessee, and the University of Wisconsin. She completed a degree in library science at Columbia University in New York City and worked for 30 years at the Evansville-Vanderburgh Public Library.
Alexandra Leich, a close friend of Miss Zutt, said in reflection that Betty Zutt “led a lifetime of spirited adventure and discovery which led her to the art of every culture; and all of it she embraced with passion.” The Elizabeth Zutt Collection includes 20th century work by regional artists whom Miss Zutt often befriended; as well as sculpture, drawings, prints, paintings and textiles from her travels throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.
47th Annual High School Art Show
March 18 – April 18, 2010
LAUREN SHEA, Lauren Fuchs, Reitz Memorial High School
Oil
JOHN W. STREEMAN BEST OF SHOW
Presented in partnership with the EVANSVILLE MUSEUM GUILD
Now in its 47th year, the HIGH SCHOOL ART SHOW continues the tradition of honoring young artists from our region. Students currently enrolled in Grades 9 through 12 in public and private schools in Vanderburgh, Warrick, Pike, Posey, and Gibson Counties in Indiana will enter work in the categories of painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, jewelry, textiles, ceramics, and commercial design.
The March 18 – April 18 Old Gallery exhibition will open with an Awards Reception on Thursday, March 18 at 7:00 p.m. Volunteers from the Museum Guild and Museum Docent Association anticipate nearly 1,000 entries for review by this year’s juror, University of Evansville Professor of Art William F. Brown.
Here is an example of the impact this exhibition continues to make in the lives of young artists in Southwestern Indiana:
Dear Evansville Museum Guild,
This was the second year that I took the challenge of entering a piece into the Annual High School Art Show. Last year, as a freshman, I did not have my piece accepted. That made this year twice as special. It was so amazing when I heard from my art teacher, Mrs. Woolsey, that I had been accepted.
The actual night of the award reception was very rewarding, too. Just the experience of seeing my drawing in the Museum was, for lack of a better description, AWESOME! I stood close to it and listened to what people said about it. I heard only good things and it just made my night. I also received a card from a teacher from an Evansville school saying how she enjoyed seeing my drawing in the show.
I just really want to thank everyone who was involved in the High School Art Show. Without the sponsors and volunteers who make this show possible, I would not have had the chance to enter my work. I truly appreciate the Evansville Museum Guild and their volunteers who took time in their busy lives to make this possible for high school students like me.
It was such a great experience. I can’t wait until I get a chance to write another thank you note again next year.
Sincerely,
Chase Bogan
Tecumseh High School (Sophomore)
Art of Africa:
Objects from the Collection of Warren Robbins
February 7 - March 14, 2010
Presented in partnership with the MARGARET A. CARGILL FOUNDATION
Opening the Evansville Museum’s 2010 schedule is the nationally touring exhibition ART OF AFRICA: OBJECTS FROM THE COLLECTION OF WARREN ROBBINS, from the collection of the Robbins Center for Cross Cultural Communication and organized by International Art & Artists, Washington, DC. Educational materials for the exhibition were funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition continues through March 14.
Warren Robbins, founder of the Robbins Center for Cross Cultural Communication, was also the founder and director emeritus of the National Museum of African Art, now a branch of the Smithsonian Institution.
In Africa, art is central to life in traditional societies. At every stage of the human life cycle, hand-crafted visual forms are used to fulfill spiritual and practical needs. Art forms are visual representations of certain deities and ancestral spirits, which serve as intermediaries between humans and the spiritual world headed by a supreme deity. The 65 objects in this exhibition, including sculpture, textiles, beaded clothing and jewelry, broadly represent the creativity and diversity of artistic expressions of 30 cultures of sub-Saharan Africa.
Sculpture of the Dogon
February 7 - March 14, 2010
Presented in partnership with the WILLIAM C. H. GRIMM, JR. AND PHYLLIS R. GRIMM CHARITABLE TRUST
and the EVANSVILLE COURIER AND PRESS
In 2008, nine pieces of Dogon sculpture were donated to the Evansville Museum’s permanent collection of African art by Palmina and Stephen S. Pace. The Dogon, an ethnic group located mainly in Mali, West Africa, are recognized for their carved wood sculpture. Continuing through March 14, SCULPTURE OF THE DOGON, a special exhibition of works in the Museum’s own holdings complements the temporary exhibition Art of Africa: Objects from the Collection of Warren Robbins.
2009 - 2010 Mid-States Craft
December 6, 2009 – January 31, 2010
Presented in partnership with TAMARACK PETROLEUM COMPANY in honor of LOUIS W. RITZ
The juror for this six-state competition is Jane Sauer, Director of the Jane Sauer Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Known for her outstanding reputation among art collectors, museum curators, art critics, and artists, Jane has 34 years of experience as both an innovative studio artist and gallery director. She has served in leadership roles as a volunteer with the National Advisory Board to the Washington University School of Art, St. Louis, Missouri; Friends of Contemporary Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe; and the American Craft Council, serving as Chair from 1997-2000.
Over $8,000 in purchase and merit awards, underwritten by Evansville individuals, corporations, foundations, and philanthropic organizations, were presented at the December 5 awards evening.
American Visions: The Folk Art Collection of Lisa & Marty Imbler
September 20 – November 29, 2009
(detail) DEVIL AND HIS WIFE, Carl McKenzie
Wood, 19 x 5 x 4 inches, 1985
From the Imbler Folk Art Collection
A selection of 125 works from the American folk art collection of Marty and Lisa Imbler will be included in the Evansville Museum’s September 20 – November 29 Main Gallery exhibition AMERICAN VISIONS: THE FOLK ART COLLECTION OF LISA AND MARTY IMBLER. Acquired over the past twenty years with the expert guidance of Mike Smith, Director of the At Home Gallery in Greensboro, North Carolina, the Imbler Collection has an emphasis on art of the American South and includes paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, and mixed media work by some of the country’s best known self taught artists — James Harold Jennings, Howard Finster, Bill Traylor, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Leroy Almon, Benjamin Franklin Perkins, Minnie Evans, Mary Tillman Smith, and Thornton Dial.
American folk art of the 20th century is defined by its freedom of spirit. Not bound by the rules of an art academy or constraints of society, the folk artist feels instinctively the fundamentals of art — rhythm, design, balance, and proportion.
The general term “folk art” encompasses a wide range of paintings, drawings, and sculpture made by individuals who have not studied art formally but express through their subject matter their life experiences, personal surroundings, and inner visions. Grounded in craft traditions, many artists develop new art forms. Some are motivated to create from their passionate religious beliefs or sense of patriotism. Other folk artists, who are isolated physically or emotionally from the cultural mainstream, produce highly personal work known as “Outsider Art.”
With the organization of major public exhibitions and the publication of scholarly texts in recent years, American 20th century folk art is now recognized as an important part of the art history of our country.
2009 East/West/North/South
August 30 - October 18, 2009
Presented in partnership with the EVANSVILLE MUSEUM CONTEMPORARIES
The August 30 – October 18 Old Gallery exhibition EAST/WEST/NORTH: A COLLABORATION is presented in partnership with the EVANSVILLE MUSEUM CONTEMPORARIES.
Nearly forty members of the art faculties from the eastside campus of the University of Evansville, the westside campus of the University of Southern Indiana, and the northside campus of IVY Tech State College join together to present their current work in this highly anticipated 23rd annual collaborative exhibition.
The Luster of Silver: Contemporary Metalpoint Drawings
June 28 - September 13, 2009
ELIZA, Koo Schadler
Silverpoint and egg tempra on blue toned true gesso panel, 6 x 8 inches, 2006
Collection of the Evansville Museum
Presented in memory of DR. WILLIAM C.H. GRIMM, JR.
in partnership with THE WILLIAM C.H. GRIMM, JR. AND PHYLLIS R. GRIMM CHARITABLE TRUST
From June 28 - September 13, the work of 27 artists from 15 states and Canada will be presented in the Main Gallery exhibition THE LUSTER OF SILVER: CONTEMPORARY METALPOINT DRAWINGS. Co-curated by participating artists Koo Schadler and Jeannine Cook, the project explores a subtle and lesser known but incredibly beautiful drawing technique. The medium referred to as silverpoint is the technique of drawing with a metal stylus. Although it has been used to inscribe surfaces since Classical times, silverpoint — or as it is more generally called “metalpoint” — was expressly employed in drawing from the late 14th century up to the early 17th century and was particularly favored in the Renaissance period in Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany. Master artists Raphael, Durer, Holbein, Rembrandt, and Rubens all used silverpoint in drawing studies.
Koo Schadler, co-curator writes, “The ubiquitous pencil (a piece of graphite placed inside a hollow tube of wood) wasn’t an option for a Renaissance draftsman — it hadn’t been invented yet. Instead most early artists learned to draw using a nib of metal stuck in a stylus. Copper, gold, lead, and other metals were used, but a silver point was the most popular.”
Through the concerted efforts of a growing number of contemporary artists, this medium is today enjoying its own Renaissance, as realist artists are finding new ways to explore, refine and make it their own.
The Evansville Museum, as an internationally recognized champion of contemporary realism, is proud to partner with this group of artists who are producing realist work in another, less traditional media.
Several participating artists were able to attend the Opening Reception on June 27.
(L to R) George Sorrels, Marjorie Williams-Smith, Koo Schadler, Thomas Wayne Rice, Jeannine Cook, Curtis Bartone, Pavel Ouporov and Suzanne Scherer with their son.
2009 Working Together
July 12 – August 23, 2009
SEPERATE SHADES, Chris LaMarche, Evansville, Indiana
Pastel
Best of Show Award
Presented in memory of VIRGINIA B. LOWENTHAL
For the 16th consecutive year, regional artists have participated in a juried exhibition entitled WORKING TOGETHER.. Presented in memory of VIRGINIA B. LOWENTHAL, the July 12 – August 23 Old Gallery exhibition is presented in cooperation with the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana. Juror for this year's competition is John P. Begley, Adjunct Associate Professor of Art and Director of the University of Louisville's Allen R. Hite Art Institute.
The first to hold the position of gallery director at the University of Louisville, Begley moved to the Hite Art Institute in 2001 after serving as Director of the Louisville Visual Arts Association for 18 years.
In addition to directing the galleries at the University of Louisville and coordinating the Curatorial Studies concentration in its Masters program, Begley is an accomplished artist who maintains an individual studio practice combining a variety of his interests and training, including drawing and printmaking, book arts, installation, and intermedia combinations that examine the nature of seeing, making, and thinking about the world of art.
Lasting Legacies: Recent Gifts of the Work of Carolyn Plochmann and Stephen S. Pace
April 26 – July 5, 2009
CARETAKER, Carolyn Plochmann
Acrylic on canvas, 2006,
Gift of the artist
WINDOW GAZING WITH GENGHIS (Portrait of Pam Pace), Stephen S. Pace
Oil on Canvas, 1993, 42 x 52 inches
Gift of Dr. Stephen S. Pace and Palmina F. Pace
Paintings and drawings by two artists with longstanding associations with the Evansville Museum are featured in the April 26 – July 5 Old Gallery exhibition LASTING LEGACIES: RECENT GIFTS OF THE WORK OF CAROLYN PLOCHMANN AND STEPHEN S. PACE.
In 2008, the preeminent American painter Dr. Stephen S. Pace and his wife, Palmina F. Pace, presented 20 paintings and drawings to the Museum's permanent collection. In addition to this generous gift of work by Dr. Pace, the couple donated two works by artist Milton Avery (1893-1965) and their collection of African sculpture.
The recipient of many awards and recognitions, Stephen Pace was honored with the Evansville Museum's Expatriate Artist Award for his distinguished career in the visual arts. The award was presented in conjunction with a major retrospective of his work in our Main Gallery in 1992.
Beginning in the 1950s, Stephen Pace became a prominent member of the New York group of abstract expressionist painters. His work, hailed by the New York Times for its "highly sophisticated use of color and joyous compositions", is in public collections across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. For six decades, Pace's vibrant paintings, washed with vivid colors and bold brush strokes, have brightened the world.
The exhibition also will include 23 paintings and drawings by Carolyn Plochmann that span from the 1940s to 2008. Generously donated by the artist over the past three years, these gifts bring the Museum's present holdings of her work to an impressive total of 34. Plochmann, a prominent American painter who resides in Southern Illinois, has been a friend of our Museum for 50 years. In 1990, the Evansville Museum organized a national tour of her work and published A Charmed Vision: The Art of Carolyn Plochmann, an illustrated book available for purchase through The Museum Shop.
Plochmann's work is collected nationally and her exhibition record includes 40 solo exhibitions and over 50 group shows. In the course of a six-decade career, she has received numerous awards for her work. Former Metropolitan Museum Director Thomas Hoving praised her for creating work that is "compellingly poetic" and "enhanced with fabulous harmonies of lines and delicate nuances of color."
Laurin D. Notheisen 2009 Martha and Merritt DeJong Memorial Artist-in-Residence
April 5 – June 21, 2009
THE BIKE PATH, Laurin D. Notheisen
Graphite pencil, 23 x 36 inches, 2006
Collection of Ellen and Ed Kirtley
Exhibition presented in partnership with the MARTHA & MERRITT DEJONG FOUNDATION,
the DAUS FAMILY FOUNDATION in memory of JOHN J. DAUS, JR.,
and MR. & MRS. JAMES OWEN COLEMAN
The Artist’s Residency is presented in partnership with the CHARLES & ALEXA JAMISON FUND OF THE
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SARASOTA COUNTY, INC.
in memory of ALEXA JAMISON & PEGRAM HARRISON
Laurin D. Notheisen has been selected as the Evansville Museum’s 2009 Martha and Merritt deJong Memorial Artist-in-Residence. In conjunction with her residency and week-long classes, 40 of Notheisen’s works will be featured in the Main Gallery from April 5 – June 21. The exhibition is presented in partnership with the MARTHA & MERRITT DEJONG FOUNDATION, the DAUS FAMILY FOUNDATION in memory of John J. Daus, Jr., and Mr. & Mrs. James Owen Coleman. The artist’s visit is sponsored by CHARLES & ALEXA JAMISON FUND OF THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SARASOTA COUNTY, INC. in memory of ALEXA JAMISON & PEGRAM HARRISON.
Born in 1951, Notheisen grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and attended children’s classes on Saturdays at the Art Institute. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting and her Master of Fine Arts degree in lithography from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. In 1975, she was hired by Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green where she continues to teach basic design and printmaking.
Notheisen’s participation in the Evansville Museum’s 1973 Mid-States Art Exhibition was the beginning of an extensive succession of local, regional and national juried competitions in which she has participated, as well as solo, group and invitational exhibitions.
In addition to the Evansville Museum’s collection, Notheisen’s work may be found in corporate and public collections including Brown-Forman,Louisville Gas and Electric, Mammoth Cave National Park, Arkansas State University and Austin Peay University. Her work was featured in the KET video production Looking at Painting, Part 1 – Realism, by Robert Tharsing.•
46th Annual High School Art Show
March 19 – April 19, 2009
HOPEFUL, Lauren Longest, North High School
Colored Pencil
JOHN W. STREETMAN BEST OF SHOW
Lauren Longest with Guild President Dr. Karen Braselton. Photo courtesy of Matt Rowe.
Presented in partnership with the EVANSVILLE MUSEUM GUILD
Now in its 46th year, the HIGH SCHOOL ART SHOW continues the tradition of honoring young artists from our region. Students currently enrolled in Grades 9 through 12 in public and private schools in Vanderburgh, Warrick, Pike, Posey, and Gibson Counties in Indiana will enter work in the categories of painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, jewelry, textiles, ceramics, and commercial design.
Presented in partnership with the EVANSVILLE MUSEUM GUILD, the March 19 – April 19 Old Gallery exhibition opened with an Awards Reception on Thursday, March 19. Volunteers from the Museum Guild and Museum Docent Association anticipate nearly 1,000 entries for this year's juror, Erika Myers-Bromwell, to review.
Erika Myers-Bromwell, a native of Maryland, was named Director of the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art in August of 2008 after serving as Assistant Director for six years. As Director, Myers-Bromwell curates a broad range of contemporary exhibitions at the Gallery and implements collaborative programming with non-profit entities in New Harmony and the Kenneth P. McCutchan Art Center / Palmina F. and Stephen S. Pace Galleries at the University of Southern Indiana.
Myers-Bromwell received her undergraduate degree at St. Mary's College of Maryland and earned her graduate degree from the University of Southern Indiana.
