169 15 4132 https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/10edca0b688c0ee5ffea45724a8c2b81.pdf 9b6b1f68b5c71e9d6bdcfc5766076ade PDF Text Text �, THoMAS IIART gEufon, Sunset,1941, Litlrrlg:@lr ���C o o oi 6 N { i:Sr s t e; b s _t !\ a i F g * = e & � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2005 August 29 Hideous Beauty Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005 August 29 - December 11 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition program Subject The topic of the resource N/A https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/db778d6f55791c44da2c3f9cb52bd27c.pdf d86acc2e93cb0a1c2b7e5bcc35281ded PDF Text Text ���������������������������������������������� https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/cd233d06aca4dd771c7af3e4efe8df60.pdf 9787bf76de15aab7d28e8049d8a6f1c2 PDF Text Text �THEN AS NOW �THEN AS NOW Exhibition Curated by Ronald R. Bernier, Ph.D. and Karen Evans Kaufer Catalogue Essay by Ronald R. Bernier, Ph.D. E.S. FARLEY LIBRARY WILKES UNIVERSITY WILKES-BARRE, PA 2005 Dr. Roy E. Morgan Exhibition March 20—May 22, 2005 Sordoni Art Gallery Wilkes Universin’ Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania �ACKNOWLEDGE. V't has been a privilege and a pleasure to work v.ith the I artists included in this exhibition and with their gallery .JJ- representatives, including PPOW, Forum, Marlborough. and Alexandre galleries in New York, Peter Miller Gallen’ in Chicago, and the Seven Bridges Foundation in Green­ wich, Connecticut, all of whom have given generouslv of their time and expertise throughout this project. Its richness would not have been achieved without their efforts. This catalogue is dedicated to them. This exhibition honors the late Dr. Rov E. Morgan. C~. at St; -r. Assael. At Mother, 2001, oil, wood panel, canvas, and steel, 110 X 156 X 42 inches (detail), . c:t.:Fa-rum Gallery. New York , 2< Art Gallery, Wilkes University 5 St rd: 150 S.-adi River Street Wilkes-Barre, Pa 18766 I<leph ■ t.s - ~ h—408—4325 l ax 570-408—7733 sotHohl'a ••• t. >:i • Catalogue J.: i : ■: iikv~.edu ; ...... J By Oak Lane Printing Inc. J'.’in Beck jjr. A cl;,-- ic American face designed by Bruce Rogers ISBN (1-942945-26-3 forme longti �ACKNOWLEDGMENTS W' ■ has been a privilege and a pleasure to work with the I artists included in this exhibition and with their gallery former arts and drama critic for The Times Leader, and longtime friend and supporter of the Sordoni Art Gallery. JL .cpresenrarives. including PPOW, Forum. Marlborough, and Alexandre galleries in New York. Peter Miller Gallery March 2005 in Chicago. and the Seven Bridges Foundation in Green­ wich. v onnecticut, all of whom have given generously of Ronald R. Bernier,Ph.D. their rime and expertise throughout this project. Its Director richness would not have been achieved without their erforts. This catalogue is dedicated to them. This exhibition honors the late Dr. Roy E. Morgan, Karen Evans Kaufer Associate Director 110 x 156 X 42 inc.'.-.cetcd I hen as A\nv / 5 �G? fcaiuwni into the future so that yourface is lit up by the past. —Odd Nerdrum aving survived the formalist reductions of point being that all cultural production is conditioned by Modernism and the theoretical acrobatics of tinle the past. Yet for the artists considered here, it is neither Postmodern, painting is once again at ease in modish appropriation nor reactionary surrender to picto­ the company of the Real, that is to say, it is once again rial illusion and its easy narrativity, but rather a deliberate prompted by optical experience and pictorial illusion, once and skilled simulation of craft, a mastering of past paint­ again distinguished by observational skill, technical mas­ ing styles and practices which requires a more thoughtful tery, and recognizable subject matter.1 But it is a different relationship—visual and intellectual, on the part of both and edgy sort of Real; it both is and is not a re-presenta­ artist and beholder—with that past. Integrating past into tion of reality. There is recognition, but it is extended well present is complex; it involves any number of psychological beyond likeness. In some instances, as is the case in this and epistemological processes and negotiations, including exhibition, recent painting has deliberately positioned nostalgia and memory, authenticity and authorin'—and itself—self-consciously and self-critically—within the the always troublesome issues of 'influence,’ ‘priority,’ and genealogy of its own tradition, appropriating, reframing, 'originality.' How might contemporary' art, we are prompted and recasting Old Master forms, figures, and styles in a to ask, in its active intervention in, and manipulation of, visual and intellectual dialogue with Art History, mixing the material of the past, complicate the idea of precedent historical allusion with contemporary self-awareness. As as origin? To put it another way: Is meaning transferred one critic has recently put it: "It brings together the from original to quotation, or do Art's meanings necessar­ spirituality and humanism of the Old Masters and the ily shift over History’s spatial, temporal, and conceptual innovation and criticality of the Modern Masters. It is a distance? Literary theorist Harold Bloom addressed this New Old Master art.”2 issue for poets with his notion of the ‘anxiety of influence,’ Of course, at some level, all works of art are about wherein a new poetic style, he argued, may be achieved art. Visual culture, particularly in the appropriation mania "that captures and oddly retains priority over their precur­ of the 1980s, was blatant in its pilfered references from the sors, so that the tyranny of time is almost overturned.”4 past, its ironic parody and clever pastiche. As Tom McEvilly What I wish to argue, at least with regard to the images succinctly announced in 1992: "In the beginning was the assembled here, is that certain forms of expression mat­ Word—and since then there’s been quotation. ’3 The act appeal to the past, while not entirely submitting to it. of quotation, on this view, was thought to affect a critique These images are neither purely nostalgic tor nor wholly of the Modernist cult of originality and authority, the critical of the past. Rather, at issue is a productive collision Then .is Mw / 7 �between, as Walter Benjamin put it, the Now and the Then: “It isn’t that the past casts its light on the present or the present casts its light on the past: rather, an image is that in which the Then and the Now come into a constellation like a flash of lightning.”'' What exactly, then, is conceived in this intimate coupling of Then and Now, past and present? This is what this exhibition seeks to explore. The term ‘neo-pre-Modernism’*’ might best describe the strategy of simulation at work in the painting of Swedish-born, classically-trained artist Odd Nerdrum, whose seemingly retrograde figuration and painterliness— and, as one critic put it in 1964, his "old masterly _ _________ gravy — earned him the reprobation of his instructors subordinated to Reason. For Nerdrum, science and ern-day ascetics.12 “Light,” Assael explai ■ humanism are profoundly at odds; thus nature, and about it. It reveals and at die same time nc ..-n consequently the body, tangible and physically present, where it comes from or where it goes.. . . 1’eopL thought pulsating flesh and blood, are seen as the antithesis of of light as having a mystical quality because it Llowed reason. What we see consistently in Nerdrums work, them to see something more clearly.... So light was metaphorized in color and texture, are bodies and other glass.1 It L v holly imagin of optical obs Sharon E associated with truth, and truth was something that was natural substances, consisting of mass and weight, sensu­ allegorical pai revealed.”13 As in the chiaro-scuroed images of the past he ally plausible and convincingly portrayed—“a mix of archaeological simulates, the oscillation of light and dark structures a academic pair profound emotional and psychological meaning, catching Samt Lucy, p; the ambiguities of the defiant and impenetrable strength excrement, blood and flesh,” as the painter himself put it.10 1 Unlike Nerdrum, with his visionary and primeval allegories, Steven Assael arranges contemporary figures in of these costumed tou;ighs anti their vulnerability and desire holding a plai gouged out it urban settings, bur in a sensibility informed by Old for identity and recognition. here on a logs Masters, calling to mind the religious altarpieces of the Brett Bigbee, classically trained at the Pennsylvania medieval tow> of the Tempi and fellow students at the Art Academy of Oslo. The critic Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroquile eras. At Mother (2001) is is referring to Nerdrums reframing of the forms, colors, a colossal triptych attached to a sculpted platform with Academy of Fine Arts, an institution with a notable legacy of American Realism reaching back to Thomas Eakins, surfaces, and substances of Rembrandt, and the glowing, moving doors that open and close. When open, the door adopts a much subtler and more distilled approach to Old almost religious tenebrism and portentous subject matter panels feature the arrangement of five figures emerging Master traditions. Bigbee’s laconic domestic idylls and into one sing of that seventeenth-century Dutch Master. The painter into a miraculous golden light, which takes on an uncanny tender images of his own family recall the linearity, geom­ of the paintii explained his choice of artistic ideals: “I have always found resemblance to a classical pieta, lived in the present but etry, frontalitv, and quiet stillness of an iconic Piero della which we car Rembrandts world more humane than Picassos. . . . The belonging to the dead past. The panels surrounding the lifespan of a work of art is proportional to its human doors feature two outside figures that confront the viewer Francesca Madonna, the pervasive and all-over brilliance of colored light in Netherlandish painting, and a recasting of of the painti otherwise directly with a look that recalls the sacra conversazione (holy Botticellis allegorical Venuses, as in the portrait of his content. ‘ But as Donald Kuspit has effectively argued in which saints from different epochs are joined in a works a traditional method of painting, tirelessly building more ambitii unified space and seem to be conversing either with each up layers of colors, glazes, and carefully wrought detail, tradition of other or with the audience. “The mighty dead return,” as producing visual illusions with an eloquence that evokes a in its subject Harold Bloom might have put it, "but they return in our heightened reality verging on the hallucinatory. Bravura action and n colors, and speaking in our voices.”11 brushstroke is gone. Everything in this picture is finer, themes of s< smoother, more orderly than the real world of Nerdrum’s works withii contemporary underground world of ‘Goths,’ pierced, “excrement, blood, and flesh.” Bodies arc without struc­ signed to be tattooed, and leathered, characters with a visceral edge, but ture. the rendering of the surface of the skin reveals no drawing fro: underlying skeleton: that skin is smooth, there are no evocative an wrinkles, blemishes, or even sharp shadows. Even the walls common an of the interior space are perfectly smooth—no molding is dane of sub nostalgia ... but a way of aging the present, making clear that it is born with a patina, that it is time-bound—bound 'Neo-pre-Modernism’ describes a kind of reaction ism, in painting which, like Nerdrums, seeks to restore the spirituality of a pre-Modern utopia with renewed empha­ sis on ritual, myth, nature, and significant human values. The artist positions his archetypal narratives, as in White Heriuaphrcdite of 1992—96, as a defense against a loss of beaut}- in the contemporary world, where Nature is 8/1 Im as Now While s tics of Bigbc conversation) altarpieces of the early Italian Renaissance, against the formalist and rationalist authority of Modern­ zon, the God wife, Ann with Plant (1990—91). Bigbee painstakingly re­ about Nerdrum’s use of the past, his “"traditionalism traditionalism is not by time from the beginning of its appearance.”9 uted to Bram And indeed Assael’s dramatis personae are from the which—bathed in the glow of an ethereal light that sets up a tension between the tangible and the spiritual—betrays the artist’s own empathy and compassion for these mod- �nated to Reason. For Nerdrum, science and ern-day ascetics. “ Light, Assad explains, has a mystery chipped or warped, there is no distortion in the window about it. It reveals and at rhe same time no one knows tently the bod)’, tangible and physically present, glass.14 It is an ideal, a construct—neither wholly real nor where it comes from or where it goes. . . . People thought !g flesh and blood, are seen as the antithesis of wholly imaginary—far from the supposed ‘realist’ interests of light as having a mystical quality because it allowed What we see consistently in Nerdrum's work, of optical observation and transcriptive accuracy. them to see something more clearly. ... So light was orized in color and texture, are bodies and other associated with truth, and truth was something that was sm are profoundly at odds; thus nature, and Sharon Bowar makes similar reference to the religiousallegorical painting of the Italian Renaissance, and to the substances, consisting of mass and weight, sensu- revealed. jsible and convincingly portrayed—“a mix of simulates, the oscillation of light and dark structures a academic painter Alma-Tadema, in her Santa Lucia (2003). nt, blood and flesh,” as the painter himself put it.10 profound emotional and psychological meaning, catching Saint Lucy, patron saint of rhe blind, typically shown like Nerdrum, with his visionary and primeval the ambiguities of the defiant and impenetrable strength ;s, Steven Assael arranges contemporary figures in of these costumed tou;ighs anti their vulnerability and desire holding a platter that supports and presents a pair of eyes gouged out in martyrdom (witness to her faith), stands strings, but in a sensibility informed by Old for identity and recognition. here on a loggia overlooking a composite view of Todi, a , calling to mind the religious altarpieces of the Renaissance, and Baroque eras. At Mother (2001) is As in the chiaro-scuroed images of the past he Brett Bigbee, classically trained at the Pennsylvania archaeologically-detailed mis-en-scenes of nineteenth-century medieval town in Umbria, featuring the architectural sites of the Temple of Santa Maria della Consolazione (attrib­ al triptych attached to a sculpted platform with Academy of Fine Arts, an institution with a notable legacy of American Realism reaching back to Thomas Eakins, doors that open and close. When open, the door adopts a much subtler and more distilled approach to Old mature the arrangement of five figures emerging Master traditions. Bigbee’s laconic domestic idylls and into one single imagined view. The saint holds at the center liraculous golden light, which takes on an uncanny tender images of his own family recall the linearity, geom­ of the painting, not a platter but a vase of grape leaves in mce to a classical pieta. lived in the present but etry, frontality, and quiet stillness of an iconic Piero della which we can just make out the artist’s own eyes gazing out ig to the dead past. The panels surrounding the Francesca Madonna, the pervasive and all-over brilliance of of the painting, the only site/sight of color detail in the ature two outside figures that confront the viewer colored light in Netherlandish painting, and a recasting of otherwise monochromatic (colorblind) canvas.15 with a look that recalls the sacra conversazione (holy Botticelli’s allegorical Venuses, as in the portrait of his tion) altarpieces of the early Italian Renaissance, wife, Ann with Plant (1990—91}. Bigbee painstakingly re­ tics of Bigbec and Bowar, the paintings of Bo Bartlett are uted to Bramante) and, ar the highest point on the hori­ zon, the Gothic church of Santa Fortunato, combined here While sharing in some of the same formal characteris­ saints from different epochs are joined in a works a traditional method of painting, tirelessly building more ambitiously narrative in scope, grounded in the pace and seem to be conversing either with each up layers of colors, glazes, and carefully wrought detail, tradition of Grand Manner history painting, painting that with the audience. “The might)’ dead return, as producing visual illusions with an eloquence that evokes a in its subject matter typically depicts serious or exemplary heightened reality verging on the hallucinatory. Bravura action and references the staged configurations and epic brushstroke is gone. Everything in this picture is finer, themes of scripture, mythology, and literature. Like the Moom might have put it, "but they return in our nd speaking in our voices.”11 I indeed Assael’s dramatis personae are from the orary underground world of ‘Goths,’ pierced, and leathered, characters with a visceral edge, but bathed in the glow of an ethereal light that sets up between the tangible and the spiritual—betrays :'s own empathy and compassion for these mod- smoother, more orderly than the real world of Nerdrums works within that tradition, Bartlett’s paintings are de­ “excrement, blood, and flesh.” Bodies are without struc­ signed to be about ennobling human experience, while ture, the rendering of the surface of the skin reveals no drawing from the material of everyday life. They are underlying skeleton; that skin is smooth, there arc no evocative and distinctly contemporary combinations of the wrinkles, blemishes, or even sharp shadows. Even the walls common and the symbolic, imbuing even the most mun­ of the interior space are perfectly smooth—no molding is dane of subjects with a feeling of immense, often spiritual Then as Now / 9 �significance—the divine in the human, the infinite in the finite. Here in Golden Boy (2003) a young, innocent, preadolescent male child, viewed from below, stands rocket ship, a leitmotif to symbolize the anxiety and inevitability of transport to the unknown, a reminder of in the transience of the here and now, and so a kind of of Dotty Attie. In the Atelier of ’ ‘ / fifty-seven panels, each six inches squaw. Romani fragments, and takes its name from nineteenth-centurv abandoi obvious christological reference—suspended miraculously twenty-first-century vanitas. Amid the pageantry and French academic painter Henri Fantin-Latour’s <1 Studio in schmaltz of mythical zebras, performing seals, and the more di on the water’s surface, arms extended in cruciform gesture, the Batignolles Quarter (1870), a painting that famously graphs, a faint glow of ethereal light encircling halohke around his flora and fauna of Oz, is the ever-present reminder of immortalized Fantin-Latour’s circle of avant-garde friends human golden hair. The mortal child—shaman, profit, vision­ fragility and impending mortality—as the series of eleven and colleagues, including Monet, Renoir, and Bazille, each or ary—gazes directly but nonconfrontationally out of die unfolds, we count down from ten to blastoff. Sharing some depicted gathered round their seated colleague, Manet, (itself : canvas to engage the viewer as precious hero-saint bathed of the sentiment of Odd Nerdrum, Woodruff himself who, brush in hand, is himself poised in front of a canvas suf fern in the light of redemptive revelation. As Suzi Gablik has explains: "For me, one of the most important issues facing to paint, wc assume, this august male assembly.19 Replicat­ medica aptly observed: “The recalling and setting up of sacred my generation of artists is learning how to feel again—to ing Fantin-Latour’s painted patriarchy in miniature (in the megalh signs is the even more urgent task of an artist in times reconnect the heart with the head. The modernist disloca­ four panels ar upper left), Attie has extracted and displaced larged estranged from symbol and sacrament. . . . Before art can tion has made the visual arts suspect and appear elitist. quoted details from a number of other paintings from the Syndre be successfully remythologized, wc must, as a society, The experience of looking has been deadened. Artists have past and sutured them together, reassembled as fragments sciousi suspend our unbelief.”16 confronted every cultural taboo in our society but still and interspersed with bits of text that form a narrative of ‘unreal seem to be fearful of sentiment.'48 her own invention, one with convoluted plot, implied is we v malevolence, and, confirmed in the culminating grouping incide several Suspend belief itself is what is required by the alle­ gorical realism of Julie Heffernan and Thomas Woodruff. Also drawing on symbol, allegory, and imagination. In Woodruff s painting fantasy, magic, and operatic Julie Heffernan’s fantasy-fuelled, lavishly rhetorical of panels at lower right, male violence against women. As complexity take over, replete with homespun iconography canvases address individual identity, and more specifically, wc read/view, there is an unsettling feeling of scanty and and a veritable lexicon of symbols and hermetic codes, all femininity and its performance in the canon of Western missing detail, like a crime scene to be forensically stitched Old h in a sentimental illustrative style. As one writer tells us: art history. In her ornate Baroque interiors the artifice of together in the voyeuristic imagination. Moreover, the tenor “When one tries to source Woodruff's stylistic choices and Culture is often intruded upon by Nature (swirling birds), combination of word and image activates a tension be­ sion-c iconography, things get complicated. Victoriana or thrift as in Self-Portrait as Heavenly Body (2002), where the altered tween the artist’s present role as a contemporary artist in hardb store painting surrealism? French academic painting or female figure, delectably nude, is depicted as a nvmph her own social world and her place within the heritage of a nist— heavy metal album cover? Valentine or operatic tableaux?”1 among goddesses cavorting in a frescoed ceiling; she is male-dominated art system. In the difference between the open- The point here is that little is to be gained in the parsing presented, like painting itself, or like an objet d'art, as available modalities of attending—viewing and reading—a tively of visual sources; it is a whimsical melange, a personalized aesthetic beauty, something for collection, display, and distance is set up between Then and Now, original and of tir polyglot Babel, that derives from both high and popular pleasure. The viewer, his possessive gaze, however, is copy, past and present, Old Masters mediated through a menu culture with more than a few concessions to over-the-top L dislocated, put off balance by being made to assume the layer of present (female) voice, the text itself alluding to line, i camp and kitschy moral allegory. Mission Poesy (the Diviner) is unnatural and disorienting view up. While pastiching a ‘Fors one installment in a series of eleven gothic-peaked can­ language redolent of past visual traditions, Heffernan the silencing work of violence against woman. The net of borrowed references is cast even wider by vases—a nod to traditional history painting—collectively shifts the vocabulary away from its historically male bias Vincent Desiderio, former student with Bo Bartlett and a shu titled All Systems Co. In each canvas, amidst the carnival of creatures, costumes, and colors, Woodruff has placed a 10 / Then as Now towards an idiosyncratic and insistently female voice. In this there is shared motivation informing the work print Brett Bigbee at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, where he now teaches. His Contemplative Distance (2002), path' �ip, a leitmotif to symbolize the anxiety and irv of transport to the unknown, a reminder of of Dotty* Attie. In the Atelier of 1990—91, composed of while making oblique reference to rhe nineteenth-century* fifty-seven panels, each six inches square, reproduces in Romantic era's fascination with the irregular and the ence of the here and now, and so a kind of fragments, and takes its name from nineteenth-century rst-century vanitas. Amid the pageantry* and abandoned in Theodore Gericault’s portraits of the insane, French academic painter Henri Fantin-Latours A Studio in of mythical zebras, performing seals, and the more directly borrows from medical textbook photo­ the Bationdies Quarter (1870), a painting that famously* fauna of Oz. is the ever-present reminder of graphs, more modern forms of categorizing and labeling immortalized Fantin-Latours circle of avant-garde friends nd impending mortality—as the series of eleven human experience. In the triptych two male figures face and colleagues, including Monet, Renoir, and Bazille, each other either side of a blurred digitized photograph ve count down from ten to blastoff. Sharing some depicted gathered round their seated colleague, Manet, (itself replicated), documentary images of individuals itiment of Odd Nerdrum. Woodruff himself who. brush in hand, is himself poised in front of a canvas suffering from incurable—and visibly distinguishing— Tor me. one of the most important issues facing to paint, we assume, this august male assembly.19 Replicat­ medical disorders: on the left, a man afflicted with acro- ition of artists is learning how to feel again—to ing Fantm-Latour’s painted patriarchy’ in miniature (in the the heart with the head. The modernist disloca- four panels at upper left), Attie has extracted and displaced megally (a pituitary* disorder manifest in irregularly enlarged hands, feet, and face), and on the right, Down’s rade the visual arts suspect and appear elitist, quoted details from a number of other paintings from the Syndrome. They are human beings trapped in an uncon­ fence of looking has been deadened. Artists have past and sutured them together, reassembled as fragments sciousness of their own 'irregular’ reality. Or perhaps their J even* cultural taboo in our society but still and interspersed with bits of text that form a narrative of ‘unreality’ signals for the artist a deeper reality, one to which it : fearful of sentiment.'"' her own invention, one with convoluted plot, implied is we who remain unconscious, without access. It is not drawing on symbol, allegory, and imagination, malevolence, and, confirmed m the culminating grouping incidental here that the artist’s own son, who appears in eman's fantasv-fuelled. lavishly rhetorical of panels at lower right, male violence against women. As several canvases, himself suffers from a physical disability*. Idress individual identity, and more specifically, we read/view, there is an unsettling feeling of scanty* and and its performance in the canon of Western missing detail, like a crime scene to be forensically stitched Old Master painting that is borrowed but the reverberating . In her ornate Baroque interiors the artifice of together in the voyeuristic imagination. Moreover, rhe tenor and fateful ambiance of 1940s film noir and Depres­ often intruded upon by Nature (swirling birds), combination of word and image activates a tension be­ sion-era pulp fiction, in which the recurring presence of its irtrait as Heavenly Body '2002 ), where the altered hardboiled, square-jawed, fedoraed masculine protago­ ire, delectably nude, is depicted as a nymph tween the artists present role as a contemporary artist in her own social world and her place within the heritage of a Idesses cavorting in a frescoed ceiling; she is male-dominated art system. In the difference between the open-ended drama. In a group of four paintings collec­ like painting itself, or like an objet d’art, as available modalities of attending—viewing and reading—a tively* titled Reader Series, Flanagan invokes the archaeology* eauty, something for collection, display, and distance is set up between Then and Now, original and of time and place and an overall atmosphere thick with copy, past and present, Old Masters mediated through a memory* and mood. Over images of antiquated railroad put off balance by being made to assume the layer of present (female) voice, the text itself alluding to line, industrial landscape, and library-archive, the words nd disorienting view up. While pastiching a the silencing work of violence against woman. The net of borrowed references is cast even wider by* ‘Forsaken,’ ‘Forbidden,’ ‘Forgiven,' and ‘Forgotten’ are Vincent Desiderio, former student with Bo Bartlett and a shudder of anxiety.20 he viewer, his possessive gaze, however, is dolent of past visual traditions, Heffernan ocabulary away from its historically7 male bias idiosyncratic and insistently* female voice, there is shared motivation informing the work Brett Bigbee at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, where he now teaches. His Contemplative Distance (2002), Likewise in Michael Flanagan’s work it is not so much nist—villain or hero—lends an unspecified, allusive and printed, charging the series with association, metaphor, and Old Master tradition, sacred myth, and now modern pathology* and film noir are the sources that collectively Then as xVow II �inform the works in this exhibition. The real and the dicament of the postmodern artist: all the art of the past imagined, the present and the past all have equal weight. In is available to feast on, but to feast on everything is to a recent interview with Suzie Gablik, Bo Bartlett has stated. produce nothing of one’s own.”25 The issue is framed “I guess I pick and choose from a lot of different artists; perhaps more optimistically (for poets) by Harold Bloom: Contemporary Art, Kemper Museum of Contci:;;’ 1996, p. 8. 4. Harold Bloom, The Anxiety of Influent-,--A • Clr; : \ . York and Oxford, 1973, p. 141. 5. Walter Benjamin, “N [Re The Theory of Kn 19. Fa own earlie: . it’s a bit like ! making] a quilt, where you pull from all these "The precursors flood us, and our imaginations can die by different sources. You learn from looking at the things you drowning in them, but no imaginative life is possible if like, and vou draw from all of them. But it isnt a contrived such inundation is wholly evaded. ~( And this, perhaps, is Negotiating Rapture, ed. Richard Francis, Museum of Contemporary postmodern approach, or anything like that.”21 In similar one conclusion that may be drawn from this exhibition, Art, Chicago, 1996, pp. 52—53. tone and approach to the past, Steven Assael remarks: I that innovation or authenticity in art may indeed result 6. Thomas McEvilley. 1992, p. 136. denying its think it’s more interesting to think of art history with from a thorough knowledge and skillful working of past 7. Jan Ake Pcttcrsson, Odd Nerdrum: Storyteller and Self-Revealer, sized, yet ar everything existing at the same time, everything exists co- practices, something beyond irony that provides an occa­ equally.”22 But it is Vincent Desiderio who has perhaps sion for thought, speculation, and insight. There is a most succinctly characterized our postmodern era’s com­ certain compelling honesty about each of the works on Theory of Progress],” quoted in Georges Didi-Hubermans “The depicts Fant Supposition of the Aura: The Now. The Then, and Modernity,” in among othc Astrup Fearnley Musset for Moderne Kunst, 1998, p. 22. 8. Ibid., p. 23. 9. Donald Kuspit, “Odd Nerdrum: The Aging of the Immediate,” ARTS Magazine, September 1984, pp. 122—123. pulsive consumption of images as “cultural bulimia.”23 view here, a perceptual and emotional richness and inti­ 10. Pcrtersson, p. 102. Faced with an embarrassment of riches in art informa­ macy they all share, that betrays a healthy skepticism about IE Bloom, p. 141. 12. Never working from photographs, Assael requires long tion—stvles, formal idioms, techniques, and motifs—what slavish imitation and offers a collective affirmation of is one to paint? How is it even possible to create something painting’s adequacy to lived experience and its willingness new. something distinctly relevant to one’s own time? These to face the force of what it means to be human in the seem to be the questions about an ’anxiety of influence’ twenty-first century. In an era defined by parody, spectacle, posed in the monumental image by California artist, the vulgar, and the banal, a new perspective emerges on Christian Vincent, Field of Frames (2001). Here the artist- what one of our artists called "the human content,”2' that as-architect, sketchbook in hand, surveys a panoramic uncertain place of the ethical, the contemplative—and landscape empty of all but discarded frames, art’s skeleton, even the beautiful—in contemporary art. periods of human contact with his sitters. 13. “Steven Assael: Revealing Light,” The World & I, August 1999, p. 124. 14. See Ken Greenleaf Maine Sunday Telegram, January' 9, 1994, p. 4E. 15. Bowar’s canvas is replete with borrowed fragments, 20. T vaguely Ger continues 11 December 21. B with Bo Ba Art, Colun 22. " Intcrnatior 23. 1 Course,” b 24. I Recent Paint 25. including rhe replication of a sculpted terrace wall (itself a replica­ but the im tion) surrounding one of the gardens on the estate of Hearst Castle reference i in San Simeon, California; Islamic geometric floor tiles, derived from (I993-2C fifteenth-century wall mosaics from Cairo, the design itself borrowed flooded » its bones ravenously picked over. He scans the horizon and copied in pattern books by a French nineteenth-century collector; to reprod searching for an idea with originality, something that he and perhaps most recognizably, a replication of Caravaggio’s painting Western : Basket of Fruit of 1598. Land of C< can convey that will be new, to which he can give his stamp NOTES 16. Suzi Gablik, in Bo Bartlett, exhibition catalogue, PPOW of authenticity'. As one writer puts it: “Images have been created an infinite number of times, but he must create 1. This exhibition began as a paper entitled “Aging the new ones. He needs to decide if he must reject the conven­ Present: Contemporary Realism and the History of Art” which I tional language of the past, referenced by the antique delivered at the annual conference of the Association of Art Histori­ frames, in order to go forward.”24 ans (UK) m 2004 at the University of Nottingham. Critic and historian Donald Kuspit has aptly charac­ terized the situation facing the group of artists presented by this exhibition, arguing that painting "states the pre- 12 / Then as Now 2. Donald Kuspit, The End of Art, Cambridge Uniuversity Press, 2004, pp. 182-183. 3. Thomas McEvilly, Art & Otherness: Crisis in Cultural Identity (1992), quoted in Barbara). Bocmink, Ph.D., Reality Bites: Realism in NY, 1998, n.p. 17. Bill Arning, “Admitting Sentimentality, ” Nosegays and Knuckle plenty.’ 26. 27. �osnnodern artist: all the art of the past Contemporaiy Art, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art & Design, : on, bur to feast on everything is ro 1996, p. 8. f one’s own."2''1 The issue is framed 4. Harold Bloom, The Anxiety of Influence: /I Theory of Poetry, New York and Oxford, 1973, p. 141. tnistically (for poets) by Harold Bloom: ood us, and our imaginations can die by but no imaginative life is possible if wholly evaded.”26 -And this, perhaps, is t may be drawn from this exhibition, 5. Walter Benjamin, “N [Re The Theory of Knowledge, Sandwiches: Works by Thomas Woodruff, Atlanta College of Art Gallery and City Gallery at Chastain, Atlanta, 1997, p. 13. 18. Ibid., p. 12. 19. Fantin-Latour himself recalls in this canvas of 1870 his own earlier Homage to Delacroix (Musee d’Orsay, Paris, 1864), which Theory- of Progress],” quoted in Georges Didi-Hubermans “The depicts Fantin-Latour himself with Baudelaire, Manet, and Whistler, Supposition of the Aura: The Now, The Then, and Modernity,” in among others, gathered round a portrait of Delacroix. Negotiating Rapture, ed. Richard Francis, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1996, pp. 52—53. 20. The artist explains: "Each is emblazoned with a ponderous, vaguely Germanic adjective which partly ‘explains’ the picture, while authenticity in art may indeed result 6. Thomas McEvillcy, 1992, p. 136. denying its depth and perspective. The flat surface is thus empha­ lowledge and skillful working of past 7. Jan Ake Pettersson, Odd Nerdrum: Storyteller and Self-Revealer, sized, yet around and behind it, the old three-dimensional illusion g bevond irony that provides an occaicculation. and insight. There is a honesty about each of the works on Astrup Fearnley Musset for Moderne Kunst, 1998, p. 22. 8. Ibid., p. 23. 9. Donald Kuspit, “Odd Nerdrum: The Aging of the Immediate.” ARTS Magazine, September 1984. pp. 122—123. ual and emotional richness and inti­ 10. Pettersson, p. 102. that betrays a healthy skepticism about 11. Bloom, p. 141. 1 offers a collective affirmation of 12. Never working from photographs, Assacl requires long to lived experience and its willingness what it means to be human in the In an era defined by parody, spectacle, 'anal, a new perspective emerges on periods of human contact with his sitters. 13. “Steven Assael: Revealing Light,” The World & I, August 1999, p. 124. 14. See Ken Greenleaf, Maine Sunday Telegram, January 9, 1994, p. 4E. 15. Bowars canvas is replete with borrowed fragments, continues happily to assert itself.” Communication with the artist, December I, 2004. 21. Bo Bartlett, quoted in “Painting the World: A Conversation with Bo Bartlett,” Suzi Gablik, Bo Bartlett, The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA, 2002, p. 33. 22. "Painting, the Fullness of Experience,” The Art Newspaper, International Edition, November 2002, p. I. 23. Vincent Desidcrio, quoted in “A 10-Year Long Art History Course,” Mia Fineman, New York Times, February' I, 2004, p. 34. 24. Robert Fishko, in exhibition catalogue, Christian Vincent: Recent Paintings, Forum Gallery, NY, 2001, n.p. 25. Here Kuspit is speaking specifically of Vincent Desiderio, but the implications, I think, are broader. Kuspit’s more direct sts called ‘‘the human content,”2, that including the replication of a sculpted terrace wall (itself a replica­ le ethical, the contemplative—and tion) surrounding one of the gardens on the estate of Hearst Castle reference is to Desiderio’s monumental canvas entitled Cockaigne in San Simeon, California; Islamic geometric floor tiles, derived from (1993-2003), which depicts a vertiginous view of an interior fifteenth-century wall mosaics from Cairo, the design itself borrowed flooded with light and with art books scattered on the floor and open in contemporary art. i began as a paper entitled “Aging the lealism and the History of Art” which I and copied in pattern books by a French nineteenth-century collector; to reproductions of paintings that encompass six centuries of and perhaps most recognizably, a replication of Caravaggio s painting Western art history. The painting’s title derives from Pieter Breughel’s Basket of Fruit of 1598. 16. Suzi Gablik, in Bo Bartlett, exhibition catalogue, PPOW Land of Cockaigne (1567), a cautionary moralizing tale of the ‘land of NY, 1998, n.p. 17. Bill Arning, “Admitting Sentimemitality,” Nosegays and Knuckle plenty.’ 26. Bloom, p. 154. 27. See note 7. inference of the Association of Art HistoriUniversity of Nottingham. The End of Art, Cambridge University Press, Uy, Art & Otherness: Crisis in Cultural Identity i J. Boemink, Ph.D., Reality Bites: Realism in Then as Now / 13 �Odd Nerdrum, White Hermaphrodite, 1992—96, oil on canvas, 80'4 X 83 inches, Courtesy Forum Gallery, New York ��I Steven Assael, At Mother, 2001, oil, wood panel, canvas, and steel, 110 X 156 X 42 inches, Courtesy Forum Gallery, New York ��< 1 ■ J. Ji \! -il-. r. 2001, oil. wood panel, canvas, and steel, 110 X 156 x 42 inches detail. . 1 •! ini < Killen, New York �and>!nj, !!H>. »5(-- : ,L �I I Brett Bigbee, Ann with Plant, 1990—91, oil on canvas, 53 X 42 inches, Seven Bridges Foundation, Greenwich, Connecticut; photo courtesy Alexandre Gallery, New York �A 42 inches, > courtesy Alexandre Gallery', New York �����Thomas Woodruff, All Systems Co: Mission Poesy (Diviner), 1999, acrylic on shaped canvas, 108 x 90 inches, Courtesy PPOW, New York �acrylic on shaped canvas, 108 X 90 inches, �Julie Heffernan, Self-Portrait as Heavenly Body, 2003, oil on canvas, 68 X 54 inches Courtesy of the artist, Peter Miller Gallery, Chicago, and PPOW, New York ii I 1 ■. i i I ■ ��Dotty Attic, In the Atelier, 1990-91, oil on linen, 5814 X 71 inches, 57 panels, each 6x6 inches, Courtesy PPOW, New York ��Hi ' F Vincent Desiderio, Contemplative Distance, 2002, oil on wood, 11 X 2554 inches, Courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York �< 25% inches, �i1 ! ’ ill Michael Flanagan, Reader Series Jorbi.IJniX 2002, oil and acrylic on board. 24 Courtesy PPOW, New York 32 ..-.cr.os. �acrylic on board, 24 x 32 inches, �Christian Vincent, Field of Frames, 2001, oil on canvas, 84 X 110 inches, Courtesy Forum Gallery, New York ��EXHIBITION CHECKLIST Dimensions are given in inches, height precedes width. Steven Assael .ft Mother, 2001 oil, wood panel, canvas and steel 110 x 156 x 42 Michael Flanagan Reader Series, 2002 oil and acrylic on board, each 24 x 32 Courtesy PPOW New York Courtesy Forum Gallery, New York Julie Heffernan Dotty Attie In the Atelier, 1990—91 oil on linen, 5814 X 71 57 panels, each 6x6 Self-Portrait as Heavenly Body, 2003 oil on canvas, 68 x 54 Courtesy of the artist, Peter Miller Gallery, Chicago, and PPOW, New York Courtesy PPOW New York Bo Bartlett Golden Boy, 2002 oil on linen, 83% X 57 Odd Nerdrum White Hermaphrodite, 1992—96 oil on canvas, 80/4 x 83 Courtesy Forum Gallery, New York Courtesy PPOW, New York Brett Bigbee Ann with Plant, 1990—91 oil on canvas, 53 x 42 Seven Bridges Foundation, Greenwich, Christian Vincent Field of Frames, 2001 oil on canvas, 84 X 110 Courtesy Forum Gallery, New York Connecticut Thomas Woodruff Sharon Bowar All Systems Go: Mission Poesy (Diviner), 1999 acrylic on shaped canvas, 108 X 90 Santa Lucia, 2003 Courtesy PPOW, New York oil on canvas, 48 X 40 Courtesy of the artist Vincent Desiderio Contemplative Distance, 2002 oil on wood, 1 I X 25% Courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York Z'/v.’i us Xew 39 �EXH1R1 DON UNDERWR11'ERS Annette Evans Foundation Fnends of the Sordoni Art Gallen M&T Bank Andrew J. Sordoni, 111 Wilkes University advisory commission Joseph Butkicwicz Marion M. Conyngham Virginia Davis Darin Fields, Ph.D. Joseph E. (Tim) Gilmour, Ph.D. Robert J. Heaman, Ph.D. Keith A. Hunter, Esq. BUSINESS COUNCIL SPONSORS J. Michael Lennon, Ph.D. Benco Dental Melanie Maslow Lumia Creative Business Interiors Theo Lumia First Liberty Bank and Trust Kenneth Marquis Marquis Art and Frame Alison Maslow Quaker Oats Hank O’Neal Westmoreland Club Arnold Rifkin Joel Zitofsky, Chair Charles Shaffer, Esq. Susan Adams Shoemaker, Esq. William Shull STAFF Helen Farr Sloan Ronald R. Bernier, Ph.D., Director Andrew J. Sordoni, III Karen Evans Kaufer, Associate Director Sanford B. Sternheb, M.D. Earl Lehman, Preparator Mindi Thalenfeld This project was supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Com­ monwealth of Pennsylvania, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. •W / 1 i.fn as Now &C00 32 �, hi III'):' ir’THi WIL KI.;.'; UNIVE RSITY LIBRARY 1 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2005 March 20 Then As Now Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Odd Nerdrum Steven Assael Brett Bigdee Sharon Bowar Bo Bartlett Thomas Woodruff Julie Heffernan Dotty Attie Vincent Desiderio Michael Flanagan Christian Vincent Ronald R. Bernier Ph.D. Ronald R. Bernier Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005 March 20 - May 22 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Description An account of the resource Old Master tradition, sacred myth, and now modern pathology and film noir are the sources that collectively inform the works in this exhibition. The real and the imagined, the present and the past all have equal weight. Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition program Subject The topic of the resource pre-neo-modernism neo-modernism Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource SAG https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/e49e678b5a45a0666820ff5fd83b6cf6.pdf ff1cd98bdef8f721675a0f7ab387f4f3 PDF Text Text A E A A N �Michael Kenna: lapan January r7-March 4, 2oo5 Opening Reception: Sunday, January t6, zoo5 3 to 5 P.M. Sordoni Art Gallery Wilkes University r5o South River Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 $7o) 4o8-43z5 Gallery Hours: Noon until 4:3o e.u., daily sordoni.wilkes.edu The following Exhibition U nderwriters provide general exhibition support: Friends of the Sordoni Art Gallery M&T Bank Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Andrew f. Sordoni, III Wilkes University BusinessCouncil Creative Business Interiors First Heritage Bank Quaker Oats Westmoreland Club Marquis Art & Frame Design: John Beck Printing: Llewellyn & McKane, Inc. O Michael Kenna, Courtesy Robert Klein Gallery, Boston ��TlrnLgh enQtt rf landscapes are filled witlt tlrc evidence of people, his plntos of iriinnte hunnniht. Serene and m,tsterious, thel: pause at the interim of past and present, night and da1', in scenes that invite reterie and reflectior-r. . . . With clarih' and retrlisnt and abstraction, sintplicih', Keruta's images suggest ratlrcr tlnn dcscribe, offering up iust a few elentents of the lartdscape, leat,it-tg tlrc picture. "ln it to the t,iewer to this \^td)', 1i1), pl-Lotos contplete are ntore like huiktt tltan prose." liont 'Miclnel Kenna,' Irttcn'iev, bt, Claire Sykes, April zooj ��� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2005 January 17 Michael Kenna: Japan Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michael Kenna foreword by Claire Sykes Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005 January 17 - March 4 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Description An account of the resource Though empty of people, his photos of intimate landscapes are filled with the evidence of humanity. With clarity and simplicity, Kenna's images suggest rather than describe, offering up just a few elements of the landscape, leaving it to the viewer to complete the picture. Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition program Subject The topic of the resource Michael Kenna Japan photography Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Michael Kenna, Robert Klein Gallery https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/1e59cba00bdc839bedf0b18f65d5b6ec.pdf 0a8dffa8859f71bdd8c2e0880894c7aa PDF Text Text �������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2004 August 23 Faculty Exhibition 2004 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource William Sterling Sharon Bowar Nina Davidowitz James Lennox Herbert Simon Jean C. Adams Richard A. Fuller David Leonard Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004 August 23 - October 10 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Description An account of the resource This exhibition proudly continues a long tradition at the Sordoni Art Gallery of showcasing the unique achievements of the Art Faculty at Wilkes University. Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition program Subject The topic of the resource Wilkes University faculty Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource SAG https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/5ff31fe1893e5b9c434d5fa363456286.pdf 565f7e6b8b680061c4cc935fed431698 PDF Text Text �Adele Aleoy Reaent, Works Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage May O-June 20,2OO4 Reaefiion to Meet the Art"ist: 1aturday, May 8, 2OO4,5-7 p.m. 5ordoni Art" Gallery Wilkes Univereity 15O 5ouih River 1treet Wilkes-Oarre, ?A 10766 (57o) 4oO-4325 sordoni,wilkes,edu Gallery Houroz Noon until4zSO p.m, daily FronL: )rchard Gate, 2OO1 oil on canvae,SO x54 inches CourLeey Alexan dre O allery The following Exhibition U nderwritera provide qeneral exhibition auppor|.: Frienda of the )ordoni Art Gallery, M&T Dank, Fennaylvania Counail on the Arte, Andrew J. 1ordoni, lll, Wilkea Univeraity. BusineEe Counall: Creative Buainesa lnteriora, Firat Heritaqe Dank, Quaker Oata, Weatmoreland Club, Paid Permit No. 355 Wilkes-Barre, PA � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2004 May 8 Adele Alsop: Recent Work Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Adele Alsop Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004 May 8 - June 20 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Type The nature or genre of the resource Invitation Subject The topic of the resource N/A https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/f55a698c838a55e1196cbc452a578100.pdf 5d80d82b06f0d476e7520542c34ebd02 PDF Text Text ������������������ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2004 March 15 Wade Schuman Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Wade Schuman Ronald R. Bernier Ph.D. Carter Ratcliff Mia Feneman Ronald R. Bernier Karen Evans Kaufer Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004 March 15 - April 25 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Description An account of the resource The paintings of Wade Schuman, distinguised by observational skill, technical mastery, and recognizable subject matter is, however, less about Realism and more about Illusion. What is at the issue in his painting is not how depictions are madeto convey the look of the subject, but rather how recognition---the most basic relation we have to the world---functions in a distinctive way within the painting. Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition program Subject The topic of the resource Wade Schuman painting realism paintings painter allegory Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wade Schuman https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/bbd8599673afca58aff202c5b783a340.pdf e436236b49af8c6a88b1ee9f75364804 PDF Text Text �A Shared Vision: Photographs by Berenice Abbott and Hank O'Neal ET .A..4 ,-A il fanuary 19 - February 29,2OO4 Organized by Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Creensburg, PA Gallery Talk by Hank O'Neal Saturday, January 24, 5:00 pm Reception immediately fol lowing Ceneral exhibition support is provided by the folIowi ng Exhibition Underwriters: Friends of the Sordoni Art Callery, M&T Bank, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Andrew J. Sordoni, lll, Wilkes University. Business Council: Creative Business lnteriors, Westmoreland CIub. o a .o { { FAJ AJ .Y (E o f! ts & qJ a o (E zc) o -:z Many artists have focused on the same subject, but few have shared a vision like that of photographers Berenice Abbott and Hank O'Neal. For 19 years, the two not only shared an interest in the same topic - the state of Maine - but a way of seeing as well. lncluded in this exhibition is the last scene that Abbott wanted to photograph, but couldn't, which was later taken by O'Neal. I ;j o II Sordoni Art Callery Wilkes University 150 South River Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 (570) 408-432s sordoni.wilkes.edu Callery Hours: Noon until 4:30 pm daily � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2004 January 19 A Shared Vison: Photographs by Bernice Abbot and Hank O'Neal Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bernice Abbot Hank O'Neal Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004 January 19 - February 29 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Type The nature or genre of the resource Invitation Subject The topic of the resource N/A https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/0ba45c7f073a0bda0ade54956eb25095.pdf 2a7fc2e9c8c76dd2be4ee307cda6490c PDF Text Text ���� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2003 November 2 The Gift of Art Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ronald R. Bernier Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003 November 2 - December 14 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Description An account of the resource This exhibition is the first survey of the work of the Sordoni's original permanent collection. Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition program Subject The topic of the resource permanent collection https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/3399fc5de0f819e975538577c58fca84.pdf 85c52c656fae2f3dadc89418708f7d08 PDF Text Text ��������������� https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/628bf026fca935815e7ec0204fd1e419.pdf c37cdc99cd06d3856bb32f68ee26f31e PDF Text Text �JON CARSMAN Rhythm, Movement, Energy �) O N C j Rhythm. \ E.S. H WILKE WILKI Ion in 4 r- Street Studio, photograph by Jack Mitchell �JON CARSMAN Rhythm, Movement, Energy Organized by the Sordoni Art Gallery Guest Curator Darlene Miller-Lanning, Ph.D. Gallery Director and Adjunct Faculty The University of Scranton Essays by Darlene Miller-Lanning, Ph.D. F. Charles Petrillo, Esq. E.S. FARLEY LIBRARY WILKES UNIVERSITY WILKES-BARRE, PA September 7 - October 19, 2003 Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania September 7 - October 12, 2003 Mahady Gallery, Marywood University Scranton, Pennsylvania �El' Acknowledgments Reflections on Jon Carsman, 1944- Special thanks must go to several individuals who were central to the success of this project. To Karen Plant we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude for her unflagging enthusiasm, generosity of time and spirit, and diligent attention to virtually every detail of the exhibition's preparation and presentation. To Darlene Miller-Lanning, Ph.D., Director of the Art Gallery at The University of Scranton and Guest Curator, who first admired Carsman's work here at the Sordoni Art Gallery as an under­ graduate at Wilkes University, we are indebted for her thoughtfulness and insight and, in particular, for her determination to see this project to its realization. Her essay herein only further enhances and illuminates her fellow alum’s remarkable career. We also wish to recognize other supporters of this long-awaited project, namely, F. Charles Petrillo, Esq., friend and devoted admirer of Jon’s work; Sandra Ward Povse, Director of the Marywood University Art Galleries, with whom we are delighted to share this exhibition; and private lenders of work to the show: Mrs. Jack (LorettaJ Carsman; Joseph Carsman; Ken Marquis; the Edward Welles, Jr., Collection, D. Leonard Corgan Library, King’s College; and Sandy and Arnold Rifkin, long-time friends and supporters of the Sordoni Art Gallery and Wilkes University. This project is, indeed, the happy result of collaboration. Ronald R. Bernier, Ph.D. Director ARCHIVE •W « s cau Ay 3 Karen Evans Kaufer Associate Director won Carsman was born in December 1944 m Wilkes-Barre, F I kindergarten, Jon displayed an extraordinary fascination wit J eight, his parents, Jack and Loretta Carsman, arranged draw (1893-1982). a respected Wilkes-Barre artist-teacher. At Kings Graydon Mayer, chair of the school’s art department, a remark Jon and other students on weekend painting excursions to rur; in Wyoming and Susquehanna counties. The Carsman family i Harvey's Lake, and the rambling streams and waterfalls along Hunlock's Creek, and Ricketts Glen were re-formed by his ima.s the small towns of Edwardsville and Courtdale, uniquelv char; frequently found in his work. After a year at Wayne State University, Jon enrolled al was a record-setting member of the swim team to which he w mates in his senior year. While still a student, ion exhibited hi and Binghamton. New York. Following graduation from Wilke: tion, Jon earned an M.A. in Art Education in 1067 from New) taught at Harlem schools for the New York City school system After Jon’s college graduation. Graydon Mayer introdi Wyoming Valley native and head of the American Art division City. Graham Gallery served as Ion's initial agent in New York group shows in 1969 to 1974. after which Ion moved to Fisch From his studio in lower Manhattan Ion completed a rooftops in the early 1970s. followed by a critically successful then a series of small-town roadways and frame houses in Bi River, later returning to a favorite theme of woodland views. \ his aim was not simply to recreate the scene: "I want to give ’ when I was."' Indeed, one commentator found Jon’s work an graphic, art historical and personal resources."1 These "personal resources" included what has been . Ion’s work, reminiscent, perhaps, of late-night walks with fnend Theater, tranquil summer days with his family at Harvey’s La surrounds during excursions to the Hamptons. Long Island. Individual exhibitions quickly followed in the 1970s. southern and western United States, and Australia in 1976-1 group exhibitions at venues as diverse as Paris and Santa Fe. featured in an exhibition at the Everhart Museum m Scrantar alma mater. Wilkes, for a group show in l°82 with other alu I- Ion Carsman: Paintings and Watercolors (New York: Crispo Gali 2. Ruth Bass, "ion Carsman," Art Vkws. May 1979. © 2003 Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University I ____ _g. �Reticciions on Ion Carsman, lt->44-l987 b trecer." ; to success c: in s prc'ect. ”c ce for her ;;n: egging or.;.Tt:sics-. generosity of even, ceta'.’ of toe exh.biiicn's preparation and cr c: the Art Cabery at The Utv.-ersltx of Scranton work here at the Sordon; Art Gallery as an underrer theughnuxess and .-.-sigh: and, in particular. ta­ rtan. Her essay herein cn'.y further enhances and rrs of this ■c-g-a/.aitec project. namely. F. Charles cric Sandra Ward "ovse. Director 0: the Man-wood rted to share this exhibition; and private tenders cf •seph Cars—an; Ken l.la-c-ist the Edward Weiies. Ccdege: and Sandy and Arnold Rifkin, ■eng-rt—e and kes UrD ersiby. :: to’iabc—ti'cn. Karen Evans Kauder Associate Director I -on Carsman was born in December 1044 in Wilkes-Barre. Pennsylvania. By the time he reached lk:::de:garten, Jon displaced an extraordinary fascination with color and drawing. When Jon was I Jeighi- his parents, lack and Loretta Carsman, arranged drawing lessons with Niccolo Cortiglia ,i893-:-'eE’, a respected Wilkes-Barre artist-teacher. At Kingston High School, |on was tutored by Graydon Mayer, chair of the school’s art department, a remarkable naturalist who frequently took Jon and other students on weekend painting excursions to rural haunts in the Back Mountain and i in Wyoming and Susquehanna counties. The Carsman family itself had a summer cottage at Harvey's Lake, and the rambling streams and waterfalls along Bowman's Creek, Buttermilk Falls, Hunlock's Creek, and Ricketts Glen were re-formed by his imagination. Jon also found inspiration in tne small towns of Edwardsville and Courtdale, uniquely characterized by uphill perspectives and frequently found in his work. After a year at Wayne State University, Ion enrolled at Wilkes College in 1963, where he was a record-setting member of the swim team to which he was elected co-captain by his team­ mates in his senior year. While still a student, Jon exhibited his work in Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton, and Binghamton. New York. Following graduation from Wilkes in 1966 with a B.A. in Art Educa­ tion. 'on earned an M.A. in Art Education in 1967 from New York University. He subsequently taught at Harlem schools for the New York City school system. After Jon’s college graduation, Graydon Mayer introduced the artist to David Herbert, Wvo.-.ing Valley native and head of the American Art division of the Graham Gallery in New York Gtv. Graham Gallery served as Jon’s initial agent in New York, featuring him in individual and group shows in 1969 to 1974, after which Jon moved to Fischbach Gallery, also in New York. From his studio in lower Manhattan Jon completed a series of views of New York City rooftops in the early 1970s. followed by a critically successful exhibition of Harvey's Lake works, then a series cf small-town roadways and frame houses in Bucks County and along the Delaware River, later returning to a favorite theme of woodland views. While Jon painted from photographs, his a'—, was net simply to recreate the scene: "I want to give you a feel of what it is like to be there when 1 was.” Indeed, one commentator found Jon's work an “interesting synthesis of photo­ graphic, art historical and personal resources.”2 These “personal resources" included what has been described as a haunting quality in ltr.’s work. reminiscent, perhaps, of late-night walks with friends returning home from the Kingston Theater, tranquil summer days with his family at Harvey's Lake, and, in later years, the lush floral surrounds durng excursions to the Hamptons, Long Island. Individual exhibitions quickly followed in the 1970s, throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, southern and western United States, and Australia in 1976-1977. By 1977, Jon was represented in group exhibitions at venues as diverse as Paris and Santa Fc. During this period the artist was also featured ir. an exhibition at the Everhart Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and he returned to his z-.r.a mater. Wilkes, for a group show in 1982 with other alumni. . Ion Cartwam paii’isny;. und Watercolors (New York: Crispo Gallery. 1979). '■ Puth i’j'w -Jun Carsman," Art Views. May 1979. I’liytlini. Movement. I netgv �By 198-1. more than 80 museums in 31 states held Jon’s work in their permanent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washing­ ton. D.C Many of America’s most prestigious corporate institutions also acquired Jon’s work for " their collections. A visit around 1980 to Impressionist Claude Monet’s adopted home at Giverny in France inspired Jon’s final major group of paintings. An exhibition of this work traveled to Reading, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma City, and Little Rock, concluding at the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio in September 1984. Jon’s last exhibition with Hammer Galleries in New York, in October 1986, featured a broad range of paintings and watercolors. Shortly thereafter. Jon fell terminally ill and concentrated on cataloguing his body of work. As Jon would not compromise his art, he would not compromise his life—which he ended in December 1987. Jon would not accept classification. While designated variously by the commentators as a “super realist,” “new realist," "rural photo realist," and "impressionistic realist,” Jon himself always sought to eschew comparisons and categories. Perhaps Jon’s work—and Jon himself to those who knew and loved him—was best described by a friend and critic: “a singular intensity."3 Chuck Petrillo Jon’s Co-Captain Wilkes Swim Team '66 Everson M^eum^S (Syracuse. Oklahoma City. Wichita: v-cmer, wicnita Art Museum, 1977-78). 6 / JON CARSMAN R‘te of Spring. 1978. acrylic, 84 x i 20 inches. Collection o: Ra ��Winter Lights, 1979, acrylic. 90 x 66 inches, Collection of Karen Plant Pink Frenzy. 1074. acrylic, 70 50 inches. Collection of Kare ��; I I? : ' '"i ' ’ Edwardsville. 1968. acrylic 59 « 64 inches So �I F. Charles Petrillo, Esq. Edwardsville, 1968. acrylic, 59 z 64 inches, Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Permanent Collection �M ■ ii' : Artist’s Father, 1968, acrylic, 49 x 37 inches. Collection of Loretta Carsman Trexler's Corner. iQ"4, waiercolor, 30 * 22 inches Co?!ecf �ta Carsman ■ �■ ■■■■ Realizat’ons: The Paintings, Print allowing m the ic/. . : Jacl I j example of a creative and chari career, lived a vibrant ht<- and c art. was truly immersed in the Ne . lished galleries like Graham and liar Mugaeine and was described as one c the importance of representational im strength as a painter, however, lay n ground a popular and emerging ar! ot northeastern Pennsylvania's Wyu the region's lonely towns and wood! Charles Burchfield and Edward Hopf :ii flat and brightly colored depictions •. i; ■ and neon lightwires combined elem< issues ot cultural and technological in change the stillness of rural pools a inherently linked with loss I he am- with regret. Carsman's connection-, to t of 1078. With its broad areas of flat woodland scene. which owed its cla H’ II =■ If • site for Rig ■/ Sp 1 Graydon Mayer, consersaucn a '""■r'er f --. -lion Announcement (Southan Evening Geometry. 19S6. acrylic. 60 72 inches. Collection of Karen Plant �Realizations. The Paintings, Prints, and Watercolors of Jon Carsman following in the footsteps of Jackson Pollock and James Dean. Jon Carsman was a classic L example of a creative and charismatic American artist who, during his short but productive I career, lived a vibrant life and died tragically young. Carsman, in the style of both his life and art, was truly immersed in the New York art scene of the I 970s and 1980s. Represented by estab lished galleries like Graham and Hammer, the artist was well received by critics for Art News and Arts Magazine and was described as one of the New Realist or Photo Realist painters who reestablished the importance of representational imagery in the wake of Abstract Expressionism. Carsman’s true strength as a painter, however, lay not in his ability to keep pace with his peers but in his capacity to ground a popular and emerging art style in enduring personal and art historical traditions A native of northeastern Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Valley coal fields, Carsman never lost his fascination for the region’s lonely towns and woodland glades nor his respect for the American Scene painters. Charles Burchfield and Edward Hopper, instilled in him by a local high school art teacher. Carsman’s flat and brightly colored depictions of Victorian houses, overgrown gardens, shadowed waysides, and neon lightwires combined elements of Photo Realism, Pop, and the American Scene to address issues of cultural and technological innovation and isolation. In America’s fast-flowing current of change, the stillness of rural pools and eddies revealed that contemporary progress was uneven and inherently linked with loss. The artist faced this reality with optimism and tempered it, only slightly, with regret. Carsman’s connections to Photo Realism were evident in Rite of Spring, a large-scale acrylic of 1978. With its broad areas of flat color and sinuous arches of flowing line, this representational woodland scene, which owed its clarity to the artist’s use of photographs as preliminary studies for his works, was comparable in style and content to paintings by predecessors Neil Welliver and Fairfield Porter.1 Critics reviewing Carsman’s work during the 1970s recognized these obvious links but also acknowledged that the paintings moved beyond them. Noting that Carsman interpreted and extended the content of his initial photographs, Patricia Hamilton credited the artist with developing “a new vocabulary in nature," while Robert Doty observed that Carsman’s landscapes contained “suggestions of mystery, hints of an unearthly presence [and were] redolent with omnipresent but unseen I- Graydon Mayer, conversation with the author, Tunkhannock, PA, 24 June 2002, lohn Carsman Fairfi Porter Exhibition Announcement (Southampton: Tower Gallery. 1973). Karen Plant Rhythm. Movement. Energy ■ 15 �powers ”2 Carsman himself conceded that expressive exaggerations of natural forms, sometimes described as "bats,” regularly appeared in his paintings. In an analogy particularly suited to Rife .< Spring which took its name from the Stravinsky ballet, Carsman likened these forms to patterns of rhythm, movement, and energy found in music. Beyond its existence as a landscape painting, he described Rite of Spring as an attempt “to force an involvement with the state of being in the woods at springtime and seeing its arrival. Other people have attempted to produce this state with color, words and music. The chevron-eye shape is Spring. . . . There are growth-like shapes around the trees that are flying towards you. These to me signify the arrival of spring in the woods. It happens there whether or not someone is there to experience it.’’3 Themes of transformation and change found in Carsman’s representations of nature were also evident in his depiction of rural structures and roads. In the acrylic Winter Lights of 1979. Carsman’s heightened realism bordered on Pop: nineteenth-century brick and clapboard cottages Carsman himself dismissed them, stating ” perceptive writers interpreted Carsman’s ties to carl’.’ :we-> of shared insights rather than shared styles. John A-nbwy portraying scenes of rustic disrepair was neither to iseLst American scene for purposes of nostalgia, nor to opp-,-. subject in the interests ot -pure’ landscape pa n! r, their due."3 Similarly. Richard lynch writing littce- Jr- and Hopper had painted American landscapes that were i peace with his memories, painting "not portraits o* me'pl positions constructed from life’s experience ’ Ever, in . .. depicted the famed willows, bridges and waterlilies m stood as white and vermilion patches against an ultramarine sky, while violet and lavender phone American sensibilities prevailed. Forgoing Monel’s accepts lines and guard rails paralleled the yellow markings of a darkly shaded lane. Like his Pop predeces­ sor Andy Warhol, Carsman exploited the satirical quality found in this juxtaposition of the tradi­ ephemeral and atmospheric visions of Monet to produce r tional and commercial and further reinterpreted it in the related silkscreen Winter Shadows of 1980. imagery." which, when coupled with the fluid watercolor Carsman’s two-man show with Warhol at the Tower Gallery, Southampton, in 1982, demonstrated Monet’s scumbling, dots and dashes ot oil pigment.’ and French Impressionism. Carsman. in the words ot le-. Ultimately, Ion Carsman’s paintings prints md that these similarities were more than superficial.'1 Using what John Canaday described as “a Eisenhower, when the latter was painting by numbers," Carsman infused otherwise nostalgic of photography. Pop. and American Scene, were work*, realism but with broader issues of cultural realization. R subjects with jarring elements of contemporary technique and content.’’ All vestiges of picture- vibrant, free-spirited vitality, could, on its exuberant mat postcard tranquility were banished and replaced, in the words of Richard Lorber, by Carsman’s "hallucinogenic vision of the apple-pie American townscape. Finally, Carsman’s paintings of domestic landscapes sparked debates about American culture and provincialism. Throughout the a glimpse of its slightly haunting, barely dismissed, and artist’s career, critics linked his style to those of the American Scene painters: like Carsman, Burch-field had stylized and energized his world. curious double recall of past masters, being remindful at once of Charles Burchfield and Dwight D. ........... V., "I, it the- a . experience that excitement of nature and attempt to < V T ,<>*., Ml, Mill . ,< I 0 depictions of vegetation to create an aura of the phenomena of mass-media and postmodernism with tional built and natural environments In an era when th of the virtual. Carsman respected the enduring resonanc ’;''■. mystery; Hopper had heightened and length­ ened his buildings and shadows to address issues of existentialism; and both artists had possessed a love and mastery of watercolor. The riotous color and haunting architecture found in Carsman’s acrylic Pink Frenzy of 1974, ; Hr ■■ .• 1 he U did little to dispel these comparisons, although New Lumberville, site for Winter Lights, 1979 2. Patricia Hamilton, “Jon Carsman," Arts Magazine (February 1976): 9; and Robert M. Doty, ion Carsman (Huntsville: Huntsville Museum of Art, 1975): 2. 3. Robert Pavlik, “Jon Carsman: An Impressionistic Realist," Arts Magazine (February 1979): 160. 4. lohn Carsman/Andy Warhol Exhibition Announcement (Southampton: Tower Gallery. 19S2). 5. John Canaday. “Art: Carsman Shows Strength," New York Times (8 December 1973). 6. Richard Lorber, “Jon Carsman," Arts Magazine (April 1976); 21. 16/ION c a rs ma n 7. Pavlik, "Jon Carsman,” 158. ■ 8 lohn Ashbery, Ion Carsman (New York’ Graham GalteryB 9. Richard Lynch, ion Carsman. Paintings and Water. I 10. Lowell Adams, ion Carsman: Givemy Watercolors ipead.rw Reading Art Museum, Oklahoma Art Center. Arkansas Art Ce® �:sivc exaggerations of natural forms, sometimes intings. In an analogy particularly suited to Rite of iallet. Carsman likened these forms to patterns of .eyond its existence as a landscape painting, he involvement with the state of being in the woods have attempted to produce this state with color, ng. . . . There are growth-like shapes around the inlfy the arrival of spring in the woods. It happens ice it.”3 und in Carsman's representations of nature were id roads. In the acrylic Winter Lights of I 979, ineteenth-century brick and clapboard cottages Itramarinc sky, while violet and lavender phone gs of a darkly' shaded lane. Like his Pop predecesquality found in this juxtaposition of the tradiin the related silkscreen Winter Shadows of I 980. ver Gallery. Southampton, in 1982, demonstrated ’ Using what John Canaday described as “a dful at once of Charles Burchfield and Dwight D. rers." Carsman infused otherwise nostalgic :hnique and content.' All vestiges of picture­ in the words of Richard Lorber. by Carsman’s nvn scape."6 andscapes sparked debates about American Car: ,n-n himself dismissed them, stating “If there are similarities in our work, so be it for we a!! experience (hat excitement of nature and attempt to communicate it in our paintings “' More perceptive writers interpreted Carsman's ties to early twentieth-century American realists in terms of shared insights rather than shared styles. John Ashbery aptly stated that Carsman’s intent in portraying scenes of rustic disrepair was “neither to isolate some fragments of the always vanishing American scene for purposes of nostalgia, nor to suppress the picturesque, anecdiside ot his subject in the Interests of 'pure' landscape painting, but to give both the evocative and the pamterlv their due.”1’Similarly, Richard Lynch, writing fifteen years later, maintained that while Isp, i,t!and Hopper had painted American landscapes that were haunted and isolated, car- man ., J( peace with his memories, painting “not portraits of inexplicable fears, but rather thoughtful, sn positions constructed from life s experience. Even in his watercolor sei e.-. of i ■», > > | ,, depicted the famed willows, bridges and waterlilies from Monet s garden .it thverny. Car m.m American sensibilities prevailed. Forgoing Monet's accepted association . with Japane teaesth and French Impressionism, Carsman, in the words of Lowell Adams. ■ sifted through tin h.wv ephemeral and atmospheric visions of Monet to produce his own more clearly defined .mJ tjn^ibl. imagery," which, when coupled with the fluid watercolor medium, proved to be ’ tin- p< n,-, 11 i,. Monet's scumbling, dots and dashes of oil pigment.’’ Ultimately, Jon Carsman’s paintings, prints and watercolors, with their wmhn d ■ , vn, of photography, Pop, and American Scene, were works concerned not with .tylidi bate ah. a realism but with broader issues of cultural realization. Recognizing that i an cult ,■ _i'i vibrant, free-spirited vitality, could, on its exuberant march into the future, ornvtime I .... a glimpse of its slightly haunting, barely dismissed, and not so distant p.r.t c.r man ..nth : the phenomena of mass-media and postmodernism with subject mattei drawn tr. tional built and natural environments. In an era when the reality oi c. (lit. • . i . he -., , ■ of the virtual, Carsman respected the enduring resonance of direct eriLou’iter ■. . ' .■ world. Darlene Miller-Lanning. i'h D Gallery Director Adjunct I acuity University Art Gallery The University of Scranton New Lumberville, site for Winter Lights, I 979 (February 1976k 9; and Robert M. Doty. Ion Carsman Realist," Arts Magazine (February 1979k 160. nt (Southampton: Tower Gallery. 1982). <ew York Tunes 18 December 1973). phi 1976): 21. 7. Pavlik, "|on Carsman." 158. _ . 8. lohn Ashberv. Ion Carsman (New York: Graham Gallery, |9,,l , 9. Richard Lynch. Ion Carsman. Paintings ami Watercolors (New ’.erk Hammer Gafkn^ 10. Lowell Adams, /on Carsman: Givemy Watercolors (Reading. Oklahoma utv. l 1 " [9g4i. , Reading Art Museum. Oklahoma Art Center. Arkansas Art Center and Dayton xrt ms -■ R6\:hrr ’c.e'-"’- �lisisjs | Exhibition Checklist dimensions are given | in inches, height precedes width. Sordoni Art Gallery Wilkes University Pink Frenzy, 1974 acrylic 70 x 50 Collection of Karen Plant Evening Geometry, 1986 acrylic 60 x 72 Collection of Karen Plant Artist’s Father, 1968 acrylic 49 x 37 Collection of Loretta Carsman Edwardsville, 1968 acrylic 59 x 64 Sordoni Art Callery Wilkes University Permanent Collection Second Avenue, New York City, n.d. acrylic 12 x 14 Edward Welles. Jr., Collection D. Leonard Corgan Library King’s College Civerney Cannas, 1981 watercolor 29 x 22 Collection of Karen Plant Winter Shadows, 1980 serigraph 33 x 24 Collection of Ken Marquis September Stillness, 1983 watercolor 21 Vi x 29 Collection of Sandy and Arnold Rifkin Blue Runner, 1979 acrylic 50 x 60 Collection of Sandy and Arnold Rifkin Winter Lights, 1979 acrylic 90 x 66 Collection of Karen Plant City Scene, New York, n.d. oil 16 x 20 Edward Welles, Jr., Collection D. Leonard Corgan Library King's College Lakeside Shadows, 1974 acrylic 26 x 32 Sordoni Art Gallery Wilkes University Permanent Collection Hippie, 1966 crayon 1014 x II V, Collection of F. Charles Petrillo, Esq. IB /ION c A H s M A N Lake Winola, I 971 acrylic 72 x 72 Collection of Joseph Carsma Lehigh Valley Railroad Station, 1966 watercolor 13 x 21 Collection of F. Charles Petrillo, Esq. Man in Window, 1967 watercolor 8 x 11 Edward Welles, Jr., Collection D. Leonard Corgan Library King's College Red Rose Bar, NYC, 1968 pencil 1314 x 10 Sordoni Art Gallery Wilkes University Permanent Collection Velvet Waters, 1982 watercolor 29 x 22 Collection of Karen Plant Covered Gate, n.d. watercolor 34 x 2514 Collection of F. Charles Petrillo. Esq. Pink House. 1983 watercolor 22 x 29 Collection of Karen Plant Collect c~ . �width. .'etv York City. n.d. |r.. Collection ;an Library 1981 Lake Wiitclu, 1971 acrylic 72 x 72 Collection of Joseph Carsman Lc/'.-g.'.- Va’.'ey Railroad Stat:-'’:, 1«66 watercolor 13 x 21 Collection of F. Charles Petrillo. Esq. en Plant Man •• Hrrdciv. 1967 1980 watercolor 8 x 11 Marquis >. 1983 Edward Welles. Jr.. Collection D. Leonard Corgan LibraryKing’s College Red Rose Bor. .VYC 1 968 pencil dy and Arnold 13u x 10 Sordoni An Gallery Wilkes UniversityPermanent Collection '9 ■n Plant Velvet Waters, IP32 watercolor 29 x 22 Collection of Karen Plant 1974 Y tion tries Petrillo, Esq. Covered Cate. n.d. watercolor 34 x 25:i Collection of F. Charles Petrillo. Esq. �Advisory Commission Exhibition Underwriters Friends of the Sordoni Art Gallery . Andrew J. Sordoni, III M&T Bank Wilkes University Business Council Sponsors Benco Dental Creative Business Interiors Joseph Butkiewicz Marion M. Conyngham Virginia C. Davis Joseph E. (Tim) Gilmour, Ph.D. Robert J. Heaman, Ph.D. Keith A. Hunter, Esq. J. Michael Lennon, Ph.D. Melanie Maslow Lumia Theo Lumia First Heritage Bank Kenneth Marquis Quaker Oats Company Allison Maslow Service Electric Company Westmoreland Club Arnold Rifkin Hank O’Neal Charles Shaffer, Esq. Additional funding was provided by F. Charles Petrillo, Esq., and Bruce J. Phillips, Esq. William Shull Helen Farr Sloan Andrew J. Sordoni, III This project was supported in part by the I Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Sanford B. Sternlieb, M.D. Mindi Thalenfeld Joel Zitofsky, Chair Staff Ronald R. Bernier, Ph.D., Director Karen Evans Kaufer, Associate Director Earl Lehman, Preparator Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University 150 South River Street Wilkes-Barre. PA 18766 Telephone 570-408-4325 Fax 570-408-7733 sordoni.wilkes.edu 2.500 copies were printed by Llewellyn & McKane. Inc. Catalogue design: John Beck Photography: Michael Thomas, pp. 10-12 ISBN 0-942945-24-7 2I> /JON C A R S M A N �HIBIBi iiiiwiiajMii ^■r Rrh ms . BbS'- ■■' [• ■> t . . SIS '■ : ■ ;■/ liOQDSEaLtil WILKES UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ■i h -Jun BOB |||||§l^ - . ajfe^jSgsstsag if a ■^aa^MWBBaM B ■' r'7"Lv. J '-': nu ? ■ '-. Bags IS ; J\ - '«wS?SsWW ■ r •? -■ � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2003 September 7 Jon Carsman: Rhythm, Movement, Energy Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jon Carsman Darlene-Miller Lanning Ph.D F. Charles Petrillo Esq. Darlene-MillerLanning Ph.D. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003 September 7 - October 19 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Description An account of the resource Jon Carsman was a classic example of a creative and charismatic American artist who, during his short but productive career, lived a vibrant life and died tragically young. He was described as one of the New Realist or Photo Realist painters who reestablished the importance of representational imagery in the wake of Abstract Expressionism. Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition program Subject The topic of the resource Jon Carsman landscapes landscape painting paintings painter https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/457d2f698ecbf5cdf28fd3cda682821f.pdf ebd879049aa0ce30680a22891bfaa0c1 PDF Text Text �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2003 June 18 People, Places, and Things: Photographs from the Permanent Collection Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003 June 18 - August 10 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Type The nature or genre of the resource Invitation Subject The topic of the resource N/A https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/998d8ef552a6c6267efaf8969722744c.pdf e83679cf84dd712a90c4a6bfb9230044 PDF Text Text ���������������������������������������������������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2003 March 10 Birds in Art 2003 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Carl Brenders Al Agnew Edward Aldrich Neil Allen Charles Allmond Wayne Anderson Tony Angell John Banovich Barbara Bathien Al Barnes Larry Barth Robert Bateman Linda Besse Henry Bismuth Allen Blagden Francois Blin Jules Bouchard Stefane Bougie Carel Brest van Kempen KerriBurnett DianeBurns NatalieCaproni TimCherry LewisCisle C.D.Clarke GuyCoheleach IanColeman EwouddeGroot AdeleEarnshaw MarkEberhard SallyElmer DawnEmerson BethErlund MelanieFain AnneFaust JohnFelsing JoeGarcia UlcoGlimmerveen EllenWelchGranter Shirley Greene Grant Hacking Joyce Hall Charley Harper Janet N. Heaton MatthewHillier Cindy House NancyHowe MarthaHudson Colle Johnson LarsJohnson M.C.Kanouse Eugene Kisselmann JoshuaKnuth DavidEdward Kuecherer Mark Larson Katie Lee Karen Leffel-Massengill Stephen Left Sherry Loehr Franna Lusson Harro Maass Walter T. Matia Jan Martian McGuire Larry McQueen Janice Meister Krystii Melaine Terry Miller Dirk Moerbeek James Morgan John Mullane Rock Newcomb Elliot Offner Peter Olson Mary Louise O'Sullivan Dino Paravano Patricia Pepin Jonathan Pointer Greg Postle Tony Pridham JulioPro Thomas Quinn Don Rambadt Gamini Ratnavira Maynard Reece Bill Rice Andrea Rich John Richen Michael James Riddet Sue ellen Ross Kimberly Roush Bart Rulon Linda St.Clair Sherry Salari Sander Randall Scott John T. Sharp Juan Varela Simo Richard Sloan Daniel Smith Dee Smith Matt Snebold Jan McAllaster Stommes Karl Taylor Kent Ullberg BarryW. Van Dusen Pieter Verstappen Bart Walter Paula Waterman Dale A. Weiler Sandra Wiesman Weiler Tim Wider Ronnie Willford Lin-HueYen Pete Zaluzec Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003 March 10 - May 4 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Description An account of the resource Birds in Art is a comprehensive catalogue of artists depictions of birds of various species and in various forms. From hyperrealistic to abstract and in 2D and 3D mediums, artists share their love of ornithology. Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition program Subject The topic of the resource Birds in Art birds bird ornithology watercolor acrylic oil bronze 2D 3D mixed media gouache pencil pastel oil pastel graphite Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/09bb92646261dae371630d5580dd606a.pdf 956b6fe9ca5759b3c7f1003908cde1ee PDF Text Text ��������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2002 October 27 Collecting At Century's End: Selections from The Maslow Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Willy Heeks Terry Winters Melissa Meyer Jane Hammond Robert Cummings John Beerman Ronald R. Bernier Ronald R.Bernier Karen Evans Kaufer Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002 October 27 - December 15 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Description An account of the resource This exhibition covers a few artists whose work has joined the Maslow Collection at the end of the twentieth century. Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition program Subject The topic of the resource Maslow Collection collecting, collection paintings painters https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/dd2abb76273de88e4525375d483166a1.pdf 673b6bb766ea643c7667774b30e618a5 PDF Text Text MICHAEL DE IONG F �s0 0T HSqa Mo.fi;I CI4()[ 3A leAHf IM ���ExhiL-.,ition Curatcd bv Ror-rald R. Bclnier, Ph.D. Karcn Irvans Kaufcr With an lJssay b1' Ronal.l R. Ilcrnier, Ph.[). F'ROM L,DE N TO OZ Arrgtrst 25 to Octobcr 13, 2002 Art Ga11e11' \\'ilk.'. Univcr 'it1 S,rrcloni \\'ilkct-B,rrle. P.'nn.vl r :trti;t �Copyright @ 2OOZ Sordoni Art Gallery ISBN 0-942945-ZZ-O 2000 copies were printed by Zodiac Printing Corporation Catalogue design: John Beck Typeface: Centaur, a classic American face designed about I9 I5 by Bruce Rogers by Doug Burg landscapes by MichaelThomas; Photography: ciryscapes �I;It.OM EDEN TO OZ l{onrl.l I{. Berr.rier, Ph.D. In Utopia. . . everyone is rich-for what greater wealth of mind, and frcc.lom from anxiety? . . .The Utopian way of life provi.les r-rot only the happiest basis for a civilized cor.r.rr-r-rur-rity, but also one which, in all human probability, c;rn there be than cheerfulness, peace will last forever. Thornas More, Utopia (I5I6)l MAI-l- Al)l:l{ltJlltls I,UNrTIt,\l-t, white walls, opening onto public in gold, they depict the intimate and l.rivrtc scnsuous cnclosurc of a deep forest interior, while from dizzying lr, iqlrts, ll:unt'.1 in black, are footless views of a glistening metropolis,,rclr tirry :rs pr36iq115 object yet imrncnsc as content.The miniature s(:rl(';uld cxxcting.lctail prompt us closer, inviting us to peer, as if illi, irly, into thcsc distant spaces. We advance, an.1 in that closeness, ,,tlrcl lrotlics .lisappcar, falling away at the edges of our awareness; visiorr is crrt ,rf}, isolated from the presentness of the body. In this way lVli, lr;rt'l [)c Jong's irnages perforrn an operation of rndividr-ration, ,1,'lirrirrg 1l1p yi1-1ys1-1he self-as isolated, withdrawn from the worl.1, r', t s11,irrg trpon it. What is beyond, what is on the'other'side, is the rrrlinitcly rcnr()tL', the visionary ideal-Utopia. In the early watercolors, rt r5 r'('r)(lclcd es tht'full baroque spectacle of rugged mountain terrait-t ;ur.1 spaces. Framed of nineteenth-century ,'\nr.ri(';ur l:r..lsc:r1.e'painting that told the heroic story of a New ,rrr,l lrrrrrirrotrs vista, the romantic drama h World, here borrowed and reformatted to miniature scale. For those artists, painted vistas of uncultivated nature symbolized a desire for domir-rance and possession, confident expressions of a privileged national identity tinged with the romantic myths of paradise, innocence and Mar-rifest Destiny.r America as the Great Experiment, the discovery of an unspoiled contir-rer-rt where man could escape the contamination of the OldWorld. Reduce.l in size and crushing in detail, De Jong's fetishes speak iror-rically to this tl-reme of America as the new Golden In its postn-rodcnr vcrsior.r, tlris paradisc of abundancc is recast as the sylvan rctrcat of a Pcr.rr-rsylvar-ria garden ancl the towering pageantry Age . of uptowr-r Manhattan.l The Garden/City-5",.,..7au11u1g-dixlgctic is ideologically loaded with paiired associations of private and public, individnal arrd society, self and world, solitude and community. Nature, as the subject of landscape painting, lras long been invested with the physical, moral, and spiritual qualities of peace and equilibrium. It is the space of health, the sanctuary of remoteness and restorative wholeness in schizophrenic modernity. To experience nature is to step inside the subjectivity of private sensation and the good life.The city, by contrast, is nature's antithesis, the space of moral malaise, r-rumbing spectacle, choking densitp and alier-rating salneness. And within the present exhibition, the artist holds out the possibility of being simultaneously in two seemingly incompatible spaces, able to dip into that other, restful and refreshing asylum of rural virtue, while holding fast to the �;, Copyright @ ZOOZ Sordoni Art Gallery rsBN 0-942945-ZZ-O 2000 copies were printed byZodiac Printing Corporation Catalogue design: John Beck Typeface: Centaur, a classic American face designed about 19I5 by Bruce Rogers Photography: cityscapes by MichaelThomas; landscapes by Doug Burg �FROM EDEN TO OZ Ronald R. Bernier, Ph.D. In Utopia . . . everyone is rich-for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety? . . . The Utopian way of life provides not only the happiest basis for a civilized community, but also one which, in all human probability, will last forever. Thomas More, Lltopia (I5I6)I MALL APERTURES pENETRATE white walls, opening onto public and private spaces. Framed in gold, they depict the intimate and of a deep forest interior, while from dizzying hcights, fiamed in black, are footless views of a glistening metropoliscrrch tiny as precious object yet immense as conrent. The miniature sensuous enclosure prompt us closer, inviting us to peer, as if spaces. We advance, and in that closeness, otlrer bodies disappear, falling away at the edges of our awareness; vision is cut ofI, isolated from the presentness of the body. In this way Michael De ]ongt irnages perform an operation of individuation, ,lcfining 6he yigy/6s-1he self-as isolated, withdrawn from the world, ),ct spying upon it. What is beyond, what is on the'other'side, is the irrfinitcly remote, the visionary ideal-Utopia. In the ea4 watercolors, sc,rle and exacting detail illicitly, into these distant it is rcn.lcre.1 as the full baroque spectacle of rugged mounrain terrain the romantic drama of nineteenth-century r\rrrt'r'ican lar-rdscape painting that told the heroic story of a New :rrr.1 ltnr-rinous vista, World, here borrowed and reformatted to miniature scale. For those artists, painted vistas of uncultivated nature symbolized a desire for dominance and possession, confident expressions of a privileged national identity tinged with the romantic myths of paradise, innocence and Manifest Destiny.2 America as the Great Experiment, the discovery of an unspoiled continent where man could escape the contamination of the O1d World. Reduced in size and crushing in detail, De Jongt fetishes speak ironically to this tl-rerne of America as the new Golden Age. In its postmodern version, this paradise of abundance is recast as the sylvan retreat of a Pennsylvania garden and the towering pageantry of uptown Manhattan.r The Garden,/City-Nature/Cul6l116-di2ls6tic is ideologically loaded with paired associations of private and public, individual and society', self and wor1d, solitude and community. Nature, as the subject of landscape painting, has long been invested with the physical, moral, and spiritual qualities of peace and equilibrium. It is the space of health, the sanctuary of remoteness and restorative wholeness in schizophrenic modernity. To experience nature is to step inside the subjectivity of private sensatiolr. and the good life.The city, by contrast, is nature's antithesis, the space of moral malaise, numbing spectacle, choking density, and alienating sameness. And within the preser-rt exhibition, the artist holds out the possibility of being simultar-reously in two seemingly incompatible spaces, able to dip into that other, restful and refreshing asylum of rural virtue, while holding fast to the �of its oppobreached. momentarily two worlds sigg-shs the wooded of warmth the suffused golden As presented here-in of urban collage and hallucinatory flickering interior and the cool, sglfx6g-6f6y arc both lJtopia. On the one hand, the prelapsarian perfection of the Garden of Eden, and on the other, the City of Oz' end of the journey, "a place where there isnt any s16u!16"4-gle city as final fulfillment of the original promise of America as Utopia. And Oz, like Eden, is precisely thae a fabled, fantastic, self-contained world- heady exhilaration, opulence, and breathless excitement boundary between che paradise regained. It is fitting, then, that utopia takes the form of the geometric figure that sFmbolizes harmonp unity, coherengs-1hg circle- And here we return to the procedure of painting itself-the miniature- In these manipulations of scale, place, and proportion, the normal equations between picture and observer are altered. The beholdert experience is simultaneously intimate and distant, the body bereft of spatial coordinates. In drawing 6165g1-whi.h in the conventional viewing of painting allows us to engage in detail, dissolving distance through the privacy of individual f66u5-ghs viewer is presented with the panoramic view of a perfectly miniaturized world, paradoxically dwarfing the observer through its own kind of immensity. This dislocating expedence is what aesthetic theory has defined as the Sublime, wherein our ordinary perceptual faculties' rendered incapable of taking in the sheer immensity of the world's manifold, are overwhelmed, awed, resulting in a kind of stupelring power which forces us into an awareness of our own Puny position in the universe, a kind of "existential vertigo."s Our glimpse into Utopia-just beyond 1g26h-5sgrn5 an utterly unreal and unfathomable ideal; as such, ttr imagination is launched into a vain attemPt to comprehend iu magnitude in a way that ultimately leads to the consolation thr! something'beyond' transcends the limitations and imperfectioru ordinary phenomenal being-infiniry, perfection, the ideal. Thri fact, the literal translation of SirThomas Moret punning word to describe his visionary state, Utopia-no place-while maintaininS hopeful belief in the possibility, the necessiry, of discovering Beyond subject itself-beyond the wistful desire for Eden and I what invokes the sublime here is the overwhelmingly infinitesimrl De Jong assigns the sublime to the immeasurably tiny, to the ncu dismissible, through the procedure of painting itself, where thc indescribable-perfection, the ideal, Utopia-is lodged in tle imperceptible. NOTES I. Tians. PaulTirrner, 1965: I28-I3I. See exhibition and catalogue, Borrowed Paradkr, Krannert College of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Illinois at 2. Art I998. 3. Both of which the artist claims as home. The peacefulness of hir northeastern Pennsylvania retreat is easily traveled from NewYork City 7O-mile stretch of roadway. 4. Spoken by the central character, Dorothy, as she dreams of her o unrealized utopia from the drabness of the American heartland in thc l9l technicolor fantasia of L. Frank Baum's I900 story Tbe WondetJulWizeil { 5. Paul Crowth e\ The Kantian Sublime, From Morality to Art, 1989: I70. ����Ir I rl I �ll ���EXHIBITION CHECKLIST (2) Untttlt d, 19 9 2-19 9 8 watercolor on paper 22h" x 30" (paper size) (12) Untitltd,200I oil on panel gold leaf frame 2/4" diameter (landscape image size) (14) Untitbd,2002 oil on panel ebonized frame 3/4" diameter (cityscape image size) �CHAEL DE JON Chicago Heights, Illinois, I962 2OOO Borrowed Paradise, Northern Illinois University. DeKalb, IL (catalogue) 1999 1998 TION of Illinois (M.F.A. 1988) d'Ardritecture, Versailles, France, 1987 Illinois University (B.F.A. 1984) AND HONORS Foundation Fellowship, I999-2OO0 Neil Kinley Memorial Foundation Fellowship, I995 Foundation Fellowship, 1992-199 3 of Illinois Fellowship, 1985-1988 P. Bates Memorial Scholarship, 1984 Iota Xi Annual Scholarship, 1980 D SOLO EXHIBITIONS FromEden to Oz,Sordoni Art Gallery,Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA (catalogue) ForatJor the Trus, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR (catalogue) 200I ForestJor tbeTrees, ForestJor tbe Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, IA (catalogue) Art Museum, Waterloo, IA (catalogue) Trees,Waterloo Borrowed Paradise, I-Space, Borrowed Paradise, Champaign, IL Chicago, (catalogue) Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, IL (catalogue) 1997 P.P.O.W, NewYork, NY I996 Feigen Contemporary, Chicago, IL 1995 P.P.O.W NewYork, NY I988 Rastovski Gallerp NewYork, NY SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS Exhibltlon,Ltttlejohn Contemporary Fine Art, NewYork, 2OOl Summer 2000 Shlfting Grounk: Tran{ormed lhnus oJ NY Art Gallery, University of the American Landscape, Hemy Washsott Seatde,WA (catalogue) College of Art Gallery, City 1999 As Far as the E1e Can Su,The Adanta Atlanta, GA (catalogue) Gallery at Chastain, 1998 Summer Exhib*ion/Calltry Artists, PP.O.W, NewYork, NY Dfuining Nature, Sottheastern Center for Contemporury Art, Winston-Salem, NC (catalogue) Remembering Beautl, The Seductfue and Nostalgic Nature oJ the American South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN (catalogue) 1997 Summer Exblbition/Galbry Arrrsts, P.PO.W, NewYork, NY Landscape, ,.ii �19 9 6 Toale Gallerp Boston, MA Summer Exhibitior/Gollrry Art*rs, P.PO.W:, NewYork, Small Works, Bernie Watertolors, P.PO.W:, NY NewYork, NY Monique Knowlton Gallery, NewYork, NY Seattle Arc Museum, Seattle, WA l, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, MA Field G,Stream, 100 NewYork Artlsts, Weatherholt Gallery, Washington, DC 1989 TwelJth Annitersary BeneJit Auaion,-fhe New Museum of Contemporary Art, NewYork, NY 1988 Made in New York Gr1,, Rastovski Gallery, New York, NY Sebaior,is From Private Colleaions, I995 Nature Studies Summer Exhibkion/Gallery Artisrs, P.P.O.W., NewWorks, Feigen NewYork, NY Contemporarp Chicago, 200I IL Portrait, Figure, Landscape, Brave-Post-Lee Gallery, New 1994 Sur* Garden, York, NY Curnrnings Art Center, Connecticut College, New London, CT 1993 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Quo Quo on Queens Road Central, Queens Road Central Gallery, Ronald R. Bernier, Ph.D. "Forest for theTiees,Works by Michael De Jong," exhibition catalogue, February-]une 200I. Sioux City, IA: Sioux City Art Center. "shifting Ground: Transformed Vews of the American 2000 Landscape," exhibition catalogue, curated by Rhonda Lane Honq Konq Exquk,The Drawing Center, New York, NY; The Corcoran Gallery of Arr, Washington, D.C.; Foundation for Contemporary Art, Mexico City; The Santa Monica Museum, Los Angeles; The Forum, St. Louis, MO; The American Center, Paris, France Cada'tre lmmanent Domaln, Selections/Fall I993, The Drawing Center, New York, NY (catalogue) 7992 Contemporary lcons: From the Sublime to the htisbistic, Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery at Hunter College, NewYork, NY (catalogue) Group Summer Exhibition, Galerie George-Philippe Valois, / Lifile Men,White Columns, New York, NY lmmediate Rrallty, Postmasters I99I 1999. Henri Robinson,Ph.D. 'As Far as the Eye Can See," exhibition catalogue, January-March I 999. Atlanta: Atlanta Joyce I998 College of Art Gallery, City Gallery ac Chastain. Ron Bernier andTim Porges. "Borrowed Paradise," exhibition catalogue, Contemporary Art Series No. I7, ScptemberNovember I998. Urbana: Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Campaign-Urbana. "Divining Nature," exhibition catalogue, April-July I998. Winston-Salem, NC: South Eastern Center for Contemporary Art. Linda Johnson Dougherty. "Divining Nature." Art Papers, September-October I998. Susan LabowskyTalbot. Paris, France Little Wmen I999 Howard, February-August 2000. Seattle: The Henry Art Gallery, Faye G. Allen Center for the Msual Arts, University of Washington. James Yood. "Michael De Jong." The New Art Examiner,February Gallery, NewYork, NY NewYork, New Yori, Museum Gallery, San Francisco Museum Modetn Art, San Francisco, CA of �Susan Visser and Leisa of the American October 4, L993, Landscape," exhibition catalogue, August-October 1998. South Bend, IN: South Bend Regional Museum of Arl Alan G. Artner. "Catherine Opie, Terri Zrtpanic, Michael De ebruary I 6, I99 6. "Voice & Michael De Jong." Pid<s:TomWoodruff Kim Levin. ice, March I 995. Vo Tbe Vilkge Claire McConaughy. 'Sdll-Life, Portrait, Landscape." Flash Art, VoL I8, no. I82, May-)une 1995. Kim Levin. 'Voice Picks: Michael De Jong." TbeVillageVoice, February 22, 1995. Richard Hsu "Exposure" exhibition catalogue, December 1993. Ingrid Sdraffner, Mary Ann Caws, and Charles Simic, with Foreword by Ann Philbin. "Return of the Cadawe Exquisj'exhibition Jongl' "Goings on AboutTown: Immanent Domain." TheNmYorker, Rundquist. "Remembering Beauty: The Seductive and Nostalgic Nature New York Times,Weekend Chicago Tribune, F catalogue, December 1993. NewYorkThe Drawing Center. Kim Levin. "Voice Choices:The Return of the Cadavre Exquis." The Wlkge Voiee, November 23, 1993. Midrael Kimmelman. "The Exquisite Corpse Rises from the Dead!' The NewYorkTima, Sunday, November 7,1993' p 4I. "Word of Mouth Big Art (Cadawe Exquis)." Harpers Bazaar, November 1993,p. I20. Arlene Raven. "Immanent Domain." Tle l4lkge %ice,SePtember p.34. Robert Mahoney. "Immanent Domain," exhibition catalogue, September-October I 993. New York The Drawing Center. 1992 Roberta Smith. 'Art in Review: I0 StepsToward the Best." Ile Section, December 4, L992. to the Fetishistic," exhibition catalogue, November I 992. New York: The Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery at Hunter Susan Edwards. "Contemporary Icons: From the Sublime College. Joshua Dector . Arx, Aprl.1992. Kim Levin. "Voice Choices: Immediate RealiryJ' I99I Janrary 15, 1992. Kim Levin. "Vllage Listings:Value!'TheWlkge Tltel4llageVoice, Zoire, November 26, t991, p.79. Roberta Smith. "New Galleries in Soho, From Glittering to Not So." NauYorkTimes,Weekend Section, November 15, I99I' Robert Mahoney. "Official Guidebook House of Value, 252 Lafayette Street, NYC: AITRACTIONS," exhibition handbook, November I99I. 1989 Robert Mahoney. Arts, Merch 1989' Joshua Dector. Flash Art lnurnational,March/ April 1989. Lois Nesbitt. Arforum, March 1989. 29, 1993. .,/.d �EXHIBITION UNDERWRITERS ADVISORY COMMISSION Friends of the Sordoni Art Gallerv Bonnie C. Bedford, Ph.D. loseph Butkiewicz Marion M. Conyngham Vrginia C. Davis, Chair Joseph E. (Tim) Gilmour, Ph.D. Robert ]. Heaman, Ph.D. Keith A. Hunter, Esq. J. Michael Lennon, Ph.D. M&T Bank Maslow Lumia Bartorillo Advertising The John Sloan Memorial Foundation, Inc Andrew'J. Sordoni, III Wilkes University STAFF Melanie Maslow Lumia Theo Lumia Kenneth Marquis Allison Maslow Hank O'Neal Ronald R. Bernier, Ph.D., Director Karen Evans Kaufer, Associate Director Earl Lehman, Preparator Arnold Rifkin GALLERY ATTENDANTS Charles Shaffer, Esq. _[illian Ford Brianna Herron Susan Adams Shoemaker, Esq. Sara Scalzo Helen Farr Sloan Andrew J. Sordoni, III Sanford B. Sternlieb, M.D. William Shull Sarah Leskosky MindiThalenfeld JoelZito{sky Thk project was supported in part b1 the Pennrylvania Council on tbe Arts, a state agenry Junded b1 the Commonwealth oJ Pennsllt'ania and tbe National Endowment Jor the Ar*, aJederal agencl. ��� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2002 August 25 Michael De Jong Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michael De Jong Ronald R. Bernier Ronald R.Bernier Karen Evans Kaufer Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002 August 25 - October 31 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Description An account of the resource Michael De Jong's images perform an operation of individuation, defining the viewer---the self---as isolated, withdrawn from the world, yet spying on it. Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition program Subject The topic of the resource Michael De Jong watercolor oil painter paintings Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource SAG https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/c573164ec5e62f94903d5b26c00e2aae.pdf 30298b14d93c9a5e26372f78e2b9016d PDF Text Text ���� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2002 March 10 Pamela Earnshaw Kelly Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pamela Earnshaw Kelly Karen S. Chambers Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002 March 10 - April 21 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Description An account of the resource Pamela Earnshaw Kelly's subjects are ordinary---farm or jungle animals---and her material is humble----clay. But there is nobility in her depiction of her subjects, and thousands of years of ceramic history to show clay's potential to move, provoke, memorialize, honor. Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition program Subject The topic of the resource Pamela Earnshaw Kelly ceramacist clay ceramics animals farm animals jungle animals https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/adf90d0e40fc7a40070b4b6e7c06d128.pdf 8efbc7056150a559a3df803c24527ff8 PDF Text Text �������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2001 January 15 Michael Thomas: Cables Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michael Thomas Stanley I. Grand William Sterling StanleyI.Grand KarenEvansKaufer Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001 January 15 - February 25 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Description An account of the resource As a designer, Michael Thomas has chosen to engage in architectural issues primarily through the medium of photgraphy. This choice has allowed him to focus on the essential components of the most practical of the fine arts. This exhibition is a show of his photographic series of architectural structures from around Pennsylvania Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition program Subject The topic of the resource Michael Thomas photography photograph architecture Pennsylvania Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource SAG