1 15 1 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lr;rt'l [)c Jong's irnages perforrn an operation of rndividr-ration, ,1,'lirrirrg 1l1p yi1-1ys1-1he self-as isolated, withdrawn from the worl.1, r', t s11,irrg trpon it.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