WSU Museum of Art puts microscope on ‘50s, ‘60s
If there was a turbulent epoch in American history, when society and art went through a series of radical changes, it was the 1950s and ‘60s.
A new exhibit at the Washington State University Museum of Art takes on the challenge of illustrating several significant developments in “Art & Context: the 1950s and 60s,” opening Friday.
Those two decades were witness to the movement away from the Cold War mentality of hunkering down to one of openness to diversity in society, and new materials and imagery in art.
This presentation has world-class examples of Abstract Expressionism, Color Field, Minimalism and Pop Art.
“We wanted to show great examples of benchmark works,” says museum director Chris Bruce. “The 16 artists we selected represent points of innovation in the history of visual language.”
Featured artists include Carl Andre, Larry Bell, Alexander Calder, Willem deKooning, Eva Hesse, Donald Judd, Roy Lichtenstein, Morris Louis, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol.
“It is from the strength of their work,” says Bruce, “that succeeding generations of artists were provided a distinct array of options of what art could look like and what content it could hold.”
Rauschenberg was one of the most important of the transitional artists.
“He took what the previous generation had done and blew the lid off of it,” says Bruce. “He opened art up to the outside world in a way nobody had done before.”
Rauschenberg’s 1963 painting, “Manuscript,” has brushwork like the Abstract Expressionists. “But he also brought in images for the real world, from newspapers and other sources, and silk-screened them onto the surface of the painting like Warhol and other Pop artists would do later,” says Bruce.
Featured alongside the artworks are large timeline panels that place the art in “context” with the social movements of the time.
“It’s a way of seeing what was happening in the world when these special pieces were created – a history lesson of sorts,” says museum curator Keith Wells in a news release.
A public reception is Friday at 6 p.m. in the museum in the Fine Arts Center on the Pullman campus. You can view the free exhibit through Dec. 15, Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (until 7 p.m. on Thursdays).
A full-color, 80-page trade book was produced for the exhibit by Marquand Books of Seattle. For more information call (509) 335-1910 or visit www.wsu.edu/artmuse.
Other WSU events
• “SQ3Tsya’yay: Weaver’s Spirit Power,” an exhibit featuring examples of rare Coast Salish textile weaving, opens today at the WSU Museum of Anthropology in College Hall.
Weaver Susan Pavel will give a gallery walk-through at 4 p.m. today to discuss the traditional regalia, blankets, vests and contemporary weaving implements on display. A public reception follows.
“Not only are the works visually stunning, but collectively they tell a story about a dedicated individual who has embarked on a life’s mission to bring back something cherished,” says Barbara Brotherton, curator of Native American art at the Seattle Art Museum.
“(Pavel) honors the ancestors and her community by following this path. It is a tribute to the resilience of Native people and Native art,” Brotherton says.
Pavel will give a demonstration on Salish weaving Nov. 2 at noon in the Bundy Reading Room. The exhibit runs through Dec. 15. The museum’s exhibit area is open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
• In WSU’s Gallery II, an exhibit of new work by Larry Kirkwood will be up from Monday through Oct. 13. Visit the free gallery in the Fine Arts Center, weekdays from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. For more information call (509) 335-8686 or go to www.finearts.wsu.edu/galleries.
• Santa Fe, N.M., artist Terry Allen will be on the Pullman campus Oct. 12 and 13 for activities related to his recently completed bronze “Bookin’ ” sculpture.
Allen will give a public lecture on Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Auditorium. The life-size, book-figure sculpture will be dedicated Oct. 13 at 11 a.m. outside the Holland and Terrell Libraries.
There also will be a temporary exhibit of eight of Allen’s sculptural pieces placed around the Terrell Mall.
Parlá at Whitworth
José Parlá usually works out of his painting studio in Brooklyn, but next week he will be in Spokane.
“The Mystic Writing Pad,” an exhibit of the Miami-born artist’s highly textured calligraphic paintings, opens Monday in Whitworth College’s Koehler Gallery.
“I create layers and textures representing the age of memories collected through different periods of my life,” Parla says in his artist statement.
Meet the artist at his opening reception on Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. in the gallery in the Fine Arts Building on the college grounds, 300 W. Hawthorne Road.
On Wednesday, Parlá will lead a public printmaking workshop from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the college’s Fine Arts Building. Members of the community can reserve a space by calling (509) 777-3258.
In conjunction with the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, Parlá will present a lecture, “Memory Documents,” Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Eric A. Johnston Memorial Auditorium at the MAC, 2316 W. First Ave.
The Whitworth exhibit runs through Oct. 26. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Admission to all events is free. For more information call (509) 777-3258. For an online preview of Parlá’s work, visit www.joseparla.com.
Energy Bar Gallery
“The Goddess and the Garden,” an exhibit of works by Miriam Board and Paul Morgan, opens Friday at The Energy Bar Gallery, 606 W. Garland Ave.
Board’s “spiritual and esoteric oil paintings emphasis divinity and goddess art,” according to gallery owner William Hay. Morgan is showing a series of photographic still images, floral, landscapes and nature scenes.
Also look for Lori Hay’s steel sculptures of Kokopelli and other figures. William Hay will have new oil paintings of Western and nature scenes.
The show can be seen Friday and Saturday and Oct. 6 and 7 between 5 and 10 p.m.
Other galleries
•Quilting instructors and authors Terrie Kralik of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, and Pamela Mostek of Cheney will autograph their books and demonstrate quilting techniques in River Park Square’s Kress Gallery, 808 W. Main Ave., on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m.
•Works by local Chinese and Monart youth and adult drawing school students will be on display at the Inland Northwest Great Arts Adventure on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Spokane Community College Lair, 1810 N. Greene St.
The event is organized by the Spokane Chinese Association and Spokane Chinese School. Proceeds will be used to help children in Western China finish their educations.
•Works by Coeur d’Alene wildlife artist Terry Lee are featured at the Entree Gallery, at Priest Lake two miles east of Nordman, Idaho, on Reeder Bay Road. The gallery will close for the season Oct. 15.
•”Life’s Radiant Colors,” an exhibit of oil paintings and pastels by North Idaho artist Diana Moses Botkin, are on display at Moscow Family Medicine, 623 S. Main St. in Moscow, Idaho. The free exhibit runs through Nov. 16, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.