Partners In Art One Stop On Spokane Arts Tour Explores The Works Of Couples Who Are Also Artists

Do artist couples make for strange bedfellows?

Artists are often depicted as temperamental. And these days, statistics indicate marriages have a tough time persevering - without the mix of temperaments.

So how could it possibly work for a man and woman to follow their artistic bent and be married to one another?

While a new exhibit sponsored by the Cheney Cowles Museum attempts to answer this question, history shows it’s not easy.

August Rodin and his lover, Camille Claudel, an artist in her own right, are prime examples of artist couples. Claudel’s work was always overshadowed by Rodin’s.

Rodin, who gave the world the magnificent statue of The Thinker, is known the world over for his art. Claudel, his significant other for 10 years, felt her talent as a sculptor would eventually be recognized. However, it was not to be. Her work was never separated from her sexual liaison with Rodin, and, after the couple went their separate ways, Claudel became reclusive and paranoid and was confined to mental institutions for the last 30 years of her life.

But theirs is not the final answer to couples following their passion in art and marriage.

“Two Studios/One Bed” is an exhibit of couples’ art works sponsored by the Cheney Cowles Museum as part of the Spokane Arts Commission’s Visual Arts Tour on Friday.

The art of 15 couples from Idaho, Montana and Washington will be exhibited in the former Lamont’s building on the corner of Wall and Riverside through Oct. 25.

Among them will be the works of Nancy (Reddin) Kienholz of Hope, Idaho, and the late Ed Kienholz; Lela and Rudy Autio of Missoula; Marilyn Lysohir and Ross Coates of Moscow, Idaho; and Tresia Oosting and Tom O’Day of Spokane.

The exhibit includes a diversity of media, from ceramics and painting to neon and found object sculpture, said Barbara Racker, the show’s curator.

While the work is stylistically diverse, the concept of the exhibit raises social and feminist issues:

Do artist partners influence one another, or are they competitive?

Can relationships survive in the same career, especially the arts?

Is gender still a determining factor of a successful art career?

The answers might be found by viewing the exhibit, or by reading about each couple in the current issue of the arts magazine High Ground.

But, Racker says, “the concept of dominance and subordination based on gender seems old-fashioned today.”

And the answers are as diverse as the individuals, she says.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: The Spokane Visual Arts Tour will be from 5-9 p.m. Friday at 35 locations. Admission is free.