Sons and Daughters of Art History:  The 50th Midwestern Exhibition

The Rourke Museum’s 50th Midwestern exhibition, a highly-anticipated invitational presents a line-up of masterful works that summon several provocative questions about contemporary American art.

The annual show, complete with numerous awards, celebrates the June 1960 founding of the Rourke Museum and features area, regional, and national artists who create artworks that highlight a chosen theme. Sons and Daughters of Art History is the 2009 exhibition title, a topic inspired by Yasumasa Morimura’s portfolio, in which he created portraits of himself in the styles of admired artists.

The questions the eclectic works conjure up include: Regarding style, are there trends presented in the 2009 Midwestern that are cutting edge or important developments? Are a number of the participating artists in the vanguard of their formal practice, or are they skimming the stylistic surface?  Regarding substance, are the minds of the creators grappling with weighty consequential matters, or are the ideas pedestrian?

Of course, many artworks are meant to be mostly humorous or witty or ironic—seriousness of subject is certainly not a prerequisite for quality in art. Overall, the Midwestern works, as one would expect, run the gamut, from the formally accomplished to the quick fix, from the idea-rich to the less profound. But all are worthy of ample attention.

A tour de force artifact where realism itself is the subject of the work is found in Patrick A. Tupa’s portrait of himself as himself and as Rembrandt. Tupa’s top-tier skill is of the quality of internationally acclaimed sculptor and the region’s native son, Duane Hanson, who helped define realism as a viable modus operandi in early postmodern art. Tupa is in the league of Hanson in his chosen medium, in this case, oil on linen. The Rembrandt painting, along with Tupa’s consistent oeuvre, situates the artist on the cutting edge as a neo-realist. It’s puzzling to this writer that Tupa’s “Rembrandt van Tupa” received a Midwestern honorable mention while a small inkjet photo that can be duplicated ad infinitum received one of the 2009 top awards. But more about that in a moment.

Carl Oltvedt’s Procession demonstrates the artist’s predilection for creating realistic figures whose gestures tell a subtle story about their inner selves. These interior psychological realities become the subject of the remarkable work as they play off one another—creating a chain of articulation that moves horizontally across the picture plane.

Adjoin the exquisite realistic work by Geri Burkhart Weiner, a large-scale oil painting of mysteriously captivating trees and Zhimin Guan’s Graydon Parrish-style photo-realistic portrayal of a luscious female—plus his provocative self-portrait—and the wind seems to be at the back of highly skilled realistic artists whose excellent work trumps pieces where skill is not as evident.

Meanwhile, wit and technical wherewithal congeal in the finely conceived and executed “Dude [not Nude] Descending a Staircase” by Eric Syvertson. The reference to Marcel Duchamp is obvious, and the update is fresh, as is the monochromatic coloration. Syvertson might not be cutting edges, but his offering puts him squarely in the tres accomplished and witty category.

Kevin Register is the protagonist in his Edvard Munch Scream look-alike. Replacing the terrified face from Munch’s image with a real-life portrait enhances the specificity of the human person, which makes the persona’s angst even more personal, evoking at the same time both pity and humor.

My Eye by Dwight Mickelson is in the style of the work of Lee Bontecou, whose open oval hole assemblages are considered ominous, even threatening. Mickelson’s interpretation is a mixed media work of stunningly creative construction. The subject, the human eye, appears symbolic of artistic vision. This work takes the Second Award Medal.

One of the most stylistically consistent-with-the-artist’s-personal-vision works is Mike Marth’s My Favorite ism and I. Created in cubist form, Marth sets a self-portrait within the multiple perspective cubist shapes with alluring sophistication. His signature grey that seems to represent blasé reality dominates, while areas of goldish yellow appear as though a hint of a more positive mood is present and emerging.

Winner of the First Award Medal is Philip J. Thompson. The fellow portrayed in his Self Portrait with Reference to Otto Dix appears pensive as he studies something in the distance. The work of Dix is characteristically trouble-fraught, so the reference to Dix is understated. What the sitter is looking at so intensely becomes a non-delineated ancillary subject. Thompson has an uncanny ability to set up a narrative structure with a minimum of active art elements and a minimal palette.

Engaging photographic works include Mel Stone’s gutsy (Part) Indian at the Bar and Billy Black’s erotic and formally complex and striking H. Newton’s Curse, plus Lynn Fundingsland’s small but contemplative Smith did it better, among many others.

Two shouts out to Fritz Scholder—an artist dear to Rourke patrons and regional and national viewers—come from Walter Piehl and Lois Widerrecht-Finke. Piehl’s memento mori, complete with a portrait of Scholder and a skull, plus blood red paint that enhances the reminder of a death theme is a small but historically significant work. Wiederrecht-Finke’s collage in the style of Scholder impresses with its straight forward figuration on a gold foil background.

Fabric work from Constance Hunt adds diversity of material and enchanting references, while Brian Paulson’s splendid watercolor painting is an Edward Hopper-esque piece with a blind fold and landscape twist, which retains the sense of eerie Hopper solitude. R.H.L.M Ramsay’s inventively-framed four-panel painting The Martyrdom of Saints Crispin and Crispinian invites significant contemplation of personal and historical iconography, while Trygve Olson’s litho crayon work speaks volumes about his extremely fine graphic gifts.

The Eric Fischl appropriation of John Volk is clever as is his “Bad Boy” title, plus the Jackson Pollack/Kandinsky-like work by Jim Fletcher is fun-loving, compositionally flawless, and oh-so-satisfying. Molly Yergens’ Diebenkorn-reborn figure and seascape; the 3-D transformed to 2-D richly decorative, tile jester piece by Gruchalla and Rosetti; plus Deborah Mae Broad’s sensitively executed animal depiction and John Sherman’s jewel-like saturation of color in his homage to Roualt, are all additional noteworthy contributions.

But back to questions of quality, cutting edge trends, significant form, and wow-the-viewer conceptions. To recap, works that exhibit masterful skill with medium and materials often stand above many of the more easily produced artifacts. Nothing wrong with the fast-track approaches, but when what we have left after centuries of art production is appreciation and evaluation, those artists who are flat-out technical experts outpace others.

But maybe I’m wrong. When viewing Brent Braniff’s amusing digital interpretation of St. Sebastian or Punchgut’s spray paint on wood, or Deb Wallwork’s I Tried to Drown My Sorrows but the Bastards Learned How to Swim, I may be willing to take back my strong statement. One thing I won’t take back is the earlier implicit suggestion regarding the Second Medal Award. While the recipient of this honor is a gifted photographer who created a fine work, Tupa’s masterpiece flies high above any artist’s inkjet photo, in any century, on any day of the week.

Finally, how does the regional community properly thank Rourke Museum founder and aesthete par excellence Mr. James O’ Rourke for his passionate devotion to the arts? Show up at his 50th. Raise your glass to O’ Rourke. Toast the juror, Aaron Holz, an exceptional realist artist in his own right. Raise your glass to the participating artists and the award winners, and toast your art-loving friends and your chosen favorite works of art. Delectables and beverages will be served.

What: The 50th Midwestern Exhibition
When: Thurs, June 18 - Aug 23
Public Opening: Sunday, June 21, 1-4 pm
Preview: Thursday, June 18, 6-8 pm Members: $15.00 Non-Members: $25.00
Where: The Rourke Art Museum