About the Arts
Splendid variety in contemporary figurative art at OMAA
By Rose Safran
Stone Roberts drawing titled Venus and Adonis is one of the items on view in the current Ogunquit Museum of American Art's current exhibition.
Courtesy photo
Understandable, for the current Ogunquit Museum of Contemporary Art (OMAA) exhibit, "The Figure in American Painting and Drawing 1985-2005," draws upon a variety of styles, techniques, approaches to the figure as art subject - a variety so large it's generally available only through visiting a host of galleries and museums, principally ones in metropolitan areas.
Several years in the making, the exhibition is limited to works of art created in the past 10 years, some by established artists with major reputations such as James Wyeth, Faith Ringgold, Red Grooms, Phillip Pearlstein, Will Barnet, Paul Cadmus, Hughie Lee Smith, Alex Katz and Jack Levine, others by leading artists primarily with strong regional ties to New England such as Dozier Bell, Sigmund Abeles, Richard Brown Lethem, Brett Bigbee, Janet Fish, Lois Dodd, DeWitt Hardy, and still others relatively unknown in this area.
In his forward to the exhibition catalogue, Culver states, "As a result of the 'marriage' of content and form, the human figure created in American art between the years 1985-2005 is not only concerned with the outward appearance of the body, but also usually reflects a complex set of other themes. Inherent references to sexuality, religion, politics, economics, social and gender relationships, as well as culture, exist side-by-side with the physical representation."
So, in this exhibit we see a conglomeration of statements, a mix of traditional figurative themes such as nudes and portraiture with wildly contemporary ones dealing with the human condition in the present world.
There are such diverse works as: Jack Levine's crammed together tongue-in-cheek political faces with meaningful expressions entitled "Finger of Newt" (Newt Gingrich); Mark Geenwold's "Why Not Say What Happened" couplings comment; John Dubrow's massive oil of a business-as-usual downtown NYC "Prince and Broadway" painted a few years after Sept. 11, 2001, - such political, social, economic statements are encountered next to traditionally figurative works of art, including Brett Bigbee's splendidly relaxed technically superb nude, Richard Maury's meticulously detailed, classic portrait of Charles Cecil.
As to effective style, on the one hand, you can almost hear the jazz in Faith Ringgold's deliberate color riot of a musical combo, "Mama Can Sing # 8," and yet, you are reduced to silent contemplation by the quiet metaphor in Anne Harris's disappearing "Gray Girl."
In this show, Culver has covered not only the wide scope of subjects currently encompassing figurative painting and drawing, but also the gamut of applicable art "isms." As a result, there's considerable art to absorb both stylistically and conceptually; moreover, wide disparities exist with dominant works like Jamie Wyeth's seaman set against a mixed media background of yellow Day-Glo color and subtle blue (pastel?) on brown cardboard (yep!) tending, at times, to deny adequate attention to comments like Charles Jarboe's small realistic urban oil, "51st and 7th," in which tall skyscrapers dwarf and render insignificant the crowded, active street scene below.
This is a "take your time - look carefully - and perhaps return for a second look" exhibit. For full appreciation of all the manifestations of "figurative," a quick "walk through" is inadvisable.
And then there's Peggy Bacon (1895-1987)
Years ago, I saw a black-and white print depicting a very fat, seemingly warmly clad elderly lady, her too-ample flesh hidden by a massive dark overcoat, walking (if she could, for she certainly carried excess weight!) through the antiquities department of a museum.
She was spotted amid a group of Greek and/or Roman statues of beautiful, slim female nudes. The little etching was entitled, "Antique Beauty."
With that one indication of her unique talent at caricature, Peggy Bacon won me over. I sought and found more examples of prints reflecting her uncanny insight into many forms of the human condition, invariably rewarded with each new sighting.
Now, in conjunction with the on-going "Maine Print Project" the OMAA has installed "The Prints of Peggy Bacon" - an overview of prints containing witty comments on individuals and the society they inhabit created by this master printmaker who also illustrated books (some 18 in all), painted and wrote.
Courtesy of and taken largely from the collection of her son, Alexander Bacon Brook who came here for the recent opening of his mother's prints, and including some works that were in the 1975 Smithsonian exhibition of Bacon's extensive oeuvre, the prints on exhibit are a reflection of this talented artist-printmaker's sharp perception of human frailty, her ability to transmit, that is, transfer it to paper, and, amazingly, to render it palatable even to the guilty, through strokes and pokes, some gentle, some not.
In her own words, Bacon, who came to Maine in 1938 and lived in Cape Porpoise during the last years of her long life, explained, "From the beginning, I thought everybody looked so funny - comic and different, not beautiful. Beauty gave me trouble."
So we have on view skewed humorous observations, cleverly captioned, about all sorts of people, museum visitors, sleeping cats, parties, socialist meetings, vacationers, aesthetic pleasures, travelers, urban residents, and others.
Also on view are examples of the many books the artist illustrated.
What a wonderful time Peggy Bacon had in inviting the world into the private chamber of her special viewpoint on our society! So many of her observations are applicable today.
Both exhibits will remain on view at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art through Oct. 31.
The Museum is open daily (except Labor Day.) Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. Artists' lectures and/or films are held every Tuesday at 6 p.m.
For further information, call 646-4909.
