| Jack Endewelt "Find the Vowels" Oil on linen Barrick Museum Collection Jack Endewelt "Plumbing Supplies" Oil on linen Barrick Museum Collection | There is an awesome tension between the representation of a pipe-or cloud-and the word cloud. Can one paint pipes (no matter if it is air or water that passes through them) and not think of Rene Magritte's "Treachery of Images"? Despite its direct nature, making a painting via picture-book diagrams makes for complicated interpretations with strong art historical references. - Alisha Kerlin |
"Find the Vowels" is a game of changing identity.
Detail from "Plumbing Supplies" recalls Rene Magritte's "The Treachery of Images," says Alisha Kerlin, collections manager of The Barrick.
It’s said there was a time, in the days when abstract expressionism was the new and improved path to artistic fame, that art students with forceful and delicate skills in realism denied their talent to keep their art school from banishing them as an illustrator. That would send an artist down the commercial artist rabbit hole. The late Endewelt was in that time frame, yet refused to pander to that movement and had a prolific career as an illustrator, educator and arts chair before retiring to Las Vegas, where continued painting iconography without deadlines. In “Find the Vowels” and “Plumbing Supplies” we can see his use of disparate reference, this time within the composition of instruction books. It becomes an abstract manual on how illustration and text flows graphic arts into fine art, and by doing shows conforming the essence of realism can still be defiant. - EF
"Recent Acquisitions" is the current exhibition of recently acquired works for UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum and Las Vegas Art Museum. While The Barrick posts items from the collection on their Facebook page, Alisha Kerlin, UNLV Collections Manager, and I will share thoughts on selected works each Thursday. "Recent Acquisitions" runs through September 19.
Previous UNLV Chat: Robert Beckmann "Belly Glass"
Previous UNLV Chat: Robert Beckmann "Belly Glass"
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