The
following is excerpted from the Summer Art XVIII Award Winners’ Exhibition
catalog. The exhibition was hosted
by the College of Fine Arts on the campus of the University of South Dakota.
Commentary: The 1996 Summer Arts Award Winners’ Exhibition confronts and challenges the viewer with images that combine craftsmanship and complexity, invite contrasts and comparisons, and strive to communicate personal experience and imagery. Exhibitions such as this one can be problematic for the viewer because they bring together bodies of work that do not necessarily have anything in common except for the artist’s selection as an award winner one year ago. These artists were selected because they entered the best work in last year’s exhibition not because, when combined, their work would create a cohesive exhibit. The result of last year’s selections is an exhibit that displays variety not only in technique but most importantly in the way individual artists approach a single object or concept through an in-depth exploration of its form.
Even though the artworks are very different, similarities abound. Four of the five artists use vivid, intense colors. Judale Carr, Gib Neal, and Paul Peterson’s use of saturated color is readily apparent. Ming Kwan, Chia, on the other hand, is more subtle in his use of color, but, upon closer inspection, the vividness is there. Four of the artists also focus on a single form as subject matter for their works: the human figure, the top, and a lawn chair. Thus, two use a classic subject matter, one a spinning personal symbol, and one a contemporary icon with reference to Pop-culture imagery.
While Chia’s tops are energetic and ever-changing he does work with a single concept to create his forms. Paul Peterson’s paintings of a chair, on the other hand, show the same chair in different positions. Of course, the paintings could be of different chairs but because these chairs are mass-produced they exhibit no individual characteristics. The reference to Pop Art cannot be ignored in these works. The viewer will be drawn to make comparisons to Jim Dine’s Housecoats or Wayne Thiebaud’s Pies. The molded plastic chair used by Peterson has become a cultural icon of the 90s-what neighborhood does not display a pair on a porch or patio? In Peterson’s painting, Exposure/Night Visitor Ascending, the chair subordinates itself to the rest of the painting, becoming a compositional device rather than the center of attention. This work is not so much about the chair but about its ability to be used as and element of the painting. The chair becomes just an element of the painting, no more important than the other forms or the bright, hot colors of summer.
SUMMER ARTS XVIII presents the viewer with many of the challenges created by the pluralistic artistic period in which we live. Today’s artists are not following one style or trend but instead they pursue personally symbolic imagery through forms and techniques that have historical roots. In order to place these works within an understandable context the viewer must be willing to look beyond the surface of the works, beyond a drawing of a top, a painting of a masked figure or a chair, a carved figure, or a colorful construction. Beyond the surface lies the meaning of these artworks-communicated through a meaningful dialogue between the artist and the viewer.
Carol Cook Geu
An Associate of the South Dakota Art Criticism Cooperative