ROCKFORD ART MUSEUM | RAM TALKS ART | 'CLOSE RANGE' EXHIBIT FEATURES ILLINOIS ARTISTS

RAM Talks Art: Close Range exhibit features Illinois artists

By Patty Rhea, Curator, Rockford Art Museum

What do Harrison Ford, Abraham Lincoln, Ernest Hemingway, Walt Disney, Black Hawk and Bonnie Blair have in common? They are all natives of the great state of Illinois. Another bit of Land of Lincoln trivia. Did you know that the word “Illinois” comes from a Native American word meaning “tribe of superior men”?

The Prairie State is also filled with a superior tribe of contemporary artists. Rockford Art Museum's exhibition “Close Range: RAM Celebrates Illinois Artists” showcases 17 such artists that were born or reside in Illinois and are part of RAM's Permanent Collection. Artists from Rockford, Chicago, Bloomington and beyond demonstrate diverse styles of representation and abstraction in this cross-section of Illinois art.

Bloomington artist Harold Gregor is a nationally-recognized landscape artist with Photorealist sensibilities. The rolling Midwestern countryside is his chosen subject matter. His Illinois “Flatscape #4” is a bird's-eye view of a sprawling farm. It appears as though the farmscape is viewed from 1,000 feet above. Images such as this are typical of the “Flatscape” series, inspired by rural aerial photography.

Gregor replaces the red-brown barn of the Illinois landscape with Fauves-like shades of vibrant color. These are certainly not the barns that dot the Boone County countryside. Blue-faced barns with gold roofs resemble houses on a Monopoly board. Neon-orange trees rest in patterned fields. The rural landscape is a sea of glorious color. There is always a freshness to Gregor's landscapes.

The unnatural perspective of “Still Life with Cut Flowers” by Rockford College art professor Andy Langoussis seems more like a landscape painting than a still-life. The vertical format (6 feet by 4 feet) is accentuated by an elongated table that dominates the canvas. The exaggerated perspective is influenced by the artist's use of photography as a compositional tool. Similar to a photograph, the composition is cropped closely to the edge.

Langoussis' use of color further dramatizes the composition. An artfully-displayed arrangement of brightly-colored fruits and vegetables are displayed on red tablecloth. Luminous color is achieved with numerous layers of transparent washes of pigment. Influenced by glazing techniques used by Old Master painters, his work is meticulously painted and finely detailed.

Self-taught artist Marlene McCauley's work reflects her fascination with nature. Her paintings are filled with animal imagery: butterflies, insects and, most commonly, snakes. Indeed, snakes have been a focus of McCauley's work for more than 20 years. The viewer is encouraged to consider the natural beauty of this historically-misunderstood reptile.

The intimate scale of McCauley's painting “Snake Eyes” places the viewer face-to-face with the subject. The orange-hued creature rests against a sea of black. Dice rolled to display “snake eyes” (the lucky double ones) float high above the snake. Suddenly, the experience is friendlier, and slightly humorous. The found object wood frame adds warmth and charm to the encounter.

Like McCauley, Chicago artist Bill Cass combines found object materials with paintings to give his work a vintage feel. The embellished wood frame adds richness to his painting “Arch” in RAM's exhibition.

In this painting, a mysterious figure shrouded in red is set against a darkened night sky. The faceless kneeling figure is illuminated by a crescent moon. Reflections from the moon highlight a series of childlike sketches that resemble faded chalk marks on a blackboard. A delicate line forms an archway around the glowing moon. This arch form is echoed elsewhere in the composition, adding to the overall simplicity of the piece. Less is more for this artist. Cass makes a big statement with minimal use of detail.

Decatur-born artist Hugh “Red” Argraves received the museum's Jessica Holt Award in 1997 for his oil painting “Cubist City.” Argraves jumbles the picture plane, challenging traditional rules of perspective. The human face is broken into a series of geometric shapes that are reassembled into a grid-like form. Facial features are repeated and juxtaposed. The resulting ordered architectural structure is playfully reminiscent of the work of Paul Klee.

Argraves was involved in the arts all of his life. Theater was a focus for more than 50 years. He was a Hollywood extra in the early 1940s, acting in films such as Casablanca, Music for Millions and Salty O'Rourke. A former resident, Argraves returned to Rockford after World War II, continuing his work in theater. His days off were spent painting and writing plays, short stories and poetry. This creative soul's art training was limited to just two college art classes.

These are only four of the artists featured in the exhibition. A variety of trained and untrained Illinois artists alike demonstrate diverse styles of representation and abstraction in “Close Range.” For all their differences, these artists share creative drive and technical proficiency, resulting in beautifully-crafted work.

“Close Range” is on view in RAM's Anderson Gallery through March 6, 2009. Don't miss the opportunity to celebrate this talented tribe of Illinois artists.

Contact Rockford Art Museum Curator Patty Rhea at prhea@rockfordartmuseum.org.

from the Oct. 15-21, 2008, issue

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