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May 15 |
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WWII touched all facets of American life and challenged the careers of many Rhode Island artists. The structured and precise painting style of Gordon Peers (1909 - 1988) pre-war evolved to meet the new realities of a post war art world. The artist did not paint war themes but looked to the emerging art movements of Geometric Abstraction and Surrealism by the American vanguard artists to better understand his choices as a painter. Bert Gallery's current exhibit looks at the evolution of painter Gordon Peers, nurtured in a war free art world transformed by the altered American culture of the 1950's. There are over twenty paintings on view dating from 1938 to 1984. Early works in the 30's and 40's show Peers as a strong realist painter who was interested in tightly rendered images, exacting composition and homage to nature. An independent and disciplined painter, Gordon Peers acquired technical and theoretical art sophistication early in his career. He graduated from RISD under the tutelage of John Frazier and went on to study at the Beaux Arts Academy in New York eventually working for a time with American realist Thomas Hart Benton. On December 7, 1941 every American life changed with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into World War II. Gordon was a member of the faculty at Rhode Island School of Design and obtained a leave of absence to become an officer in an army camouflage unit. Like many Americans, Peers adjusted to the disruption in his career, but the war had irrevocably transformed the art world. He faced an art profession that was convulsing with new ideas and approaches to painting. The Bert Gallery exhibit juxtaposes the artwork by Peers from the 30's and 40's with later paintings from the 50's to 80's. The transformation in color, composition and surface paint are significant. Peers will not be confused with the more radical and modern painters to emerge post war in the United States. Rather, Peers' paintings evolved slowly paying particular homage to the work of Cezanne and never relinquishing a respect for sound draftsmanship and the refined craft of painting. His subject matter ranges from still life, flowers and Cape Cod landscapes of Highland Beach and Truro, Massachusetts actively avoiding war theme art while still exhibiting in Rhode Island servicemen exhibits at the Providence Art Club in 1946 his imaginative paintings of objects and landscape. Gordon Peers achieved wide recognition in Rhode Island as a painter and instructor. He was the Chairman of the Painting Department at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Head of the European Honors Program. A member of the Providence Art Club and Newport Art Association, he had several one man and group exhibitions to include such institutions as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Corcoran Art Gallery, Carnegie Institute and the National Academy of Design. Providence, RI. Bert Gallery is located along the Providence waterfront at Corliss Landing, 540 South Water Street.In 2008 Bert Gallery takes a look at the "cultural awakenings" throughout the decades that established Rhode Island as a destination for visual artists. Among the wharfs and warehouses of this small industrial state a cultural identity was born and nurtured.
Opening Reception for Photography by Alexandra Broches Paintings by Paula Martiesian Explore a world of rich, lush and vivid color in Paula Martiesian’s landscape paintings. Her natural world speaks of stunning color and are beautiful expressive visions to behold. Swatches, drips and lines of color play back and forth, and in and out, of the surface of Martiesian’s paintings. Full of intense power and concentration, Martiesian communicates a language of expressive color, reflecting her vision of the world. The established Providence based artist comments, “I try to recreate the very atmosphere I see, a total impression based in the colors I experience in my garden, on the road and in my travels. For it isn't just color I love, but color in nature, a sophisticated, wild and untrammeled nature that has no straight lines, a world that has no neat and tidy solutions." Full of energy, these large-scale oil paintings hold your attention and leave one in admiration for both the colorful palette and the interpretation of the landscape. The Gail Cahalan Gallery is devoted to showing exciting artwork across a wide spectrum of disciplines in a variety of media. Focusing mainly on contemporary work, the gallery's mission is to incorporate the incredible regional talent with a diverse audience. In an effort to stimulate and inspire the community visually, the gallery exhibits art which can run from the provocative, to historically significant to elegant and sophisticated.
The
Peaceable Kingdom Since 1980, the Ritchie family has been collecting, traveling and sharing folk art from around the world. The Peaceable Kingdom is a place where stories come alive and where art created within cultural traditions transports the viewer to exotic lands. PARKING LOTS |
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