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Art in the Midwest - Reflections and Anticipations Gallery talk by Theresa Abel Saturday, December 13th 1:00 - 2:00 pm

The following is the text of the talk by Theresa Abel. It is a very faithful document however it doesn’t include a number of asides that took place during the talk, nor does it include any of the Q & A that took place at the end. The images are placed in order of appearance in the power – point presentation.

Good afternoon and thank you for asking me to speak with you today.

My topic will be visual art in the Midwest, where it has been, and where it might be

headed. I will also touch on what affect location has on the creative process. This is a broad topic

so it may seem circuitous at times. I also want to make it clear these are simply my personal

observations and there is nothing academic or fact based about it.

For those of you who do not know me, I am the owner and art director of the Artisan

Gallery in Paoli, WI which is just southwest of Madison, WI. Prior to taking over ownership of

the gallery in 2004, I was the art Director for 7 years. Before that I graduated from UW Madison

with a fine arts degree and soon after I found a community of like minded artists who formed a

group called ArtBite. This group was especially active in the 1990’s and early 2000’s hosting pop

up gallery’s of our work in vacant retail spaces in the Madison area. During Those years I was

also very busy traveling, primarily in the Midwest, with my future husband Tim O’Neill, who was

exhibiting in fine art and craft fairs. ArtBite and the art fairs were a great education that would

later inform the kind of work exhibited at the Artisan Gallery.

When asked by Barry to talk about art in the Midwest it made me have to assess how or if

art in this region is different than art in other parts of the country. I believe there are differences,

but articulating that can be tricky.

Preparing this talk I asked some professional artists I know, all accomplished technically

and who have developed unique bodies of work, what they thought about regionalism. I asked

them if they felt living or being raised in the Midwest had an obvious impact on their work. Some

of these people have lived elsewhere and have returned to the area. All of them said that their

work was definitely formed by a sense of place. Lori Schappe-Youens, a mixed media painter,

lived for a number of decades in Johannesburg, South Africa, returning to Madison a few years

ago. She said both her palette and subject matter have seen a change upon return.

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“When I lived primarily in Africa my color palette was warmer- more gritty- contained

more raw texture,” She said. “Since I have moved back to the Midwest- it is a softer, gentler

palette and somewhat cooler. I am not a fan of this colder climate, but it finds its way into my

work- almost a subtle protest to what is happening outside. The farm landscape is present as

well- patchwork quilt-like. The African animals have also been nudged to the side by the more

common animals here in Wisconsin; deer; fox, cows. On my best days, my two worlds merge-

perhaps a water buffalo along side a dairy cow- but they might be resting beneath a baobab

tree.”

Lori Schappe-Youens

The landscape painter, Jonathan Wilde, talked about emotional attachments to particular

places, a reality that gets imprinted on the artist and makes the resulting paintings more than

simply pretty places.

For other painters of the landscape, place was obviously important but their ideas and

intentions are more nuanced than capturing a picture of a place. Christopher Gargan who has

been painting and teaching painting his entire life said that, “as a landscape painter my work is

an effort to understand the place where I live and how activity has shaped that environment. I’m

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not looking for the picturesque as much as I am for visual encounters that coincide with my ideas

about coherent design and aesthetic.” Gargan’s work has a kinship with artists working in the regionalist movement of the

1930’s. When choosing works for this current show in the museum I noticed another artist, Tom

Linden, whose work appears to be part of that same lineage.

Jonathan Wilde

Christopher Gargan

Tom Linden

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But regions are so much more than just landscape. The ceramic sculptor Marlene Miller

talked more about Midwestern culture as an influence rather than the land. Marlene has spent her

life in the Midwest. She currently resides in Washington, IL, but was raised in Wisconsin. She

says, “For me, my childhood, and growing up in the Midwest (for example, observing the hard

lives of my farmer aunts and uncles and their huge families; watching my grandma butcher

chickens in the front yard that would fly high into the air without a head; the harsh winters; the

strict German Catholicism of the area and in my relatives) has had profound influences on who I

am as a person and as an artist.”

But perhaps Miller’s most interesting observation is about the influence of the other art

and trends on her work. With many of the artists we talked about the internet and its potential to

homogenize artistic ideas. Marlene says, “Seeing things in the flesh I think is a much more

powerful experience than looking at images on a flat shiny screen. I do use the internet as a

reference at times; however, as a mature artist, I am just not subject to getting blown off course

by anything I see on the internet.”

Marlene Miller

But perhaps one of the most important things brought up by a number of artists was the

idea that in every region there are communities of artists who become influential on one other.

The interaction with this micro community can have an important impact on an artist’s

philosophy, concepts, and methods. Famous regional artists or contemporaries with a strong

reputation are also important; for instance Grant Wood or Thomas Hart Benton in the Midwest. In

the more recent past there were the Wisconsin surrealists including John Wilde, the father of the

aforementioned landscape painter. In Chicago the Imagists and the Hairy Who continue to impact

younger artists.

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Accomplished oil painter Gregory Schulte said these artists shaped his work while

growing up in Wisconsin. His imagery is not place-specific and mostly invented, but the ideas of

magical realism and surrealism in the Midwest influenced him early on.

Gregory Schulte

There were a number of artists in this year Region Juried Exhibition that I think could be

part of this lineage of magical or surrealism in the Midwest. Perhaps the top three award winners

fall into this category but most certainly Karen Halt’s works including “Night Owls”. The

beautifully rendered narrative is representative but there is nothing real about it. Dan

Brinkmeier’s work contains elements that are very familiar to this region but the scenes he

creates are nothing we have ever seen.

Karen Halt

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Dan Brinkmeirer

Artists realize that they are part of a historical continuum of artists and all that we know of

the large movements in art history meld with our own personal histories and particular culture to

make work that is hopefully relevant to our times.

Growing up in a small farming community in the Midwest my early art education was

limited. My first exposure to art objects would have been the paintings and sculptures in the

Catholic Church I attended. From there I learned about the highlights of western art history from a

set of encyclopedias my parents bought for our education. I learned about Da Vinci,

Michelangelo, Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, and Picasso. It was much later I would be introduced to

regionalist artists such as Grant Wood and John Stewart Curry. The images of rolling hills and

stylized country sides inhabited by round somber faces would seem familiar to me. Those Grant

Wood portraits reminding me of old family photos of serious hardworking ancestors. Once in a

large university studying art, my desire was to create contemporary work that I thought was more

sophisticated or edgy. I studied artists such as Francis Bacon and Joseph Beuys, trying on

different styles. I learned from that, but it took a while to realize that their work was the way it

was because of who they were and where they came from. WWII or the life of a gay man in

London is not really a part of my background. I made the wise choice to study abroad in Florence

my junior year. While there I felt an affinity to the medieval and other religious works reminding

me of my upbringing and this style allowed me to investigate my disillusionment with the church

as well as reconnect with figurative and narrative works. I thought again of the stylized

landscapes of Thomas Hart Benton and felt I was finally finding a style that suited me and was

appropriate for what I had to say. When I finally created work I felt good about, it was because I

embraced who I was and where I came from.

Theresa Abel

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The Midwest may not be the center of the art market, but it is also more than simply a fly

over zone from one coast to the next. Not as dependent on elites there is not the intense pressure

to be on trend or to sell work at a particular price point in order to pay the rent on an apartment in

Brooklyn or Manhattan. Artist choosing to live or stay in the middle of the country are certainly

not a homogenous group. And life in Chicago or Milwaukee will be different than Viroqua, WI or

Freeport, IL.

Many of the artists I know living a rural existence want a lifestyle that is quiet and simple.

But also relatively inexpensive, thus enabling them to create works not as dependent on market

trends. For many being an artist is about more than the product that comes out of their studio, it’s a way to see the world and a chosen lifestyle. Wendell Berry told us that, “Culture”

comes from Agriculture” and so it becomes the imperative of artists to stay rooted in the ground

and keep the culture a living, growing thing.

I recently talked with artist Richard Jones about the possible homogenization of culture

and art. He then spoke eloquently about his concerns, not of the internet, but of our reliance and

ease of global mobility. We are quite quickly making the planet homogenized not only culturally

but biologically. He considers these environmental concerns a call to arms for artists. He

definitely thinks about what will sell in the market and is reliant on it to support himself and his

family but he also sees this as an opportunity to speak with individuals and enter a dialog about

things important in the world. To me this is reinforced with the number of artists I see choosing

to move to rural areas and live lives that leave a smaller impact on the planet. I doubt this is

specific to the Midwest, although it is a trend I see here and made easier due to the availability of

rural land.

Richard Jones

Although politics or a concern for the environment may not be subject matter of an artists

work it may play a large role in how they make their work and choose to live. In the years I have

been working with artists I have noticed many artists thinking about their own consumption and

deciding to surround themselves with art of all kinds whether paintings, sculpture or the

handmade soup bowl they use each day. This leads me to the area of fine craft.

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I think one of the most interesting trends in the past few decades has been the blurring of

the boundaries between fine art and fine craft. Certainly the arts and crafts movement of late 19th

century was the beginning of a greater appreciation for what until then had been known as the

decorative arts. But recently fine craft has not only risen in stature but the lines between

functional and non functional are blurring and the hierarchy of media is less apparent. I know

ceramic artists who make conceptual sculpture while also having a body of work which is thrown

functional bowls and cups. Where fine art has expanded to include performance, video and other

new media often referred to as 4-D, artists continuing to work in traditional materials such as oil

paint or printmaking feel an affinity to artists working in clay, metal and wood. There is a lot of

talk about the process of working with these materials as nearly as important as the finished work

itself. I have seen artists working in metal, glass, ceramic and wood exploring conceptual and

sculptural works yet still defining themselves as fine craft artists based on the material they have

chosen to work in. it’s a very exciting time for this area. (Schwegmann/Myers)

Michael Schwegmann

Ryan Meyers

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Although I stated earlier that there are differences regionally in the visual arts it’s certainly

not a movement and I have only touched on a few areas and disciplines that I am most

knowledgeable about. Midwestern artists are also exploring performance, conceptual, land art

and anything you can think of.

Ease of mobility, the internet and social media could seem like ways to loose

differentiation but it’s possible we are able to share our differences more readily, Ann Orlowski,

who has work in this year’s regional show, is specifically interested in the homogenization of

contemporary landscape. So it was surprising when talking with her about this concept more

broadly she saw positive indications that wide ranging ideas are being shared in the creative fields

in part because of the internet. She said, “An argument can be made that the internet has brought

us closer and that we are able to connect in ways never before in history, and I hope that

connection allows us to discover and celebrate our differences rather than eliminating them”

Ann Orlowski

There are so many factors that influence and inspire artists from the landscape, culture,

politics, the market and community of artists one surrounds themselves with. When I look toward

the future I do have concerns about the support of the arts. Making art is hard work and it takes

time. A dedicated and uninterrupted mental and physical concentration is needed to create fully

realized art of any kind. One unfortunate trend I have seen in the past decade is artists who once

had full time studio practices having to get full or part time jobs to supplement their income.

The disparity of wealth in this country is growing so not only is it harder for artists to

support themselves on what the market allows them to sell their work for, the middle class in

general has less expendable income to purchase work. Higher education in general is more

expensive so making the choice to devote that time to the field of art is a tough one being

uncertain the financial investment will pay off. Craft artists making functional work have to

compete with inexpensive goods made in factories by a poorly paid labor force over seas.

I returned recently from Art Basel in Miami, a showcase for galleries from all over the

globe featuring internationally recognized artists selling works at impressive prices. The art sold

there is investment art for the elite of this world. When we hear about the art market in the news it

is often this market of blue chip art works being sold for tens of thousands or millions of dollars.

But the majority of professional artists living in this country survive in an economy entirely

different from that and can not rely on the sale of one or two important pieces a year to support

themselves and their family.

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I have noticed as a gallerist that when I now think of the audience we reach I do think

about more than just the people in the region who are able to frequent that physical gallery. The

internet has allowed us to reach people across the country and ship our artists’ works from coast

to coast. This is something that was not as possible when I first began working at the gallery. The

ease of transportation and shipping has made it possible for me to continue working with artists

from the area that have moved away. For many artists where they grew up, and where they

developed their individual styles has a lasting effect on their work even after moving away.

Gregory Schulte said “I could make my work anywhere now but it would look much different if I

had not been influence early on by regional styles.” In closing, good art tells a true story and part

of that narrative is place, thus art will continue to have regional differences as varied as the

country we live in.