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Exhibition showcases retiring art profs career
Currently curating a 40-year retrospective, the 31-year-veteran professor will put that common thread theory to the public test in a one-man show that follows his career from 1964-2004. Titled Larry Holmes, 40 Years of Painting: A Retrospective, the exhibit will run from Tuesday, March 30, through Sunday, May 9, in the University Gallery, and will showcase 17 oil and alkyd paintings, one pastel, one lithograph and one piece of sculpture from the four-decade period. Motivated by Holmes impending retirement, the retrospective, besides highlighting Holmes painting career, also pays homage to his three decades of service to the University. Oddly enough, when I came here in 73, I was doing these constructed geometric paintings, which were high-relief, off-the-wall big thingsvery graphic and painted mostly in primary colors, Holmes said. But, as time went on, that work began to soften a little bit, and the painting on it got to be a lot more complex and a lot more pattern-oriented. In my own mind, its a steady evolution and not a radical jump, but it may not look that way in the exhibit because the space isnt really big enough to show a good progression. Faced with 40 years of work and limited wall space, Holmes said that he solved the dilemma by carefully choosing one piece of work from each key phase in his career, which began while he was finishing undergraduate school at Kansas State University.
Holmes, who calls his work representational, says that he is inspired by carefully composed still lifes and their historical use in painting. But while he often employs such standbys as statuary, animals and plants in his contemporary work, he says that he strives to steer clear of clichéd images and create a deeper message for the viewer. My work is representational, but I dont see it as being realistic, he explained. [Realism] implies something different to me, because thats about observing the natural world. Although the objects in my paintings are from the real world, they are hardly ever located in the real world at the same place at the same time. I keep a library of photographic images to work from, and when Im ready to start painting, I begin to go through things and look for images that make some sort of sense in how they work together both conceptually and pictorially. Its sort of a patching together of objects, and theres a fair amount of planning and drawing that goes on before the painting process ever starts. All works in the retrospective are for sale, as is the pastel that Holmes donated to the silent auction, which is open for a sneak preview from 4:30-7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 30, in conjunction with the retrospective opening. Article by Becca Hutchinson To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |