EXHIBIT LOOKS AT TEACHER’S ‘LEGACY’
The oils of an artist’s artist who used to teach while wearing an apron saying “will work for paint” are on view in a superb new show.
The “Legacy” exhibit of “George Bogart (1933-2005) and Students” is at JRB Art at The Elms gallery.
Originally from Duluth, Minn., Bogart was an art faculty member at the University of Oklahoma from 1970 until his retirement in 1997.
Bright yellow-green colors and floating pastel-hued bars work well with bubbling surface texture in his large 1972 oil “Greg’s Delight.”
Bold, broad, blue, gray and white brush strokes on black, seemingly applied by a giant, make 1980s “Night in Tunisia” memorable.
Two paint-loaded brushes, in a studio lit by one bulb, wait to apply more random marks to an empty, open “Pandora’s Box” in a 1987 oil.
The dark head of a “Teacher,” full of blue brush strokes, his mouth spouting yellow letters, seems to pour fluid from one vessel to another. Bogart’s 62-by-72-inch “Teacher” canvas appears to reflect, with dry humor, on his academic career, the year after his retirement.
Later, somewhat smaller oil and oil stick works on paper and canvas by Bogart convey his strong feelings for nature, as well as color and gesture.
Plants, seeds and bulbs seem ready to burst forth from a wintry gray background, in two 2002 oil or oil stick canvases from his “Garden Chronicles” series.
Dark shapes on yellow “Wilt” in a 2003 work on paper, and a red backdrop combines with charcoal marks, to suggest a “Bouquet of Red,” two years later.
Amply demonstrating Bogart’s “Legacy” are contributions by some 11 other artists, who studied with or were influenced by him.
Rough, verdant, horizontal strips of paint, surrounded by darkness, suggest aspen trees of a “Deep Wood,” in a large horizontal acrylic canvas by B.J. White.
Blobs, spots, brush marks and thin white strips seem suspended, slightly above the metallic surface of Larry Hefner’s “Blue Grid With Blue Floaters” acrylic.
The wild, windblown head of a black-maned red horse eyes us, almost angrily, undecided between “Fight or Flight,” in a large acrylic by Jennifer Hustis.
Antlers fly through a red sky over a nocturnal landscape, separated from us by two posts and barbed wire, in “Refuge,” a mixed media painting by Rick Barnes.
Also on view are works by David Crismon, Betty Wood, Caroline Farris, George Oswalt, Linda Warren, Joe Andoe and Michelle Mikesell.
The show is highly recommended during its run through May 1. — John Brandenburg,
for The Oklahoman