January 31, 2018

The surrealists of the 20th century gained a reputation for inventing quirky art games. Surrealism, as a genre, is an exercise in the absurd; turn everything on its head and laugh, or grimace at the futility of it all. It is from this dark sensibility that games such as Exquisite Corpse (nee “cadavre exquis”) arrived. It’s hard to escape even the most elementary art course without having participated in a game of Exquisite Corpse. The intention is to draw an image, fold the paper over, and then pass it along to the next contributor, who will add on to the composition without seeing the drawing to which they are adding. It’s a collective effort that usually results in disjointed final product.

A game that I like to play, that has its roots in Exquisite Corpse, is the much more playfully named, “Doodle Monster.” I introduced it to my students, when I used to teach. The premise of this game is to create one stroke, however geometric or swirly, and pass it to the next person who is tasked with transforming the stroke into a figurative image. Obviously a hit with children whose untethered imaginations yearn for any outlet  to express their energy, this game was equally as obviously terrifying for adults. Artists have used this ice breaker to bat away the lingering white canvas which is the most terrifying obstacle.

Ken Mabrey, who will be showing at Fit Fitness in Wilmington through Blue Streak Gallery, employs a similar energy in the creation of his paintings. In his artist statement with Philadelphia based Seraphin Gallery, he describes the process, “My work is conceived from an automatic painting method in which I mark the canvas, the page, or the litho-stone at random. These markings stimulate my imagination into visualizing abstractions of a locale or a figure. The process then becomes a problem-solving situation.”

Mabrey’s paintings play with the passage of time through visual repetition in a way that evokes artists of the Futurist movement. Duchamps’ “Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2” comes to mind. His colorful palette and curved and vibrant figures add to the bacchanalia vibes in his paintings. Mabrey primarily exhibits in Wilmington and Philadelphia. He has exhibited at Borowsky Gallery, Fleisher Art Memorial, Delaware Art Museum, and Delaware Contemporary. Join Blue Streak Gallery for an Opening Reception for Ken Mabrey’s Show, “Aloha Isabell! Oh Canada  Jitterbug  Ice and Other Dancers The Violin and Other Saws.” Reception will be held at Fit Fitness on Friday, February 2nd from 5 to 7 p.m. The Show will continue until the end of March.  Fit Fitness is located at 62 Rockford Rd. in Wilmington.

Blue Streak Gallery will also be hosting an opening reception for their on site exhibition, “Breakfast Club” featuring artists Glenn Blue, Allen Gladwell Carter Sr, Neil Carter, Rob Evans, George Martz, Terrence Roberts, Gus Sermas and Shaun Stipick. This exhibition is the first group show of this informal association of Greater Brandywine Valley artists. Exhibition runs through February 28th.

While you’re south of the PA border in Delaware, check out the Wine and Cheese Reception at Station Gallery in Greenville from 5 to 8 p.m. for their group show featuring artists Marlene Dubin, Elaine Lisle, and Mary Ann Weselyk. Until next week!

 

 

The Brandywine River Museum of Art has assembled a comprehensive collection of “Frolic” Weymouth’s paintings and artwork in its newest exhibit which runs now through June 3.

The artwork by George A. “Frolic” Weymouth, noted conservationist, horseman and artist in southern Chester County who died in 2016, spans decades and includes portraits as well as landscapes featuring his beloved Chadds Ford.

“This exhibit gives a full sense of his work,” said the museum’s Audrey Lewis, who helped coordinate and install “The Way Back: The Paintings of George A. Weymouth.”

The exhibit is curated by guest curator Joseph J. Rishel, curator emeritus of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It displays a breadth of paintings and sketches from Weymouth’s earliest images to his last sketch, completed the year he died.

Weymouth was one of the founders of and the longtime chairman of the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art, whose art career had its roots in his childhood.

According to a press release, Weymouth “extended and burnished what is known as the Brandywine School of artists through his moody, detailed landscapes, and also made insightful portraits of family and friends that reveal both the appearance and psychology of his subjects.”

Many of the pieces show how Weymouth was influenced by his friend, Andrew Wyeth.

“He was the one who recommended Frolic take up tempera,” Lewis said.

The earliest work on display is a 1948 oil painting titled “Chicken Fight,” completed when the artist was 12.

“It has this spontaneity,” Lewis said. The painting was gifted to the museum by Weymouth’s son McCoy (“Mac”) in 2017.

Weymouth’s portrait style was influenced by the people he saw, according to Lewis. On display are paintings and accompanying pencil sketches of Eugene Eleuthere du Pont, portraits of former-Gov. William W. Scranton and Henry Belin du Pont Jr. and the Earl of Westmorland, among others.

A 2011 portrait titled “Melanie in Repose” features one of his favorite dogs on a settee.

“The portrait style here is the same as it was for his friends,” Lewis said.

Both the portraits and the landscapes capture emotions through the brushes of watercolor or egg tempera.

A portrait titled “Gathering Storm” features Ethel Roach, the Weymouth family housekeeper and a frequent subject of Weymouth’s, gazing out a window. It was painted in 1964 when the civil rights movement in the country was in its early stages. One is left to wonder whether the portrait’s title refers to the storm outside or to the fight for civil rights throughout the country.

“This is a fantastic drawing,” Lewis said of the accompanying pencil-on-paper “Study for Gathering Storm.” “You can see how he transformed her.”

According to the informational panel for the portrait and sketch, “The drawing seen nearby, one of numerous studies for the image, reflects Weymouth’s working process as he experimented with slight variations in the sitter’s folded arms, face and gaze.”

His landscapes evoke the different seasons and emotions, especially the ones showing winter and storms, which Lewis said were his favorites.

The 2004 tempera-on-panel piece titled “Storm” shows a lone plant against a storm-darkened sky, evoking the drama of the scene, Lewis said.

“Weymouth reveled in every aspect of storms, finding excitement in the light effects before, during, and afterward,” according to the information panel next to the landscape.

Another landscape, the 2010 tempera-on-panel “Rogue Wave,” captures the blowing snow against a barn.

Weymouth’s last tempera, “Swelter,” features the sun beating down on a field. “You really feel the sun and that overwhelming heat,” Lewis said. “The sun and tree together really create a sense of movement.”

If You Go

What: “The Way Back: The Paintings of George A. Weymouth”
When: Now through June 3
Time: The museum is open daily 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except for Christmas and Thanksgiving days.
Cost: $18 for adults; $15 for seniors (65-plus); $6 for students and children 6-plus; and free for children under 5 and museum members.
More information: 610-388-2700
On the Web: brandywinemuseum.org