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April Issue 2005
Greenville Museum of Art in Greenville, NC, Features Works by George Bireline
The Greenville Museum of Art in Greenville, NC, is presenting the exhibition, George Bireline: The Many Roads Taken, featuring a retrospective of works by noted North Carolina artist George Bireline. The exhibit will be on view through May 6, 2005.
The idea for this exhibition was conceived in 1999 by GMA director Barbour Strickland while having lunch with the artist (George Bireline). The exhibit was eventually organized by GMA and shown first at the Asheville Art Museum in Asheville, NC, from Nov. 5, 2005 - Feb. 6, 2005.
"Bireline was one of North Carolina's most important artists and art educators and we are pleased to make this exhibition of his paintings available for the citizens of this state to enjoy," states Strickland. This retrospective exhibition includes 23 paintings, selected by Bireline, covering the 1960s to 2002, His early paintings were color-field, while his later works incorporate trompe l'oeil, social and cultural themes as well as personal and figurative images.
Bireline (1923-2002) was born
in Peroia, IL, served in the US Army in Europe during World War
II, worked in a factory after the war, studied art at Bradley
University through the GI Bill, and received his Master of Fine
Arts degree from UNC-Chapel Hill. He began his long teaching career
with North Carolina State University College of Design in 1956,
achieved full professor in 1977 and retired in 1986, Professor
Emeritus. He continued to live in Raleigh, NC, until his death.
Bireline's career drew national attention in 1964 when he showed
his color-field paintings at a sold out show at André Emmerich
Gallery in New York. He was included in more North Carolina artist
exhibitions than any other single artist. A mid-career retrospective
of his work was held at the North Carolina Museum of Art in 1975,
and in 2003 it featured a small memorial exhibition.
Bireline's work is included in numerous public and private collections across the country including, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC and the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY.
North Carolina Museums owning his work include: Asheville Art Museum; the Duke University Museum of Art; the Fayetteville Museum of Art; the Greenville Museum of Art; the Mint Museum of Art; and the North Carolina Museum of Art.
A 32 page color catalogue, with an essay by Raleigh artist and art critic Max Halperen, accompanies the exhibition and is available for $10 at the Museum.
"Bireline's rich, complex and colorful paintings took North Carolina art into realms it had never dreamed of," said Halperen.
This exhibition is sponsored by: the North Carolina Arts Council, The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation; Wachovia Bank, NA; Bonny and Tony Breuer; ART Gallery, Ltd.; and Melissa Peden and Robert Irwin.
For further information check
our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at 252/758-1946
or at (www.gmoa.org).
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