May Issue 2001
Asheville Art Museum in Asheville, NC, Features Works by Beatrice Riese and Linda McCartney
The Asheville Art Museum at Pack Place in downtown Asheville, NC, is featuring a retrospective exhibition covering the work of Beatrice Riese through July 15 and an exhibition of photographs by the late Linda McCartney, on view through July 29.
Beatrice Riese: A Retrospective Exhibition showcases the subtle and finely wrought abstractions of Beatrice Riese (b. 1917). President of American Abstract Artists, Riese has had numerous exhibitions throughout the world. Her work is included in the collection of many museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Asheville Art Museum.
Riese's life story is one of drama and dedication
to her art. Her family fled Nazi persecution in 1933 and moved
to Paris where she began to study art. In 1940, her family again
fled, via Casablanca, to New York, where she worked as a textile
designer. She studied with Clyfford Still in Richmond, VA, and
has also worked extensively with Will Barnet.
Using symmetry, tonality, repetition, geometry and a certain wry
humor, the artist creates sophisticated paintings and drawings
that highlight the endless possibilities of simple forms. Relationships
and movements divulge themselves in a revelatory manner, slowly,
with profound yet delightful logic. One can see in her work the
same concentration and focus on detail that appears in Celtic
interlace designs and Middle Eastern textiles, but Riese's imagery
springs from her own elusive and entirely individual language.
The exhibition brings together three decades of Riese's work,
showing the evolution of her visual thought. Her art rewards the
eye, stimulates the mind and leaves the viewer richer for the
experience. A full color catalog, made possible by a grant from
the Richard Florsheim Art Fund, accompanies the exhibition.
The exhibition, Roadworks: Photographs by Linda McCartney,
will be on view at the Museum through July 29, 2001. "The
appeal of Linda McCartney's photography is honesty - a directness
which recalls the compelling depression era images of Dorothea
Lange and Ben Shahn. But unlike them, inspiration is drawn not
from a despair or triumph. It is instead revealed in the extraordinary
nature of so much that is commonplace. The brilliance of her art
relates to those moments of discovery encountered by us all,"
said Dr. Louis A. Zona, Director, Butler Museum of American Art,
Youngstown, OH.
Roadworks presents spontaneous photographs, often taken
from car windows, backstages or the street. Fleeting landscapes,
anonymous pedestrians, garish billboards and backstage tedium
are among the views made during Linda McCartney's road trips between
the late 1960s into the 1990s. The work serves as a visual chronicle
of her life on the road, focusing on the diverse faces of the
international landscape. Unafraid of breaking the rules, McCartney
imbues her photographs with wit, vigor and a keen sense of movement.
The appeal of her photography lies in its direct, honest approach.
She offers to the viewer the extraordinary that exists in the
middle of the everyday.
Linda McCartney (1941 - 1998) was a photographer for over 30 years
before her untimely death from breast cancer. While her work has
often been exhibited internationally, it has rarely been shown
in the United States, where she was born. The Asheville Art Museum
is grateful to the Estate of Linda McCartney for allowing us to
bring this special exhibition to Asheville.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call the Museum at 828/253-3227 or at (http://www.ashevilleart.org).
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