December Issue 1999
Jerald Melberg Gallery Charleston Features Works by Ida Kohlmeyer and Charles Basham
Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charleston, SC, is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of the paintings, sculpture and prints of Ida Kohlmeyer and new oil paintings and pastels by Ohio artist Charles Basham. The exhibitions will be marked with a preview reception that coincides with the French Quarter Gallery Association Art Walk Dec. 3, from 5 to 8pm. The exhibits will continue through Jan. 16, 2000.
Ida
Kohlmeyer
In 1933, Ida Kohlmeyer received her BFA in English literature from Tulane University. Her interest in art began during her honeymoon in Mexico, where she was drawn to the ceramic folk art and masks of Central and South America. In 1956, she returned to alma mater earning a master's degree in painting.
After graduating from Tulane, she spent her summer painting with the New York School painter Hans Hofmann. For more than a decade she worked primarily in a gestural style influenced by Hofmann and other Abstract Expressionist, including Arshile Gorky and Mark Rothko, whom she met during her time in New York.
Kohlmeyer eventually outgrew the influence of Hofmann, Rothko and many others, took what she learned and developed a substance that was her own. Her work embodies floating ranks of emblems and scribbled marks that suggest a private alphabet; a direct and emotional transcript that is unique yet also an extension of the "automatic writing" techniques of the Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist artists.
Although she did not begin painting full time until she was in her mid-thirites, Kohlmeyer's work has been represented in well over 100 solo exhibitions, including a major retrospective at the Mint Museum of Art. Her work is in the permanent collections of over 80 institutions including the High Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Charles Basham
Charles Basham first started drawing and painting two decades ago as a student at Kent State University in Ohio, forty-five miles from his family farm. Under the influence of his teachers, he developed the independent approach and disciplines that are trademarks of his work. After earning a BFA in painting in 1975 and a MFA in 1979, Basham stayed on at Kent State as a visiting assistant professor.
When
looking at Basham's work, one is surrounded with his majestic
skylines and riverbanks, which possess solid compositions of vibrant,
stunning color and light. He seemingly pushes his palette of discordant
blues, greens and oranges up to the line, but manages to step
back before crossing it. In this group of pastels and oil paintings,
he captures dramatic moments of morning and evening light over
the farmlands of the Midwest and the marshes and beaches of the
Lowcountry of South Carolina.
Basham's work can be found in numerous public
and corporate collections including, BASF, Bank of America, Coca
Cola of Atlanta, the Mint Museum of Art, the Greenville Museum
of Art, and the Butler Institute of American Art.
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