Mar. 18, 2014
The Catholic University of America Department of Art hosts the exhibition "Under the Influence: Reverberations of the Washington Color School" in two venues - the University's Salve Regina Gallery and the Victor L. Selman Community Gallery in the Brookland Artspace Lofts - March 21 through April 12. The exhibition is curated by Kaitlin Filley and Ashley Wilson, senior art history majors at CUA.
"Under the Influence" serves as a catalyst for a discussion of and engagement with the legacy of the Washington Color School. It confronts the complex relationship between contemporary artists and their predecessors. The Washington Color School is arguably the only art movement from D.C. to be nationally recognized and continues to influence the local art scene.
The exhibition features the work of Jeffry Cudlin, Bill Hill, Barbara Januszkiewicz, Ryan Carr Johnson, Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, Meg Mitchell, Robin Rose, and Samuel Scharf. The work of these artists demonstrates the ways in which the legacy of the Washington Color School has become a source of inspiration and contention to local, contemporary artists.
Scharf described this tension in relation to the project Kill or be Killed, created in collaboration with Johnson. "We were discussing its [Washington, D.C.'s] lineage of artists that we contend with as emerging artists; even after 40 plus years we're still talking about them [the Washington Color School artists]. How would we then make our mark? These are people that we have to look at and say, 'Where do we fit in?'"
The Washington Color School was a loosely affiliated group of artists working in D.C. in the 1950s and 1960s. Among its most prominent and well-known members were Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, Howard Mehring, Thomas Downing, Gene Davis, and Paul Reed. Each artist's technique varied; however they all held in common their use of Magna paint on raw cotton duck canvas, adherence to the abstract form, and concern for the interaction of colors on a canvas.
Catholic University has a unique history with the Washington Color School. Noland was an active and prominent art professor at the University for nearly a decade in the 1950s. While here he taught and became a mentor to both Mehring and Downing. Noland was an active leader of the Art Club at CUA, and curated several significant exhibitions in the Salve Regina Gallery. He showed prominent New York artists, such as David Smith, Herman Cherry, Lee Krasner, as well as local D.C. artists, among them Gene Davis and Morris Louis.
Hill and Rose were both living and working in D.C. when the Color School movement was winding down. Rose works with encaustic and acrylic paint to create abstract color fields that appear to be lit from the inside out. Hill, who worked under the mentorship of Sam Gilliam for several years, has adopted the more traditional use of oil on canvas to create sensuous and fantastical color fields.
Mann and Januszkiewicz are both influenced by Morris Louis's pouring technique. Mann has developed a spontaneous pouring technique using sumi ink and paint, which she builds upon with decorative drawings and prints to create complex abstract landscapes. Januszkiewicz employs paintbrushes in order to achieve controlled, vibrant "swathes" of color.
Johnson and Scharf, who are young, emerging artists, recreated a Kenneth Noland "Target" as a way of paying homage to their predecessor as part of the Kill or be Killed series. They then proceeded to shoot the painting, thereby releasing themselves from the legacy of the artist and at the same time making their own mark on art history. Johnson's personal work, also included in the show, explores the physicality of paint through the systematic layering to the surface of an object.
Mitchell and Cudlin have created a parody of the Washington Color School movement in their collaborative multimedia project titled Ian and Jan: The Washington Body School. By creating a fictitious art movement, Cudlin and Mitchell question the authority of the legacy of the Washington Color School and its pervasive impact on D.C.'s art scene.
"For me, this show has been four years in the making," notes co-curator Wilson. "In my freshman year I worked for the art department and there was a painting by Kenneth Noland next to where I worked. That painting sparked the topic for my junior thesis paper, which led to this show. It has been quite the journey."
Filley says "curating 'Under the Influence' has fueled my passion for engaging with contemporary, local artists and the community. There is nothing quite like working closely with artists and having them share their vision with you."
The exhibit is available for viewing at the Salve Regina Gallery Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m., and at the Victor L. Selman Community Gallery Thursday and Friday, 5:30 to 8 p.m., and Saturday, noon to 4 p.m.
Opening receptions for the exhibition will be held Friday, March 21, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Salve Regina Gallery, and from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Victor L. Selman Community Gallery. A Curators Tour will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 12, at Salve Regina Gallery.
Media: To cover the exhibit on the CUA campus, contact Katie Lee or Mary McCarthy Hines in the Office of Public Affairs at 202-319-5600 or cua.public.affairs@cua.edu.