Revelation: Major Paintings by Jules Olitski

Eye On Art  |  05/09/2012

A major overview of work by acclaimed American painter Jules Olitski comes to the Toledo Museum of Art this spring. Revelation: Major Paintings by Jules Olitski brings together more than 30 significant paintings from public and private collections, highlighting important periods and themes of Olitski’s career.

“This exhibition re-examines Olitski’s entire career, not just the early years that brought him to public attention. Here we can see why he is to be appreciated as one of America’s most outstanding modern painters,” said Brian Kennedy, director of the Museum.

The traveling exhibition was organized by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Most recently shown at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, the exhibition will be on display in TMA’s Canaday Gallery from May 31?Aug. 26, 2012. Art historians E. A. Carmean Jr., Alison de Lima Greene and Karen Wilkin curated the show, which will later go to the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, D.C.

Born in Russia, Olitski (1922?2007) moved to the United States as a child. He first received international acclaim as a maverick Color Field painter. The so-called Color Field painters were a group of highly regarded artists in the 1950s and 1960s employing intense color in abstract formats as the carrier of emotional meaning. It was a pivotal time for Olitski, whose paintings of that period featured bold colors and flat graphic shapes. He continued to experiment with techniques and processes during the remainder of his career.

“Olitski’s sweeping and grand shapes offered a different type of pictorial drama than that of his many colleagues and led to his experiments with very large fields of near-monochrome color,” Kennedy said. “These often enormous paintings became known as his landmark Spray paintings, which are at once minimal yet complex in their gradations and subtle shifts in hue.”

Later, in his Baroque and High Baroque paintings?so-called because of their lush colors and
surfaces?Olitski accentuated physicality as an expressive element. Though his paintings were staunchly abstract, Olitski looked to the Old Masters of the Renaissance, the Baroque and the Dutch Gold Age “Olitski was a great admirer of Rembrandt and El Greco and they influenced his work,” Kennedy said.
In his last works, Olitski introduced abstract forms and shapes that narrates on both spiritually charged and Classical themes.

The exhibition contains works spanning five decades and is arranged in groupings from each period: Stain paintings, Spray paintings, Baroque paintings, High Baroque paintings and the Late paintings. Kennedy noted that Olitski painted through the night, often not ending until daybreak. Lighting in the Canaday Gallery for this exhibition evokes the atmosphere in which the painter worked.

Olitski had his first solo exhibition in New York in 1958, and in 1963 began teaching at Bennington College in Vermont. There he became close friends and exchanged ideas with Color Field painter Kenneth Noland as well as artists David Smith, Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler and Anthony Caro.
Olitski, along with Frankenthaler and artists Roy Lichtenstein and Ellsworth Kelly, represented the United States in the 33rd Venice Biennale in 1966. The following year Olitski won the Corcoran Gold Medal and William A. Clark Award at the 30th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Painters at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Since then his works have appeared in hundreds of exhibitions and in collections around the world.

The Toledo showing of Revelation: Major Paintings by Jules Olitski is made possible by members of the Toledo Museum of Art and sponsored in part by Key Bank. The exhibition also is supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council’s sustainable grant program funded by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Admission is free. A fully illustrated companion book ($40) accompanies the exhibition and is available in the Museum Store.

Free Exhibition-Related Programming

Hands-on Activity: From Sunset to Sunrise
Friday, June 1: 7?9 p.m., Sculpture Garden/Libbey Court Olitski’s studio windows faced west and he painted throughout the night from sunset to sunrise. Start a painting in the sculpture garden at the Museum while watching the sunset. Become inspired by the beauty of nature that surrounds you.

Film and Discussion: Jules Olitski: Modern Master June 1: 7:30 p.m., Little Theater Interviews with friends and peers, as well as rarely seen footage of the artist in his studio, portray the superb achievement of a man driven to make art in this 22-minute documentary. Afterward, meet his wife, daughter, and the curator of Revelation for a discussion of their relationships with the artist.

Music Performances: Abstract Compositions Morton Feldman was an extremely influential member of the New York School, a group of composers that drew inspiration from and collaborated with the Abstract Expressionists during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Feldman’s music, in particular, is strongly rooted in the aesthetic principles of the Abstract Expressionist movement. He drew much of his aesthetic philosophy from his interactions with these painters. Karl Curtis Larson will perform a number of Feldman’s compositions at 7 p.m. Friday, June 8, and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 10 in Canaday Gallery. Visitors are encouraged to move through the exhibition experiencing the paintings and the music as two complementing and related forms.

Presentation: Abstract Art and Jules Olitski Saturday, June 9: 2 p.m., Little Theater Toledo Museum of Art Director Brian Kennedy discusses the history of abstract art, and then takes participants on a walking tour of Revelation: Major Paintings by Jules Olitski.

Presentation: Olitski and Abstract Art in the TMA Collection Friday, July 20: 7:30 p.m., Libbey Court Amy Gilman, curator of contemporary art at the Toledo Museum of Art, will discuss Jules Olitski’s paintings and their precedents within the Museum’s 20th century collection.

Paint-a-bulous: A Family Fun Day
Sunday, July 29: 1?4 p.m., Museum Grounds Paint away a lazy day of summer with this color filled event that is sure to be fun for the whole family. Let the Revelation: Olitski exhibition inspire you to explore a variety of color field painting methods, including using spray on paint and your fingers!

Presentation: Jules Olitski and the Old Masters Friday, Aug. 10: 7:30 p.m., Little Theater Although always an abstract painter himself, American artist Jules Olitski (1922?2007) was frequently inspired by Europe’s Old Masters?El Greco (1541?1614) and Rembrandt (1606?1669) were two of his favorites. Join Kate Nesin, a Toledo Museum of Art Mellon Fellow, as she explores the remarkable relationship between Olitski’s paintings and those by TMA’s own Old Masters. She also will provide a sense of what it meant for Olitski to be named a master of his contemporary moment.

Presentation: How Do You Choose Color?
Friday, Aug. 17: 7:30 p.m., Little Theater A Toledo Museum of Art exhibition designer, an interior designer and a Jeep color manager discuss how colors are chosen in each of their fields.

Hands-on Activity: Metal Madness! Sunday, Aug. 19: 2?4 p.m., Libbey Court In Olitski’s later paintings, known as his High Baroque Works as seen in the exhibition, the artist used metallic paints to create a reflective quality to his work. Using metallic paints make your own illuminated interpretations of abstract painting.

For more information, visit www.toledomuseum.org.