: The James A. Michener Art Museum is exhibiting "Alan Magee: Three
Decades of Paintings, Sculpture and Graphics." The show will
continue through January 25.
Hailed as one of America's foremost representative painters,
Magee has also created a number of highly acclaimed works
spanning a broad range of media and styles. This retrospective
exhibition includes examples of Magee's paintings, collages and
sculpture. Curated by museum director Bruce Kat-siff, it was
organized in cooperation with the Farnsworth Art Museum in
Rockland, Maine.
Also featured are the artist's award-winning illustrations from
the 1970s, which were reproduced in Time, Playboy, Atlantic
Monthly and The New York Times. A special section of
the exhibition will present a selection of monotypes (single
impression prints) that were part of a recent, internationally
touring exhibition.
Originally from Newtown, Penn., Magee attended the Tyler School
of Art and the Philadelphia College of Art. Not satisfied with
the abstract example set before him as an art student in the
1960s, Magee was determined to master the basics of drawing and
illustration.
Among Magee's well-known early works are a number of paintings of
beach stones discovered on the shores of New England. These
meticulously crafted paintings not only reflect his fascination
with texture and surfaces, but also a larger thematic interest in
mutability and the passage of time. "I like to take a neglected
object and draw it with great care," Magee writes.
In later works, Magee turned from his realist mode to some very
different ink and brush pieces, monotypes, oil crayon and
watercolor studies. Inspired by Hannah Hoch's photomontages of
the 1920s - both their technical execution and their political
edge - Magee began to incorporate elements of collage into his
own monotypes in the late 1980s. Increasingly, Magee's work in
collages and monotypes reflected socio-political themes, but with
an expansive and broadly imagined approach; as in his haunting
procession of monotype faces.
His work has been the subject of several books, radio interviews
and television documentaries including the WCBB production
Alan Magee, Visions of Darkness and Light. Magee's works
can be seen in many public collections including The Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco, The Portland Museum of Art, the
Farnsworth Art Museum, the Arkansas Art Center, the Arizona State
University Art Museum and the Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art.
Offering further insight into Magee's work is an accompanying
224-page book, Alan Magee Paintings, Sculpture, Graphics.
The James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 South Pine Street, is
open Tuesday-Friday, 10 am to 4:30 pm; Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm;
Sunday, noon to 5 pm. For information, 215-340-9800 or
www.michenerartmuseum.org.
