VAN GOGH HITS EUGENE ART SCENE.Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard Psst: Wanna wan·na Informal 1. Contraction of want to: You wanna go now? 2. Contraction of want a: You wanna slice of pie? see a multimillion-dollar masterpiece? The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is an art museum located on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. The original building was designed by Ellis F. Lawrence as part of his "main university quadrangle," now known as the Memorial Quadrangle. at the University of Oregon The University of Oregon is a public university located in Eugene, Oregon. The university was founded in 1876, graduating its first class two years later. The University of Oregon is one of 60 members of the Association of American Universities. has quietly put on display an 1887 painting by Vincent van Gogh that sold at auction in London last summer for more than $5 million. The painting, "Femme femme adj. Slang Exhibiting stereotypical or exaggerated feminine traits. Used especially of lesbians and gay men. n. 1. Slang One who is femme. 2. Informal A woman or girl. Dans Un Jardin" or "A Woman Walking in the Garden," was purchased by a private collector who has lent it to the Schnitzer for six months. A second European work, "Un Pin" (A Pine), painted in 1905 by Henri Edmund Cross, a lesser known French painter, is on display at the same time from a second anonymous lender. The two works were hung in the museum's European Gallery late last month with little fanfare. "The owners are individuals who live out of state and who share our interest in bringing some masterpieces here to Eugene," said David Turner, executive director of the art museum, who declined to further identify the lenders. Turner, who is clearly pleased to display a big-name masterpiece at the newly renovated art museum, stood back from the two paintings and smiled. "It's a wonder that you can stand in one spot in your local art museum now and see two great paintings from modern art history," he said. The Van Gogh painting, enclosed in a clear plastic case for security, shows the figure of a woman holding a just-picked bouquet of flowers in a park in Paris. It was painted a year after Van Gogh moved to Paris, three years before he died, and shows the influence of the artists he fell in with there. His circle included Paul Signac, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (IPA /ɑ̃ʁi də tuluz lotʁɛk/) (November 24, 1864 – September 9, 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draftsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the decadent and and Emile Bernard, with whom Van Gogh often painted and who was the first owner of this particular painting. Though it has always been in private hands, "Femme Dans Un Jardin" was shown at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris in 1988 and appears in two authoritative catalogs of Van Gogh's work. Sotheby's description of the painting for its sale last summer calls it "a testament to the unique and imaginative style (Van Gogh) developed during his Paris years." The top half of the painting is done in cool blue hues and is constructed in a style similar to pointillism pointillism (pwăn`təlĭz'əm): see postimpressionism. pointillism In painting, the practice of applying small strokes or dots of contrasting colour to a surface so that from a distance they blend together. , in which the image is made up of many separate dots of color. The lower half of the painting, which shows a grassy foreground, is in a different, looser and more calligraphic cal·lig·ra·phy n. 1. a. The art of fine handwriting. b. Works in fine handwriting considered as a group. 2. Handwriting. style. The entire image is surrounded by a painted red band, which accents the bright palette the artist used and is reminiscent of Japanese work. The Van Gogh painting made news last summer when it sold at auction at Sotheby's in London for 2.9 million pounds, about $5.3 million, going well over the auction house's presale estimate of 1.8 million to 2.6 million pounds. Neither buyer nor seller was publicly identified. That sale price could make the Van Gogh the most valuable object, in terms of the art auction market, in the museum, although Turner said some objects from the Schnitzer's Asian collection might be in the same range. The Cross work, which hangs next to the Van Gogh at the Schnitzer, is a pointillist poin·til·lism n. A postimpressionist school of painting exemplified by Georges Seurat and his followers in late 19th-century France, characterized by the application of paint in small dots and brush strokes. landscape showing a large tree set among several others. Cross, who is sometimes identified as a neo-Impressionist, was a friend of Signac, the better known pointillist master. Cross apparently painted the landscape, which is suffused suf·fuse tr.v. suf·fused, suf·fus·ing, suf·fus·es To spread through or over, as with liquid, color, or light: "The sky above the roof is suffused with deep colors" with Mediterranean color, in the south of France South of France south n the South of France → le Sud de la France, le Midi . TWO EUROPEAN MASTERPIECES IN EUGENE What: Two great works not seen here before - Vincent Van Gogh's "Femme Dans Un Jardin" and Henri Edmond Cross' "Un Pin" (at right) - on loan from two anonymous art collectors Where: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, 1430 Johnson Lane, University of Oregon campus The University of Oregon campus in Eugene, Oregon has around 80 buildings and facilities, including athletics sites such as Hayward Field, which is the site for the 2008 Olympic Track and Field Trials, and McArthur Court, and off-campus sites such as nearby Autzen Stadium and the When: Through June 30 Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays Admission: $5 Free art historian talk: Andrew Schulz, UO art historian, talks about post-Impressionism Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. at the gallery Free artist talk: Eugene painter Jerry Ross talks about the works Jan. 28 at 2 p.m. in the gallery |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion