Hockaday Museum of Art

Kalispell, MT

406-755-5268

http://www.hockadaymuseum.org



 

Ralph Weigmann: Echoes

September 1 - November 4, 2000

 

Ralph Weigmann's work represents a visual and symbolic exploration of a specific landscape element. Trees have echoed beauty, strength, longevity, will, the forbidden, the loss of innocence, and joy.  Tree images have been used to represent the whole spectrum of human experience.  The aim of these paintings is to convey human and personal conditions of the body, mind, soul, and spirit in the images of trees. The works echo a spectrum of life experience determined by and related to the conditions of his life. (left: Blasted)

Grounded firmly in real landscapes, like John Constable, Ralph takes the viewer on visual tours of his subjects, often details of trees, guided by his brush and palette.

Wiegmann earned his Masters degree in painting from the University of Montana in 1998, but that is only part of a story that includes prolific gallery shows in Butte, Missoula, Bozeman, Great Falls, Dillon, Silver City, New Mexico, Ogden, and Salt Lake City, Utah, since he moved to the Mountain West. Ralph also painted in Santa Rosa, and San Francisco, California, where he took his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. His roots run into the Midwest too -- Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Interlochen, Minnesota.

He currently lives in Bozeman, Montana with his wife, Suzanne Truman, after a sojourn in Dillon.

 

Artist's Statement on Exhibition:

"This exhibition represents a visual and symbolic representation of a specific landscape element. Its aim is to convey human and personal conditions of the body, mind, and soul in the images of trees. If trees can inspire connections to our spiritual roots and primordial foundations, so can they symbolize these connections. Metaphorically, trees echo beauty, strength, tenacity, longevity, will, and often positive aspects of life. They have also been used to symbolize the forbidden. Trees have represented the whole spectrum of human experience. This body of work echoes my life experiences."

Read more about the Hockaday Museum of Art in Resource Library Magazine.

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This page was originally published in Resource Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for more information. rev. 3/23/11

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