Editor's note: The Speed Art Museum provided source
material to Resource Library for the following article or essay.
If you have questions or comments regarding the source material, please
contact the Speed Art Museum directly through either this phone number or
web address:
Mary Ann Currier: A Retrospective
October 4, 2005 - December 18,
2005
A retrospective of
Louisville resident Mary Ann Currier's work is on view through December
18, 2005. This retrospective focuses on Currier's magnificent and meditative
still lifes, which constitute her remarkable contribution to contemporary
American realism.
Featuring approximately 35 major paintings, from the early
1970s to the present, this exhibition is arranged both chronologically and
thematically, to give the audience an understanding of the artist's development.
The exhibit also features approximately 15 examples of Currier's drawings,
and significant photographs. Two or three of Currier's journals, which chronicle,
in both written and illustrated detail, her artistic and intellectual development,
are also included in the exhibition.
While Currier's fruits and vegetables, dishes and textiles
demonstrate the influence of the Old Master Dutch and Spanish still-life
painters, they are clearly of this moment. They illustrate the continued
vitality of realism in contemporary art, emphasizing the visual poetry in
the artist's large-scale still life paintings. A book, a postcard, the plastic
carton of berries indicate, visually, that these things are of this time
and place; within the space of the paintings, the atmosphere, the relationships
between form and space all express the vision and emotions of an artist
wrestling with-and mastering-her form at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Mary Ann Currier was born and raised in Louisville. She
studied in Chicago, and subsequently taught at the Louisville School of
Art. During the 1960s and 1970s, Currier experimented with different styles,
forms, and materials, responding to the many new artistic forms developing
during this period. However, by the mid-1970s, she was focusing on still-life
painting, and soon produced a group of large-scale black and white floral
paintings inspired, in part, by her experimentation with photography. These
were followed by more colorful floral and vegetable still lifes, and then
by more complex arrangements of objects and images that reveal the artist's
influences and affinities-books of art history and postcards of work she
admires were included in her groupings of food and flora. Currier has continued
to explore her surroundings as she exposes her interior life in her luminous
paintings, most of which, since the mid-80s, are done in oil pastel.
Mary Ann Currier began exhibiting her still-life paintings
in Louisville in the late 1970s. During the1980s, her work was shown to
great acclaim at the Alexander Milliken Gallery and the Tatischeff Gallery
in New York. Since then her paintings have been exhibited in numerous galleries
and museums across the United States, including the Museum of Fine Arts
in Houston, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the Jacksonville Museum of
Modern Art, which organized a one-person exhibition of her work in 1988.
Currier's works are included in numerous private, corporate, and public
collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Speed Art Museum,
the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art, American Express, ExxonMobil, Goldman
Sachs, and Cargill, Inc. She is currently represented by the Gerald Peters
Gallery of Santa Fe and New York.
An audio guide of the exhibition is available free to visitors
through the generous support of the Dorothy Norton Clay Fund and Christy
and Owsley Brown. The guide offers interpretations and insight into Currier's
career and works both individually and as series.
A full-color catalog will be published in conjunction with
the exhibition,which will feature reproductions of all of the artworks in
the exhibition. The text will consist of an essay on the artist and her
work, written by the curator, along with a complete biography.
Article from the Fall, 2005 Speed Art Museum Newsletter
- After a session of painting, Mary Ann Currier's hands
are stained with oil pastels. Her large oil pastel works consume many hours
of painting. But before the painting begins, Currier spends many more hours
of sketching, thinking, looking, composing. It's solitary work conducted
in a studio brightly lit with natural light and incandescent bulbs. It's
also a highly composed work-stage directed and scripted by a woman whose
sense of composition and delicate and deft artistry has attracted the attention
of dealers, collectors and the public for nearly 40 years. A former student
describes her working process and the resulting paintings as alchemy. Mary
Ann Currier: A Retrospective, Contemplating the Contemporary Still
Life, which will be on view at the Speed October 4, 2005 through December
18, 2005, will offer a 30 year glimpse into the genius that exhibition
curator Alice Stites describes as "the majesty and mystery of the
everyday."
-
- An Artist and a Teacher
-
- After graduating from Sacred Heart Academy, Currier attended
the Chicago Academy of Fine Art. She studied not only the foundation of
art but also commercial art. Returning to Louisville in 1947, she worked
as a commercial artist for Stewart's Department Store creating many of
the print ads that Louisvillians will recall from those splendid days of
fine local retailing. Having devoted nearly 10 years to raising her three
daughters and feeling the need to get back into art, Currier began taking
portraiture classes at the old Art Center School on First Street near the
University of Louisville Belknap Campus.
-
- After that instructor missed a few sessions, the director
asked her to teach the class. Currier's teaching duties would expand to
include design class, then color class. Mary Ann Currier soon found herself
as a full-time faculty member at what had become the Louisville School
of Art, eventually chairing the foundation program.
-
- Currier also spent time at the Speed. She was an early
member of former director Addison Franklin Page's collecting groups, traveling
with them to New York City meeting curators and art dealers. From 1962
until 1982, Currier witnessed not only the transformation of American art,
but also the transformation of American society through the changing students
and personalities that passed through the Louisville School of Art. It
was a heady time.
-
- Her students also were an inspiration. "It was an
exciting time because I was learning. The students were great. There was
a genuine excitement about learning, exploring." Among the students
she taught were well-known Louisville artists Dave Caudill, Ed Hamilton,
Martin Rollins, and Jacque Parsley, among many, many others.
-
- Her students found her to be a guiding light. One former
student remembers:"If she saw you were a serious student, she would
work with you regardless of your artistic path. This was a case of her
investing herself in you and what you were attempting to accomplish in
your work. She would bring articles and cite resources that related to
your direction."
-
- Currier first explored large-scale paintings in the 1970s.
"At the time, I was into photography and I was taking black and white
photographs of flowers in my yard. I was processing the prints myself.
I began looking at the forms, the whole range of grays. I would make large
paintings from these photos, cropped in an interesting way." Currier
composed 32 oils in this series. By the time she finished the Black and
White Series, she was "color starved." Laying down oils
for pastels, Currier began a series of onion images.
-
- In those early works, she would plan the paintings in
sketch books. Each painting was worked and reworked, cropped and edited
in miniature. Dimensions for the large scale versions were noted in the
margins in an elegant hand. "There is an advantage to working it out
in advance so I can think about it - where do you want the emphasis; do
I like that perspective." In 1974, she decided to limit her teaching
to part time in order to spend more time on her own art. This resulted
in her first one-person show in 1977 at the Byck Gallery. In 1982, Currier
ended her teaching at the Louisville School of Art, when her husband was
transferred to Jacksonville, Florida.
-
- A New Home and Time to Work
-
- Living in a new city proved to be a boon for Currier's
productivity. "When you don't know a lot of people, you have the time,
the solitude you need." The painted works from that period, like Cookies
and White Onions on Bag, which both will be in the exhibition, shimmer
with color and light.
-
- A Retrospective: Contemplating the Contemporary Still
Lifes
-
- This retrospective of Mary Ann Currier's work presents
more than 30 major paintings from the early 1970s to the present. View
the transformation of an artist who experiments in abstract art before
discovering or perhaps rediscovering the still life. Enjoy the first black
and white floral paintings and then trace Currier's emerging view of the
still life. The exhibition is "intrinsic to the craft and content
of the 30-plus years of Currier's work presented here." From her early
black and white florals to her richly colored oil pastels of the 1980s,
to her well-known postcard series, to the reflective and refracting compositions
in her glass series, to her latest series dealing with roses, "her
work consistently emphasizes the value of beauty as a vehicle for eloquently
addressing both the eye and mind," says Stites.
-
- Currier's work has been exhibited in 21 solo and 84 group
shows. Her work is featured in 19 permanent collections, including the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Speed Art Museum, Brown-Forman Corporation
and Exxon Corporation. In one of her journals, Currier wrote that she wants
to discover "how to create a contemporary Gregorian chant." Her
paintings are meditations on the everyday and by focusing on these objects
immortalizes them. Exhibition curator Stites agrees. "Timely and timeless,
Currier's art celebrates the purity of the present moment and the promise
of eternity. The fruit, the card, the book depicted in her works are presented
not for consumption, but for contemplation, propelling these everyday objects
into the realm of the eternal."
-
Mary Ann Currier Biography
Born: July 23, 1927, Louisville, Kentucky
-
-
- EDUCATION
-
- 1945-1947 Chicago Academy of Fine
Art
-
- 1957-1961 Louisville School of Art
-
-
- EXPERIENCE
-
- 1945-1947 Commercial Artist
-
- 1962-1982 Instructor, Louisville
School of Art
-
-
- SOLO EXHIBITIONS
-
- 2005 Mary Ann Currier: Retrospective, Contemplating
Contemporary Still Life, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
-
- Mary
Ann Currier: Paintings and Drawings, Gerald Peters Gallery, New York,
NY
-
- 2003 Bananas and More, Covi Gallery, University
of Louisville, KY
-
- 2001 Mary Ann Currier Pastels, Bernarducci
Meisel Gallery, New York, NY
-
- 2000 Observations Rendered, Gerald Peters Gallery,
Santa Fe, NM
-
- 1995 New Oil Pastels, Tatistcheff & Co., New
York, NY
-
- 1993 New Works, Tatistcheff & Co., New
York, NY
-
- Recent
Drawings, Bergen Museum of Art and Science, Paramus, NJ
-
- 1990 Mary Ann Currier: Class Works, 1962-72,
University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL
-
- 1989 Post Card Series, Alexander F. Milliken,
Inc., New York, NY
-
- 1988 Mary Ann Currier: Selected Works, Jacksonville
Art Museum, Jacksonville, FL
-
- Alexander
F. Milliken, Inc., New York, NY
-
- 1986 Ruminations on a Courtyard, Alexander
F. Milliken, Inc., New York, NY
-
- 1985 Alexander F. Milliken, Inc., New York, NY
-
- 1984 Alexander F. Milliken, Inc., New York, NY
-
- Byck
Gallery, Louisville, KY
-
- 1980 Byck Gallery, Louisville, KY
-
- Actors
Theatre, Louisville, KY
-
- Brescia
College, Owensboro, KY
-
- 1978 Bellarmine College, Louisville, KY
-
- 1977 Byck Gallery, Louisville, KY
-
-
- GROUP EXHIBITIONS
-
- 2005 Good HeArt, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa
Fe, NM
-
- New
American Realism, GE Corporation, Fairfield, CT
-
- 2004 Seeing is Believing: American Trompe l'oeil,
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
-
- 2003 Three by Five to Eleven by Fourteen, Gerald
Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
-
- 2002 Red as a Color, Gerald Peters Gallery,
Santa Fe, NM
-
- Quiet
Traces, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA
-
- Contemporary Realism III, M.A. Doran Gallery, Tulsa, OK
-
- 2001 Collector's Choice, Vero Beach Art Center,
Vero Beach, FL
-
- Kentucky
Women Artists 1970-2000, Owensboro Museum of Fine Art, KY
-
- Savannah
College of Art, GA
-
- Art
of Illusion, Millard Sheets Gallery, Pomona, CA
-
- Midsummer
Night's Dream, Bernarducci Meisel Gallery, New York, NY
-
- Interiors
Observed, Bernarducci Meisel Gallery, New York, NY
-
- 2000 Kentucky Women in the Arts, University
of Louisville, KY
-
- 1999 Food for Thought, Hidell Brooks Gallery,
Charlotte, NC
-
- New Acquisitions, University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington,
KY
-
- 1998 Still Life, Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte,
NC
-
- Still
Lifes, Evansville Museum, Evansville, IN
-
- Inaugural
Show, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
-
- 1997 Gallery Artists, Tatistcheff & Co.,
New York, NY
-
- 1996 Hit Pix, The Speed Art Museum, Louisville,
KY
-
- Arranging Things, Evansville Museum of Art & Science, Evansville,
IN
-
- Cornucopia,
Champion International Corporation, Stamford, CT
-
- 1995 Vision and Poetry-Realism '95, Fletcher
Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
-
- Carnegie
Mellon University 8th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration,
Pittsburgh, PA
-
- Nothing
Overlooked: Women Painting Still Life, Contemporary Realist Gallery, San
Francisco, CA
-
- 1994 Realism(s), The Murray Collection, Scranton,
PA
-
- Getting
Romantic Again, Tatistcheff & Co., Inc., New York, NY
-
- Contemporary
American Realism, Broden Gallery Ltd., Madison, WI
-
- 1993 Fruits, Flowers, and Vegetables: The Contemporary
Still Life, Kavesh Gallery, Ketchum, ID
-
- State
of the Art: Virtuoso Works on Paper, Tatistcheff Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
-
- Highlights
from the Contemporary Art Collection of Brown Forman Corp., Actor's
Theatre, Louisville, KY
-
- 1992 Spectrum, Auction, Hunter Museum of Art,
Chattanooga, TN
-
- Trompe
l'oeil, Kavesh Gallery, Ketchum, ID
-
- 1992 Masters of Still Life, Tatistcheff Gallery,
New York, NY
-
- New
Friends, Old Friends: Recent Acquisitions and Selections from the Permanent
Collection, Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, FL
-
- 1991 New Faces, New Work, Tatistcheff Gallery,
New York, NY
-
- NY
and LA: A Group Exhibition, Tatistcheff Gallery, New York, NY
-
- Winter
Harvest: A Cornucopia of Delight, Andrea Ross Gallery, Santa Monica,
-
- Selections
from Florida Collections, Dunedin Fine Art Center, Dunedin, FL
-
- 1990 Monochrome/Polychrome: Contemporary Realist
Drawings, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
-
- Florida Artist Series #13, Still Life, Boca Raton Museum
of Art, Boca Raton, FL
-
- Jacksonville
Creates, Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, FL
-
- Women
in Art: Kentucky's Women Artists, The Speed Art Museum, Louisville,
KY
-
- Objects
Observed: Contemporary Still Life, Gallery Henoch, New York, NY
-
- 165th
Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY
-
- Gallery
Artists, Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Alexander F. Milliken,
Inc., New York, NY
-
- 1989 Contemporary American Pastels in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
-
- Art
in Bloom: The Flower as Subject, Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville,
FL
-
- Meticulous
Realist Drawings, the Squibb Gallery, Princeton, NJ
-
- 1988 Summer Exhibition, Alexander F. Milliken,
Inc., New York, NY
-
- 1987 The Shell: Design and Spirit, Bergen Museum
of Art & Science, Paramus, NJ
-
- Success,
The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
-
- Art
on Paper, Alexander F. Milliken, Inc., New York, NY
-
- The
Craft of Art, Baumgardner Center, Clearwater, FL
-
- Drawings,
Alexander F. Milliken, Inc., New York, NY
-
- 1986 Delicious Drawings, Schmidt Bingham Gallery,
New York, NY
-
- Group
Exhibition, Alexander F. Milliken, Inc., New York, NY
-
- 1985 Louisville Collectors Show, The Speed
Art Museum, Louisville, KY
-
- Contemporary
American Painting from Kentucky Collections, Centre College, Danville,
KY
-
- Drawings
by Jacksonville Artists, Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, FL
-
- 1985-87
- American Realism: Twentieth Century Drawings and Watercolors from the
Glen C. Janss Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Traveled to DeCordova and Dana Museum and Park, Lincoln, MA; Archer
M. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas, Austin, TX;
Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; Akron
Art Museum, Akron, OH; Madison Art Center, Madison, WI
-
- 1985 The Recognizable Image: Sixteen Contemporary
Realists, the Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT
-
- 1984 New Realism, Robert L. Kidd Associates,
Birmingham, MI
-
- Gallery
Artists, Alexander F. Milliken, Inc., New York, NY
-
- 1983
- American Still Life, 1945-1983, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston,
TX. Traveled to Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo NY; Columbus Museum of
Art, Columbus, OH; Neuberger Museum, State University of New York At
Purchase, NY; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
-
- 1982 Eight Realists, Alexander F. Milliken,
Inc., New York, NY
-
- 1981 Imagery/Abstraction, Herron School of
Art Gallery, Indianapolis, IN
-
- Realism
Reconsidered, Water Tower, Louisville, KY
-
- 1980 Winter-White Invitational, Water Tower,
Louisville, KY
-
- Aqueous,
Kentucky Watercolor Society, Louisville, KY
-
- 1979 Southern Realism, Mississippi Museum of
Fine Art, Jackson, MS
-
- Mid-America
Art Exhibition, Museum of Fine Art, Owensboro, KY
-
- It's
the Real Thing, Junior Art Gallery, Louisville, KY
-
- 1978 Aqueous, Kentucky Watercolor Society,
Louisville, KY
-
- 1977 Women's Art, University of Kentucky, Lexington,
KY
-
- Works
on Paper, Art Center Association, Louisville, KY
-
- Women
Artists Working in Louisville, University of Louisville, Louisville,
KY
-
- Corporate
Collecting II, The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
-
- 1976 Phelps Dodge Invitational, Elizabethtown,
KY
-
- 1975 Women Artists Working in Louisville, University
of Louisville, Louisville, KY
-
- 1962-1982
- Annual Faculty Show, Louisville School of Art, Louisville, KY
-
-
- AWARDS
-
- 1978 Purchase Award, Hyatt Regency Show, The
Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
-
- 1977 Purchase Award, Citizen's Fidelity Bank Corporate
Collecting Show, The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
-
- 1975 Bluegrass Merit Award, Bluegrass Painting
Exhibition, Louisville, KY
-
- 1973 First Award in Painting, American Association
of University Women Show, Catherine Spalding College, Louisville,
KY
-
- 1971 Purchase Award, Citizen's Fidelity Invitational,
The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
-
- 1967 Brandeis University Award, Art Center Biennial,
Louisville, KY
-
-
- COLLECTIONS
-
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
-
- The J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
-
- Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, FL
-
- University of Louisville, Louisville, KY
-
- Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences, Evansville, IN
-
- University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, KY
-