Richmond Art Museum
Richmond, IN
765-966-0256
http://www.richmondartmuseum.org
Charles Warren Mundy: An
American Impressionist
January 21 - March 4, 2001
This exhibition features
C.W. Mundy's paintings from the past six years. In 1994, Mundy left his
successful career as an illustrator of sports figures and events to the
more personally satisfying and challenging demands of painting en plein-air.
Mundy
immersed himself in the historic homeland of the Impressionists in his first
painting trip to France in 1995. He captured the variable atmospherics of
the traditional Impressionist haunts in an overcast morning, Pont Aven,
Drizzling October Morning; the saturated sunset hues of Cote D'Azur,
Port De Cannes, and the muted fog tones of Paris, Pont Neuf.
These French works were the core of his first exhibition introducing his
new style to the public and they were an unqualified success. (left:
Paris, Pont Neuf, 1995, 16 x 20 inches)
Encouraged and exhilarated by the response Mundy spent
the next two years painting locally in Indiana and in Italy. Evident in
works from this period (1996-1997) is his increasing fascination with light
and cropping of images. The brilliant Mediterranean sun of Italy has fascinated
artists of all ages from the master Venetian painter, Canaletto (1697-1768)
to the brilliant portrait painter and watercolorist, John Singer Sargent
(1856-1925). The close cropped view of boats leisurely moored at Santa Margherita
display the brilliant chromatics of the Italian coast m their rich 
blues
and reds. This use of close cropping is most effective in Holcomb Garden,
Purple Iris & Peonies. The angular cropping invites the viewer into
the abundance and variety of iris and surrounding one in their jewel tones.
In Katherine, a portrait of a young girl, Mundy has placed her very
close to the picture plane, a device that can often feel confrontational.
But he emotionally spaces her from the viewer through the softened golden
tones of the background. Her sleepy, pensive downcast eyes and the relaxed
draping of the hair bow and tunic create an atmosphere of quiet observation
for the viewer - as though we had spied her napping. (left: Holcomb
Garden, Purple Iris & Peonies, 1996, 16 x 20 inches)
By 1997 Mundy's work was nationally recognized. He was
awarded Best of Show in the Hoosier Salon and would be so honored in the
1998 and 2000 Salon. Art journals were taking critical notice of his work
and he was the subject of major articles in Southwest Art and International
Artist. His travels by 2000 included destinations in France, Italy,
England, Spain, Eastern Europe and New England. Exhibitions of works from
these travels continued to be very popular and more often than not were
sell-outs. (right: Self Portrait, 2000, 12 x 9 inches)
Mundy's
distinctive style of applying the paint to canvas continued to develop.
His broader application of paint can be seen in the thick impasto and bravura
brush strokes of Jeffersonville, Farm at Sterling Ridge and Steyr,
View from the Café. Perhaps the hallmark of Mundy's style is
the use of the palette knife that scumbles and livens the surface with slashes
and sweeps creating a distinctive textured veil over the image. The technique
can be pronounced as in Vienna, The Fiaker more subdued as in Pond
Yachts m the Studio. (left: Pond Yachts m the Studio,
2000, 20 x 16 inches)
A series on ballet dancers moved Mundy into the studio
creating a different set of challenges than those presented by the immediacy
of painting en plein air. Rather than capturing a moment in time
with the 
attendant
atmospherics, he could now manipulate the composition and light. In the
ballet series, Mundy effectively employs the use of reflective surfaces
to add dimension, movement and altering perspectives to the dancers. With
a nod to the ballet paintings of Edgar Degas, Mundy uses bottom-lit rooms
to create interesting, deeply shadowed figures. This chiaroscuro simultaneously
makes the dancers theatrically engaging and yet curiously isolating. Like
his other figural works, Rebecca Resting, Self Portrait and Katherine,
the viewer does not engage the sitter directly but rather as a passing unseen
intruder. (right: Katherine, 1997, 20 x 16 inches)
C. W. Mundy continues to expand and explore his talent.
He carries on the proud artistic heritage of Indiana into this new century
and millennium.
Read more about the Richmond
Art Museum in Resource Library Magazine
Please click on thumbnail images bordered by a red line
to see enlargements.
For further biographical information please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national
registry of historic artists.
This page was originally published in Resource
Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for
more information. rev. 5/23/11
Search Resource
Library for thousands of articles and essays on American art.
Copyright 2011 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.
Mundy
immersed himself in the historic homeland of the Impressionists in his first
painting trip to France in 1995. He captured the variable atmospherics of
the traditional Impressionist haunts in an overcast morning, Pont Aven,
Drizzling October Morning; the saturated sunset hues of Cote D'Azur,
Port De Cannes, and the muted fog tones of Paris, Pont Neuf.
These French works were the core of his first exhibition introducing his
new style to the public and they were an unqualified success. (left:
Paris, Pont Neuf, 1995, 16 x 20 inches)
