NOW at the Opalka
Jules Olitski: An Inside View
A Survey of Prints 1954-2006
Curated by Judith Stein. Organized byBrattleboroMuseum & Art Center, Brattleboro, Vermontin collaboration with the Olitski Estate and the Jules Olitski Warehouse LLC
August 30 - October 31, 2010, Reception Friday, October 1, 5-9pm
Jules Olitski (1922-2007), one of Americas pre-eminent artists, is celebrated for his lyrical Color Field paintings, large-format abstractions with shimmering fields of color. Less well-known are his smaller, more intimate prints in the media of woodcut, intaglio, silkscreen, lithograph, and monotype.
In the mid 1950s, Olitski expanded his painting practice to include printmaking. In this earliest work, he created series of related compositions by repeatedly adjusting small intaglio plates. Virtually all unique impressions, these rarely exhibited prints include a suite of self-portraits. In old age, Olitski would return to the subject of his own image in a hauntingly beautiful monotype, on display for the first time with the Plexiglas plate from which it was printed.
The visual conversation between a compositions center and periphery-a signature concern of the artists, is present at the onset. An Inside View tracks this continually reformulated dialogue across six decades. In his earliest prints 1960s and early 70s, expanses of nuanced color out-weigh drawn elements in his lithographs and silkscreens, reflecting the tonal discoveries of his Color Field paintings.
Expressive gestures reassert themselves in the loopy shapes of his silkscreens of the 1980s. In the 1990s, when he was in his early seventies, Jules Olitski began working with monotypes. He would passionately embrace this medium in his final years, completing his last print two weeks before his death. An Inside View includes several of these joyous celebrations of life that also serve as meditations on mortality.
The exhibit is accompanied by a 32 page illustrated catalogue.
Gallery Hours:
August 30, 2010 through May 2, 2011: M-F 10-8, Sundays Noon-4
Closed September 5-6
Open by appointment October 10-12 and November 24-28
Closed December 12, 2010 through January 17, 2011, and March 6-13, 2011
