The Mary M. Torggler Fine Arts Center is turning up the brightness with its newest exhibition, featuring the work of a key figure in an art movement focused on the expressive power of pure color.
The exhibition, "Paul Reed: A Retrospective," will be on view at the Torggler until early October. It is the first major retrospective of Reed’s work and features 122 of his pieces. It comes to campus from the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the primary repository of the artist’s work and the organizer of the exhibition.
Reed played an influential role in the Washington Color School, which was the only nationally important art movement to come out of Washington, D.C., in 1950s-70s. Eschewing traditional brushes, artists associated with this movement poured or rolled paint onto raw canvases to make bold compositions in which colors and shapes themselves were the subjects.
“This exhibition presented the opportunity to introduce Paul Reed and the compelling story of the Washington Color School – a regional artistic movement with national impact – to our community. Reed’s dynamic, color-drenched work is especially appropriate for the season, and appealing to broad audiences,” said Holly Koons, executive director of the Torggler.
The exhibition is presented chronologically, with Reed’s earlier works appearing first. The way Reed’s art is arranged allows viewers to see how his work evolved over time and how his focus and techniques changed.
“The space has been organized in such a way to create a linear path that enables viewers to see both how Reed worked through various formal problems in series and the vast scope of his explorations in abstract painting,” said Lucas Mattheson, curator of exhibitions at the Torggler. “We always make changes in layout from show to show. But this presentation is a significant change and I’m confident our returning visitors will feel as though they are walking through a brand new gallery.”
One of the standout works in the exhibition is “Hackensack,” a 13-foot-tall geometric composition in yellow, orange, red, and white.
“The work is so large that Reed was unable to have it stretched and hung during his lifetime, " Matheson said.
The exhibition displays the colorful and varied work Reed created over 60 years.
“It’s always a special experience to have such a large number of works brought together to survey the whole scope of an artist’s life and work,” Matheson said.
Reed was known for using varied shapes and vivid colors to explore the specific nature of visual expression.
“In the field of modern and contemporary art, one of the questions significant artists have been asking, and continue to ask today, is ‘What is a worthwhile subject for a work of art?’” Matheson said.
“Paul Reed is part of a continuum of artists who make use of the fundamentals of painting, or the relationships between colors and shapes and space, to engage these questions and provide an affirmation that these fundamentals are indeed worthy subjects themselves,” he said. “Reed shares the geometer’s belief in the value of shapes as meaningful objects of study and deep consideration.”
Also on view at the Torggler’s Microgallery is "Alex McQuilkin: Magic Moments (Technology/Transformation Wonder Woman)," a video that considers the construction of female identity in Western culture, repurposing footage of spinning women often used to advertise clothing and perfumes. Currently serving as assistant professor of art at Binghamton University (State University of New York), McQuilkin is an artist whose work has been exhibited internationally since 2000.
Spanning the Grace and Academic galleries and hallways, Christopher Newport University's Virginia 250 Committee presents "Revolution Close to Home: Hampton Roads and the Struggle for American Independence" in honor of the America 250 and Virginia 250 commemorations. The exhibition highlights Hampton Roads’ critical role in the Revolutionary War, exploring the stories of America’s fight for freedom from a local lens and featuring student research, archaeological finds, immersive augmented reality (AR) technology, and artifacts from across the region.
The Torggler is open six days a week (closed on Mondays) and is always free and open to the public.