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Exhibit | Keny
Galleries
State
of graces
Survey
celebrates two centuries of Ohio talent
Sunday,
October 19, 2008
By
Jacqueline Hall
For
The Columbus Dispatch
"A
Cultural Legacy: 200 Years of Ohio Art" explores the depth, richness and
diversity of the state's artistic heritage.
The
impressive exhibit of more than 100 works in Keny Galleries reveals a
remarkable variety of mediums as well as a range of aesthetic styles from the
early 19th century to the present.
Gallery
co-owners James and Timothy Keny organized and curated the show, with loans
from most of the state's major art institutions and especially from the Ohio
Historical Society, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Springfield Museum of Art,
the Zanesville Art Center and private collectors. They have assembled an
ambitious and impressive overview of two centuries of Ohio-produced art.
Paintings,
which dominate, illustrate the artists' familiarity with the evolution of
mainstream aesthetic movements in Paris, London, New York and other art
capitals. Many of the Ohioans are nationally recognized: George Bellows,
Charles Burchfield, Robert Henri and Roy Lichtenstein, for example.
Works
by lesser-known artists nevertheless can be full of charm, as with the
humorous portrait Room for Improvement by mid-19th-century social and
political commentator David Gilmour Blythe.
Giving
unique personal twists to mainstream aesthetics are the works The Mountain
Preacher by James Hopkins and Blue Dairy Cart by William Sommer.
Out
of the mainstream are delicate paintings such as the mid-19th-century Fraktur
(School of Department Certificate for Abraham Tschantz) from the
Sonnenberg Mennonite community and the bold folk work of William Hawkins.
Ohio
artists have also been prolific in printmaking. Examples include Crows in
March, a dynamic lithograph by Burchfield, and the lovely woodcut Zinnias
and Sweet William by Edna Boies Hopkins.
Photography
is well-represented, including the photogravures and vintage platinum prints
of the early 1900s by Clarence White and the vintage gelatin silver prints of
Ben Shahn, from central Ohio.
Superb
pottery comes from Rookwood Pottery of Cincinnati and Weller Pottery of
Zanesville -- such as Jacques Sicard's beautiful Vase, with its
stunning metallic luster.
Blown-glass
works include those by Dominick Labino and Russel Wright.
Exquisite
examples of American Indian art are represented by Carved Wooden Effigy
Spoon from the eastern Great Lakes, with its delicate little bird at the
tip of the handle.
Even
furniture can be found -- such as the elegant blue Cupboard (1817),
decorated with an inscription in German, from the Society of Separatists of
Zoar.
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"A Cultural Legacy: 200 Years of Ohio Art" continues through Nov. 10
in Keny Galleries, 300 E. Beck St. Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. Call
614-464-1228 or visit www.kenygalleries.com.
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