The event takes place at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on Saturday, July 18, at 2 p.m.
EUGENE, Ore. -- (June 25, 2015) – Artist Rick Bartow and writer Barry Lopez will discuss their reflections on life, art, philosophy, and the natural world at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on the University of Oregon campus on Saturday, July 18, at 2 p.m. The program complements the major retrospective exhibition “Rick Bartow: Things You Know But Cannot Explain,” on view through August 9, 2015.
“Rick and Barry are long-time friends,” says Jill Hartz, JSMA Executive Director and co-curator of the exhibition with Danielle Knapp, JSMA’s McCosh Associate Curator. “They deeply admire one another’s work and share a way of looking at and responding to the world that is sure to make this a thoughtful and engaging program.”
Barry Lopez is an essayist, author, and short-story writer, and has traveled extensively in remote and populated parts of the world. Born in 1945 in Port Chester, New York, he grew up in southern California and New York City before moving to Oregon in 1968. He is the author of “Arctic Dreams,” for which he received the National Book Award, “Of Wolves and Men,” a National Book Award finalist for which he received the John Burroughs and Christopher medals, and eight works of fiction, including “Light Action in the Caribbean,” “Field Notes,” and “Resistance.”
Mr. Lopez, who was active as a landscape photographer prior to 1981, maintains close ties with a diverse community of artists and has written about painter Alan Magee, artists Lillian Pitt and Rick Bartow, and potter Richard Rowland. Lopez describes Bartow as his “longtime friend, advisor, and collaborator.”
Rick Bartow, one of the nation’s most prominent contemporary Native American artists, was born in Newport, Oregon, in 1946. He is a member of the Wiyot tribe of Northern California and has close ties with the Siletz community. He graduated in 1969 from Western Oregon University with a degree in secondary arts education and served in the Vietnam War (1969-71). His work is permanently held in more than 60 public institutions in the U.S., including Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; Brooklyn Museum, NY; and Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA. He has had 35 solo museum exhibitions and his art has been referenced in hundreds of books, catalogs, and articles.
More than 120 paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, and mixed media works are in view in “Things You Know but Cannot Explain.”. Drawn from public and private collections as well as the artist’s studio, the exhibition and accompanying catalog explore themes central to the artist’s work and life: “Gesture,” “Self,” “Dialogue,” “Tradition,” and “Transformation,” as well as “New Work,” featuring exciting examples of Bartow’s production since his stroke in August 2013 that evidence a new freedom of scale and expression.
Support for the exhibition is provided by the Ford Family Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, Arlene Schnitzer, the Coeta and Donald Barker Changing Exhibitions Endowment, The Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation, a grant from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, the Ballinger Endowment, Philip and Sandra Piele, and JSMA members.
About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is a premier Pacific Northwest museum for exhibitions and collections of historic and contemporary art based in a major university setting. The mission of the museum is to enhance the University of Oregon’s academic mission and to further the appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts for the general public. The JSMA features significant collections galleries devoted to art from China, Japan, Korea, the Americas and Europe as well as changing special exhibition galleries. The JSMA is one of six museums in Oregon accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located on the University of Oregon campus at 1430 Johnson Lane. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens. Free admission is given to ages 18 and under, JSMA members, college students with ID, and University of Oregon faculty, staff and students. For information, contact the JSMA, 541-346-3027.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.
Contact:
JSMA: Debbie Williamson Smith, 541-346-0942, debbiews@uoregon.edu
Links: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, http://jsma.uoregon.edu
