Young GALLERY
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Ke Francis
(Memphis, Tennessee, 1945 - ) Tornado Hay House ca. 1982 Mixed media construction 56 1/2 in. x 23 in. x 14 1/2 in. (143.51 cm x 58.42 cm x 36.83 cm) Gift of Jean Thickens Cooper 2002.0018 |
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Ke Francis
(Memphis, Tennessee, 1945 - ) Nike and Flying Fish 1998 Twentieth Century Acrylic on canvas 72 1/4 in. x 78 1/8 in. (183.52 cm x 198.44 cm) Signed and dated, lower right; "K.F.98" Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Association Purchase 2002.0011 Raised in the South, Ke Francis is both in and of the region, and he uses his many expressive formats to address themes that are at once local and universal. Originally from Mississippi, he migrated to Florida, where he teaches in the art department at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. He also manages the publication of books and prints through the university’s Flying Horse Press and his own Hoopsnake Press. In "Nike and Flying Fish", the forms seem to have alighted on the canvas, creating bizarre juxtapositions. Against a painterly, colorful background with waves at the bottom suggesting water, Francis has layered a rabbit trap, a funnel, and a flying fish that comes face to face with a stylized drawing of the Winged Victory of Samothrace (or Nike), a well-known classical sculpture (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Francis endowed these images with new connotations—for example, Nike has been disassociated from the sculpture, divested of its mythological origins by contemporary culture. The funnel image in Francis’s art is a metaphor for the idea of focused energy brought to bear with positive, creative effect. |
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Roger Brown
(Hamilton, Alabama, 1941 - 1997, Atlanta, Georgia ) Homesick-Proof Space Station 1987 Twentieth Century Oil on canvas 48 1/4 x 72 1/8 in. (122.56 x 183.2 cm) Gift of the Burrows Family 2013.0001 Although often grouped with the Chicago Imagists, Brown's oeuvre sits uneasily within this categorization. In fact, his work stretched beyond their stylistic constraints to occupy a place that is uniquely his. Brown created narrative images based on recognizable vernacular imagery. His individual style encompasses certain hallmarks: use of pattern, strong angles and a shifting perspective often rendered in a palette primarily consisting of grey, pine green, black, yellow, white, and light blue all bordered by black outlines. Though referencing reality, his works are very stylized. In a sense, Brown is a history painter, recording a distinctly American landscape. Creating an urban neighborhood in outer space, Brown evokes the power of community to create safety and comfort in "Homesick-Proof Station". Although isolated in this serene image, key comforts of home are still available: secure and familiar living spaces, a sense of community, and the solace of one's faith. Floating in outer space, this urban space station is tethered to earth by Brown’s portrayal of our planet underneath. The gradual shifting of colors blending earth into space situates our planet in the larger cosmos, and perhaps indicates man's ties to the universe through both space exploration and their dreams. Brown reminds us of actual future possibilities in space. Certainly, while temporary space station living is a reality, it is only trained astronauts in a highly technological and controlled environment that participate in this endeavor. Today in 2013, Brown's version of the "Homesick-Proof Space Station" is still a science fiction fantasy, albeit a more simplified version than the science fiction portrayed in movies or television. This simplicity is typical of Brown's stylizing his images. Yet, by stripping away all but the necessary components Brown is able to subtly convey his ideas in a powerful way. For example, the space station, as Brown depicts it, appears self-contained with a controlled atmosphere (as evidenced in the lack of helmets worn in the buildings). However, it is not truly self-sustaining as there are no apparent food sources, or other conveniences or necessities that truly make a neighborhood work. Instead, Brown presents a symbolic scene of “home”, an idealized hope for the future, one where humans can cohabitate peacefully and simply out in the greater universe. |
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Roger Brown
(Hamilton, Alabama, 1941 - 1997, Atlanta, Georgia ) Dr. Imperial's Tree of Knowledge 1985 Twentieth Century Oil on canvas with neon 106 in. x 73 in. x 3 5/16 in. (269.24 cm x 185.42 cm x 8.47 cm) Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Association Purchase 2011.0016 Although often grouped with the Chicago Imagists, Brown's oeuvre sits uneasily within this categorization. In fact, his work stretched beyond their stylistic constraints to occupy a place that is uniquely his. Brown created narrative images based on recognizable vernacular imagery. His individual style encompasses certain hallmarks: use of pattern, strong angles and a shifting perspective often rendered in a palette primarily consisting of grey, pine green, black, yellow, white, and light blue all bordered by black outlines. Though referencing reality, his works are very stylized. In a sense, Brown is a history painter, recording a distinctly American landscape. "Dr. Imperial’s Tree of Knowledge," 1985, a later work that revisits his earlier interest in the cruciform (seen in a series Brown began in 1975) also connects to a series of paintings Brown began in 1981 exploring Bible stories. Here Brown depicts a snake encircling a palm-like tree bracketed by two forms representing Adam and Eve in front of the Tree of Knowledge. While this work has a basis in a Bible story Brown also invests this work with layered meanings. A very personal work, "Dr. Imperials..." references such illnesses as cancer and HIV/AIDS as well as the way that religion and medical science addresses these diseases. |
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Roger Brown
(Hamilton, Alabama, 1941 - 1997, Atlanta, Georgia ) Celebration of the Uncultivated—A Garden of the Wild 1980 Twentieth Century Oil on canvas 60 in. x 120 1/4 in. (152.4 cm x 305.44 cm) Not signed Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Association Purchase 1981.0008 Roger Brown left his Alabama home of Opelika in 1962 to attend art school in Chicago, where he eventually became associated with the group known as the Chicago Imagists. These artists practiced a satirical and often irreverent art, influenced by popular media such as comics, advertising, and commercial art. Brown’s style, which has sometimes been compared to cartooning, blends a highly graphic presentation of simple shapes and repetitive patterns with an emblematic and schematized construction of objects in space. He utilized silhouettes to represent people and all manner of objects, from buildings and trees to his ubiquitous, pillow-like clouds. Much of Brown’s imagery was derived from the landscapes he saw during extensive travel, and also from current events. Many works feature a narrative progression of figures or episodes from one portion of the canvas to another, again much in the tradition of cartooning. In 1979 Roger Brown began to plan the construction of a studio and home in New Buffalo, Michigan, a beach community northeast of Chicago. The residence functioned as a retreat from the city and as a vantage point from which to observe an evolving landscape. A sketchbook from 1980–81 contains a half-page study in black ballpoint pen for "Celebration of the Uncultivated—A Garden of the Wild", with the notation, “in celebration of the uncultivated.” As with much of Brown’s work, the title seems to be ironic. The orderly ranks of flowers he has so carefully depicted appear anything but wild. American Paintings from the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, cat. no. 102, p. 236. |
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Kurt Weiser
(Lansing, Michigan, 1950 - ) Woman with Mongoose 1999 Twentieth Century Porcelain 17 3/4 in. x 12 5/16 in. (45.09 cm x 31.27 cm) x Diam: 9 3/8 in. (23.81 cm) Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Association Purchase 1999.0002 ab |
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GERTRUD NATZLER (LONG TERM LOAN)
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ROBERT COTTINGHAM (LOAN FROM BIRMINGHAM)
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Jaehyo Lee
(Hapchen, Korea, 1965 - ) 0121-1110=110 (Standing Donut) 2009 Twenty-first Century Chestnut on painted steel stand 67 in. x Diam: 48 in. x 15 1/2 in. (170.18 cm x 121.92 cm x 39.37 cm) Gift of the artist 2011.0009 |