F
* ive hundred and thirty-three
sand-filled baggies suspended by fishing
line hang from the ceiling. Two
dimensional cloud-like shapes in copper
and steel dangle in mid-air. Little knitted
hearts, like tiny pillows, are clustered on
the wall, each one enclosed in a baggie.
Painted china plates; flamboyant can
vases; doggie burgers enshrined in a glass
case—these are among the artworks cur
rently on display at Open Gallery, 4355
High St.
The exhibit, "Eccentric Abstractions,”
opened Nov. 7 with a birthday party. Open
Gallery is now two years old, healthy and
growing.
About 100 people attended the celebra
tion, viewed the work, drank wine, ate cake
and sang “Happy Birthday” to the gallery.
Charlie the Magician strolled around,
dazzling people with his wizardry, while
Matt Cooper and Friend(s) played soft
jazz.
Reactions to the artworks were varied. “I
guess it’s the trend of modern art,” said a
middle-aged woman. “I don’t appreciate it.
I can hardly keep from laughing at some of
it. When you think of Michelangelo...”
Her voice trailed off. “There’s nothing here
that really says anything."
Others had different responses. “Some
of it's really good and some of it’s really
bad,” one 18-year-old woman said. “But
it’s unusual and refreshing — it’s imagina
tive. I like it.”
Even the negative responses are re
garded with satisfaction by Flora Rudolph,
gallery director, and Richard Haller, chair
man of the board.
“If the art evokes a feeling, it’s success
ful," Haller says. “No one has to justify
their reaction. Confusion is a justified reac
tion."
“I think this is one of our nicest shows,”
Rudolph says with unsuppressed en
thusiasm. “I was looking for people who
were working in fairly traditional
media—painting and sculpture—but who
were going in different directions with
them. They are all very serious artists who
have a kind of craziness about them.
“I wanted a strong, colorful, full show,
and I think that's what we have.”
D
A Rudolph and Haller started Open
Gallery as an experiment in 1976. Their
goals are far-reaching and varied: to reach
the community; to provide a forum for vis
ual and performing artists; and to make
Lane County a viable member of the na
tional art community.
“We want to have art (become) part of
everyone’s daily life, so it’s integral, so it’s
not something you set aside in a
mausoleum or a sanctuary,” says
Rudolph.
Open Gallery has an educational role to
play, Rudolph and Haller believe, not only
by conducting workshops and pro
grams in the public schools, but by making
art accessible and visible to the commun
ity.
“We try to pique people’s interest,” says
Haller. “Appreciation of art requires ex
perience of it. You need exposure. If peo
ple can’t understand something they feel
uncomfortable.”
Art functions to enhance the quality of
life, maintains Rudolph, herself an artist
whose pieces are among the “eccentric
abstractions” now being shown.
‘‘Art is just basic to everyone,” she says.
“It gives you something spiritual in your
life... it improves your aesthetic sense. It
relates to beauty and to thought; it gets
your ideas going, and your blood going.”
When the gallery opened at its original
location, its space was small, and most
conducive to one-person shows. Now, with
the spacious area it occupies in Midgeley’s
Mill — a converted lumber mill housing a
variety of business — the gallery has con
centrated more on large, group shows.
o_._
art gallery. It encourages innovation and
experimentation. “We present intentionally
ephemeral experiences as well as objects
which may endure,” explains an adver
tisement.
“Environmental art" is in the vanguard of
experimental art. Rudolph describes it as
“using a space to set up.a whole situation
that somebody can come into and get a
total experience, as compared to looking
into a painting, which is a different kind of
experience.”
Ames Montgomery’s show in late Oc
tober, “Sand Installation,” is an example of
environmental art. The artist brought in
900 pounds of sand and covered the floor,
with pathways running through it for view
ers to walk on. “We had incredible com
ments from people," Rudolph says.
Rudolph’s own work is moving toward
environmental art and toward works that
people can move and manipulate. “Par
ticipatory art" might be an appropriate
label for what she is describing.
Arguing for the merits of nonrepresenta
tional art, she says, “You can take off on
abstract art so far. If you have a picture of
a mountain, that’s a picture of a moun
tain. Your own head and imagination can
get really involved in an abstract piece.
You can come back and have a new thing
each time with it."
l nvolvement is the key—the
viewer’s involvement with the piece, the
community’s involvement with the arts, the
gallery’s involvement with the community.
Artists should not be isolated; they should
be “working parts of the community,”
Rudolph feels.
Neither should Eugene be isolated from
the rest of the art world. Open Gallery is
developing contacts with other arts organi
zations across the country to promote flux
and interaction between communities.
Haller illustrates the idea by telling his
“Golden Age of Athens” story.
“In the Golden Age of Athens, the popu
lations of Athens was not much larger than
Lane County. Numbers don’t make the dif
ference. The resources are here. If they
(the people of Lane County) want quality,
world-class art, they’ll get it.”
Open Gallery wants to help give it to
them.
In addition to hanging paintings and
showing sculptures, the gallery presents
work in a potpourri of other media: dance,
poetry, music, film, mime.
“They’re all related,” says Rudolph. “For
us they’re not detached things.
“There are a lot of performing artists
who don’t have a forum,” she continues.
“They need a space, they need an audi
ence, they need feedback. Their intention
is usually visual.”
She mentions Morton Subotnick, an
electronic composer from Los Angeles,
as an example. Subotnick gave a concert
at Open Gallery in September. “His music
is sculptural,” she says. “You can feel that
sound going around. He comes from visual
images when he makes his music.”
Other innovative projects during the past
year included “Window Works,” in July
and August, and “Plaza Arts Live," in Sep
tember. The artists involved in “Window
Works” created “art environments” in
storefront windows on the downtown mall.
“Plaza Arts Live” was a series of free,
lunch-hour performances, or “events hap
penings,’” in Rudolph’s terminology, on the
plaza of the U.S. Federal Building. These
included dance, “new music” and poetry
reading.
pen Gallery, a nonprofit or
ganization, has redeved financial support
from grants—CETA, National Endowment
for the Arts, Oregon Arts Commission, and
Eugene Room Tax—-as well from indi
vidual and business contributions.
The September CETA cutbacks elimi
nated nice positions at the gallery. How
ever, another CETA grant for six poisitons
will take effect in December.
But Rudolph doesn’t want to depend on
CETA as a primary source of income for
the gallery. “Ideally we would like the bulk
of our money to come from the commun
ity," she says.
What is the goal? $20,000 in 1979, to be
matched by grants.
Rudolph says the gallery's goals include
becoming more professional, more fo
cused and making continual improvements
in quality.
By Lee Sherman-Stadius
Photos by Keith Allen
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