New Museum of Art show joins culture and class
■ EXHIBIT: Garbage Pail
Kids and art from the old
masters fuse in a collection
with something for everyone
By Angie Suchy
Student Activities Reporter
Tattoo designs, Tweety Bird, a
free coffee coupon and playing
cards probably aren’t the type of
elements a campus museum-goer
expects to see in paintings at the
University Museum of Art.
But the exhibit that opens to
day, The New Traditionalists,
combines these pop culture icons
with borrowed pieces from Euro
pean art to create an exhibition of
modern-day paintings.
Each of the eight contemporary
painters featured in the exhibit
looks to the European old mas
ters’ techniques, figures and land
scapes to manipulate and inter
twine these approaches with their
own modern painting styles.
Along with these influences, the
artists rely on their own talent to
enhance the borrowed features.
“The artists are not using ele
ments from the past because they
lack their own originality,” guest
curator Maria Porges said. “The
artists all share the radical idea of
using images and characteristics
that are considered out of fashion
and combining it with their own
artistry.”
The works of art replicate the
old masters in a variety of ways —
copying, interpreting and remak
ing or borrowing fragments of his
toric art in order to create techni
cal and complex works of art. The
modern artists also incorporate
their own personal experiences
into the pieces.
Artist James Bareness’ piece en
titled The Tower is dominated by
his bail-point pen sketches of dis
figured gnome-like ghouls in a
collage that includes, among oth
er oddities, Garbage Pail Kids
trading cards, various maps of
New York, coupons and a Tweety
Bird picture. The piece is based
on Pieter Bruegel’s painting Tow
er of Babel, recreating the tower in
a layered formation with vast de
tails overlapping other images in
a display of pop culture gone
mad.
The featured artists often use
cartoons and comic figures be
cause they are seen as universally
understandable images, Porges
said. In addition, other recogniz
able images — like the painted
playing card in Portland artist
Anne Connell’s Transitus — are
used to combine the real and the
imagined.
“These artists are using keys of
the past combined with the quick
fix images of today to offer a
provocative collection,” Porges
said.
Thomas Woodruffs personal
background as a tattoo artist is in
corporated in his series Sweet and
Sour Babies. He has painted ba
bies in the exhibit as a spin-off of
the popular sailors’ tattoo of two
infants.
The New Traditionalists exhib
it was organized as an event sur
rounding Dave Frohnmayer’s in
auguration as the 15th University
president.
The exhibit continues through
Dec. 15 and regular museum
hours are extended until 7 p.m.
“The New Traditionalists is a
truly stunning exhibit,” Heather
Brown, collections and public re
lations assistant at the museum,
said. “There is something for
everyone to appreciate in these
paintings.”
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON MU
ELM OE ART
I lie l mversity of Oregon
Museum ol Art
cordially invites all
students, faculty, and stafl
to tlae opening reception tonight
of tne fall exhibition
I he New I raditionalists
hr id av, October 4, I 996
5:00-7:00 I’.M.
In conjunction with the
hirst hriday Gallery Walk
Refreshments • Music • Conversation
hor information, call 346-3027
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