Eugene weekly., December 14, 2017, Image 31

VISUAL ARTS
BY BOB KEEFER
CELEBRATING TWO LIVES IN PAINT
A retrospective at the Schnitzer Museum traces two Eugene artists
I
they were practically kids then.
t was strangely disorienting for me to visit the Our
The current show contains mature work by both
Lives in Paint exhibition of art by Eugene husband
artists, whose paintings, watercolors and drawings
and wife painters Mark Clarke and Margaret Coe,
are clearly distinct from each other’s while sharing a
which runs through April 1 at the Jordan Schnitzer
broader artistic background.
Museum of Art.
Though he worked in a number of mediums, from
Curated by JSMA associate curator Danielle Knapp,
watercolor to printmaking to sculpture, Clarke was best
the show examines two well-known local painters
known for his dreamlike landscapes, done in acrylic
whose lives and careers have stood firmly at the heart of
on canvas or panel, from the Willamette Valley and the
Eugene’s art world for decades.
Oregon Coast.
In some ways, that world — one that features
As years passed, he increasingly chose precise mood
representational easel paintings in gallery shows — has
over depiction of particular physical detail. Occasionally
been culturally moored in the 1950s, that central 20th-
his landscapes include human figures or, more likely,
century decade in which America enjoyed its brief but
just shadowy hints of their presence.
enthusiastic love affair with serious art.
In Clarke’s 2007 painting “Missing,” for example,
It’s a world in decline now, as gallery after gallery
the title gives significance to an empty boat in the
closes and society chases the art of concept and identity
foreground of a seascape. And “Red Shed (Memory of
rather than observation and expression.
My Dad)” offers only the barest outlines of a building
Those were heady days. Newspapers and magazines
and a human figure in its large expanse of color.
— remember them? — wrote regularly about painters
Coe’s work is more representational. Some of her early
and art exhibitions. Regional art was big, and would stay
works in the show are portraits, of Clarke and of herself,
big at least through the 1970s. In 1953 Life magazine
most notably a 1966 self-portrait she did in the studio
anointed four Northwest artists (Kenneth Callahan, Mark
showing a confident young woman glancing away from
Tobey, Morris Graves and Guy Anderson) as the “Mystic
the easel as though the viewer had interrupted her work.
Painters of the Northwest.”
Besides UO art professors David McCosh and Jack
In those days, lesser-known but accomplished artists
Wilkinson, Coe has been heavily influenced in her
such as Clarke and Coe could even expect to make a
career by such regional 20th-century artists as Clayton
modest living off the sale of their work. It was during
S. Price and Carl Hall.
the ’50s that the couple met in a painting studio at the
Most recently she’s been traveling to Italy to
University of Oregon. Clarke was a graduate student;
paint, and some of her best work has grown out of the
Coe was an undergrad.
landscapes and cityscapes of Venice and Rome.
“Originally and ultimately what I admired in Mark
MARK CLARKE. ORANGE SKY, 1993-94. ACRYLIC ON CANVAS,
My favorite is a triptych composed of three large
was not only his talent, but his total confidence in the
36 X 24 INCHES. COLLECTION OF COLLETTE DOMAN
paintings — “Mirage,” “The Unattainable” and
bottomless well of his imagination,” Coe writes in an
“Foreboding” — all views from her window in Venice.
essay in the nicely done catalog that accompanies the
The titles alone hint at the touch of mysticism that’s been showing up in Coe’s work in
JSMA exhibition. “His talent was fully matured when I first met him.”
recent years, especially since the death of her young grandson, Marcus, in 2011.
I’ve known Coe and Clarke for years, and I have always admired both them and their work.
The darkest painting in the show is a large square canvas titled “The Frailty of Fortune”;
What was strange on entering the gallery where their art is being shown is to see
it’s one of a seldom-exhibited series Coe painted in Portland while Marcus was battling
familiar paintings by two people I know, though Clarke died in January 2016, elevated to
brain cancer in a hospital there.
the exalted status of an art museum show. Walk around the corner to the next gallery and
The show is superb, if more limited in scope than I expected. Billed as a retrospective of
you can see works by million-dollar names like Marc Chagall, Damien Hirst and Chris
two artists, it offers only 40 works to trace two enormous careers. I could have seen many
Ofili. We’re in the big leagues here.
more and still been left wanting.
This isn’t Clarke and Coe’s first time in these halls. In 1967 the couple had their first
That’s a small criticism, though. Our Lives in Paint is beautifully chosen and presented,
show together at what is now the Schnitzer, but was then simply the University of Oregon’s
and offers a worthy tribute to two very fine local artists.
Museum of Art, Mark Clarke and Margaret Coe: Paintings. That was half a century ago —
Eugene Saturday Market’s 2017
T WO WE E KE NDS LE F T!
Handcrafted Gifts, Sold By Their Makers
International Food Court
Live Music
Dec 16 th - 17 th
Dec 22 nd - 24 th* !
10 AM – 6 PM
*10 AM - 4 PM, Dec 24th Only
FREE ADMISSION & FREE PARKING
Lane Events Center
13 th & Jefferson, Eugene
www.HolidayMarket.org
541-686-8885
eugeneweekly.com • December 14, 2017
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