New in the galleries: Work by students, Perle Fine

MFA Thesis Exhibition

The second round of the Masters of Fine Arts thesis exhibitions opened April 11 and will be on display through April 22.

There will be opening receptions from 6 to 8 p.m. today in the Thomas T. Solley Atrium in the IU Art Museum and the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts Grunwald Gallery.

Jenny McComas, curator of the Western Art after 1800 gallery in the museum, said the exhibitions are split between the Thomas T. Solley Atrium and the Grunwald Gallery because the Grunwald is at more than capacity.

“We try to make sure each group has a variety of art,” McComas said. “There are usually a lot of interesting works on view. A lot of them use new media and technology in their work, which isn’t usually on display at the Art Museum.”

Artists are asked to indicate which location and exhibition they prefer at the beginning of the year.

McComas said she tries to give artists at least one of their preferences between the two locations and three exhibitions.

Four artists have work on display at the Art Museum, including Spencer Corbett, painting; Sara Lowthian, photography; Neal Anthony Pitak, printmaking; and Corinne Preston, graphic design.

The Grunwald Gallery features seven artists, including Amanda Lee, printmaking; Adams Puryear, ceramics; Matthew Meers, sculpture; Marla Roddy, sculpture; Kevin Steele, graphic design; Ben Tinsley, painting; and Kimberly Waite, photography.

Tranquil Power: The Art of Perle Fine

A traveling exhibit featuring the works of Perle Fine is on display now through May 27 in the Judi and Milt Stewart Hexagon galleries on the first floor of the IU Art Museum.

The exhibit was curated at Hofstra University in Long Island, N.Y., where Fine taught for about 10 years in the 1960s.

McComas said Fine is not a well-known artist because of her gender. Abstract expressionism, the post-World War II artistic movement that Fine was involved in, was more commonly identified with male artists.

“Even though her work was consistently highly praised by the critics and she was in a lot of shows, she didn’t sell that much work,” McComas said. “She has really fallen through the cracks with a lot of other woman artists.”

The exhibit features “In Staccato,” an oil painting that is part of the art museum’s permanent collection. McComas said Hofstra University wanted to loan the painting from the museum in 2009 but that it was too fragile to transport.

Other notable works include “Winter (Charcoal Red),” an oil painting from 1960 with a bold composition and a minimal pallet of black and deep red, and “Billet Doux,” an oil on canvas and collage from 1957.

A selection of photographs of Fine by her husband, photographer Maurice Berezov, show her connections within the artistic community,
McComas said.

McComas, along with fellow curators and School of Fine Arts faculty, will teach a “What’s Ab Ex?” workshop from 1 to 3 p.m. April 20 in the museum’s third-floor
conference room.

The lecture and exhibition should help people expand their knowledge about 20th-century artists, McComas said.

“Just because (Fine is) lesser known doesn’t mean her work is any less,” McComas said. “It’s really a good chance to discover a whole range of very
high-quality work.”

— Kate Thacker