Boston University Art Galleries
Boston University
Boston, MA
617.353.3329
The World as Mirror: Paintings by Jon Imber,
1978-1998
The World as Mirror: Paintings
by Jon Imber, 1978-1998, opens at Boston University's
808 Gallery on October 22 and runs through December 5, 1999. An opening
reception will be held on Friday, October 22, from 6 - 8 p.m., preceded
by a gallery talk by the artist beginning at 5 p.m.
The
mid-career retrospective of more than seventy paintings by Jonathan Imber,
curated by Boston University Gallery Director John Stomberg, demonstrates
the enormous vitality and range of this artist's creative activity. Moving
from a narrative focus, to landscape, to still life, and back to the human
figure, Imber has clearly heeded the voice of his teacher, Philip Guston,
to " . . . get to whatever it is that's going to sustain you for a
lifetime as a painter." (left: Self Portrait, 1982, oil on canvas,
66 x 54 inches)
Imber's career has been outstanding - he is a nationally
recognized artist who made a conscious decision to remain in New England
and who defied current trends and styles to steadfastly follow his own path.
From the beginning, as he emerged from two years of intense study with his
mentor, Philip Guston, Imber chose a very different path from his contemporaries.
Contradicting the cry of the 1970s that painting was a dead art form, he
not only chose to paint, he chose to paint the human figure and explore
the complexities of interpersonal relationships.
Images from left to right: Man Holding Large Nail,
1981, oil on canvas, 66 x 60 inches; Rope, 1987, oil on Masonite,
20 x 16 inches; Afternoon on Eagle Island, oil on canvas, 72 x 60
inches; Upstate, 1985, oil on canvas, 80 x 90 inches; Cattails,
1990, oil on canvas, 60 x 80 inches
From his first important exhibition at the Brandeis University
Rose Art Museum in 1978, Imber has been acknowledged as "one of Boston's
most accomplished expressionists," (Francine Koslow Miller, Art
New England, February 1995). The artist's influences range broadly from
expressionism to Pompeii, from medieval cathedrals to Picasso and Matisse.
After a recent trip to France he spoke excitedly about an underground crypt
he visited at Auxerre where he found Romanesque frescoes dating to 1050
- describing them as stylized, powerful, human, and spiritual, with simple
colors set inside of ovals - a description that reflects the tensions he
plays with in his own work between personal vision and new and exciting
paint, between content and form.
A 48-page color catalog of the exhibition is available.
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The
mid-career retrospective of more than seventy paintings by Jonathan Imber,
curated by Boston University Gallery Director John Stomberg, demonstrates
the enormous vitality and range of this artist's creative activity. Moving
from a narrative focus, to landscape, to still life, and back to the human
figure, Imber has clearly heeded the voice of his teacher, Philip Guston,
to " . . . get to whatever it is that's going to sustain you for a
lifetime as a painter." (left: Self Portrait, 1982, oil on canvas,
66 x 54 inches)
