8 Painters and Sculptors at the University of Denver 1930-1965

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8 Painters and Sculptors at the University of Denver 1930-1965
April 5 – May 6, 2007

“8 Painters and Sculptors at the University of Denver, 1930-1965″ was the first in a series of projects featuring distinguished teachers of art at DU. The exhibition focused on a selection of eight professors who were influential in bringing a diversity of artistic approaches to the regional art scene. Working in styles ranging from Impressionism and Cubism through Regionalism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, they helped connect Denver with broader currents in the visual arts.

Featured artists: Louise Emerson Rönnebeck, Arnold Rönnebeck, Otto Karl Bach, Vance Kirkland, William Sanderson, Mina Conant, John Billmyer, Marion Buchan.

The exhibition included a plaster relief by Arnold Rönnebeck entitled Trio and Tone Shapes, an unrealized 1939 commission for a Denver Public Schools auditorium. A 1968 account by Vance Kirkland, Director of the School of Art, indicates that the piece was rejected by DPS as being “too modern.” The relief was retrieved from the Hosek Manufacturing Company by Kirkland in 1968 and was incorporated into the University’s art collections. Also exhibited was a new bronze casting of the same piece destined for installation at DU’s Newman Center for the Performing Arts.

The exhibition was curated by Dan Jacobs, Director of the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery. The curatorial team included seven SAAH art history students: graduate students Kristin Bonk; Jill Desmond; Lauren Fretz; Laura Fry; Neely Patton; Petra Sertic; and undergraduate Alisha Stovall.