New Paintings by John Recco (original) (raw)

Williams College Museum of Art

left: original 1846 rotunda, now the Faison Gallery, sculpture: Robert Morris, Hearing, 1972, © 1986 Steve Rosenthal; right: the atrium with WALLWORKS installation by William Ramage, 1988, photo by Nicholas Whitman

Williamstown, Massachusetts

413-597-2429

http://www.williams.edu/WCMA/

Kitchen Fit: New Paintings by John Recco

June 3 August 20, 2000

"Kitchen Fit: New Paintings by John Recco" will open to the public on June 3, 2000 at the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA). The exhibition, featuring a small group of Recco's still-life paintings, continues the museum's annual summer series of regional artist show. The artist will speak about his work as part of this year's "Discover Our Berkshires" week on Wednesday, June 7 at 12:30. The event is free and the public is invited to attend. The exhibition remains on view through August 20, 2000.

Traditional still-life painting is slyly tweaked by Recco's arrangements of objects, which often include a dried sunflower, worn-in baseball glove, candy-red wrench, and broken animal bone. Layered with biographical and emotional meaning, the artist's brightly-colored oil paintings infuse a traditional artform with new vitality. Recco says about his paintings, "They are based on objects that have a variety of connections to my past-more precisely my childhood. They are personal history paintings that reflect my experiences and memories of people, sensations, and impressions of that time. Objects are sometimes alone, as in a portrait, or they are sometimes grouped together with other objects that are not usually associated with one another." (left: Still Life with Spanner, oil on panel, 58 x 48 inches, Courtesy of the artist)

Recco was born in Lowell, Massachusetts and received his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1981, and an MFA from Columbia University in 1984. He also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine, receiving the Saltonstall Scholarship there in 1985. His paintings have been featured recently in solo exhibitions at galleries in Albany, NY; Lake George, NY; Natick, MA; North Bennington, VT; and Cincinnati, OH. A frequent teacher, Recco has taught at Bennington College, Williams College, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and most recently at Marlboro College in Vermont.

"Kitchen Fit: New Paintings by John Recco" has been organized by WCMA Assistant Curator, Ian Berry, in collaboration with the artist. The museum's summer exhibition will be celebrated at a public reception on July 22, 2000.

A portion of the museum's general operating funds for this fiscal year has been provided through grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a Federal agency that fosters innovation, leadership, and a lifetime of learning, and from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

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This page was originally published in Resource Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for more information. rev. 2/28/11

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