Highlights From the Private Collection of Bill Schenck; article by Aimee Gwynne Franklyn (original) (raw)

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The West Through My Eyes: Highlights From the Private Collection of Bill Schenck

June 24 - September 4, 2005

(above: Fremont Ellis, Road to Abiquiu, 1930, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches. photo: John Guernsey. Bill Schenck collection)

The West Through My Eyes: Highlights From the Private Collection of Bill Schenck**,** an exhibition featuring sixty-eight outstanding pieces selected from the private collection of the artist, collector and scholar is on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe from June 24 through September 4, 2005.

Santa Fe artist Bill Schenck is a passionate collector, and with his discerning eye, has built one of the nation's great art collections. A photo-realist with a pop art sensibility, he began amassing the work of early twentieth-century New Mexico painters in the 1980s when he purchased the monumental oil, Taos, by F. Lee Hersch. (right: Oscar Berninghaus, Desert Nocturne, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches. photo: John Guernsey. Bill Schenck collection)

Schenck's collection is primarily focused on the work of those urban artists who were lured to Santa Fe and Taos, seeking to experience what D.H. Lawrence called "the spirit of place." These artists shaped the legacy of New Mexico's art colonies as they experienced and reacted to the elemental mix of land, light, and culture that ultimately fed the Southwest's modernist tradition.

The West Through My Eyes: Highlights From the Private Collection of Bill Schenck, represents the Museum of Fine Art's first foray into a series of collector-inspired exhibitions. Schenck's collection offers a wide range of subject and style -- from the realism of artist-illustrators, such as W. H. D. Koerners' The Last Trail(Saturday Evening Post illustration) -- to Victor Higgins' Spanish Woman, with its cubist qualities. These two pieces serve as stylistic bookends that straddle the exhibition.

Schenck states: "In the paintings I have acquired and kept, I strongly respond to how well rendered the subject is and the application of paint to the canvas. A case in point would be the Sharp in this collection. I find it far more desirable than all the studio paintings of braves and warriors in loincloths seated inside teepees, or in profile in adobe interiors with well-placed artifacts. I find this Sharp to have more emotional authenticity."

Also included in the exhibition are several pieces of Thomas Molesworth furniture from Schenck's collection, offering a more complete view into his personal vision. Molesworth made furniture for some of the most prominent Americans of the twentieth century and received inspiration from the iconic images of the Western United States, art deco, and the mission style of the arts and crafts movement. From his attention to detail and creative craftsmanship, a new style and quality of furniture emerged that captured the romantic myth of the West. His use of indigenous burls, leathers, antlers, Indian weavings, and cowboy and Indian artifacts is what distinguishes his work from other Western furniture of the period. A stickler for quality materials, workmanship, design and function, Molesworth made his mark in international design circles in the 1930's and 40's, and is commonly known as the founder of "cowboy high style."

Living in Santa Fe has allowed Bill Schenck to cross paths with many beautiful and historically important works, and he has built a collection that includes some of the finest examples of modernist masters in the best era of their art making.

An opening reception and catalogue signing took place at the museum's upstairs galleries June 24.

(above: Bill Schenck at home, 2005. Photo: Mitchell Hanna)

Article by Aimee Gwynne Franklyn, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

The Museum of Fine Arts is pleased to present The West Through My Eyes: Highlights From the Private Collection of Bill Schenck. There are sixty-eight pieces on display in the exhibition, from the world-class private collection of artist, collector and scholar Bill Schenck.

Artists are passionate collectors and with their discerning eyes they have built some of the nation's great collections. In the 1980s, Santa Fean Bill Schenck, a Photo-Realist with a Pop art sensibility, began amassing the works of early twentieth-century New Mexican painters with the purchase of the monumental oil, Taos, by F. Lee Hersch.

Schenck's collection is primarily focused on the work of those urban artists who were lured to Santa Fe and Taos seeking to experience what author D.H. Lawrence called "the spirit of place." These artists shaped the legacy of New Mexico's art colonies as they experienced and reacted to the elemental mix of land, light and culture that ultimately fueled the Southwest's modernist tradition.

This collection offers a wide range of both subject and style -- from the realism of artist/illustrators like W.H.D. Koerner's Saturday Evening Post Illustration, to Victor Higgins's _Spanish Woman_with its Cubist qualities-traits that bookend the exhibition. Schenck states:

"In the paintings I have acquired and kept, I strongly respond to how well rendered the subject is and the application of paint to the canvas. The paintings must have a high degree of 'sensuality.' A case in point would be the Sharp in this collection. I think this is an extremely well-painted image, though it is not a typical Sharp. I find Indian Irrigating His Corn to have more emotional authenticity."

The exhibition includes paintings, lithographs, dry point and aquatints, serigraphs, five color woodcut prints, etchings, and pencil drawings on paper. The early twentieth-century New Mexican artists featured in the collection accurately capture the light of Northern New Mexico. Whether it is the glow of the golden cottonwoods, the sunlight cascading on the adobe churches, or the highlighted faces in the Pueblo, Hopi, and Navajo portraits, the light of New Mexico is so clearly present in these artworks.

Also included in the exhibition are several pieces of Thomas Molesworth furniture from Bill Schenck's collection. The furniture offers a more complete view into Schenck's very personal vision.Molesworth made furniture for some of the most prominent Americans of the twentieth century, and received inspiration from the iconic images of the Western United States, Art Deco, and the Mission style of the Arts and Crafts movement. From his attention to detail and creative craftsmanship, a new style and quality of furniture emerged that captured the romantic myth of the West. His use of indigenous burls, leathers, antlers, Indian weavings and cowboy and Indian artifacts is what distinguishes his work from other Western furniture of the period. A stickler for quality materials, workmanship, design and function, Molesworth made his mark in international design circles in the 1930s and 40s, and is commonly known as the founder of Cowboy High Style.

All of the artists in the Schenck collection are masters of their medium. The etchings and aquatints by Alice Geneva (Gene) Kloss demonstrate the artist's skill in a medium that can be unpredictable. She handles the ink in such a manner that the viewer wants to touch the lush, black surface. In contrast to these monochromatic prints are the sensual oils on canvas by painters E. I. Couse and Carl Redin. The visceral depictions of figures and landscapes possess the same tactile quality as the etchings and aquatints, only with the use of color.

Norma Bassett Hall, best known for her woodblock prints, created serigraphs that are almost difficult to differentiate from paintings. Hall captured the fall season in New Mexico in its complete splendor. Her eye for detail and extreme mastery of color resulted in realistic portrayals of classic adobe structures coupled with vibrant blue skies.

With the intent to visit Santa Fe briefly so as to paint for the Santa Fe Railway, Edgar Alwin Payne extended his visit to New Mexico for four months. During his stay Payne sketched and painted throughout the Navajo Reservation, most notably Indians Under Spiderwoman Rock. The results of his close observations of the land and its inhabitants are highly textured paintings with loose brush strokes.

There is no absence in this collection of thickly painted full-blown magnificent western landscapes. Enchanted mesas are the exact subject Clyde Forsythe examines in his oil paintings _Enchanted Mesa._Western New Mexico is captured so elegantly in the contrast of light against the heavy, darkened mesa. The horizontal bands depicting both light and land draw the viewers' eyes to the central geometric shapes of the earth. It is the same mesa painted twice from the same vantage point on the same scale. Yet the result is a pairing of intimate oil paintings that are both similar yet distinguishably diverse all at once. Many of the early New Mexican modernists used bold brush strokes of sumptuous paint, capturing light and shadow in broad gestures. It is no surprise that an artist with Schenck's sensibilities would come to collect Southwest modern art. Many of the same bright, luscious paint strokes that can be found in a work by Oscar Berninghaus might also be found in Wayne Thiebaud's dessert paintings. It was Thiebaud, a California Pop master, who suggested that to paint volume the artist must paint light. Certainly the West is full of light and seemingly endless horizons.

rev. 7/15/05

Editor's note: Bill Schenck's web site provides a biographyabout the artist and an essay,"The Irony and the Ecstasy: The Paintings of Bill Schenck**"** by Julie Sasse, Director, Gross Gallery, University of Arizona, Tucson.

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