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STARK SHADOWS AND STILLNESS
A Different Time: Before the flurry of animal
and vegetable activity that marks the start of
spring, there is the mineral quiet of winter.
Hushed snowfalls, frozen and crystallized
water, silent wisps of clouds in the sky create
a landscape that is marked by absence of noise
and activity. A new exhibition at the GMOA of
paintings by George Ault and other notable
artists who worked during the WWII era seems
to hold this sense of a fullness of nothingness.
The artwork in 'To Make a World: George Ault
and 1940s America" forms a meditative and
thoughtful environment.
The show begins with Ault's "Artist at
Work," which depicts his spare cottage home
with the artist's face hidden behind the can
vas he paints. The walls of Ault's home are the
same color chosen by the GMOA to highlight
the gallery walls, unifying our space with his
domestic interior. From this entry into his
world, we are drawn into the particular time
and place of Ault's universe.
Ault moved from New York City to
Woodstock in 1937. retreating from personal
lo:s and hoping to escape the impend
ing chaos of WWII. Others sought refuge in
this quiet town, too, and an artists' enclave
developed, which continues to this day. The
exhibition, on loan from the Smithsonian
American Art Museum, includes photographs
of Woodstock's residents, as well as follow
up stories about those who enlisted in the
war and who did not return. The absence of
these individuals is reflected in the sparsely
populated landscapes Ault and others painted
of the area in works like "Brook in the
Mountains."
In other works, Ault painted a "portrait"
of the same bam—-once in sunlight and again
in moonlight—distilling the angled planes
of the building into a simplified geometry.
Next to these is Edward Hopper's "Dawn in
Pennsylvania," a dreamlike industrial set
ting of .stark shadows and stillness that
reminded, me of the eerie paintings Giorgio
de Chirico created a couple of decades ear
lier. In Hopper's painting, vacant windows
and darkened doorways present us with the
abyss, a sparseness that speaks volumes about
the people who are absent. Andrew Wyeth's
"Public Sale" is a beautiful tempera paint- .
ing on panel depicting the sale of a destitute
farmer's household goods. Although this
painting is populated by figures (neighbors
hoping for a deal), the sense of impending
absence and loss is palpable.
The exhibition, which is as
much about American art in the
years preceding and during WWII
as it is about Ault, contains many
scenes of spareness and quiet, but
with some exceptions. In "New
Haven Green," Dede Plummer
painted a busy street scene with
a flattened perspective to show
a variety of people walking the
crisscrossed grids of sidewalks in a
rush of activity. Production design
drawings and stills from the 1945
film Mildred Pierce by art director
Anton Grot create a noir-ish set
ting in one gallery. Ufe magazine
correspondents Peisr Hurd (who
was Andrew Wyeth's brother-in-
law) and Paul Sample contribute
wartime perspectives with paint
ings of flares and searchlights on
the battlefield (Hurd) and soldiers
watching a film with rifles at the
ready (Sample).
In the last gallery of the
exhibition, I saw Ault's "Russell's
Corners" series as his rural version
of Monet's Rouen Cathedral paint
ings. Four paintings, painted just
a few years apart, show the same
view down a street with just a few
clapboard buildings and no sign of
those who might live within them.
In each, the streetlights radiate
in the darkness like a beacon. In
the last picture, "August Night,"
painted in the year of his death, one can see
almost nothing in the composition but this
light, radiating like a star in this lonely place.
Here, as in many of his other paintings, it is
the sky that holds the emotional information.
Ault's pictures, for all their stillness, resonate
with expression. In 1948, Ault committed sui
cide by drowning himself in one of the streams
by his house. Knowing this, the calm settings
of his paintings seem all the more poignant.
The exhibition runs through Apr. 16.
While You're There: Celebrating the work
of local master craftsman, collector and
restorer Henry Eugene Thomas (1883-1965),
"Georgia Bellflowers" is another exhibition
currently at the GMOA and not to be missed.
This show is the first of its kind and includes
17 examples of Thomas' Colonial Revival
furniture—with his signature gold bellflower
inlay—as well as ephemera about his life in
Athens. Curator Ashley Callahan's catalog
describes Thomas as an important figure in
the history of decorative arts in the South;
this unique exhibition provides a portrait of
the artist as well as the town in which he
lived and worked. On view through Apr. 15.
Carolina Barratl arts@flagpote.com
George Ault’s “Nude and Torso” is on view at the GMOA through
Apr. 16.
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MARCH 14,2012 FLAGPOLE.COM 9