Past Exhibitions
Kevin Tuttle: Comings & Goings
August 29 – September 23, 2012
Palatine Hill, (Reliquary Doors from Uselessys), 1994
Oil on panel, 12” x 8”
The Gallery proudly presents Comings & Goings a survey that covers a period of about 30-years of Tuttle’s artistic output. Visitors will have an opportunity to see the artist’s work come together in a formal exhibition for the first, and possibly, only time. It chronicles his journey from decorative, to reductive formal, to subject-narrative driven work. However, even in the decorative work, there is a kernel of subject matter that over time unwittingly resurfaced.
Tuttle’s work is informed by literature and poetry; Greco-Roman painting and sculpture and contemporary artists such as Anselm Kiefer. The artist remarks, "I have tried to have no fear of influence. I have been guided by statements from other artists such as Goethe and Matisse who advocate for the possibility of being influenced. In particular I’ve been guided by Matisse who felt that an avoidance of influence is an act of insincerity. I also have taken courage from his ability to periodically re-form himself especially during the period of 1915-1917. While at the time one of the preeminent artists in the world, and at the age of 45-47, he undertook a belated response to cubism and also reaffirmed his much earlier statement and heritage, 'if Cezanne is right, then I am right.'"
Possibly the primary link between the works in this show is not a development of ideas from one point to another, but rather to both scale and general homeliness.
Tuttle feels, “There is likely no future for these works. It is hard to envisage a place where these things can exist. I’m not especially unhappy about this but will probably have to leave their destruction to the passage of time or someone else’s resentments.”
Tuttle is a lecturer in drawing and sculpture for the art department of Muhlenberg College. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, and holds a B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute and an M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
A reception for the artist will be held Wednesday, September 5, 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. in the Gallery. The reception and all Martin Art Gallery events and programs are free and open to the public.
Gallery hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays, noon – 8:00 p.m., additional hours by appointment. Comings & Goings will remain open Sunday, Sept. 23, noon – 5 p.m. as part of the College’s Reunion/Homecoming Weekend.
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