UMA Professor鈥檚 Exhibition Evokes Tumultuous Moment in Ink Drawings
Exhibition Dates: August 30 鈥� September 30, 2021
Opening: September 9, 2021 4:30 p.m. 鈥� 5:30 p.m.
Lunchtime Artist鈥檚 Talk: September 29, 2021 Noon 鈥� 1:00 p.m.
AUGUSTA 鈥� The Charles Danforth at UMA begins its 2021-22 year of exhibitions with Professor Peter Precourt鈥檚 exhibition of works created during his 2020-21 Trustee Professorship and Sabbatical. Titled 鈥淭hings Fall Apart鈥� for a line in the 1919 William Butler Yeats鈥� poem 鈥淭he Second Coming,鈥� with many more lines serving as titles for works in the show, Precourt鈥檚 exhibition of fifteen large-scale Sumi-e in drawings render the tumultuous emotional landscape of the COVID-19 era through the extended metaphor of Yeats鈥� poem, and the visual iconography of carnival rides.
Painted on suspended semi-transparent surfaces, Precourt鈥檚 striking black and white painted drawings of rollercoasters and orbiting swings works emerge from the time and focus that his Trustee Professorship and Sabbatical afforded him during the frightening and unsettled days of the first Pandemic fall and winter. While the artist had intended to continue his renowned 鈥淜atrina Chronicles,鈥� he explained, 鈥淚 found that the instability and destabilization of normal life took its toll on me, and I could not continue the structure of the Katrina Chronicles.鈥� Working in his Winthrop studio on delicate mulberry rice paper and a semi-transparent commercially-produced photo diffuser film used in photography studios, Precourt transformed a visual language of the carnival attractions he has been exploring for fifteen years into increasingly abstract and groundless compositions that transmute the controlled groundlessness and anxiety of rollercoasters into paintings that fly from the rails of their tracking into new visual and emotional territory.
鈥淭his work is, on some level, impacted by my interests in many things,鈥� Precourt wrote in a statement, 鈥渄oubt and uncertainty, the vibration between abstraction and representation, questions of permanence and unrest, community and isolation, COVID and fracture, light and dark, traditional materials and contemporary processes.鈥� Finding his footing in the slow, mindful work of painting, Precourt, as he wrote, 鈥渞ecorded and reordered not only what I saw and felt, but what is tangible and what is elusive.鈥� Precourt鈥檚 resulting immersive exhibition meditates on uncertainty through the graphic clarity of the painted mark, offering viewers a visual meditation that is a balm in our uneasy times. As Precourt reflected, 鈥淎 commitment to doubt can sometimes be reborn as reassurance.鈥�
Things Fall Apart: Peter Precourt聽is on view in the Danforth Gallery in 天美传媒 Jewett Hall from August 30 鈥� September 30, 2021.
The gallery is open, with face masking required, from 9 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
An opening reception September 9 from 4:30 p.m. 鈥� 5:30 p.m., and a lunchtime artist鈥檚 talk September 29 from noon to 1:00 p.m. are open to UMA and the wider community.
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