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| Article from the Litchfield County Times Monthly, August 2006 |
|
Non-Conformist
in Kent
New Ober Gallery Features Contemporary Art By Abigail Leab Martin Staff Reporter |
| These
days, the power of history is underestimated and undervalued.
Things simply cannot be fully understood without the context history
provides, whether on the worldwide stage or on a personal scale. Robert Ober III understands that well, and not just because he has been teaching Russian history at the Kent School for more than a decade. On July 23, he added to Kent’s burgeoning art scene by opening the Ober Gallery, which features an array of contemporary art with emphasis on some electrifying New York-based artists, some of the rising lights in the world of German contemporary art and striking works by the Russian Non-Conformists. It is that last school of artists that particularly excites Mr. Ober, as the time he spent in Moscow has had a tremendous influence on his life. “The Russians, that’s my love,” Mr. Ober said while giving a tour of his gallery space at 14 Old Barn Road. It is a passion that began in the 1970s, when the gallery owner’s father served as a diplomat in the Brezhnev-era Soviet Union, a time in his childhood Mr. Ober recalls vividly. “My six years [there] … had a big impression on me. I have never been able to get Russia out of my system.” Initially, this fascination translated into the study of history and a career in teaching. But during the course of his graduate studies, a second intense passion was born. “I stumbled across a group of artists from the 1920s, the Russian avant garde, and I fell in love with works of Kazimir Malevich. And Malevich is – with Kandinsky and Mondrian – those are the three most important abstract painters of the 20th century,” Mr. Ober commented. “What is amazing is that when I mention Kandinsky, everyone knows who Kandinsky is. Nobody knows who Malevich is. Part of the reason I am doing this is because I want to play a small part in introducing people to Malevich’s work.” Indeed, Mr. Ober is rightly proud that an August show is dedicated to the Russian Non-Conformists, and will feature two original works by Malevich. Having fallen for this group of artists, Mr. Ober found himself one day at Manhattan’s Leonard Hutton Galleries. Struck by a painting by the Russian artist Liubov Popova, he inquired about its cost and was told that it was $950,000. His playful query as to whether a 50-year payment plan could be worked out made the gallery’s owner, Ingrid Hutton, laugh. According to Mr. Ober, he ended up buying a smaller work by one of the artist’s students and becoming a frequent visitor to the gallery. “We started talking and she asked if I was familiar with the work of the Russian Non-Conformists,” Mr. Ober recalled, adding that Ms. Hutton then explained that the Russian “artists from the 1960s, 70s and 80s were taught by the students of Popova and Malevich… And she introduced me to their work. And I fell in love with it. In some cases immediately, and in other cases it took a longer time.” That introduction laid the foundation for the development over time of a significant collection. Several of these arresting works by the Russian Non-Conformists – so-called because these initially-underground artists created work that did not conform to the government-dictated principles of social realism – are featured in the gallery. A piece of which its owner is particularly fond, “Two Flowers on Black Background” by Vladimir Yakovlev, is featured in the show. Deceptively simple in feel, the work is dominated by a white flower with a red center created from smudgy white brushstrokes next to a much, much smaller wisp of a red flower. It is simultaneously delicate and powerful. “These people didn’t paint for the art market,” said Mr. Ober, explaining what he finds so compelling about the works of the Russian Non-Conformists. “They painted behind closed doors for themselves, for their friends, for diplomats.” That undeniable pull to create is what Mr. Ober finds appealing in works by artists of other origins as well. “Generally, I have a weakness for painters who paint what they feel… These people paint because they had to express something,” he said. That is evident again in his collection of contemporary artists, whose works make up the second component of the inaugural show. These predominantly New York-based artists represent a diverse array of styles, but, according to Mr. Ober, they “share a common sensibility that derives from a tradition of American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s,” meaning that, while abstract in nature, their work still is very much emotional in effect. Mr. Ober emphasized that they have been influenced by Willem de Kooning and Philip Guston, as well as other artists of the New York School, as that group of Abstract Expressionists was also known. However, this current crop of artists tends to be more figurative in style on the whole. Some of the more intriguing works by the artists that Mr. Ober is displaying include a large canvas by one of Guston’s students, James Bohary, a dynamic blend of texture and action created in part through many layers of impasto; a Cubist-inspired work composed of a network of triangles in bright, cheerful colors by Thornton Willis, entitled “Anna’s House,” and a graceful, slightly dreamy painting by Katherine Bradford entitled “Night Tide.” The work depicts several boats from centuries past, with swooping sails set against a suggestion of dark and foggy sea and sky. What excited Mr. Ober is that these artists have not yet received the acclaim they deserve, even though many of them have works in important collections. For example, Ms. Bradford is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Mr. Willis’s work is in the holdings of the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. “The fact that some guy in Kent, Connecticut, is able to show what as far as I am concerned is some great art is largely a product of the art world being totally focused of chasing the flavor of the day,” Mr. Ober said. “This [art] is more interesting to me. And the bottom line is that 16 of my artists are in the Guggenheim, MoMA and the Met, so the people who appreciate [this art] are the museums. The museums know where the great art is and how to distinguish – they are looking at longevity. Another facet to the Ober Gallery’s inaugural show is a group of contemporary artists that its owner terms reductive painters. “There are lots of different terms to describe them – there’s geometric abstraction, there’s non-objective… This particular group of Brooklyn artists I am showing are more comfortable with the term reductive because they see themselves as very different. They are building on the legacy of Mondrian.” One of the most stimulating of these artists is Gilbert Hsiao. His pieces play with pattern and perception. His dazzling “World Clock” teases the eye, depicting shapes in bold colors like orange, silver, pink and red, as well as others, in a way that proves disorienting. Mr. Ober commented upon the tension in the piece between the shapes in the foreground and the background and what dominates, and how that interplay draws one’s gaze to the work. The final component to the show is a group of German contemporary artists, mostly neo-realist in style. Frank Bauer, a student of the much-lauded Gerhard Richter, has his work “Michiko (in Hamburg) I” displayed in the opening show. The painting depicts a literally vacant-eyed, topless Asian woman with shadows playing across her that quietly conveys a sense of disconnectedness. She may be naked, but her feelings, her thoughts, are not. “I am drawn to this painting,” Mr. Ober said. “I am drawn to the eyes – the immediately remind me of Matisse. Matisse in many paintings left the eyeballs out. And I love the way the shadows kind of fall across her breast.” An untitled work by Harding Meyer, a portrait of a young blond girl with hooded eyes that provide her a sense of knowingness, should also capture spectators’ attention, particularly for the powerful brushwork in evidence around the edges of her face. “Most portraits of children are too sweet and do not capture humanness,” Mr. Ober observed. This painting is also quite potent for Mr. Ober because it has been his first significant sale as a gallery owner. Though he could not provide the name of the buyer, he revealed that “a major New York collector” just bought the piece. But the gallery owner is not just seeking to sell paintings to those with sizable budgets. And that springs from his own history of collecting art on a teacher’s salary. “One of the things I really appreciated about Leonard Hutton Galleries is that she had works in there for between $1,500 and $3,000 and she did payment plans. I rarely bought a painting from her without it being a payment plan,” he recalled, noting that he too will provide that option because “if somebody really wants something, I want them to have it.” He also welcomes those who just wish to come in his gallery to experience the art. Mr. Over never set out to be an art dealer, though he now has done so with the support of this wife, Amy, and their adorable son Robby, who is nearly 1 ½ years old. Having embarked on this path, he has done so with the zeal that only a deeply knowledgeable and fervent collector could bring to such an endeavor. “This is my passion. This is what I love,” he said with enthusiasm. “I am very excited about this. Litchfield County is getting a great gallery.” The Ober Gallery will also be a place where the context behind the works, the deep, fascinating history involved in their creation, will be prominent. As Mr. Ober explained, “For the opening show… I have written a brief history of the Non-Conformists. I have done this with all four groups. I want people to understand that art doesn’t come out of nowhere. It is an historical account of an important legacy.” The inaugural show closes July 28. For further information, please see the website www.obergallery.com, or call 860-927-5030. |