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Show . Art Talks By Gordon Cope The current show, taking place In the upper galleries of the new Springville Art Center, affords a splendid opportunity for one to see a cross section of the work produced by artists native to our own Utah environment. TTprp om fnnnd pertain general tendencies that clearly stand out as characteristic of the whole. Not only is this true of the works produced by most of the painters, but there is the same trend shown in the tastes of those who have adjudged and chosen the paintings paint-ings generally seen in the homes and in the permanent collection at the gallery. It is an obviou3 demonstration of a oneness of vision and concept. con-cept. . The landscapes produced In western America, with very few exceptions, express the local color col-or and strongly show that the painter's intention is to portray the actual scene; to incite the same emotion from the canvas as he received from the subject. The tendency is toward being literal to the things seen and there is little evidence of abstraction abstrac-tion or invention, of stylism or school consciousness. In contract, a regional exhibit, shown in a metropolitan area, presents a very different story. Here are the works of painters who live, perhaps, in the same quarter. Their expressions may differ so entirely, revealing such opposing attitudes. approaches, styles, mannerisms and characteristics, character-istics, that one is forced to realize real-ize that there is no oneness of vision and concept. This is not art confined only to the visual world. . , ! In dwelling on the regional difference, I can only explain that where nature is so inspiring and conforms to its own native color so consistently over such a wide area as in this, western country, they who live under its spell are awakened with the desire de-sire to express it. Oft times the result is the holding up of a mirror to it, but, nevertheless, the aggregate art of the group has a same stimulus in common. In centers removed from such subject matter, there are great groups who seek into themselves, or borrow from a school, falling into isms, to create from their visual subjects a thing apart which makes for art being born of itself rather than of representation repre-sentation of objects as they are casually recognized to understand the personal motive of such work, classifying it in to general gen-eral terms, usually that of "modernism." "mod-ernism." It may be well for us to also love and understand that art which utilizes subject matter only as a means to convey an idea, t a principle or an independent pojnt of view. .... . |