| Show w7rt -- 411c1 6E The Salt Lake Tribune 21 Sunday January ' J01‘1115- 's - Aoy- '' - - - - - r4 - :PN-414"--'' - ' 1990 '''''':' " :''' Retrospective exhibit shows artistic evolution of Francis Ziimbeaux over more than 40 years Continued from E4 all painted in Utah during the last decade of his life Robert S Olpin lists both Zimbeauxs in his Dictionary of Utah Art saying the son's figure and landscape "tone poems" to some extent echo his father's romantic landscapemythologies Similarities between father and son go beyond the painting of a private world Frank for instance was never especially concerned with dating his paintings and Francis shows a similar disinclination And both made their living by their art — no easy task in Salt Lake City nymph-inhabite- Frank and Francis are included in the Art Center exhibits Francis visited with all the artists and photographers in the old Regent Building on Regent Street where his father had a studio "I grew up around art" Francis recalls that at one time he wanted to be a sculptor because a sculptor in the building sometimes gave him hunks of clay to work with "It's a wonder I didn't go But Frank Zimbeaux painted :' ': '::::''': houses Zimbeaux maintains he needed the extra room — his neighbor had nothing to do with it Still his studio can't be seen from the road Zimbeaux gets up about 7:30 cm and usually goes up to the studio by 9 each morning "I don't have any set schedule I don't think any artist does Sometimes I might not even feel like painting" He insists "you have to feel like it or you can't paint" He says that while a commercial artist has to paint on an hourly basis "a fine artist has to be in the proper mood At least I do or I'm just wasting my time" He says if you struggle at it it shows in the work "It has to come it has to come naturally That's when you do your finest Despite watching his father's struggle to make a living as an artist Francis made the same choice "If you want to do something enough you do it You have those urges" And he discovered his "dream world" the world of imaginative painting "I like to put a certain amount of lyricism and romanticism in my work And I like to do things that have a bit of melancholy about the subject That's part of my dream world We all have imaginative dreams but artists sometimes make use of them I don't need subject matter in front of me I sit down and compose a picture right out of my work" Zimbeaux admits that work has become increasingly difficult over 40 years of painting Much of his art is rooted in myth and fable and the 1989 work that will appear e exhibion the cover of the tion catalog is called "The Dream of Endymion" First Zimbeaux created titling a new head" He has used life models for his nudes but doesn't always "I use figures as an expression I find my best figure studies are without a model I have more freedom If I have a model I think I try to draw too closely" He says he doesn't do "exact technical painterly work I think some very realistic technical painters lose the charm the romance I think the overall feeling is more important than the technical ability that goes into the work" His figure studies have caused Zimbeaux some difficulty A show in the University of Utah Union Building during the '60s ended abruptly the picture then went looking through Bulfinch's fables for a title "There's my shepherd you see and he's dreaming of the nymphs" A bookcase in Zimbeaux's living room filled with volumes on mythology from around the world also d holds a copy of A Vag abond for Beauty the letters of young Everett Ruess whose disappearance in the Escalante area of Southern Utah in 1934 hu evolved a :' ::::' easel nudes-in-progre- ts ?'"tr farmhouse d perched between north and west windows But this woman fond of a daily walk objected strenuously to she could spy the through Zimbeaux's windows With help from a carpenter friend he built an upstairs studio which looks out over the tangled but lovely back yard with its fish pond and bird- Young Zimbeaux didn't begin his formal art education until after he served a tour in the Azore Islands with the US Air Force He used his GI Bill benefits to take art classes at the University of Utah and the Art Barn on Finch Lane He studied with Bert Pumphrey (whom he cites as a major influence) and with Le Conte Stewart and Alvin Giffin The in the retrospective were done during this period He hasn't painted any since small works typically 5 by 7 inches and 9 by 12 inches — his largest canvas is about 20 by 24 inches Ile also used lots of color His son's works are on the scale of 38 by 60 inches and 30 by 35 inches Francis Zimbeaux paints more with blues greens and grays than with the golden and fierier hues preferred by his father of whom Francis says "He could really handle color" After spending time in New York and Carthage Mo the elder Zimbeaux left his family in 1924 to join Henri Moser out West The family followed soon after settling in Salt Lake City Moser purchased a ranch in Malad Idaho where he and Frank Zimbeaux often painted together Several of the works Zimbeaux painted on the Moser farm will be shown at the Art Center It was a struggle just to survive in Utah But patrons like the Barnbergers and the Hogles bought Frank's paintings and kept the family going The Bambergers even allowed the Zimbeauxs to live rent-fre- e during the Depression in a carriage house behind their South Temple mansion Frank Zimbeaux began painting pictures like the pioneers coining down Emigration Canyon and scenes of Temple Square — strictly because he hoped the subject matter would sell in Utah Francis' mother Lillian gave piano lessons to add to the family income After her husband died she lived with her son until her death at age 99 Portraits of her by both ?"3ti century-ol- that direction" in d after a taxpayer complained about the inclusion of the artist's nudes The University took down the "offending" works Zimbeaux responded to this censorship by removing the rest of his show Then there was the nosy lady who lived across the street Zimbeaux used to paint in the bedroom of his ' ": ' ' :::!:::: :: $ 'A - ? ' ' 4' )j:irAr!:'':Z::::::: Asi :::': e::::::1Q0i ': '— '''''''':''''' ' : :i ::?:::-:i:-- :' ''' ::':5:::::' :':?::V:: :::H: :: - 9 ':li-:4- 1 : ' Ii:-- 7 :: t: ::: :::'':::::': t " ::: ::: p :::::: - " 4 I: 01 °&)1L''': '::k i'a:3044:1 64i''''::' 'Ili ' ' 5 t: itlfgAii 1 Pi :fiAtlk:::::': 4 :::7: - v t p 4:::::::: Zimbeaux painted this impression of Main I I vi V- if' kt''i1--$ ' :': t f144 41:i ::: ' 1:: '!:- ''':1 ' ' 1' i t elti - 4 ism ':'!1!:t:-- ' 1:' 715 :gni :'':::: ' Olt r:::::::::-:- 41 ' "111t t:: -- N Like Rues Zimbeaux has a great love for life nature and solitary wanderings He did bird banding in Zion National Park as a young man and now is especially fond of a place on Utah Lake where the pelicans (a favorite theme in his work) come to land In 1954 Zimbeaux went on "a little painting excursion" in Zion Canyon He ran out of money and sold a painting (outside the canyon lodge) to make up the deficit Coming back he needed to sell another of his works and did so by visiting all the doctors' and dentists' offices in the little town of Panguitch Then in Monticello he traded a picture for a Navajo rug which still graces his living room The four remaining oils from that trek are included in the exhibition Bonnie Phillips whose gallery has represented the artist for 25 years says Zimbeaux is an explorer "At the easel he explores what our environment is about He goes into the desert by himself he goes traveling to Mexico by himself He has as much of a sense of adventure about going out into that landscape and finding out about it with his brush or his field glasses or his little boat Zimbeaux loves to explore" Phillips says Zimbeaux has a "nice spiritual mystical communication with the land That's where nymphs enter in It really is a dream world" He spends summers sailing the Great Salt Lake and will sometimes camp on the islands He writes poetry and likes to go out in the countryside "I'm a deeply involved environmentalist — I'm always preaching environmentalism" Zimbeaux once said that it is harmony he's seeking " harmony in painting in life and in the natural world about me in the wild beauty of open fields and untrodden lakeshores and deserts" James Haseltine the man who Zirnbeaux says "probably understands my work more than anyone else" has written the retrospective catalog The author of 100 Years of t116:I'i1:i':1f:'' If: r!-?2- " :: p::::::::::::::1:::::::::: tap770:lt::t::-::::::::: : 14?::?::--:::::::- :::: 7 ti ::: :::: :::: Street The artist's works will be :n the up stairs gallery of the Salt Lake Art Center A Los Angeles Times Writer BERKELEY Calif — Is this the show that launched a thousand quips? Is this the art that caused Sen to say its maker Jesse Helms was no artist and his work was junk? Is this the cause of congressional consternation over the National Endowment for the Arts the grounds to legislate against throwing taxpayers' dollars away to subsidize such junk? Can this possibly be the same exhibition that brought dismay and disgrace to the venerable Corcoran Gallery when it chickened out of presenting it in the nation's capital? Aesthetes were furious Artists canceled exhibitions The Corcoran's beleaguered director Christina was forced eventually to resign Yup This is the show all right "The Perfect Moment" photographs and other works by the late Robert Mapplethorpe is now on view at the liniversity Art Museum University of California Berkeley until March 13 It is hard to imagine it igniting any further fuss in puritanically liberal Berkeley but you never know It's not a particularly large show for a retrospective and certainly not in proportion to its notoriety But it is a primo example of what happens to krt when it becomes the focus of controversy Its opponents damn so fervently that it starts to sound titilC Orr-Cah- al I I: lating Mapplettiorpe's enemies paint him as a seuzzy pornographer a Marquis de Sade delighting to pain and toddle Gee if it's that naughty it might be a kick d prinForgetting the ciple of Le sucres de scandale polartheir heized supporters time-honore- over-prais- ro's virtues e Mapplethorpe's admirers hymn him as a perfectionist who captured each subject at an instant of classic glamour be it in a sculptural torso or the exquisite edge of a calla lily Wow this guy sounds like the greatest artist since Michelangelo met Aubrey Beardsley — and a anartyr to the Philistines to boot Better check it oqt The wearily predictable result is an exhibition that everybody looks at but nobody sees How can anybody possibly concentrate on wafting nuances of artistic expression when the art has been so badly used that the only pertinent question seems to be: Why all the fuss? Clearly if this culture was even fractionally as tolerant as it ought to be none of this wourld have happened Mapplethorpe was a homosexual who died of AIDS last year at age 42 He made the ramifications of his sexuality into a principal theme of his he art In one triple shows himself first as a hard-cas- e street-corne- r hooker in leather then as a winsome androgyne and finally as a '40s style glamour girl The Father the Son and the Holy Ghost In a late example he looks ravaged d with illness and holds a cane Writing in The New Yorker critic Ingrid Sischi said that the real importance of this work is not in its aesthetic merit but in the liberating frankness of its homosexuality — letting it also be known that she herself is gay The observation was a significant reflection of a widespread current phenomenon in which art is used as a kind of cultural agit-propromoting the attitudes of various special interest groups In that context Mapplethorpe's work might be seen as having achieved something But in an imagined world where every artist is out to promote a cause we are still faced with the questions Winch artists are we going to prefer and why are we going to prefer them? One obvious answer in a climate of social advocacy is that we are going to prefer the artist whose political and psychological point of view is closest to our self-portra- it skull-heade- p CAM Forgetting the suffocating egoism of such an aesthetic for the moment let's ask if Mapplethorpe is an ideal representative of the gay point of view The exhibition displays a port folio of small prints that graphically themes portray Some gay people might think this sort of thing gives them a bad name As a social pmpagandist Mapplethorpe's appeal is certainly too specialized to attract more than a small cult following unless something else about his art speaks to larger human issues through empathy and excellence The catalog essays for "The Per feet Moment" leave the impression that Mapplethorpe was a fastidiously tasteful classically refined fashionably glamorous formally astute artist who controlled his subjects choosing hair styles cosmetics pose and lighting with the care of a diamond cutter The actual exhibition so regularly contradicts this image that one suspects the writers of having got too enamored of their own theme of perfection On the upside there are images here far more humane than the artist's chilly reputation A perfectly endearing portrait of his friend Sam Wagstaff shows him bright kindly and amused A brooding William t wisBurroughs has the dom and dignity of a man who survived the woozy purgatory of decades of drugs and turned the experience into important literature A image of Katherine Cebrian has the regal maturity of Edith Sitwell On the downside it seems Map plethorpe's reputation for glamour is largely undeserved He could get it when it was there but a couple of female Bitten look more Like arriviste bimbos than ladies of fashion Lisa When be pgres the Lyon nude with a huge snake it manages only the kitsch exoticism of Sheena Queen of the Jungle He did not photograph like a man of taste cultivation and refinement He photographed a street urchin's fantasy of it Anybody interested in the elegant decadence of the Vienna Secession gets a vulgar MacDonald's version of it here Mapplethorpe was better at getting close tn fin de sieele lurking madness which shows up al hard-bough- body-build- -- m-':- 'SY:V40r4':' t ::: 8e- I' 011PS PO iii4104FTNm011bAtt4110hON"-f- : '':::':'4t4q:':':4: :: 0 ''::' iire f' r 4: :': t' lie : :1:::v!!::4:1z::'::-:::::::::'i- r:::-):f:'::- v let ? 1 0 A' "4 po'A x ::0 ::::4::07::: ' ligt:::-:::':::4:4::i- ':- '‘:":1544m :r:::44:7:--::'-t- '''144444---::::z:::- : t'v'A-'e-- '''' :":: voiii )1 "!:::: i404A 4i! iE' - :x::::'g:f':-- ' :'- ::'''4W:5':0'-:- ) J :: "f:----:'::f- '4‘v1k::':14O 401 ?i01' i:rt :f?' ' ' 4: A - ' ':' w- i6"571Pq1P7ik:-::-4':''- - ' : 'i 0AfrOtt :' l 4 gtff:''' - A::Ikk:' ' ' :02: ' AtV:TI-i'46 c 41:4i g d''' ' 4 3' tszti :111 SptPe"-- 44' ' 14 f' Frank Zimbeaux as his son would later 161 at' it ::: ':i4:0-1::- 465::: 4: 7ip ::A::::::::n:::::::::::::::y 41:::fr4-1:14:sK::- — r:: 4' ::i::::li:: z-- A : '''- 4::::-::- :' 6 os ''''' " :1!RH:::::-:::::p:::- : o' 1 -- 04 Iv ' — ':' s:4qA:0441:: ''?e ' - rt i:n ' 1 -- 1: ' iie :!!- : " '::i::i011:ii:eltz:::::f:!k1f:4:i::se4!!i':i1 1 - ' '''' - :' p ' Af:::'-':'::t!':iti!::t:i':$:t1Y-'- eipt::-:--' 0' t''-'-- '41 : " — t yo:p4i--4:'r::::::1!i:-AH- ' ::: ':::!144:i'7::fiFil:'''!:":i:'f::!:: ''' :': - '' '''i:::::4:::5rc0'VIii ''' ' i : 4e:':eIV:4Si:I'''$61!::174R411g::IN' ':k :'41e:::'4A:t"f":::g!!!'' :: ' ' - : ' ': ':6!4':'74s:14q! g :: t:ii'' ' - 4M I' - ' : often painted mythoin a primitive setting these nymphs logical characters like Utah Painting Haseltine was formerly director of the Washington State Arts Commission and directed the Salt Lake Art Center during the A poster of "The Dream of Endymion" will be sold at the Art Center along with the catalog Zimbeaux will be available to sign them during the opening reception Feb 2 from 6 to 8 pm h Lectures on the art of Francis Zimbeaux will be given at noon each Wednesday in February at the Salt Lake Art Center The retrospective will open at the Springville Museum of Art July 26 and on Oct 4 at the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery Southern Utah State College in Cedar City full-col- 1980s Prices for a Francis Zimbeaux range from an average $300 to $400 for a small pen and ink drawing to $3000 for a large oil on canvas A Frank Zimbeaux painting hasn't been sold since his death in 1935 but Francis is considering selling a select few of his father's works partly to establish a sale value He says they're hard to part with Art-Lunc- Retrospectives are work of arts group Retrospective Inc which spent two years creating the upcoming Francis Zimbeaux retrospective was formed in 1986 by Lila Abersold Ruth Lubbers Ernest Muth and Marcia Price president of the nonprofit fine arts organization Price explains it all began as "a love affair with the visual arts and a commitment to the wonderful artists of Utah" who she says rarely get the recognition they deserve Price says Zimbeaux is not as well known as he should be in the valley he's worked in for 40 years Ruth Lubbers adds "One of the things that struck us is that Francis has always kept a single vision He hasn't been affected by the trends around him And we were very impressed by really wants from us" The group's first show was a retrospective of sculpture by Avard T Fairbanks in 1987 Retrospective inc members try to personalize what is done for each artist They made a video for example for Fairbanks But for Zimbeaux an intensely private person they chose to do a definitive catalog and a poster instead Famed New York graphic designer Milton Glaser who canceled a November appearance in Utah due to illness has rescheduled Known internationally for magazine illustration book design corporate logos and album covers he recently redesigned (including architectural interior packaging and advertising) the Grand Union company a large Eastern super market chain Glaser will lecture at 7:30 pm Monday in the auditorium of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Building at the University of Utah The evening will begin with a 6 pm social hour in the Alvin Gittins Callery of the Art & Architecture Building Glaser's talk is sponsored by the Salt Lake chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Champion Paper Company Admission is $5 for AIGA members and $18 for the general public Students from the U of U Brigham Young University and Salt Lake Community College will he admitted free with valid identification In connection with the graphic designer's visit a free poster exhibit of about 35 selected works by The Zimbeaux exhibition is only the second project for the group It takes two years Price says to select an artist and collect works which must often be ferreted out of attics and warehouses Ruth Lubbers says it's important to take time to develop a personal relationship with the artist "so that we can be sensitive to what the artist regularly in Lyon's eyes and in those of his friend Patti Smith His reputation as a master of formal beauty is also fictionalized by the evidence A diptych of a flower achieves its variety with a long shot A diptych of Smith and a close-u- p shows inventiveness by having her stand up and then sit down Warhol proved that playing dumb could be telling but Mapplethorpe wasn't quite sharp enough to see the virtue of real dumbness His "sculptural" pbotogrraphs — often symbolically loackd black male torsos — work only occasionally as in a shot of a ropey muscled arm Usually such shots are impressive simply because the chosen model had a formidable body Mapplethorpe relied enormously on subject matter his own gifts — while real — were hampered by very limited expressive range and inventiveness If there is any larger human lesson to be gleaned from Mapplethorpe's sensibility it may have to do with religion The artist was a lapsed Catholic a fact that would not be worth mentioning if that influence did not show up in his art The earliest work on view is an enigmatic assemblage called "The Rack" An image of a haloed female saint — perhaps the virgin — stands holding her outer garment open her hands pierced by real needles suspending a crucifix The sides of the box are draped with two black cravats One senses this re ligious theme continuing in later works like a pair of heart-shape- d reliquary boxes containing stilettos There is ample suggestion as in Warhol's work that a curdled religious impulse lies somewhere behind even his most outrageous sadomasochistic visions Dark romantics like Mapplethorpe seek freedom unto death and leave the rest of us wondering how much of it we really need bow much of it really we can stand Lubbers values the artistic control small arts group makes possible "We're all busy people and were able to do our thing without a lot of red tape that a larger organization would generate" And there are decided advantages to creating a major retrospective Lubbers says Going through an artist's work with him is "like an instant art history course but on the personal side" — Ann Poore a Art notes: Milton Glaser offers lecture at U of U Utah mothers Glaser will be shown in the Alvin Gittens Gallery through Thursday Gallery hours are 8 am to 5 pm weekdays On Sunday by special arrangement the gallery will be open from 2 to 5 pm Colorado graphic designer Robert Coonts will deliver a presentation Thursday at 7:30 pm in the Collett Art Gallery at Weber State College An designer himself Coonts is this of Colorado year's State University's annual ''Posters From Around the World" show part of which is currently on display in the Collett gallery The exhibition sponsored by the department of visual arts feag tures posters from Israel West Germany Turkey Bulgaria Yugoslavia Poland Japan and elsewhere To help Offset the cost of this show the gallery is hosting an auction of exhibition posters at about 8:30 pm immediately after the lecture Bidding on each poster will start at $15 Both events are free and open to the public award-winnin- Utah mothers over age 18 may submit up to three works to the Annual American Mothers Fine Arts and Crafts Competition All fine arts including sculpture are eligible for the fine arts category Crafts including needlework and quilting may be submitted in the crafts category work must be framed and there is a $5 fee per item submitted Works must be taken to the Tivoli Gallery 255 S State St Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm or Jan 29 from 2 to 5 pm Cash awards ribbons and certillatm will be given Two works will advance to a national competition in New York The sponsoring organization hopes to encourage mothers to express themselves through the arts thereby benefiting their families and communities The Utah Association of American Mothers will open their art show Feb 3 at 4 pm at the gallery with performances and readings by vocal-Lat- h and writers The public is invited to ittend 1' g award-winnin- Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday 8 am to 10 pm and Friday from 8 am to 4 pm TIMINSINEIErgamonemag A2t'- - call for entries ti c' rt" ':'1'':'-t'41'f1:' x6iWik k A:4 :5'- :':i Notoriety upstages Mapplethorpe show By William Wilson '' A' that" tl::1:::: - i ' - It' ::: 1: In 1933 two years before his death Frank twit- :!:!?': ' 1 - ::: : §1: A : :::!7-::::- i 'A - :::::::: ::: ni :::' f::" It sp a '' :": :::' ::':::N'41:j ffoot!1f i I ::::::: ::7 fiA-:::::::- ':'" ' ?ii 'r ' ':i -- 'r:' :: ::::::::::::: ::: : " 9t 431' ':' ': :':: '' '':' :::::::::::::::-4::::::- ' 4 ' 1::': ::: 1: ! :s ::::: ' ::::::: V ' :::: :::: :: i'': t4::i':7' °':'- ::: ': :::::::' :': :::' - i '1:::: ‘: ::- I::: ::::::: ' ' ::' ::: : ::e6 4 mythology all its own - '''''''':'::1:1:':'7::-':::'::'''':::1:1ift- artamansvonnosaal 0: CASINO - - OURS E DA EVER CKAGES & tit -- Et tsit - NEVADACCROSSING' 5iN014doortuDOVtli 81111te firnbitS1 Evoyabv ilpDay ) lir )111 111 Biuntifil 0 illiwilltmfinitiitidifal11181111111411171° 401 ours isoombilluslitimilliting 0 I Ciwilelt - egkagel '1100111ohowttstoktist "OS rgitmleittivitiThilf — i 'filly &uses OUt SPeciallY Bilmoityignitotoldams Now i - i — - Lai itaisiiLluittiti Tours ViENDOVER ROOM RESERVATIONS! 1 EVA tiAITO Erns I I 63P30 I vs yof oikoteviwoom I tw 11(4114 :--- - ! pot tot:s AViltfOr4 4140011410)11be h ' 4 Ii t "vat" M14014110tk" 1 "4q00111""44Mitt""Att if" evlatp"1""Ait"""affe""00spark JAN Ft" '111 "AN tssANAltAloo011stftsaftoit"ilno"41r 4cti |
