UMUC James Hilleary Exhibition, 2012

Arts ProgrAm / University of mArylAnd University College

James Hilleary Catalog Cover_PREP.indd 1 11/20/12 3:22 PM

Arts ProgrAm

university of mArylAnd university College

deCember 2, 2012–februAry 3, 2013

James Hilleary Catalog Text_PREP.indd 1 11/26/12 12:47 PM

2

Welcome

Dear Patrons of the Arts,

Welcome to Modernism: James Hilleary and Color. This exhibition celebrates the work of James Hilleary, who has spent his life exploring art and architecture in the Washington, D.C., area, where his family has deep roots.

Hilleary may be aptly described as a Renaissance man. Not only has he worked as an architect and an artist, but he was also a professional pianist for some time and served in the Army during World War II. Like many of our military servicemembers today, Hilleary used his GI Bill benefits to advance his education and attend college. He earned a degree in architecture, began his career, built his home, and decided to give greater attention to his art.

Hilleary’s passion for creating visual art developed in part due to his desire to own certain types of art that he could not otherwise afford. He began creating works in the style of others. Eventually, he developed his own signature style, which is on display in this exhibition. Today, we are so fortu-nate to be able to enjoy Hilleary’s broad body of work, which spans multiples series and includes works he created over several decades. Thank you for joining us.

Sincerely,

Javier MiyaresPresidentUniversity of Maryland University College

Kath

erine Lam

bert


3

IntroductionErIc KEy, DIrEctor, Arts ProgrAm

UnIvErsIty of mArylAnD UnIvErsIty collEgE

Two years ago the exhibition committee for the Arts Program began reviewing proposals for the next two years of exhibitions. With many proposals in hand, the committee and Arts Program staff began a task that was painful on one hand and rewarding on the other. It was painful because the committee wished it had the space to exhibit the works of all the artists; it was rewarding because the committee decided on a group of exhibitions that were artistic, creative, historical, reflective, innovative, and edu-cational. These exhibitions became the 2012–2014 exhibition season of the Arts Program at University of Maryland University College (UMUC). Given the Arts Program’s quest to support local and regional artists and to expose its audience to a wide variety of culturally diverse artists, it became clear that we had a jewel in our midst—James “Jim” Hilleary. Under the suggestion of the program’s curator, Brian Young, Modernism: James Hilleary and Color was born.

Hilleary is a Maryland-based artist who is a painter, musician, and architect and a father, son, and husband. Hilleary had a long career as an architect and designed his modern-style family home, which served as the birthplace of many of his artistic creations. Along with his distinguished careers as an architect and as an artist, he is also a musician. Marrying the three artistic disciplines, Hilleary is known as one of the area’s leading and distinguished artists. He started his career as an artist at an early age, spending his time drawing and painting. He was surrounded by artists, beginning with his father, who was aspiring to be a professional visual artist, and, later, his contact with C. Law Watkins at the Phil-lips Collection. Watkins was his father’s art instructor. Traveling in his father’s circle put him in constant contact with many of the area’s visual artists, some of whose artistic styles he began to imitate. Imitat-ing the art styles of his peers proved to be advantageous in developing his own personal art style. He learned color and shapes. He began to explore new techniques and concepts in making art while at the same time being an architect. Soon he merged his three artistic disciplines to begin making sophisti-cated works of art. It was not until he married his joy for color, music, and architecture that he began his second career as a visual artist.

Steven

Halp

erson


4

Hilleary developed as an artist and colorist at the same time that the Washington Color Painters emerged on the scene as a defined movement. Hilleary did not have direct contact with many of the well-known artists of the Washington Color Field painters such as Gene Davis, Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, Paul Reed, Thomas Downing, and Howard Mehring, even though he was producing the same style of works as these artists at the time. He was not invited to exhibit in the premier Washington Color Painters exhibition in 1965, but he is considered one of the Washington Color School painters along with Sam Gilliam, Anne Truitt, Jacob Kainen, Kenneth Young, and Leon Berkowitz, to name a few.

In a 1971 essay, Ben Forgey stated, “he paints abstract paintings by staining the canvas and he deals with the problems of scale and sterility and color in a logical and clear-headed way that is not without its own particular mystery. His paintings, in short, owe much to the examples of Gene Davis and Kenneth Noland, in particular, and to the whole spectrum of color-field painting, in general.”

UMUC is grateful for the assistance of Jim Hilleary, his wife Peggy, and their son Keirn. With their support, UMUC is pleased to present Modernism: James Hilleary and Color to the community.


5

sight, sound, and structure: the Aesthetics of James HillearyDAvID gArIff, Art HIstorIAn AnD sEnIor lEctUrErnAtIonAl gAllEry of Art

James Hilleary’s history, instincts, and training as an artist reflect a complex amalgam of aesthetic goals and principles. Hilleary is a pianist, architect, and painter, and his art embodies most of the major prem-ises of 20th-century modernism. These include the importance of abstraction, pure color, formalist rigor, and new theoretical concepts challenging traditional ideas of painting and its relationship to reality.

Hilleary was born in Washington, D.C., in 1924 and educated at the Catholic University of America, where he earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1950. As a painter, he came to be thought of (rightly or wrongly) as a late adherent of the Washington Color School. The emergence of the painters Morris Louis (1912–1962), Kenneth Noland (1924–2010), Gene Davis (1920–1985), Howard Mehring (1931–1978), Thomas Downing (1928–1985), and Paul Reed (b. 1919) during the late ’50s and the ’60s established Washington, D.C., as home to a vibrant form of painting that expanded upon earlier investigations by New York painters Mark Rothko (1903–1970) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011). Emphasizing the use of pure colors stained directly onto unprimed, cotton-duck canvas, Washington Color School painting achieved new abstract formal and technical innova-tions in a post-abstract expressionist world. Supported by the writings and reviews of Clement Green-berg and showcased in important exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Post Painterly Abstraction, 1964) and the Washington Gallery of Modern Art (The Washington Color Painters, 1965), the painters of Washington, D.C., garnered both national and international attention. The facts of James Hilleary’s exhibition history are summarized at the end of the catalog. This essay discusses the deeper themes and inspirations that have underpinned his artistic development from its earliest moments. Among these are four interrelated and complementary principles that forge the matrix upon which most of his personal expression is built: architecture, color, music, and abstraction


6

tied to structural, visual, and emotional sensation. At this stage in his life and career, it seems less important to repeat Hilleary’s exhibition history. These facts are readily available through the many reviews and catalogs of his work. Instead, it is more enlightening to discuss the deeper themes and inspirations that have underpinned his artistic development from its earliest moments.

It is apparent that Hilleary’s artistic vision is infused with an intelligence and understanding of the many cross-references between and among painting, architecture, music, and their deeper signifi-cance as abstract languages and material forms. Such thinking places him at the heart of modern-ist theory as practiced by such seminal painters as Monet, Cézanne, Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, and Kandinsky as well as by his contemporary New York and Washington, D.C., peers. But inspira-tions and references in Hilleary’s work abound, from the fugues of Bach, to jazz improvisation, and the tenets of Bauhaus architecture.

A taut, modernist vocabulary is appropriate when discussing Hilleary’s work—words and concepts like compression, tension, asymmetry, flatness, surface pattern, color, line, harmony, rhythm, balance, and edge. Such a vocabulary reflects the sister arts that have long interested the painter: tension, compression, and structure from archi-tecture, and harmony, rhythm, and counterpoint from music. But such terminology fails to reveal the more expansive nature of Hilleary’s pictorial achievement. As one progresses through his work, from the hard-edge paintings of the ’60s to the After Images (1973–1974), Alta (1975), Variations (1979–1999), M-Series (1979), Reflections (1989–1995), Petals (1996–1997), and Striae (2000–2004) series, we witness a growing engagement with nature, light, atmosphere, mark-making, and the intangible and sub-jective elements of personal expression. This tension between the objective and rigid world of pure painting found in Hilleary’s earlier works and the subjective and protean quality of his later paintings charts one of the major journeys in his life as an artist.

What is revealing about this journey is that it is an inversion of the common path from nature to nonobjective painting usually taken by artists—one thinks first and foremost of Kandinsky and Mondrian. In Hilleary’s oeuvre we witness not so much the movement toward greater and greater economy but a progressive reengagement with a natural world defined by light, color, atmo-

color is the keyboard,

the eyes are the hammers,

the soul is the piano

with its many chords.

the artist is the hand that,

by touching this or that key,

sets the soul vibrating

automatically.

—WAssIly KAnDInsKy


7

sphere, and the horizon—in essence “abstract or subliminal landscapes” as characterized by Donald Kuspit in his catalog essay for a 2003 Hilleary retrospective held at the Edison Place Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Hilleary’s paintings are constant dialogues with artists from the past and present with whom he shares a natural affinity for the structure and logic of color (Frank Stella, Kenneth Noland, Gene Davis, Paul Reed), as well as for its atmospheric and lumines-cent qualities (Claude Monet, Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis). In each series we follow a logical progression and expansion of formal techniques, processes, interests, and content. Any artist blessed with as long and productive a career as Hilleary confronts the dilemma of repetition and redundancy: the “what do I do now?” syndrome. Hilleary’s art, however, viewed as a lifetime’s body of work represents a con-stant reinvestigation and rethinking of most of the major strategies of pure painting. To experience his art in the context of a comprehensive retrospective is to behold the sections of a vast symphonic composition created over a lifetime composed of many movements, each one exploring a variation on a visual theme. As with any great sym-phony, the musical (or visual) syntax can change—expand, contract, accelerate, slow down, become louder or softer, move from the grave to the comedic, embed itself in the reality of life and nature, or aspire to the mystical and universal. Hilleary’s paintings #59 Coptic (1966) and #92 (1967), speak eloquently of his transition from architec-ture to painting. The paintings from the ’60s investigate the structure, shape, and movement of color explored through symmetry, balance, and edge tension. The presence of a central structural “beam” of color that becomes progressively subsumed into all-over surface pattern in itself speaks of the waning of the architectonic in favor of the pictorial.

This struggle between the structural and the pictorial continues to develop in the After Image and Alta Series in which the vestiges of a structured grid appear to move over, in, and through a more diapha-nous curtain of luminescent color. In some cases the grid seems to be evaporating; in others its struc-tural integrity disintegrates into ragged edges of color bathed in an aura that appears as a momentary

#59 Coptic, (Blue Coptic)

Keirn

Hilleary


8

glow. Here is the very essence of an “after image,” the optical residue or replication of an initial viewing experience. It seems only proper to follow this slow disintegration of structure with paintings in the M-Series like #239 Etude, (1979) in which the reference to music is complete and the visual language at its most abstract. Here the ideas behind Kandinsky’s compositions and improvisations, the synes-thetic relationship between sound and color, move us from the architectural to the pictorial to the musical. The M-Series also owes much to Morris Louis’s Veils from the 1950s as Hilleary’s thinned acrylics on unprimed canvas descend downward from the top edge to create a curtain of variegated color. Hilleary’s Petal Series is close in spirit to the M-Series but with a major difference—its greater reliance on the natural world, referred to in its title.

Variations I and II explore a new dimension in Hilleary’s work. Through their gestural action they are more concerned with kinetic activity and mark-making. More than the American abstract ex-pressionists, here one thinks of post-World War II European painters associated with Art Informel, especially the calligraphic paintings by Hans Hartung. It is in Hilleary’s Reflection Series that we most closely approach the idea of the “abstract or sub-liminal” landscape referred to by Kuspit. Along a horizontal support we find amorphous registers of color moving laterally across the canvas. These bands are separated in the center by a contrast-ing band in a major “key” made dominant through its darkness, candle power, or absence of color (like a rest in music). References to Monet’s impressionist landscapes are inevitable and openly acknowledged by Hilleary. Monet’s paintings of the Houses of Parliament and Poplar Trees, with their visual “call and response” of reflected images (another musical concept) are at the heart of these subtle and introspective works.

The progression from the Reflection Series to the Striae Series is self-evident and yet still sur-prises. As with many modernist painters, it is only through a chronological analysis of the artist’s evolution that one unlocks the thought process and comes to understand the inevitability of the final destination. In paintings such as #368 Striae, Series #30 (2004) the landscape references are obliterated by hundreds of thin vertical drips or striations of paint within a limited monochromatic


9

range that fill the entire surface. Hilleary creates variety by altering the colors, paint application, and shape of the supports (vertical/horizontal/square/rectangle). With a limited vocabulary, the Striae Se-ries includes some of Hilleary’s most optically engaging paintings.

It is hard to deny that in our contemporary world new media and technologies have altered the na-ture, purpose, and scope of artistic expression. But most discussions about the relevance of painting (questions extending back to Marcel Duchamp and before him into the 19th century with the birth of photography) now seem hackneyed and cliché-ridden. Debates about representation and abstraction, academic and avant-garde, modern and postmodern, nature and culture, originality and appropriation often obscure more serious questions and concerns. This returns us to the importance of Kan-dinsky’s art and thought as keys for a deeper understanding of the aesthetics of James Hilleary. Kandinsky’s belief in the transformative power of abstract art marks him, along with his contemporaries Mondrian and Kasimir Malev-ich, as utopian. Each of these artists believed in the creative act as spiritual aspiration and personal revelation. Their paintings at-tempted to affirm (or reaffirm) the presence of the spiritual in the modern world at a time when faith in the power and relevance of art was waging what many saw as a losing battle against materi-alism and corruption.

The paintings of James Hilleary are the spiritual descendents of Kandinsky’s art and thought. He reaffirms many of the same impulses and addresses many of the same concerns while struggling with many of the same problems. As such, his art, like Kandinsky’s, strives to help us negotiate the many discomforting truths we often face in our troubled times.

#368 Striae, Series #30

Joh

n W

oo


10

Artist’s BiographyJAmEs HIllEAryBorn 1924, Washington D.C.

EDUcAtIonBArch, 1950, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.

sElEctED collEctIonsThe Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

sElEctED solo ExHIBItIons2007 James Hilleary: Recent Work, Osuna Art, Bethesda, Maryland2003 Forty Year Retrospective, Edison Place Gallery, Washington, D.C.1999 Paintings 1960’s through 1990’s, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Maryland1997 Petal Series, Susan Conway Gallery, Washington, D.C.1997 Hilleary at Strathmore, Strathmore Hall, Rockville, Maryland1996 Paintings & Works on Paper, Gregory Gallery, New York, New York1994–95 Small Drawings and Table Top Sculpture, Susan Conway Gallery, Washington, D.C.1989 Abstractionist Abroad, Susan Conway Gallery, Washington, D.C.1988 Susan Conway Carroll Gallery, Washington, D.C. 1979 Barbara Fiedler Gallery, Washington, D.C.1978 Mini Review, Marlboro Gallery, Prince George’s Community College, Largo, Maryland1978 Twelve Year Review, Studio Gallery, Washington, D.C.1975–76 Alta Series, Studio Gallery, Washington, D.C.1974 Afterimage Series, Studio Gallery, Washington, D.C.1971 Studio Gallery, Washington, D.C.1968 Henri Gallery, Washington, D.C.

for me, painting is a

natural extension of

the creativity which

directed me professionally

toward architecture.

—JAmEs HIllEAry

Keirn

Hilleary


11

sElEctED groUP ExHIBItIons2009–10 Washington Color School, Academy Art Museum, Easton, Maryland2007 The Washington Color School, Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.2002 Susan Conway Gallery, Washington, D.C.2001 Explorers, Rockville Arts Place, Rockville, Maryland1990–92 Art in the Embassy, American Embassy, Lisbon, Portugal1989 30 Years Later, Gallery K, Washington, D.C.1977 Anniversary Show, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, D.C.1974 19th Area Exhibition, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.1972 Two from Washington, A.M. Sachs Gallery, New York, New York1971 50th Anniversary Exhibition, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.1970 Maryland Annual, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland1969 Maryland Regional, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland1969 18th Area Exhibition, Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.1967 Henri Gallery, Washington, D.C.1966 Henri Gallery, Alexandria, Virginia

sElEct BIBlIogrAPHyEbony, David. “James Hilleary at Gregory,” Art in America, Nov. 1996.Forgey, Benjamin. “More Abstractions than Excitement,” Washington Star News, Apr. 1, 1974.Forgey, Benjamin. “Around the Galleries: Encounters with High Levels of Energy and Ambition,” Washington Star News, Feb. 12, 1978.Forgey, Benjamin. “Geometry as an Anchor for Rich Explorations,” Washington Star News, Friday, Nov. 9, 1979.Kuspit, Donald. “James Hilleary: Painting Retrospective,” Washington Arts Museum, Washington D.C., 2003–04.Lewis, Joanne. “‘Awakening Land’: An Intelligent, Insightful Sage,” Washington Post, Feb. 18, 1978.Protzman, Ferdinand. “Color School Graduate,” Washington Post, Oct. 9, 1997.Richard, Paul. “Rainer’s Scream of Consciousness,” Washington Post, Feb. 20, 1988.Weizenbach, Michael. “A Colorist of Formidable Ability Plays Dual Role as Both Artist and Architect,” Washington Post, Dec. 6, 1985.Wright, Peyton. “James Hilleary: A Retrospective,” Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2012.Young, Brian. “Washington Color Painters,” Academy Art Museum, Easton, Maryland, 2009–10.


12

A conversation with the ArtistEdited interview of James Hilleary conducted in Bethesda, Maryland, on Friday, October 12, 2012, by Brian Young, curator of the Arts Program at UMUC, with additional comments from Peggy Hilleary, the artist’s wife.

brian: Jim, let’s start at the beginning. Where were you born? Are you a lifetime resident of the D.C. area? Where did you go to school early on?

Jim: Well, my family arrived in Georgetown in 1659. I went to school there. It was a parochial school in Georgetown headed by nuns. I attended first through eighth [grades]. Then, I went to a boy’s school, Gonzaga.

brian: Were you an art student in high school?

Jim: I was interested in art. I was interested in music. I did a lot of playing, professionally. I had a radio show.

brian: What instrument did you play?

Jim: Piano.

brian: So you were a professional pianist for a while?

Jim: Oh yes. I did a lot of that. Also did a lot of that in the Army.

brian: When did you serve in the Army? Where and when?

Jim: Let’s see, I graduated from high school in ’42 and immedi-ately got my greetings from Uncle Sam and I was off.

brian: Did you fight in World War II?

Jim: I won’t say I fought in World War II, but I was in World War II, but always on the safe side. Somebody was looking after me.

brian: Were you a product of the GI Bill?

Jim: Very definitely. When I was in high school, a [university] would turn out about three architects a year. With the GI Bill it was more like a 150. It was a great contrast. I think the GI Bill was a great liberator for middle class society making things possible for people who otherwise couldn’t afford to.

brian: After you left the Army, you took advantage of the GI Bill. Where did you choose to go to school? How did that work?

Jim: Well, when I was in high school, the best architectural school was Catholic University. When I got home, my family said, “You have been away so long, why don’t you go to Catholic U?” So, I had by that time, Harvard or some other place in mind. But my family wanted me to be around for a while.

brian: So you went to Catholic! You studied architecture. Was there ever a consideration to study music?

Jim: I had been studying music since I was this high . . . It was just there. I can’t imagine a time when it wasn’t. I guess to a cer-tain extent I was sort of a clone of my father; we had two sharedinterests: art and music. That was all we ever talked about.


13

brian: So you had an interest not just in music but also the visual arts from your father?

Jim: Oh, very definitely. My father studied art at the Phillips. And, I think it was the first time I went there. I probably crawled through the front door. I started going to the Phillips very early. I spent a whole life at the Phillips . . . Artists of my time, Gene Davis, Howard Mehring, everybody loved the Phillips.

brian: Did you ever bump into those guys when you went there?

Jim: My childhood was before I met any of them.

brian: Did you ever take classes from the Phillips?

Jim: I took art classes, but not from the Phillips. . . . I learned a lot from looking. I learned the way Van Gogh used a brushstroke to express something. That’s all it took. I remember The Boating Party [Luncheon of the Boating Party]. I wasn’t into Renoir par-ticularly. But I thought the still life on the table was magnificent in an abstract way. I just learned a lot from the Phillips.

brian: So you graduated from Catholic. Became an architect. When did visual arts, painting, become an activity that grew in significance or in stature?

Jim: It was after I built this house. Because I was frustrated for things I couldn’t afford. So I would execute things in the manner of other artists. It just sort of opened the door to production.

brian: What year was this house built?

Jim: 1957

brian: The roof was changed and the studio added later? Yes. So you probably started painting when you first moved.

Jim: I had always painted and drawn . . . I have drawings that I made all through childhood.

Peggy: [One of Olympic ice skater] Sonja Hennie.

Jim: And Shirley Temple. I was always drawing.

brian: About what time did painting take on a larger role for you?

Jim: The stimulation was that I couldn’t afford what I would like to have. I was associated with Phillip Johnson on a project and resented the fact that he was rich (laughter). He could buy what he wanted!

brian: So you are a painter. You are stimulated in part visually by the Phillips Collection. But yet you are best known as someone who paints abstract work. At what point was the transition from painting things at the Phillips to working in abstraction?

Jim: It was the precision of architecture. Everything had to be so tight. So perfect! So accurate! It was kind of fun to just, you know, just surrender.

brian: When you were painting, did you try to get into exhibi-tions and be known as a visual artist as well? Or is this some-thing you were quietly pursuing on your own?


14

Peggy: He did some remodeling for Henri [Henrietta Ehrsam Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.].

Jim: I joined Henri when she was in Alexandria. I think possibly because of Howard [Mehring]. We had a friend do accounting for Henri. So, we were always hearing about Henri . . . I thought that is the kind of gallery I would like to be in because I admired the painting . . .

Returning to the remodeling project! I remember first thinking I would like to make the space very New York. But, then I real-ized how successful she had been down there on Royal Street in a house setting and how wonderful it was to have your paint-ings shown in her living space because you saw the possibility of having two things work together. So when we went up to P Street . . . Henri was very successful with that residential quality and how well it worked for the artist because there was a com-patibility and a warmth to it.

Peggy: [Former director of the Baltimore Museum of Art Adelyn] Breeskin was the first person that was respectable and recog-nized his work as being equal to anyone showing at the time. When she saw Windows from his architectural period, it was blue and gray and smoky, with holes and cut squares in it . . . she was very impressed . . .

brian: What other artists did you know? Did you socialize with other visual artists? Was there camaraderie there?

Jim: I didn’t know any of the other artists well until Adelyn Breeskin thought I ought to get better acquainted with all of them.

Peggy: We got to know Leon Berkowitz quite well. Ben Forgey always gave good reviews.

Jim: Oh yes. I had the good fortune of having mostly every show I did get reviewed.

brian: I have a personal affinity for drawings. As for the Wash-ington Color Painters, the drawings are secondary or at least in many of the exhibitions. What role did drawings play in your work? Did you do sketches for your work before you executed them?

Jim: Sometimes I would do drawing. Sometimes I would go further.

Peggy: You would sit up in bed doing pastel sketches.

brian: I think you had different categories or different series as it were. It could be Reflections and Striae. How did you start the series? Where was the spark? What was your inspiration for starting a series and then ending it and starting a new one?

Jim: Well, I think everything was an outgrowth of what went before.

Peggy: The Monet gardens, didn’t that inspire your Reflections?

Jim: Oh yes.

brian: Tell me about what inspired you to make the really large works? Works that might be 13 or 14 feet across?


15

Jim: I guess I admired big paintings. I remember having a con-versation with my father. I was having a show at Barbara Fiedler across the street from the Phillips. And my father was saying, “Why do you work large? Nobody has space for large works.” And we walked into the townhouse of Barbara Fiedler. There was the dining room and there were four big walls and each one of them had a big work on it. And, you know, it works. Why not?

brian: How did you know when a series was over?

Jim: I saw everything as a continuation of what went before.

brian: What about your Variations Series with the tendrils coming into each other?

Jim: I love doing those. I remember I used to hang out at a jazz club on Pennsylvania Avenue. One night the guy that I was with was leaving us. [I asked], “Why are you leaving so early?” and he said, “We are going to walk up to Henri’s gallery on the canal because she has a big picture window in the front of the build-ing.” And she had this painting up. And they said it looks like the building is on fire.

Later on, I think I made this same walk with Carroll Sockwell looking at this painting, looking like fire with this intense light. (It was #245 Variations Series II, 1979.)

brian: I think a lot of people see your work as strictly abstract, that is, no discernible subject matter. Is that the case? Or are there things where maybe your work does reflect a figure or the landscape or sky or fire as you say?

Jim: When I was doing these (Variations Series) I always thought of the Sistine Ceiling.

brian: So in the case of these Variations, you see one is the hand of God and the other being the hand of Adam?

Jim: Yeah, that’s right. There is serenity there . . . calming, you know.

brian: If somebody saw fire in your work or thought that it was a meteor shower and they came up with things you didn’t come up with, what are your thoughts?

Jim: They have better vision than I have (laughter). I guess if they see something they want to see that is all right with me.

brian: Tell me a little about your family. And do any of their activities influence your work?

Jim: We got married in 1953.

Peggy: August first. Then, we took off on a three-month honeymoon abroad.

Jim: Oh, we had a great time.

brian: Peggy, are you an artist at all, a musician?

Peggy: Not at all. No way. I used to think I drew well but that was many years ago. I haven’t done it since.


16

Jim: But she used to work for the National Gallery of Art.

Peggy: When I got out of college, a friend of mine was an art major. She got a job there at the Information Room. So they asked me to join, too, and I was there for a couple of years until Jim came along.

brian: So, you met Jim at the National Gallery?

Peggy: Yes. He was dating a friend of mine.

Jim: We are all happy about the way it all turned out in the end.

brian: How many kids do you have?

Peggy: Four.

brian: Are any of them artists?

Jim: Oh yes!

Peggy: The miniatures are done by our daughter.

brian: I noticed you have a pond out front. And one of the pieces I included in the show is called Koi. So once you know the title and know that about you, it becomes a very autobio-graphical piece . . .

Jim: I used to enjoy going and feeding the koi at the end of the day. They would come right up and eat out of my hands. I could pet them on the head. Koi are just amazing fish . . . They are like children.

brian: I think that is a lovely image, and I think that you captured some of the energy of the way that they all congregate and radi-ate out in a circle.

brian: What did you enjoy more—painting or architecture?

Jim: Painting. Definitely painting! Architecture is too demand-ing. I was sort of glad when it was all over.

brian: When did you retire as an architect?

Jim: Around 1993 or 1994. I just let it go. It was a relief. Life was freer.


featured Artwork

Eglise, 1962, acrylic on canvas, 34 x 42 in.

Joh

n W

oo


18

#59 Coptic, (Blue Coptic),

1966, acrylic on canvas,

68 x 44 in.

Keirn

Hilleary


19

#91 Untitled, 1968, acrylic on canvas, 68 x 68 in.

Joh

n W

oo


Joh

n W

oo


21

#127 Untitled, 1971,

acrylic on canvas,

64 x 64 in.

#144 Come Sun, 1971, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 89 in.

|

John Woo


22

#174 Orange in Rose,


67 x 47 in.

Keirn

Hilleary


23

#175 Black and White in Umber, 1973,

acrylic on canvas, 34 x 25 in.

#182 Green and White in Blue, 1974,

acrylic on canvas, 34 x 25 in.

Joh

n W

oo

Joh

n W

oo


24

#201 Untitled, Alta Series #15, 1976, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 38 in.

Joh

n W

oo


25

#204 Magenta, Alta Series #18, 1976, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 102 in.

Keirn

Hilleary


26

#245 Variations Series II,

acrylic on canvas, 1979,

79 x 135 in.

#244 Libra, M Series,


38 x 58 in.

Keirn

Hilleary

Joh

n W

oo


27

#266 Early Morning, spring 1984, acrylic on canvas, 43 x 80 in.

Keirn

Hilleary


28

#268 Koi, 1988, acrylic on canvas 46½ x 56 in.

Keirn

Hilleary


29

#273 Rose in Green, 1988, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 57 in.

Joh

n W

oo


30

#287 Aurora Borealis, Reflection Series II, acrylic on canvas, 1990, 79 x 116 in.

Keirn

Hilleary


#288 Untitled, Reflection Series III, 1991–1994, acrylic on canvas, 37 x 57 in.

John Woo


32

right

#309C Gold in Gray

Center

#309B Black in Gray

fAr right

#309A White in Gray

(triptych), 1995,

acrylic on canvas,

24 x 54 in. (total)


Joh

n W

oo


34

#320 Petal Series, 1996, acrylic on canvas, 39½ x 39½ in.

Keirn

Hilleary


35

#332 Variations Series II,


48½ x 80½ in.

#364 Striae, Series #26,


43 x 63 in.

Keirn

Hilleary

Joh

n W

oo


36

No. 7 Reflection Series, August 1993, Conte pastel on Bristol board, 7 x 10 in.

Joh

n W

oo


37

No. 41 Reflection Series, November 1993,

Conte pastel on Bristol board, 7 x 6 in.

No. 44 Reflection Series, November 1993,

Conte pastel on Bristol board, 7 x 6 in.

Joh

n W

oo

Joh

n W

oo


38

No. 75 Reflection Series,

January 1994, Conte pastel

on Bristol board, 6 x 9 in.

No. 80 Reflection Series,

1994, Conte pastel on

Bristol board, 6 x 9 in.

Joh

n W

oo

Joh

n W

oo


39

No. 81 Reflection Series, January 1994, Conte pastel on Bristol board, 6 x 9 in.

Joh

n W

oo


40

Design 3B, designed in

the 1960s, fabricated 1994,

plastic, 19 x 13 x 13 in.

Joh

n W

oo


41

Untitled, designed in the

1960s, fabricated 1994,

wood, 8½ x 7 x 7 in.

Untitled, designed in the 1960s,

fabricated 1994, wood, 13 x 5 x 5 in.

Untitled, designed in the

1960s, fabricated 1994,

wood, 8½ x 7 x 7 in.

Keirn

Hilleary


42

Exhibition checklistPAIntIngsEglise, 1962, acrylic on canvas, 34 x 42 in.

#59 Coptic, (Blue Coptic), 1966, acrylic on canvas, 68 x 44 in.



#144 Come Sun, 1971, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 89 in.

#174 Orange in Rose, 1973, acrylic on canvas, 67 x 47 in.

#175 Black and White in Umber, 1973, acrylic on canvas, 34 x 25 in.

#182 Green and White in Blue, 1974, acrylic on canvas, 34 x 25 in.

#201 Untitled, Alta Series #15, 1976, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 38 in.

#204 Magenta, Alta Series #18, 1976, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 102 in.

#245 Variations Series II, acrylic on canvas, 1979, 79 x 135 in.

#244 Libra, M Series, 1979, acrylic on canvas, 38 x 58 in.

#266 Early Morning, spring 1984, acrylic on canvas, 43 x 80 in.

#268 Koi, 1988, acrylic on canvas 46½ x 56 in.

#273 Rose in Green, 1988, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 57 in.

#287 Aurora Borealis, Reflection Series II, acrylic on canvas,

1990, 79 x 116 in.

#288 Untitled, Reflection Series III, 1991–1994, acrylic on canvas,

37 x 57 in.

#309C Gold in Gray, #309B Black in Gray, #309A White in Gray,

(triptych), 1995, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 54 in. (total)

#320 Petal Series, 1996, acrylic on canvas, 39½ x 39½ in.

#332 Variations Series II, 1999, acrylic on canvas, 48½ x 80½ in.

#364 Striae, Series #26, 2004, acrylic on canvas, 43 x 63 in.

DrAWIngsNo. 7 Reflection Series, August 1993, Conte pastel on Bristol board, 7 x 10 in.

No. 41 Reflection Series, November 1993, Conte pastel on Bristol board, 7 x 6 in.

No. 44 Reflection Series, November 1993, Conte pastel on Bristol board, 7 x 6 in.


No. 80 Reflection Series, 1994, Conte pastel on Bristol board, 6 x 9 in.


scUlPtUrEDesign 3B, designed in the 1960s, fabricated 1994, plastic, 19 x 13 x 13 in.

Untitled, designed in the 1960s, fabricated 1994, wood, 13 x 5 x 5 in.

Untitled, designed in the 1960s, fabricated 1994, wood, 8½ x 7 x 7 in.

Untitled, designed in the 1960s, fabricated 1994, wood, 8½ x 7 x 7 in.

All artworks are courtesy of the artist.


43

About UmUcUMUC is the largest public university in the United States. As one of the 11 degree-granting institutions of the University System of Maryland, this global university specializes in high-quality academic programs tailored to working adults. UMUC has earned a worldwide reputation for excellence as a comprehensive virtual university and, through a combination of classroom and distance-learning formats, provides educational opportunities to more than 92,000 students.

The university is proud to offer highly acclaimed faculty and world-class student services to educate students online, throughout Maryland, across the United States, and in more than 25 countries and territories around the world. UMUC serves its students through undergraduate and graduate programs, noncredit leadership devel-opment, and customized programs. For more information regarding UMUC and its programs, visit www.umuc.edu.

About the Arts at UmUcSince 1978, University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has proudly shown works from a large collection of international and Maryland artists at the UMUC Inn and Conference Center in Adelphi, Maryland, a few miles from the nation’s capital. Through its Arts Pro-gram, the university provides a prestigious and wide-ranging forum for emerging and established artists and brings art to the community through its own collections, which have grown to include more than 1,900 pieces of art, and special exhibitions.

UMUC’s collections focus on both art by Maryland artists and art from around the world. They include the Maryland Artist Collection, the Doris Patz Collection of Maryland Artists, the Asian Collections, the Education Collection, and the International Collection. The university’s collec-tion of Maryland art includes approximately 1,400 works and provides a comprehensive survey of 20th- and 21st-century Maryland art. The university’s Asian Collections consist of nearly 420 pieces of Chinese

art, Japanese prints, and Balinese folk art, dating from the Tang Dynasty (618–907 a.d.) through the 19th century—a historical reach of 13 centu-ries. The UMUC collection of Japanese prints includes more than 120 prints by 35 artists.

Artworks are on display throughout the UMUC Inn and Conference Center and the Administration Building in Adelphi as well as at the UMUC Academic Center at Largo. The main, lower-level gallery in Adelphi is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week, and the Leroy Merritt Center for the Art of Joseph Sheppard is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. More than 100,000 students, scholars, and visitors come to the Adelphi facilities each year. Exhibitions at the UMUC Academic Center at Largo are open to visitors from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

UmUc Arts Program mission statementThe Arts Program at UMUC creates an environment in which its diverse constituents, including members of the university community and the general public, can study and learn about art by directly experiencing it.

The Arts Program seeks to promote the university’s core values and to provide educational opportunities for lifelong learning. From the research and study of works of art to the teaching applications of each of our exhibitions, the Arts Program will play an increasing role in aca-demic life at the university. With a regional and national focus, the Arts Program is dedicated to the acquisition, preservation, study, exhibition, and interpretation of works of art of the highest quality in a variety of media that represent its constituents and to continuing its historic dedication to Maryland and Asian art.


44

UmUc Art Advisory Board

Javier miyares

President

University of Maryland University College

michèle e. Jacobs, Chair

Managing Director

Special Events at Union Station

Anne v. maher, esq., vice Chair

Attorney at Law

Kleinfeld, Kaplan & Becker, LLP

eva J. Allen, Phd

Art Historian

myrtis bedolla

Owner and Founding Director

Galerie Myrtis

i-ling Chow, honorary member

Regional President and Managing Director, Ret.

Asia Bank, N.A.

Paula Cleggett

Associate Director for Policy

The Curb Center

Vanderbilt University

linda derrick

Collector and Patron of the Arts

Patricia dubroof

Artist/Consultant

IONA Senior Services

nina C. dwyer

Artist, Adjunct Professor of Art,

Montgomery College

Jeannette glover

Artist, Program Manager,

Maryland-National Capital Park

and Planning Commission

Karin goldstein, honorary member

Art Collector

Juanita boyd hardy

Director, Millennium Arts Salon

Managing Principal

Tiger Management Consulting Group, LLC

sharon smith holston, Past Chair

Artist’s Representative and Co-owner

Holston Originals

Pamela holt

Consultant

Public Affairs Administration

eric Key

Director, Arts Program


Philip Koch

Maryland Artist

Professor, Maryland Institute College of Art

thomas li, honorary member

Chairman and CEO, Ret.

Biotech Research Labs, Inc.

david maril, honorary member

Journalist

President, Herman Maril Foundation

barbara stephanic, Phd, Past vice Chair,

honorary member

Professor of Art History, Ret.

College of Southern Maryland

dianne A. Whitfield-locke, dds

Collector and Patron of the Arts

Owner, Dianne Whitfield-Locke Dentistry

brian young, staff

Curator, Arts Program


UmUc Board of visitors

mark J. gerencser, Chair

Executive Vice President

Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc.

evelyn J. bata, Phd

Collegiate Professor


richard f. blewitt

Member Emeritus

President and Chief Executive Officer

The Blewitt Foundation

Joseph v. bowen Jr.

Senior Vice President, Operations and

Managing Principal

McKissack & McKissack


David W. Bower

President and Chief Executive Officer

Data Computer Corporation of America

John M. Derrick Jr.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ret.

Pepco Holdings, Inc.

Karl R. Gumtow

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

CyberPoint International

Michèle E. Jacobs

Managing Director

Special Events at Union Station

Donald S. Orkand, PhD (Former Chair)

Member Emeritus

Founding Partner

DC Ventures and Associates, LLC

Lt. Gen. Emmett Paige Jr., U.S. Army Ret.

Vice President of Operations, Ret.

Department of Defense/Intelligence Services

Lockheed Martin Information Technology

Charles E. (Ted) Peck

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ret.

The Ryland Group, Inc.

Sharon Pinder

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

The Pinder Group

Brig. Gen. Velma Richardson, U.S. Army, Ret.

Vice President, DoD IT Programs

and Special Projects IS&GS

Lockheed Martin Corporation

Gen. John (Jack) Vessey Jr., U.S. Army, Ret.

Member Emeritus

Former Chairman

U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff

William T. (Bill) Wood, JD

Attorney at Law

Wood Law Offices, LLC

Joyce M. Wright

Chief Claims Officer,

People’s Trust Homeowners Insurance

Contributors

Project Manager: Nichelle Lenhardt

Curator: Brian Young

Editor: Kate McLoughlin

Designer: Jennifer Norris

Production Manager: Scott Eury

Fine Arts Technician: René A. Sanjines

Administrative Assistant: Denise Melvin

Cover artwork: (front) #364 Striae, Series #26, 2004, acrylic on canvas, 43 x 63 in. Photo by James Woo.

(back) #320 Petal Series, 1996, acrylic on canvas, 39½ x 39½ in. Photo by Keirn Hilleary.

© 2012 University of Maryland University College. All rights reserved. Copyright credits and attribution for certain illustrations are cited internally proximate to the illustrations. All rights reserved.


Arts ProgrAm / University of mArylAnd University College


UMUC James Hilleary Exhibition, 2012

Documents

Transcript of UMUC James Hilleary Exhibition, 2012