Self-taught artists make a statement in Wexner exhibit

They are preachers, former slaves, architects, prisoners, grandmothers, mental patients, night watchmen and barbers. They've been described as self-taught, folksy, outsiders, out there, and sometimes, even crazy.

Despite their widely varying styles and social backgrounds, the 31 individuals whose work will be displayed in the Wexner Center's next major exhibit do share a common identity as artists, all of whom developed their talents outside of formal education.

Self-Taught Artists of the 20th Century: An American Anthology opens at the Wexner Center May 15, and continues through Aug. 8. Ohio State is the fifth and final destination for the traveling exhibit, which was organized by the Museum of American Folk Art in New York.

Man with Pony, by Edgar Tolson, was created in 1958. More than 200 pieces will be on display for An American Anthology.

"These are artists who work beyond tradition. Some work in isolation, some are part of a community, but always, they are working outside traditional boundaries," said Sarah Rogers, director of exhibitions at the Wexner Center.

More than 200 pieces created in a variety of media will be on display for the show. Pieces include Grandma Moses' paintings, P.M. Wentworth's intricate pastel crayon drawings about aliens, and Steve Ashby's wood sculptures of human figures covered in collages from magazines and newspapers.

"The artists represent a cross-section of some of the major people in the field for the century. They are the people who we felt had made a major body of work and major contributions to art in general," said Elsa Longhauser, guest curator for the exhibit and director for the Paley/Levy Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia.

Rogers hasn't found an easy way to characterize the work of self-taught artists. "I would hate to clichŽ it by saying it's cruder or more na•ve," she said.

What she has noticed is a considerable amount of passion displayed in the pieces. "There is a lot of emotion and energy. This is not cool work. It is very engaging and vibrant."

Self-taught artists have been very influential to other artists, Rogers said. "A lot of established artists try to get to the freedom and looseness that many of these artists achieve naturally."

Self-taught art's renewed visibility may stem from several sources, she said. "There's the whole issue of dissolving borders, of looking at art from all perspectives. There's this post-modernism thinking of allowing boundaries of definitions to change. It's not necessarily accepted by the scholarly or curatorial community, but it has been embraced by the market."

Although it is a point of contention for some, Longhauser doesn't see much point in debating whether or not the work of self-taught artists should be displayed in museums.

"The issue isn't that it's art or not art. It is art," she said. "It's that this is a profound manifestation of the creative spirit and is certainly worthy of looking at in the context that we do in this post-modern era."

She hopes to introduce museum visitors to a range of the self-taught work created this century and to give them new ways to think about it.

"I'm not advocating that it is better or the same as established art, but that it is worthy of being examined," Longhauser said.

Rogers is excited about giving Central Ohioans a chance to see the exhibition because she says the region has a long history of interest in self-taught artists.

"Elijah Pierce and William Hawkins, two of the artists included, are from Columbus," Rogers said. "We thought this would be a really significant opportunity for this community."

The Wexner Center has organized a series of events to accompany the exhibit. Several discussions and lectures with artists and curators, a workshop for area teachers, and screenings of several films related to folk art are planned.

The exhibit is receiving a lot of community support. "Not only are there activities here, but our collegial institutions around the city are doing related programming. It really helps broaden the context for the show," Rogers said. Many galleries throughout Columbus are sponsoring exhibits of self-taught art.

The Wexner Center also will be exhibiting Willem de Kooning: Drawing Seeing/Seeing Drawing in Gallery A through Aug. 8.

For more information, call 292-3535. Admission is free for faculty, staff and students, Wexner Center members, and children younger than 12; $3 for the general public; and $2 for other students, senior citizens and groups.

Bourgeois wins Wexner Prize

Sculptor Louise Bourgeois, a multifaceted artist for more than 60 years, will be awarded the seventh Wexner Prize on May 20. A relatively unknown artist for most of her life, in 1982 she became the first American woman to have a retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The $50,000 Wexner Prize honors Bourgeois' lifetime of achievements. Award ceremonies will be held simultaneously in Columbus and New York City, where Bourgeois lives.

Bourgeois, 87, was born in Paris in 1911 and came to America in 1931. In New York, she created paintings and drawings influenced by cubism, surrealism and other art movements. By the 1950s and 1960s, she was working primarily in sculpture using orthodox materials like wood, bronze and marble, as well as unorthodox, such as plaster, cement, rubber and latex.

Louise Bourgeois

Bourgeois' work has found a global audience, culminating in her selection as the sole U.S. representative to the Venice Biennale in 1993. She has been the subject of more than 100 solo exhibitions and 500 group exhibitions internationally.

The Wexner Prize is awarded annually to a major contemporary artist who has been consistently original, influential and challenging to convention.

OSU Science and Technology Campus begins to take shape

Science and Technology Campus development is progressing with construction and renovations, the dedication of the site for Science Village and the continuing pursuit of tenant companies, Ora E. Smith, president of the Science and Technology Campus (STC) Corp., told trustees May 7.

Bids are due to go out in June and construction should begin in September for the first 40,000-square-foot segment of the multibuilding, multistage village at the corner of Kinnear and North Star roads. The Science Village site was dedicated May 7.

Phase 1 of the project is due to be occupied beginning in July 2000 by between two and 10 companies, featuring a mix of technologies. Phase 2 is expected to be completed by January 2001, Smith said. The Science Village is designed to attract companies that have undergone initial growth and need higher-quality facilities, divisional or regional offices of national technology companies, and joint industry/University research and development efforts.

Officials unveil a sign announcing the future home of the Science Village.

Work at the Business Technology Center has just been finished on the renovation of approximately 13,000 square feet of old warehouse space, and current plans call for the doubling of the existing incubator space by early next year. The STC, approved by trustees in December 1997, promotes on-campus research alliances between business and the University and will provide facilities to house companies that collaborate with Ohio State researchers.

"We expect that many, perhaps all, tenants of the campus will have close working relationships with Ohio State," Smith said.

Smith reported that the STC houses 26 tenant companies that employ at least 74 Ohio State students and 69 alumni.

Almost 180 cooperative research projects are under way, and funding of sponsored research exceeds $6 million. Tenants responding to an STC survey reported overwhelming satisfaction with the STC as well as plans to expand their businesses.

STC goals include $250,000 in annual licensing royalty and 45 new cooperative research activities three years after village occupancy. By June 2000, 30 percent of tenant employees should be OSU students, Smith said.

Trustees appointed the ad hoc Committee on Capital Formation for Emerging Businesses to advise the Science and Technology Campus Board of Directors and Ohio State officials on policies involving the formation of capital for emerging businesses in Ohio.

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