Dwight Kirsch Retrospective: “My life in art”
May 21 ­ September 4, 2005

Dwight Kirsch (1899-1981), born in Pawnee County, was a Nebraska artist, educator, and art administrator. Kirsch graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln at the age of 20. He left for New York to study at the Art Students League with Robert Henri, Alexander Sterling Calder, and others. He was an art instructor at the University of Nebraska from 1924 to 1931 at which time he became the department chairman, a position he held until 1947. He also served as director of the University of Nebraska Art Galleries from 1936 to 1950, then director of the Des Moines Art Center from 1950 to 1958. Starting in 1959 and continuing to 1965, Kirsch was an artist-in-residence at Iowa State University. He spent considerable time giving lectures and workshops throughout the region. His work is in the permanent collections of the Wichita Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Sioux City Art Center, Joslyn Art Museum, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Des Moines Art Center, and the Museum of Nebraska Art.

Kirsch was probably most successful as an art administrator and was responsible for bringing modern art to Nebraska and the Des Moines Art Center. The general public was awed and maybe even outraged when they viewed the paintings of the Eastern avant-garde like Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Today Sheldon and Des Moines Art Center have wonderful collections and each possesses a masterpiece by Edward Hopper, both chosen by Kirsch.

This exhibition is intended to present an image of Kirsch the artist. His relationship with the New York avant-garde certainly had to be an influence on his art. When he would select art for exhibitions, he would meet with the artists and visit their studios. People like Marin and Hopper had to have inspired him to follow in their footsteps and paint his own surroundings. The paintings in this exhibition represent the versatility of this artist, as he was first and foremost an artist.

Dwight’s first love was nature and dominated his choice of subject matter. He spent many hours drawing and photographing nature and many of these photographs and sketches were turned into paintings. Even when he and his new wife Truby went on their delayed European honeymoon, he found time for his art as seen in his painting of Lake Como in Italy. In the summers when they visited the Kelly family in Atkinson, Nebraska, Dwight spent most of his time visiting the sandhills and ranches in the area. He produced several paintings from the 1930s and early ‘40s depicting this area. Kirsch was also a competent printmaker and this is evident in the wonderful serigraphs on display. His mastery of water-based media is apparent in his many watercolors and temperas.

Dwight devoted his life to art. He painted well into his seventies as a resident of the Colorado State Veterans Home beginning in 1976. He continued to enter local art shows and even win awards as he did with his self-portrait from 1980. According to his biographer and niece JoAnn Alexander, Dwight finished 81 pictures in 1981 and lived to be 82. His last work was a sketch of a tree outside his hospital window signed and dated “September 25, 1981, DK.” That was also the day he died.

This exhibition was assembled using works from the collections of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, the Museum of Nebraska Art, Joslyn Art Museum, and those in the possession of the Kelly family, primarily from JoAnn Alexander.

Diane Marsh & Eddie Dominguez: Parallel Perceptions of Land, Form, & the Natural Condition
May 31 ­ August 28, 2005

Landscape, human tragedy, triumph, and form are all explored and successfully navigated in this exhibition from New Mexican-based artists Diane Marsh and Eddie Dominguez. The two-person show, aptly titled Parallel Perceptions of Land, Form, and the Natural Condition, is a first for this husband and wife and allows for viewers to contrast and compare how separate artists approach not only that which is around them – the serenity and vibrancy of nature, culture, and society, but also that which is within them – struggle, heartache, hope, and delight and how the two intertwine.
Diane Marsh’s paintings present forceful and eloquent imagery of conflict, contemplation, and resolution by depicting life-size and larger than life figures alongside scenes of our surrounding world. The artist’s hyper-realistic portraits are reminiscent of the paintings of Chuck Close but take a step further by specifically focusing on defining life moments and struggles. Juxtaposed with these male or female subjects are quiet and beautiful scenes of land, trees, the ocean, or space. The duality of figure and the environment brings not only a sense of connectedness and spirituality to our physical surroundings but also perspective to the emotional condition within the natural order of life.

Eddie Dominguez also juxtaposes the figure and land in his work primarily through the use of the ceramic medium but also by combining painting and sculpture. Most recent works include three- dimensional, almost life-size torsos covered by a series of relief carved leaves, vines, or other organically derived designs. Additionally, the artist recreates his native New Mexican landscape in works such as Diane’s Gems that is made up of over 300 “gemstones,” all separately handmade and multi-glazed. Although the artist is known for this dynamic, colorfully glazed, and celebratory imagery, the work has a great affinity to Marsh’s seemingly very different emotionally resonating paintings. Both artists’ work exemplifies a great contemplation of and response to nature and their (as well as our) relationship to it. Dominguez additionally infuses spirituality in his work by the use of religious iconography that is directly tied to his Hispanic heritage.

The work of both Marsh and Dominguez is all at once different and alike. Although media and styles diverge, their separate life experiences, dual opinions, and/or osmosis have both resulted in contemplative, joyful, and reflective imagery of their and our lives and world.

In 1978, Diane Marsh received a Master of Fine Arts from State University of New York in Buffalo and prior to that, she received a Bachelor of Fine Art from Daemen College in Buffalo, New York. Marsh’s paintings are included in such collections as the Hess Collection Museum, Napa, California; the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska.

Eddie Dominguez is an Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Art History, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In 1981, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Cleveland Institute of Art, Ohio and went on to receive a Master of Fine Art from New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University in Alfred, New York. His work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Cooper-Hewitt, New York City; Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Cleveland Institute of Art, Ohio

Nebraska Now: Monte Kruse
April 16 ­ July 10, 2005

Born and raised on a farm in Iowa, Omaha-based artist Monte Kruse attempts to reinterpret agrarian life on the Plains to create a modern Midwestern ideal of beauty. To do so, Kruse primarily focuses on the most classic of artistic subjects: the nude figure.

Through the use of black and white photography, Kruse composes theatrical-like scenes of male and female figures working and living on a farm. In all instances, the figures are nude, dramatic, sensual, and vastly reminiscent of forms found in classical painting and sculpture such as the twisting, straining, and reaching torsos in Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel as well as Bernini’s sculptural depictions of Greek and Biblical characters. Additionally, Kruse draws on Caravaggio’s use of light and drama such as in the Conversion of St. Paul, where the artist makes his bodies “emerge from shadow by strokes of light.” Kruse’s photographs seek to reclaim a Classic beauty in contemporary culture by utilizing figures that are the epitome of beauty and fitness…but with a twist. At times, forms are so physically fine-tuned that they appear androgynous or in other instances, the photographer portrays a subject that is seemingly a perfect physical specimen only to find, upon further investigation, that the figure is missing an arm.

The question of what each of us perceives to be an ideal beauty is evident in Kruse’s work and has been asked throughout the ages. The artist brings this question home specifically to our Midwestern culture. His photographs fuse a contemporary artist’s approach to interpret today’s culture, by use of a modern medium, with direct influences of classical art and literature – the foundations of our current creative world.

After attending Creighton University in Omaha, Kruse spent a great portion of his life in New York learning the craft of commercial photography. He was exposed to and worked with some of the leading fashion photographers of our era. Upon his return to Nebraska, he has continued to pursue commercial and fine art photography.

On Ancient Wings: The Sandhill Cranes of North America
March 1 ­ April 24, 2005

The northern migration of the majestic sandhill crane is a yearly phenomenon that mesmerizes birders from around the world. According to data from Rowe Sanctuary, a bird observation and conservation center located Platte-side near Kearney, 60,000 day-visitors can be expected to stop in central Nebraska to view the graceful dances of the sandhill cranes. In celebration of the arrival of these ethereal creatures, MONA presents On Ancient Wings: The Sandhill Cranes of North America.

This exhibition encompasses 40 full-color photographic images by Michael Forsberg, renowned photojournalist. These works are selections appearing in Forsberg’s recent book, On Ancient Wings: The Sandhill Cranes of North America. Based on a five-year personal journey of discovery, the book and resulting exhibition are devoted to the beauty and tenaciousness of what is thought to be one of the oldest living bird species on earth.

Forsberg, a Lincoln resident, is known worldwide. His career encompasses milestones such as photojournalism features in NEBRASKA land magazine, a United States Postal Service international postage stamp, and projects showcased in National Geographic magazine. Visitors may purchase copies of On Ancient Wings in the Museum Shop.

Kearney Student Art Show
April 26 ­ May 15, 2005

Falter Illustrated
May 3 ­ July 31, 2005

Falter Illustrated explores the career of a Nebraska illustrator who celebrated the innate goodness of American life through art. John Falter, born in Plattsmouth in 1910 and raised in Falls City, developed an appreciation of Midwestern life and legend from the deck of a water tower. From the height of the standpipe, the air was cooler on hot summer evenings and the view was never ending. His artwork in later years often featured the panoramic essence and higher viewpoint of someone seeing the world from the sky.

Falter studied first at the Kansas City Art Institute and later attended the Art Students League of New York on scholarship. His early professional years were marred by the Great Depression, but his skill and perseverance enabled him to secure illustration commitments for “pulps” and advertisements for large companies such as Pall Mall and Gulf Oil. In 1943 Falter completed his first cover image for The Saturday Evening Post and joined the Armed Forces, where he designed clever recruiting posters and pro-USA propaganda. Several of these posters appear in the exhibition. Falter continued to illustrate for popular magazines such as Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, and McCall’s, but his portraits of American war heroes for Look and Esquire are regarded by many as Falter’s most influential work.

A very special component of this exhibition is a collection of lithographs featuring jazz musicians. Falter, a lover of music and an amateur musician himself, fully captured the power and energy of jazz in his renderings of performing greats like Stan Wrightsman, Skeets Herfurt, and “Wild Bill” Davison.

As the popularity of magazine illustrations decreased, Falter experimented with portrait painting and book illustrating. He worked on over 40 books and one of his favorite projects was a special edition of Sandburg’s Abraham Lincoln-The Prairie Years. Visitors to the show will see MONA’s collection of original illustrations for book jackets, and the finished products that resulted from the artwork. A commission in 1974 in preparation for the Bicentennial led to the creation of six history paintings. Upon completing these Falter had developed a passionate interest in recording American history. He worked with countless historians and researchers to capture accurate details that would define the life and times of the “everyman” behind the founding of our country. Shortly before his death in 1982, Falter stated that he would like to be remembered as a “documentary storyteller.” His success is evident – the exhibition features a number of historical oils that teach and stimulate the imagination.

In addition to the original artwork in the show, MONA is pleased to display covers from its extensive collection of The Saturday Evening Post magazines. Between 1943 and 1971, Falter’s illustrations graced the covers of 128 issues of The Post. It is important to note that only two other illustrators in the history of The Saturday Evening Post top Falter’s record – Norman Rockwell and J. C. Leynedecker. Despite the popularity of Rockwell’s illustrations, that artist once admitted that he explored a “Falter Period,” experimenting with the panoramic style inspired by John Falter. MONA’s own original cover painting for The Post will be on display as well.

This exhibition has been generously funded by the Gilbert M. and Martha H. Hitchcock Foundation.

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