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JON SCHUELER EXHIBITION OPENS AT THE SPRINGFIELD ART MUSEUM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                  CONTACT: Jerry Berger, Director

                                                                                                                                                                       Dan Carver, Museum Educator 

                                                                                                                                                                      [log in to unmask]

Featuring 18 luminous paintings, this exhibition explores the work of Jon Schueler, a second generation Abstract Expressionist painter who studied under Clyfford Still and Richard Diebenkorn at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Using the methods of abstract painting, Schueler’s work was fueled by an overwhelming passion for expressing nature; both the changing moods of the sea and sky as well as the reflection of the landscape through the nature of paint itself. Schueler once wrote that he wanted to create “Not a painting of nature, but a painting most like nature. This is what I would like my painting to be.” 

Although not always tied to a specific landscape, Schueler’s work was most often inspired by the coastal lands surrounding the small fishing village of Mallaig, in the Scottish Highlands. This rugged terrain, overwhelmed by volatile changes in weather, was the near-perfect physical manifestation of Schueler’s ideal landscape and became a pivotal focus of his work from the late 1950s onward.

This exhibition includes a number of very large, rarely seen horizontal paintings, which provide a unique opportunity to be surrounded by Schueler’s distinctive merging of abstraction and nature. All of the paintings are on loan from the artist’s estate with the generous assistance of the artist’s widow, Magda Salvesen.  

Jon Schueler lived and worked in New York, spending three months of the year in Mallaig, Scotland, from 1975 till his death in 1992. He had his first one-man show at the Stable Gallery in New York in 1954. He continued to enjoy a number of solo exhibitions in both the United States and Scotland including a 1975 exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. His work is held by a number of public collections including the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland.  The Estate is represented by David Findlay, Jr. Fine Art in New York.

The Springfield Art Museum is a City agency with a rich heritage of supporting the arts in the Ozarks. It operates under authority of a nine-member board. The Museum is the permanent home for over 9,000 art objects representing thousands of years of culture. Special collections include 19th, 20th, and 21st century American paintings, watercolor, sculpture and prints. Incorporated in 1928, the Museum was first operated entirely by volunteers and still relies heavily on community support in a variety of ways. The Museum has had several homes along the way. The present Museum, on the edge of Phelps Grove Park, opened in 1958. A 392-seat auditorium was completed in 1974 and extensive renovation of the Museum was completed in 1984. In 1994, the Jeannette L. Musgrave Wing with four new exhibition galleries and storage for the permanent collections was completed. In 2008, the West Wing addition was completed adding a new entry hall, galleries, gift shop and a new library.

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