COLLECTION NAME:
University Art Galleries (UMassD)
Record
exhibition_title:
John Udvardy
exhibition_dates:
November 16 - December 11, 1987
exhibition_year:
1987
exhibition_location:
University Art Gallery (UMass Dartmouth Galleries)
exhibition_curator:
Director: Lasse B. Antonsen
exhibition_note:
This exhibition of John Udvardy's recent wood construction is one in a series in which we feature mature artists who have produced a large body of work, and have remained challenging and demanding in their art artists who at this point in their careers have gained stylistic freedom to focus in on the themes and emotions that carry weight for them personally. John Udvardy was selected by associate curator Harvey Goldman, who was guided in his choice by a fascination with Udvardy's ability to create a mysterious world out of the ordinary branches and found objects, especially objects made of wood. These found objects carry their own history of use, time and weather, largely an anonymous, though poetic existence which Udvardy in keeping with the work of Kurt Schwitters and Jean Arp sets free in a new artistic context, thereby placing them within an enigmatic "narrative" which we are invited to explore and invest with our own curiosity and emotions. John Udvardy's work is open in the best sense of the word. Like Matisse, he clearly believes that a denial of influence would be dishonest and ultimately detrimental to both the artist and his work. Instead, we are witnessing a sophisticated dialogue with other artists both older and younger and with the modern tradition of the influence of the primitive. Most of all, though, we are witnessing an inspired dialogue with the enigmatic forms of nature itself. The exhibition would not have been possible without the cooperation and hard work of many people too many to thank individually here. We would, however, like to thank the art critic Rebecca Nemser for her insightful essay and Bill Newkirk for his fine design of the poster. Finally, of course, special thanks go to John Udvardy who remained enthusiastic about the exhibition and invested much energy in finishing a large body of new work, and personally oversaw the installation of the sculptures in the gallery. Lasse B. Antonsen, Director
exhibition_genre:
sculpture
resourceID:
13009_021_john_udvardy
resource_type:
book - exhibition catalog
copyright notice:
COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION: Under the direction of the Visual Resource Center digital collections are made available to the UMass Dartmouth campus community for the sole purpose of classroom instruction and study in accordance U.S. Copyright Laws . All other uses are prohibited and are subject to copyright infringements.
credit line:
UMass Dartmouth Art Galleries
artist name:
John Udvardy
artist_nationality:
American
artist_vital dates:
1936 -
artist_biographical note:
John Udvardy was born in Elyria, Ohio of Hungarian Ancestry. He studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and received his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art. He earned his MFA from Yale University. The Mary C. Page Scholarship allowed him to travel through Europe, Scandinavia, Spain and North Africa. He has worked at a variety of different jobs, including working in the steel mills of Lorain, Ohio with his father, as well as being a brakeman on the New Haven Railroad while he was a graduate student at Yale. During the late fifties while living in Greenwich Village, he worked in a snap factory in the Garment District of New York and in a spindle shop in Brooklyn. To maintain his studio and support himself while living in Boston, he worked as a sign painter there and in Cambridge, Mass. He was a specialist in an artillery battalion while serving in the Army. John Udvardy has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Yale University, Brown University and he was Artist-in-Residence at Dartmouth College. He is a full Professor and has taught Three Dimensional Design at the Rhode Island School of Design, as well as being the Chairman of the Foundation Studies Program and Director of the Summer Transfer Program for many years. He has an extensive exhibition record, exhibiting widely throughout the United States in many group and one person shows, some of which include: Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts; Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York; Jewett Art Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; Newport Art Museum, Newport, Rhode Island; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire; Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine; and Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York. John Udvardy has also exhibited at, and been represented by the following galleries: Obelisk Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts; Michael Walls Gallery, San Francisco, California; The Sara Roby Foundation, Nantucket Island, Massachusetts; Lenore Gray Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island; The Roland Gibson Art Foundation, Potsdam, New York; Suzette Schochet Gallery, Newport, Rhode Island; The Touchstone Gallery, New York, New York; Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, Rhode Island; Gallery Hirondelle Inc., New York, New York; Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida; Imago Gallery, Warren, Rhode Island; and Big Town Gallery, Rochester, Vermont. He is represented in many private and public collections. For several years John Udvardy served as RISD's Liaison Officer to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico as well as teaching there as a visiting Critic. For a three year term he served as juror on the National Screening Committee for the Fulbright Awards at the Institute of International Education in New York. He received the Silver Medal Alumni Award for Faculty Member of the Year from the Rhode Island School of Design and recently he was awarded RISD's Gold Sophia Medallion in recognition of his 34 years of outstanding teaching and service. He is presently a distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Rhode Island School of Design. He has four children and lives in Bristol, Rhode Island, works and maintains studios in Warren, Rhode Island.
date_of_ record:
10/15/13
name_cataloger:
jtrinh