Background
Gruber, J. Richard was born on March 30, 1948 in Louisville. Son of James Richard Senior and Mary Jane (Ipser) Gruber.
( Presenting for the first time this major body of painti...)
Presenting for the first time this major body of paintings and constructions, The Early Years places Christenberry's work and his life in the South in significant new context. Nationally recognized as an artist, photographer, teacher, and arts advocate, William Christenberry has lived and worked in Washington, D.C., since 1968, when he became a professor of painting at the Corcoran Gallery School of Art. Although Christenberry is well known as a photographer and sculptor, relatively little has been known about his early paintings and his career in the South prior to 1968. Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1936, Christenberry is closely identified with the culture and environment of his native South, specifically with the region around Hale County, Alabama, the same region memorialized by James Agee and Walker Evans in the classic Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. That book, first discovered by Christenberry when it was reissued in 1960, served as a major influence upon his early aesthetic development, including the creation of his "Tenant House" series of paintings, photographs, and studies (1960-1964). Throughout The Early Years, Christenberry's work is presented as part of an evolutionary series of developments that began with Christenberry's immersion in the Abstract Expressionist philosophies and techniques taught at The University of Alabama during his years as a student there (1954-1959) and continued through his abandonment of painting on canvas (1964) and his inclusion of signs and found objects in the three-dimensional constructions he created in Memphis (1964-1968).. Many of the pieces featured in The Early Years were in storage in Christenberry's attic for nearly three decades. Now part of a national touring exhibition, they richly deserve the close attention J. Richard Gruber here gives them.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963875345/?tag=2022091-20
( This lushly illustrated volume for the first time focus...)
This lushly illustrated volume for the first time focuses specifically on the strong influence the South had on Benton's explorations of America and on his career as an artist. Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), a widely recognized American painter, muralist, printmaker, and illustrator, first attained prominence during the 1920s and 1930s as an artist, teacher, critic, writer, and outspoken art world personality. By 1934, when he was the first artist featured on the cover of Time magazine, he had become one of the most recognized artists in the United States. Beginning in the 1920s and continuing throughout his career, Benton traveled the breadth of the country, sketching and recording the details of the changing daily life he encountered on the backroads and in the isolated cultural pockets of America. Inspired by his early campaign travels in Missouri with his father, who had been elected to Congress as a Populist in 1897, and driven by his own conviction that the nation was sacrificing its unique culture and history in its rush to become a new, modern society, Benton set out to capture the essence of contemporary America. The American South held a special fascination for Benton, and from his travels and sketching trips throughout the region came many of his most noted images of America. Representing both the drawings Benton made during his travels to the South and the major paintings and murals that later incorporated details from these sketches and finished drawings, Thomas Hart Benton and the American South is a feast to the eye and reveals much about the artist and the South that so captivated him.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1890021040/?tag=2022091-20
( Though thirty years in the making, Phillip Collier's Mi...)
Though thirty years in the making, Phillip Collier's Missing New Orleans was almost another treasure lost to Hurricane Katrina. Final proof was due at the New Orleans printer August 31, 2005, just days after floodwaters breached the levees. To the principals of the book, "missing New Orleans" took on personal, devastating meanings. This pictorial history of New Orleans from the early 1700s to the present offers over 250 images as well as stories of places, entities, and events that were at one time a vital part of the city. Each lost gem tells a unique narrative: the Claiborne Avenue Oaks, the French Opera House, Pontchartrain and Lincoln Beaches, the Gypsy Tea Room, Tulane and Pelican Stadiums, Mr. Bingle, and D. H. Holmes. Images celebrate grand historic structures that once stood along New Orleans thoroughfares, including the St. Louis and St. Charles Hotels from the mid-nineteenth century and the five downtown railroad stations and the Rivergate from the twentieth century. Through the photographs, postcards, posters, maps, and line drawings gathered by New Orleans graphic designer Phillip Collier, those enamored of the Crescent City can explore a time when West End Park and Spanish Fort were lakefront resort destinations, when boxing and horse racing ruled the city's sporting world, when street vendors plied their wares, and steamboats packed the wharves.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0977254402/?tag=2022091-20
(This book was published in conjunction with the exhibitio...)
This book was published in conjunction with the exhibition "The Dot Man: George Andrews of Madison, Georgia," organized by the Morris Museum of Art.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963875337/?tag=2022091-20
Gruber, J. Richard was born on March 30, 1948 in Louisville. Son of James Richard Senior and Mary Jane (Ipser) Gruber.
Bachelor in English, Xavier University, 1971. Master of Arts in History of Art cum laude, University Colorado, 1980. Master in Philosophy History of Art, University Kansas, 1982.
Doctor of Philosophy, University Kansas, 1987.
Assistant director Jefferson County Archives & Records Service, Louisville, 1971-1972, history preservation, 1972-1974. Art critic Colorado Daily, Boulder, 1977-1978. Lecturer history of art University Colorado, Colorado Springs, 1979-1981.
Research fellow National Museum American Art, Washington, 1982-1983. Curator collections Memphis Brooks Museum Art, 1983-1985, acting director, 1984-1985, director, 1985-1989, Wichita Art Museum, Kansas, 1989-1991. Gallery director Peter Joseph Gallery, New York City, 1991—1993.
Deputy director Morris Museum Art, 1993—1999. Director Ogden Museum Southern Art, University New Orleans, since 1999. Director design, installation and education Rameses the Great Exhibition, Memphis, 1985-1987.
Faculty University New Orleans.
( This lushly illustrated volume for the first time focus...)
( Presenting for the first time this major body of painti...)
(This book was published in conjunction with the exhibitio...)
(This book was published in conjunction with the exhibitio...)
( Though thirty years in the making, Phillip Collier's Mi...)
(1st Edition)
(1st Edition)
(art book)
Member policy committee Memphis Center City Commission, since 1985. Member of advisory board Junior League Memphis, since 1984. Board directors Life Blood, Memphis, 1987, Wichita Airport Authority Art Committee, Wichita Public Art Task Force, Downtown Action Corporation Advisory Committee.
Member Association Art Museum Dirs., American Management Association (president's association), American Assn.Mus.
M C.
Children: Shen, Kalen.