Posted on Aug 9, 2001

Artist's aim was to unite nature, passion and art

Schenectady, N.Y (August 9, 2001) – Union College will present the exhibition Jon Schueler About the Sky in the Mandeville Gallery from August 9 to Sept. 30. The show will feature 30 paint-ings, from the 1950s through the 1980s, by the respected Abstract Expressionist. An exhibition re-ception featuring Magda Salvesen, Schueler's widow and co-editor of his autobiographical writings The Sound of Sleat: Autobiographical Writings, will take place Wednesday, Sept. 19, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Gallery; Salvesen will give a gallery talk and slide show of the life and work of the artist at 6 p.m.

“As a painter, Schueler's constant aim was to unite nature, passion and art in an eternal triangle. The sky was to him the embodiment of nature, and nature was the source of passion just as passion was the source of art,” said Douglas Hall, keeper of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

“Although he never quite achieved the fame of some of his contemporaries, Schueler was, like other Abstract Expressionists of his era, a very intense, careful artist,” said Rachel Seligman, Mandeville Gal-lery curator. “He was very involved in the struggle to create something honest, moral and meaningful. The various abstractions depicted in this show are all inspired by the Scottish Highlands, as he was attracted to that region by the intersection of light between the sky, the landscapes, and the sea.”

A second-generation Abstract Expressionist, Jon Schueler (1916-1992) was born in Wisconsin. After receiving his BA and MA at the University of Wisconsin, he volunteered for the Air Force and was sent to England in 1942, flying missions over France and Germany. Taking advantage of the GI Bill, he attended the California School of Fine Arts, where he studied under Clyfford Still. Joining Still in New York, he was introduced into the circle of first-generation American abstract painters. As Schueler's work became more informed by nature, he was drawn to the west coast of Scotland, living there from 1970 to 1975 and thereafter visiting each year from his base in New York City.

The exhibition is organized and circulated by Sweet Briar College in Virginia and is supported in part by the Judith Rothschild Foundation and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Other venues have in-cluded the Cleveland Institute of Art, Reading Museum of Art, Ca., and the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

For more information, visit the Mandeville Gallery web site.

Gallery hours: from August 9 – Sept. 2

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
from Sept. 3 – Sept. 30: Mon. – Thurs.
9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mon-Fri Sat. noon – 5 p.m. Sun. noon to 10 p.m.