Neil Welliver: Painting with Passion

NEIL WELLIVER Painting With Passion Museum of Art - DeLand Downtown April 13 – June 3, 2018

NEIL WELLIVER: PAINTING WITH PASSION In art as in life, a little ecstasy can go a long way. A touch too much, or a failure to handle it properly, and what started out to be an expression of joy can easily turn into an embarrassment.

What moved the artist may not move us, or may violate our sensibilities in the form through which he has chosen to express it. We may feel forced to over respond to something that would, in normal circumstances, hardly touch us at all.

Difficult as it is for some to understand, profound emotion is not in itself enough for the creation of art. To become art, emotion must be broken down and reassembled as paint, as color, texture and line, as smoothness against roughness, as dark against light or as “hot” colors against cold. It must be translated from a received experience into an active, projective, and pulsating one. But, most of all, the artist must manage to convince us totally and without qualification that what he asks us to feel is not fraudulent, is not designed to deny reality or to serve his ego, that it is life-enhancing, vital, and true.

And what is true of gentle feelings and emotions is magnified a hundredfold when dealing with passion or ecstasy. The number of artists who have successfully translated passion into art can be counted on the fingers of both hands, and those who have truly given form to ecstasy can be counted on the fingers of one. The problem lies in giving full expression to what is felt. I would guess that the ratio between what the “average” artist feels very strongly and deeply about, and what he or she can satisfactorily communicate through art, is roughly 5 to 1.

On the other hand, since great art signifies great content, it’s also safe to assume that the artist in this exhibition, Neil Welliver, felt and experienced life on a level most of us do not, or do so only infrequently. And that significance lay not only in how beautifully his art found its formal resolution but also in how that resolution reflected his vision of the meaningfulness and value of life.

The artist and the man, after all, make up a single entity, and are never detached from each other. At least that’s the way it is with someone who is an artist, someone who finds and expresses himself within and through his art.

Art itself is fairly common, and exists whenever an individual can symbolically give voice to his feelings or experience – and can convince others of its legitimacy. But significant art, art that articulates and gives form to more than just one individual’s realities, is relatively rare. And great art, art that encapsulates and gives form to mankind’s deepest stirrings and intimations of meaning, is rare indeed. It is not because we lack enough great men or women, or enough magnificent talent, but because the circumstance of finding a great human being and a great talent coexisting within the same person is incredibly unique. When we do find a true fusion of human quality and of artistic talent, we should accept it with pleasure and gratitude.

We should first determine if a work of art is true, and then determine if it is significant or great. Artistic truth is a personal matter (there are potentially as many artistic truths as there are human beings), and it is downright silly to assume that art on that level must be realistic, or abstract, or whatever, before it can join the community of man. Significance or greatness, however, can be a different matter, and to ignore the fact that a particular period finds (or thinks it finds) its deepest and truest voice within one style rather than another is equally silly and unrealistic.

Sky in Cora’s Marsh, 1987-88, Woodcut, 34 1/2 x 35 in.

A post-20th century American artist who has not yet achieved the full level of critical acceptance he deserves is Neil Welliver. In this exhibition of Welliver’s work, one can immerse oneself in his vision of the world, and share

with him his enthusiasms and passions, even his exultations and ecstasies for the many faces of nature – for the humming heat of August, the resurgence of plant life in spring, trees bursting upward toward the sky, or the chill of approaching winter.

It affects this way because he totally convinces us of the legitimacy of his feelings and of the fact that his art is not intended to deny or evade reality but to illuminate it – that it is life-enhancing, vital and true. And this applies even to his most ecstatic and visionary images, works in which colors, shapes, and lines vibrate and sing out with a passion that is almost as raw and as direct as life itself.

Neil Welliver is one of the very small band of artists who tackled this level of feeling through their art and who succeeded in creating marvelous paintings that Green Day, 1964, Oil on canvas, 66 1/2 x 79 in. truly sing out and resonate with the passions of life. He has the rare gift of speaking simply and directly with his own voice in an age in which artistic priorities differed greatly from his own.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Art-DeLand, I would like to thank the many individuals who assisted in the organization and presentation of this exhibition entitled “Neil Welliver: Painting with Passion”.

For her collaboration in the researching, organization and development of this show, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Shelia Geoffrion. I especially would like to thank John Surovek for his continued cooperation and for introducing me to Ms. Geoffrion whose extensive collection of Welliver’s art is showcased in this exhibition. In addition, I am grateful to the private collectors and galleries who have so generously loaned works to the show.

The following donors and businesses merit special appreciation for their support of this presentation and their commitment to this year’s exhibition schedule: Dennis Aylward, Barbara Baugh, Bruce and Carolyn Bigman, Samuel and Donna Blatt, Tom and Jean Burns, Bill and Terri Booth, Thomas and Loretta Chudy, Earl and Patti Colvard, Sal Cristofano and Laura Gosper, Manny De La Vega, Wayne Dickson and Jewel Dickson, Robert Dorian and Linda Colvard Dorian, Lee and Susan Downer, Rich and Lilas George, Susan Griffis, John and Karen Horn, Ed Jackson and Pat Heller-Jackson, Betty Drees Johnson, Ray and Betty Johnson, Craig Lindsey, Tim and Mary Jeanne Ludwig, Robin May, Greg and Beth Milliken, Dagny and Tommy Robertson, Stephen and Claudia Roth, Judith Thompson, Ian Williams and Nancy Hutson, John and Nancy Wilton, Boulevard Tire Center, E.O. Painter Printing Company, Fleishel Financial Associates, Lane Insurance, Inc., Mainstreet Community Bank, Massey Services, Inc., Publix Supermarket Charities, West Volusia Beacon, W.W. Gay Mechanical Contractor, Inc., Clear Channel Outdoor, Lorna Jean Brooks Foundation, Inc., Duke Energy Foundation, Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation, Hunter Charitable Foundation, Lacey Family Charitable Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, DeLand Breakfast Rotary, DeLand Fall Festival of the Arts, DeLand Rotary Club, Inc., Krewe of Amalee, Krewe Nouveau, Museum Guild, State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, City of DeLand, and the County of Volusia.

I would like to acknowledge the steadfast support of the Museum’s Board of Trustees and its President, General Lee Downer, which have enabled the Staff to pursue its commitment to excellence.

Finally, I would like to praise the efforts of my Staff who provided indispensable assistance as well as valued consultation.

George S. Bolge, CEO Museum of Art - DeLand

SELECTED BIOGRAPHY 1929 Born in Millville, PA 1953 B.F.A., Philadelphia Museum, College of Art, Philadelphia, PA 1953 - 57 Teaches at Cooper Union, New York, NY 1955 M.F.A., Yale School of Art, Yale University, New Haven, CT 1955 - 65 Teaches at Yale University, New Haven, CT 1966 – 89 Chairman, University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA 1989 – Present Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Neil Welliver in his Lincolnville Maine Studio 1996, photo by Peter Geoffrion

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT The American Federation of Arts, New York, NY Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH Canton Art Institute, Canton, OH Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, Rockland, ME Flint Institute of Arts, DeWaters Art Center, Flint, MI Fukuoka City, Fukuoka, Japan The Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO La Salle College, Philadelphia, PA Madison Art Center, Madison, WI The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Museum of Art, Olin Arts Center, Bates College, Lewiston, ME

Self Portrait, c. 1960, Oil on canvas, 14 x 20 in.

Catalogue Abstraction, 1956, Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in.

Tri #II, 1956, Oil on canvas, 32 x 36 in.

Self Portrait, c.1960, Oil on canvas, 20 x 14 in.

Green Day, 1964, Oil on canvas, 66 ½ x 79 in.

Family Portrait, 1960’s, Oil on canvas Skeleton Band, 1960’s, Oil on canvas.

Washcloth, 1967, Oil on canvas, 66 x 48 in.

Girl with Young Boy with Guinea Pig, 1968, Oil on canvas, 60 x 60 in.

Robed Nude in the Woods, 1968, Oil on canvas, 60 x 60 in.

Stream at Baxter, c.1970, Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

Untitled (Mountain and Stream), 1971, Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in.

Untitled (Stream), Oil on canvas, 1970’s, 14 x 14 in.

Grey Rocks, c. 1972, Oil on canvas, 72 x 72 in.

From Zeke’s, 1976, B & W Lithograph, 22 x 30 in.

Cedar Water Pool, 1977, Linear lithograph, 22 ½ x 31 ¼ in.

Prospect, Steam with Trees, 1977, Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.

Study for Burnt Barren, 1981, Graphite on paper, 22 1/3 x 22 1/8 in.

Study for High Water Mark, 1984, Graphite on paper, 8 ½ x 11 in.

New Dams in Meadow, 1984, Woodcut, 34 ½ x 33 ½ in.

Prototype for “Two Trout and Reflections”, 1984, Graphite on paper, 25 ½ x 31 in.

Night Scene, 1985, Woodcut, 14 x 16 ¼ in.

Trout in Reflected Tree, 1985, Hand colored etching, 25 ¾ x 28 ¼ in.

Unyarded Deer, 1985, Oil on linen, 20 x 20in.

Little Marsh, 1985-86, Woodcut on Nishinouchi, 34 3/4 x 35 in.

Water Lily, From “Poems” by Henrik Ibsen, 1987, Aquatint, 11 ½ x 8 ½ in.

Northern Lights, “Poems,” by Henrik Ibsen, etchings by Neil Welliver, Vincent Fitzgerald & Co., 1987, Hand-colored etchings, 10 x 12 in.

The Swan, “Poems,” by Henrik Ibsen, etchings by Neil Welliver, Vincent Fitzgerald & Co., 1987, Hand-colored etchings, 10 x 12 in.

Eider Duck, “Poems,” by Henrik Ibsen, etchings by Neil Welliver, Vincent Fitzgerald & Co., 1987, Hand-colored etchings, 10 x 12 in.

Lincoln, “Poems,” by Henrik Ibsen, etchings by Neil Welliver, Vincent Fitzgerald & Co., 1987, Hand colored etchings, 10 x 12 in.

“Poems,” by Henrik Ibsen, etchings by Neil Welliver, Vincent Fitzgerald & Co., 1987, Hand-colored etchings, 10 x 12 in.

“The Continuous Life,” 18 poems by Mark Strand, 2 prints by Neil Welliver, The Windhover Press, 1990, Woodcut, Edition: 225 Sky in Cora’s Marsh, 1987-88, Woodcut, 34 ½ x 35 in.

Deer, Faulkner, “Hunting Stories”, 1988, Etching and aquatint, 19 x 15 in.

“Hunting Stories,” Linen bound portfolio with 2 etchings

by Neil Welliver, The Limited Editions Club, 1988, Hand colored etchings, 16 x 20 inches “Hunting Stories,” Linen bound portfolio with 2 etchings

by Neil Welliver, The Limited Editions Club, 1988, Hand colored etchings, 16 x 20 inches Stumps Allagash, 1988, Oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in.

Across St. John’s, 1990, Oil on canvas, 72 x 72 in.

Islands Allagash, 1990, Woodcut on Kizuki Nishinouchi paper, 31 x 32 in.

Islands Allagash (Day and Night), “The Continuous Life,” 18 poems by Mark Strand, 2 prints by Neil Welliver, The Windhover Press, 1990, Woodcut, 13 ¾ x 10 in.

Rocky Stream (Winter and Spring), “The Continuous Life,” 18 poems by Mark Strand, 2 prints by Neil Welliver, The Windhover Press, 1990, Woodcut, 13 ¾ x 10 in.

Study for Purple Boulder, 1990, Oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in.

Bear Hole, 1991, Oil on canvas, 72 x 72 in.

Bear Hole from Above, 1991, Oil on canvas, 72 x 60 in.

Study for Bear Hole Runlet, 1991, Oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in.

Study for Brook Barrier, 1991, Oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in.

Two Mergansers, 1992, Woodcut on Kizuki Nishinouchi paper, 30 ½ x 32 in.

Two Trout and Reflections, 1994, Hand-colored etching, 22 ¼ x 26 15/16 in.

Flotsam-Allagash, 1995, Woodcut on Kizuki Nishinouchi paper, 35 x 34 in.

Study for Blueberry Burn Morey’s Hill, 1997, Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.

Redding Salmon (Northern Sea Trout), 1997-98, Etching and wooduct on Arches Cover paper, 26 ¾ x 36 in.

Stump, 2000, Woodcut on Kizuki Nishinouchi paper, 35 x 34 in.

Forest Study, No date, Graphite on paper Study for “New Dams in Meadow”, No date, Graphite on paper Two Deer, No date, Etching Trout, No date, Etching Polly’s Place, No date, Oil on linen.

ANTHOLOGY Introduction By Ruth E. Fine The wilderness is Neil Welliver’s subject – the source of inspiration for his paintings, drawings, and prints. His work encompasses a unity within the dense texture of the natural world, suggesting the tame (or tamable) within the wilderness as well as the wildness within a setting of serenity. One senses that the artist finds his own exploration of the land not only to be a way to make contact with nature’s grandeur, but also a way to embrace it on his own terms.

Welliver makes his home in Maine. The distinctive ruggedness of this northern landscape has attracted artists for generations, and while many painters today come to the area for summer months, Welliver has been a full-time resident for more than twenty-five years. His work in the region continues a visual dialogue central to American art, part of the landscape tradition that was developed in the late nineteenth century by such artists as Albert Pinkham Ryder and Winslow Homer, then continued in the early part of this century by Marsden Hartley and John Marin. These artists tackled pointed firs surrounding deep lakes, waves crashing against jagged rocks along the coast, the drama of brilliant red sunsets and powerful gray storms, the serenity of billowing clouds hovering above rolling fields. It is within this milieu that Neil Welliver’s art must be placed. Homer’s attraction to wildlife is paralleled by Welliver’s to deer, fish and waterfowl. Hartley’s best known subjects are its mountains, and Marin’s the sea. Welliver’s are the woods and the streams.

Night Scene, 1985, Woodcut, 14 x 16 in.

Stream at Baxter, c. 1970, Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

Study for Blueberr y Burn Morey ’s Hill, 1997, Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.

Stumps Allagash, 1988, Oil on linen, 12 x 12 in.

Study for Bear Hole Runlet, 1991, Oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in.

Bear Hole, 1991, Oil on canva, 72 x 72 in.

Cover: Across St. Johns, 1991, Oil on Canvas, 72 x 72 in.

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