Edgar Ewing 1913-2006

edgar ewing

[1913-2006]

Edgar Ewing was born in Hartington, Nebraska and trained at the Art Institute of Chicago. After winning the Edward L. Ryerson Fellowship for Study and Travel in 1935, Ewing went to Europe to further his education. Two years later, he took a teaching position at his alma mater. His teaching there was interrupted in 1943 by a three year tour with the Army Corps of Engineers in the Pacific Theater.

When the promising young artist returned home, he headed for Los Angeles to take a position at the University of Southern California. Except for interruptions to teach at the University of Oregon, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the American Academy in Rome, Ewing taught painting and drawing at USC for thirty-one years. As one official at USC noted, “he was like an institution.” In 1978, he retired as Professor Emeritus and moved to Athens. In 1987, the artist returned for a year to teach as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus.

Ewing’s career was impressive by any standard. In addition to over thirty solo exhibitions at museums and galleries, Ewing was featured in survey shows at nearly every major American museum. These include the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Frye Museum in Seattle, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Nelson Gallery of Art in Kansas, the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and the Smithsonian Institute among many others.

Although productive and powerful throughout his sixty year career, the artist’s period of greatest prominence extended from the mid 1940s to the mid 1970s. His output during this time is characterized by strong Post-Cubist

tendencies gleaned from the Paris School. For Ewing, this meant calligraphic lines that were sensible to both biomorphic curves and angular geometry. In the application of paint, he moved easily between the soak-stain approach of painters like Helen Frankenthaler and the rich impasto of the Abstract Expressionists. Up until the early 1980s, his palette remained anchored in the Mediterranean and Southern California landscape with earth tones yielding to shocks of color. The artist often worked in series, chosing themes that allowed for wide poetic exploration. Among these, he counted over twenty series relating to Greek and Roman civilization and the culture of the Southwest United States.

As a painter and a teacher, Ewing’s approach to art was noteworthy for its sophistication. He was able to push formal boundaries even as he remained firmly committed to the classical tradition. He was also a painter who never abandoned intuition to intellect.

Reassessing Edgar Ewing’s impact on California art falls outside the scope of either this exhibition or its catalog.

Both will have to suffice as opening statements in a lengthier dialogue about the evolution of esthetic ideas in Southern California and our region’s relevance in the national arena.

The Southern California of the 1950s, in particular, represents an apex of American modernity. As such, its heroes deserve a fresh appraisal. Sullivan Goss has been active in bringing forth the luminaries of the period, and our representation of Edgar Ewing’s estate reaffirms our commitment to that project.

- Jeremy Tessmer, Curator of 20th Century American Art

VIEW OF THE PIREAUS, 1957 20.5 x 28 inches | oil on canvas

AMERICAN ENGINE, c. 1958 40 x 45 inches | oil on canvas Part of the American Engines series (12 paintings) - 1958-1959

AGHIA TRIADA , 1964-1967 40 x 45 inches | oil on canvas

SELECTED CHRONOLOGY 1913 - Born in Hartington, Nebraska 1931-1935 - Studies at Art Institute of Chicago 1935-1937 - Travels to Europe to study with proceeds from Edward L. Ryerson Fellowship for Travel & Study 1937-1943 - Teachs at the Art Institute of Chicago 1943-1946 - Serves with Army Corps of Engineers in China, Burma, India, the Philippines and Japan 1946-1978 - Teaches at the University of Southern California 1964 - Selected to be Artist in Residence at the American Academy in Rome 1968-1969 - Selected to be Andrew Mellon Chair at the Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburg, PA 1971-1972 - Sabattical to Athens, Greece 1978-1984 - Retires from USC and moved back to Athens 2006 - Dies in Los Angeles, CA after granting filmed interview with Frank Goss of Sullivan Goss SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 1946 - Pepsi Cola Gallery, New York, NY 1947 - University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 1948, 1955 - M.H. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA 1952 - Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA 1954, 1958, 1961, 1963, 1965 - Dalzell Hatfield Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1960 - Long Beach Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA 1967, 1971 - Esther Bear Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA 1973 - National Gallery, Athens, Greece 1974 - Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1976 - Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA 1993 - Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA SELECTED COLLECTIONS Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH Los Angels County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA Santa Barbara, Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA Sheldon Memorial Art Library, Lincoln, NE University of Southern California, Fischer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA University of Syracuse, Syracuse, NY

ON EXHIBIT MARCH 31 - JUNE 3, 2007

RECEPTION S A T U R D AY, M A R C H 3 1 , 2 0 0 7 | F R O M 5 - 7 P M 7 E A S T A N A PA M U S T R E E T | S A N TA B A R B A R A , C A

Sullivan Goss A N A M E R I C A N G A L L E RY

7 East Anapamu Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 730-1460 www.sullivangoss.com

COVER: METAMORPHOSIS, SHADOWS IN THE METEORA, 1964 60 x 70 inches | oil on canvas | Part of the Meteora series (32 paintings) - 1964-1967 RECEPTION: WITHIN THE METEORA, c. 1967 32 x 39 inches | oil on canvas | Part of the Meteora series (32 paintings) - 1964 - 1967