Date/Time
Date - September 7, 2016
6:00 pm until 7:30 pm
Location
Walsh Gallery, Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University
200 Barlow Road
Fairfield, Connecticut, 06824
Members of Cultural Pursuit have been invited to the public Opening Reception of Rick Shaefer: The Refugee Trilogy at the Walsh Gallery of the Fairfield University Art Museum, which is located inside the Quick Center for the Arts, on their campus. I’m very excited about this – it looks like it’s going to be a beautiful exhibition.
Water Crossing, in studio, 2016, triptych, charcoal on vellum mounted on board, 96″ x 165″ Image courtesy Rick Shaefer
From the website: fairfield.edu
The Fairfield University Art Museum is pleased to present the inaugural exhibition of a monumental new series by Connecticut artist Rick Shaefer created in response to the ongoing refugee crisis convulsing the globe. This three-piece suite is comprised of Land Crossing, dealing with the migration across foreign lands; Water Crossing, addressing the perilous journeys of refugees who take to the open seas; and Border Crossing, spotlighting the hostilities refugees face in seeking safe haven far from a violence-torn homeland. The trilogy employs the artistic lexicon of old master painting (specifically incorporating heroic figurative elements from works by Rubens and Géricault) to explore this contemporary crisis in a language both familiar and iconic. Such historical allusions underscore the tenacious persistence of this epic human tragedy throughout time, past and present.
In addition to the three triptychs, each executed in charcoal on vellum, the exhibition will include a number of Shaefer’s preparatory drawings for the series.
To learn more about these works, visit the artist’s website at rickshaefer.com
Before the Opening, there will be a lecture by Stijn Alsteens, Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who will lecture on “Rubens and the Art of Inspiration” in the Wien Experimental Theatre, Quick Center for the Arts, from 5-6pm.
RSVP is requested to attend either of these events. If interested, contact Laura at your earliest convenience, space is limited.
Thomas J. Walsh Gallery
Fairfield University Art Museum