K-State Beach Museum of Art exhibition features Neil Welliver landscapes
Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023
K-State's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art is featuring the exhibition "Neil Welliver: Maine Seasons" until Aug. 17, 2024, in the Ruth Ann Wefald Gallery. Pictured above is "Autumn Blueberry Barren," a 1982 oil on canvas painting by Welliver. | Download this photo.
MANHATTAN — Kansas State University's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art is featuring the landscapes of rural Maine in its latest exhibition, "Neil Welliver: Maine Seasons." Visitors can enjoy the exhibition in the Ruth Ann Wefald Gallery through Aug. 17, 2024.
The exhibition showcases three canvas paintings by Neil Welliver, who lived from 1929-2005 and is known for his large landscapes of rural Maine. Welliver set up his easel in the state’s woods, along its shorelines, and atop its peaks, in all seasons and all weather.
In a warmer studio, Welliver translated his painted studies into charcoal-on-paper compositions, which he stapled to a massive canvas. He traced the drawing using a sewing pouncing wheel, which left a pattern of dots on the fabric. He then began painting, starting in the upper left corner and moving across and down.
Neil G. Welliver, "Frozen Spring," 1974, oil on canvas, 96 x 96 in., Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, Gift of Ruth and Stanley Westreich, 2021.13. | Download this photo.
The paintings feature landscapes devoid of humans except for an imagined hiker-viewer. Welliver once said, "I am very interested in the idea of the spectator entering a picture … to, in fact, not see the picture as an object but really actively enter into it … in a psychological sense."
Welliver's paintings are on loan from Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The Beach Museum of Art is a borrowing institution of the Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership, which is a foundation dedicated to expanding access to American art across the United States.
The Beach Museum of Art is on the southeast corner of the K-State campus at 701 Beach Lane. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays; and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Admission to the museum is free, and free parking is available adjacent to the building. To catch a livestream event or view exhibitions online, visit the museum's website, or watch videos of the museum's special programs and events on its YouTube channel. For a calendar of events in the Art in Motion annual program series, visit the museum's calendar.
