ARTIST STATEMENT
c. 2002.
Change is the chief constant in my art. My artistic training in the 1950s at Hollins College was traditional, and included many courses in art history. Study at the Skowhegan (Maine) School of Painting and Sculpture, with Hans Hofmann in Princetown, Massachusetts, and for the MFA degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro widened my horizons. I observed directions in the art world, from the abstract expressionists onward, and played with many of those ideas. In the the '60s, I studied the interaction of color and patterns. The '70s brought minimalism to my printmaking and dozens of studies for a large mural commission. In the '80s I returned to painterly realism.
In about 1993, I became fascinated with photographs and ads in popular magazines such as Interview, W, Vanity Fair, andHarper's Bazaar. Contemporary advertising speaks volumes about our society. I use appropriated images and modern reproduction technology to exaggerate the silliness, humor, pathos, and/or irony of these images. To make sense of the visual clutter with which the world bombards us, I often combine these with images from art history. In the process, I discover that human nature changes little over the ages.
My recent work deals with the feelings evoked by the events of September 11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. On the night of 9/11, I dreamed of the skyline of New York. The Twin Towers were replaced with two Islamic prayer towers. Soon afterwards I began making collages using images of the attack and its aftermath. Photographs of explosions, firemen, the faces of witnesses and the dead, twisted steel, flying bodies, Afghan fighters, tanks, veiled women, American soldiers: these are the inspiration for collages and, in turn, the large mural installations. To be most effective a minimum of images are arranged strategically. I hope to convey the emptiness we feel and to help us look more critically at our own society.
CV
Anne Kesler Shields
1932-2012
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS:
Arbor Acres, Anne Kesler Shields Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC
Hanesbrands Theatre, Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts, Winston-Salem, NC
NC Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC
Dillard Collection, and Library, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Bank of America, Charlotte, NC
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Cameron Museum of Art, Wilmington, NC
Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
From the Landscape, Artworks Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC 2013
Anne Kesler Shields, A Retrospective, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), Winston-Salem, NC, 2012
Diptychs: Inspired by the Reynolda House Collection, appropriated image installation, Artworks Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC, 2011
Ambiguities II, appropriated image installation, Artworks Gallery, W-S, NC, 2009
Boundaries, Waterworks Visual Arts Center, aii, Salisbury, NC, 2008
Earthly Delights in the 21st Century: Bosh Revisited, appropriated images, Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, 2007
Woodcut and Silkscreen Prints from the 60s and 70s, Artworks Gallery, 2007
View from the Towers, approp. image installation, Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA, 2006
Constant Battles, appropriated images installation, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA, 2005
Ambiguities, appropriated images, Artworks Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC, 2005; Theatre Art Galleries High Point, NC, 2005; Piedmont Arts Association, Martinsville, VA, 2005; Bell Gallery, Coker College, Hartsville, SC, 2004
’80s Portraits, Sechrest Gallery, High Point University, 2004
Negative Spaces, photocopy installation, Artworks Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC, 2003
In the Garden, an installation and paper collages, Artworks Gallery, 2001
Return of the Sabines, appropriated image installation, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), Winston-Salem, 2000
About Face, 300 photos of faces on the wall, Artworks Gallery, 1998
Amusements, photocopy murals, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY, 1997
The Garden of Earthly Delights, photocopy installation, Artwork Gallery, 1996
Design and Desire II photocopy installation, Spirit Square, Charlotte, NC, 1995
Design and Desire, photocopy installation, Artworks Gallery, 1994
Pen-Ups: A Brief History of Nude Painting, drawing and collage mural, Artworks Gallery, 1995
Artworks Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC, 1989, 1991, 1994
Theatre Art Galleries, High Point, NC, 1990
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
Mid-Century Modern, Lee Hansley Gallery, Raleigh, NC, 2010
Facing South: Portraits by N C Artists, Greenhill Center for NC Art, Greensboro, 2008
Stereotypes: Confronting Clichés, McCall Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, NC, 2006
A Modern Influence: Eight Artists After Ivy, Greenhill Center, Greensboro, 2006
Crosscurrents: Art, Craft and Design in North Carolina, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 2005, Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, 2006
Full Circle: A 40th Anniversary Tribute to The Five Winston-Salem Printmakers, Salem College Fine Arts Center Galleries, Winston-Salem, NC, 2002
60th Anniversary of the WFU Art Collections, Hanes Fine Arts Gallery, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, 2001
North Carolina’s 20th Century Masters, Lee Hansley Gallery, Raleigh, NC, 2000
Looking Forward, Looking Back, Salem College, Winston-Salem, 1999
Women Artists of NC - Winston-Salem Area, Meredith College, Raleigh, NC, 1994
Five Winston-Salem Printmakers’, SECCA, Winston-Salem, NC, 1983
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC, 1957 - 1977
The Five Winston-Salem Printmakers travelling exhibitions, 1962 - 1983
200 Years of Art in NC, NC Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, 1976
Artist Annual, NC Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, 1961 -1972, 1958, 1957, 1955
New Directions in Color Printmaking, Associated American Artists, NYC, 1967
AWARDS:
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA, Fellowships, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1996, 1997
Urban Walls Project, NEA Grant, mural in downtown Winston-Salem, 1975
Boston Printmakers, State College at Boston, Arden Prize, 1970; Purchase Prize, 1967
PUBLICATIONS:
Patterson, Tom, “Artist sees contemporary art through classic lens”, W-S Journal, June 12, 2011
Huie, Michael, “Adorned”, Artview, W-S, August 20, 2010
Patterson, Tom, “Vigorous Voices: Two galleries on Trade Street are showing works by two quite different local artists”, Winston-Salem Journal, April 12, 2009
Greene, Diana, “Collective Politics”, Winston-Salem Monthly, July 2008
Patterson, Tom, “Faith, Tragedy, Conflict”, Winston-Salem Journal, March 9, 2008
Patterson, Tom, “This Crazy Old World”, Winston-Salem Journal, April 8, 2007
Patterson, Tom, “Bombs becoming targets”, Winston-Salem Journal, May 7, 2006
Patterson, Tom, “Confronting Stereotypes”, Winston-Salem Journal, April 30, 2006
CROSSCURRENTS: Art, Craft and Design in North Carolina (exhibition catalog), NC Museum of Art, 2005
Latter, Ruth, “The ballet of battle takes over gallery”, The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, VA, June 30, 2005
Patterson, Tom, “Terrifying Compositions”, Winston-Salem Journal, January 30, 2005
Patterson, Tom, “Shocking, Awesome”, Winston-Salem Journal, May 4, 2003
Griffin, Penny, “FULL CIRCLE, A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Five
Winston-Salem Printmakers” (exhibition catalog), Salem College, W-S, 2002
Patterson, Tom, “40 Years on Exhibit”, Winston-Salem Journal, April 14, 2002
Patterson, Tom, “Before/After That Day”, W-S Journal, March 10, 2002
Woestendick, Jo, “Full Circle”, ArtView, W-S Journal, February 6, 2002
Patterson, Tom, “Something to Think About”, W-S Journal, May 14, 2000
Patterson, Tom, “Portrait of a Postmodernist”, W-S Journal, March 12, 2000
Somerville, S. Leigh, “Reflections on Society”, ArtView, W-S, Feb.9, 2000
Patterson, Tom, “One woman show brings Bosch right into the 1990s”, W-S Journal, July 7 1996
Shearin, Margaret, “Exploiting the exploiters: A model for protest”, Triad Style, February 16,1994
Krotz, Joanna L., “New Traditions”, Money, June 1991
Carr, Genie, “Face to Face”, W-S Journal, August 25, 1991
Patterson, Tom, “‘Portrait Collages’ Exhibit at Artworks Is an Unusual Foray Into the Familiar”, W-S Journal, January, 29, 1989
Carr, Genie, “A New Face”, W-S Journal, January 1, 1989
Shewmake, Mitzi, “The Five Winston-Salem Printmakers”, Women’s Art Journal, Vol. 5, No.1, pg. 40-46 Knoxville, TN, 1984
“Five Winston-Salem Printmakers” (exhibition catalog), SECCA, 1983
EDUCATION:
MFA, UNC-G 1959;
Hans Hofmann, Provincetown, MA 1957;
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine 1956;
BA, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA 1954