The Rahr-West Art Museum is proud to present Barbara Timmel as part of their Art of Conversations lecture series and in conjunction with the Pure Energy: Charles Dix and Doris White exhibit on Sunday, July 28, 2019 at 1:00 pm at the Rahr-West Art Museum. Timmel will speak about her brother Charles Dix, and his experience as an artist in Wisconsin.
In the 1950s Abstract Expressionism took the art world by storm. Large canvases by artists like Jackson Pollock, Paul Jenkins, and Helen Frankenthaler exploded with color and energy filled galleries and museums across the country. In Wisconsin, Charles Dix and Doris White were influenced by Abstract Expressionism and both made successful careers creating color-saturated, expressive work. The Rahr-West Art Museum offers the exhibit Pure Energy: Charles Dix and Doris White, through August 11, 2019 to examine their work. Drawing mostly from the Museum’s permanent collection, the Pure Energy exhibit features forty-two works, allowing visitors to experience the major stylistic trends of each artist. Most of the museum’s collection of the two artists came from a gift from patron Ruth West.
“White’s paintings are exceptional in their composition and quality of line, while Dix’s work reveals his lifelong exploration of color,” says Rahr-West Art Museum Director Greg Vadney. “Neither artist stopped experimenting and pushing the limits of their medium during their lifetimes. The community is extraordinarily fortunate that Mrs. Ruth West had the foresight to collect White and Dix’s work during their lifetimes and to give these works to the Museum.”
The lecture with Barbara Timmel will give more details on Charles Dix, who was first raised in Wauwatosa, and then moved to a lake home with his family in the Dousman area. Timmel states that art is “all he ever wanted to do from grade school on. He was very fortunate to have good art teachers, even in grade school. Jane Dowd recognized his talent early on and supported him early.” Dix attended Rhode Island School of Design for a short time but wasn’t interested in taking all of the core classes; he just wanted to paint. Timmel believes that art school probably would have stifled his creativity.
Dix was inspired by two main things: color and outer space. Of his reputation as a colorist he said: “it was a natural phenomenon – the interplay of color, color transposed, color taken to such a point that it fringes on the unrecognizable. My intense interest in space and man’s involvement with the exploration of it is coupled with this premise.”
The lecture with Barbara Timmel at the Rahr-West Art Museum on Sunday, July 28, 2019 at 1:00 pm is free and open to the public. Along with the lecture, the Museum is offering hands-on classes for visitors of all ages to create art in the style of Charles Dix. Check the Museum’s website, rahrwestartmuseum.org, for details.
