Media Contact: Susan Cipollaro, scipollaro@fairfield.edu , 203-254-4000, ext. 2726
FAIRFIELD, CONN. (Feb. 9, 2017) – The Fairfield University Art Museum presents a new exhibition, “H.A. Sigg: Abstract Rivers” on view from Friday March 24, 2017, through Saturday June 10, 2017, in the museum’s Walsh Gallery, in the Quick Center for the Arts, on the campus of Fairfield University. An opening reception , free and open to the public , will take place on Thursday March 23, 2017 from 6-7:30pm.
The exhibition features over 25 paintings and sculptures by Abstract Expressionist Painter H. A. Sigg. Sigg was born in Switzerland in 1924 and studied in Zurich and later Paris, where he was especially captivated by the art of French Nabi painter Pierre Bonnard.
Although his paintings of the 1950s adhere to a figurative idiom, he soon evolved a purely abstract style, whose graceful, atmospheric and minimalist forms and motifs were inflected by aerial views of Southeast Asia, a vantage point he was afforded in 1968 when he was invited by Swissair to fly as artist in residence in the sky. From his privileged, sweeping view from the cockpit, he made sketches of the distant topography below. These became the inspiration and the source of the lithe and geometric abstractions suggestive of terraced fields and gently meandering rivers that characterize his work beginning in the 1970's.
For H. A. Sigg, the river is perhaps the most iconic and resonant subject, a "mysterious force" with a spirit of its own, as he has averred, and a metaphor for the course of human life and the search for inner enlightenment.
In formulating his river imagery, Sigg has pointed to the influence of Hermann Hesse's novel Siddhartha, whose protagonist encounters the river as a changing yet constant, regenerating force, and a source of wisdom and renewal—tropes that inform his river-inspired imagery.
A recently published monograph on the artist and his work, by critic Edward Lucie-Smith, entitled H.A. Sigg: The River , will be available for sale at the Walsh Gallery.
A gallery talk on the exhibition with Fairfield University Art History & Visual Cultural Lecturer Lauren Cesiro will take place before the opening reception on March 23 rd at 5:30 p.m. This program is free and open to the public. Advanced registration for this talk is recommended (fuam.eventbrite.com).
This exhibition is made possible by the generous support of the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation. Venü Magazine is the exclusive media sponsor of the 2016-2017 season in the Walsh Gallery.
The Fairfield University Art Museum’s Walsh Gallery is located in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts on the campus of Fairfield University, 200 Barlow Road, Fairfield, Connecticut. It is open to the public Wednesday through Saturday 12 noon to 4 p.m. when classes are in session. Admission is free . The museum’s Bellarmine Hall Galleries are located in Bellarmine Hall. They are open to the public Tuesday to Friday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., as well as select Saturdays, when classes are in session. Admission is free.
Image Credit: H.A. Sigg, Within the Red III , 1993, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 46 inches.
Posted On: 04-13-2017 03:04 PM
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