Contact:
Brandon Reintjes, curator of art, Montana Museum of Art and Culture, 406-243-2019, brandon.reintjes@mso.umt.edu
Renowned Artist, Critic, Educator To Visit UM
Mar. 11, 2011
MISSOULA –
The Montana Museum of Art & Culture at The University of Montana will host “Sense and Sensation: Laurie Fendrich,
Paintings and Drawings 1990-2010,” the first in-depth retrospective of the abstract painter, critic and professor, from
March 24 to May 21.
Organized by Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., the traveling exhibition will be featured in the museum’s Paxson
Gallery, located in UM’s Performing Arts and Radio/Television Center.
Fendrich will present a lecture on balancing her multiple roles as artist, critic and educator at 3 p.m. Friday, April 1, in
the Masquer Theatre of the PAR/TV Center, followed by a First Friday reception for the artist from 4 to 6 p.m. in the
center’s lobby. The event is free and open to the public.
In a recent review of the exhibition, “Art in America” critic Leah Ollman states: “Fendrich has become more playful –
rambunctious, even. As the exhibition title indicates through its allusion to Jane Austen (one of the artist’s
touchstones), Fendrich seeks a balance between presumed opposites: intellect and emotion, freedom and limitation,
harmonic stasis and frisky dynamism. Her work hums with friction.”
Fendrich, an abstract painter for more than 30 years, received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Mount
Holyoke College and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has taught
art for more than 25 years and is currently professor of fine arts at Hofstra University.
She writes regularly on art, society and education for Brainstorm , The Chronicle of Higher Education’s blog on ideas,
culture and the arts. Her work is widely exhibited and has been featured in 10 solo exhibitions since 1982. She
currently is represented by the Gary Snyder Project Space in New York City.
The exhibition features the saturated, offbeat hues of her colorful paintings and the matte, velvety black-and-white
scheme of her drawings. Grace Glueck of The New York Times described the exhibition as “a salute to Russian
constructivism, a nod to art deco, a bow to ’30’s American modernism, more than a dash of loony cartoony pop
culture. But the combos actually work, forming crisp compositions whose bright toy-like colors, suave matings of
geometric with biomorphic forms, and skilled painting give the work a decorous pizzazz.”
Mark Stevens, Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of “De Kooning: An American Master,” wrote the essay for the
Fendrich catalog. He will present “The Endless Fifteen Minutes: Fame, Celebrity and Art Today” as part of the
President’s Lecture Series at UM at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 14, in the University Theatre.
Stevens also will speak during a seminar from 3:40 to 5 p.m. April 14 in the Montana Theatre of the PAR/TV Center.
All series events are free and open to the public.
Concurrent with the Fendrich exhibition, MMAC will present “Barry Hood: Flow” in the museum’s Meloy Gallery.
Hood, who creates sculptural glass and bas reliefs, is a UM alumnus who worked with noted ceramist Rudy Autio.
A conversation with Barry Hood will take place at 3 p.m. Friday, May 6, in the Montana Theatre of the PAR/TV
Center, followed by a First Friday reception from 4 to 6 p.m. in the center’s lobby. The event is free and open to the
public.
MMAC gallery hours are noon to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday.
For more information visit the MMAC website at http://www.umt.edu/montanamuseum or call 406-243-2019.
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NOTE TO MEDIA: Digital images of select items included in the exhibition are available by calling 406-243-2019.
BR/bd
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