Art Abstracts: Lewandowskis

Cemetery
POSTED ON APRIL 6, 2015

Looking for the answer to Art Abstracts? Its Edmund Lewandowskis Cemetery.
In Cemetery, Edmund Lewandowski meditates upon the most human of subjects:
mortality. The painting relates most likely to the loss of his mother, who died
when he was only seven. However, with the recent conclusion of World War II, it
refers to loss on a grander scale. Lewandowski is often regarded as the Last
Precisionist. After Lewandowski won the distinguished Jeu de Paume prize in
Paris in 1938, the director of the Downtown Gallery, Edith Halpert, encouraged
the Milwaukee-born artist to look to the Midwest for inspiration, resulting in
paintings of barns, farm equipment, and industry that characterized his career.
Why is this painting significant this week? Its part of our Beyond the
Battlefield: Depictions of Warexhibition that is currently on display in the Ellen
and Richard L. Sandor Photography Gallery. The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is
collaborating with the University of Oklahomas Peggy Dow Helmerich School of
Drama to merge two art forms. Students will perform Elliot, A Soldiers Fugue, a
Pulitzer-nominated play by Quiara Alegria Hudes, inside the museum this
week! Admission is complimentary and seating is limited. Seats may be reserved
via email at ouarts@yahoo.com. The play will be performed at 12:30 p.m., April
7; at 5:30 p.m., April 8; and at 7:30 p.m., April 9.
IMAGE CREDITS
Edmund Lewandowski (U.S. 1914-1998)
Cemetery, 1946
Gouache on board, 22 x 30 in.
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma, Norman;
Purchase, U.S. State Department Collection, 1948