Desperately Seeking Salem

The retrospective exhibition of works by mixed media artist Robert McCauley, currently on view at Willamette University’s Hallie Ford Museum of Art, doesn’t sound that impressive, or really that inventive, on paper:

“Rapids and Pools”

“Robert McCauley is a Mt. Vernon, Washington artist who explores the 19th century notion of “Manifest Destiny” and its impact on the indigenous cultures and environment of the western United States through paintings, drawings, installations, and mixed media works. Organized by Director John Olbrantz, the exhibition features 24 works from public and private collections in Washington, California, Idaho, and Illinois.”

But then again, that’s why it’s mixed media. You really have to get down to the three small university galleries to get the full effect of Mr. McCauley’s big f-u to 19th century’s more destructive values.

Take, for example, the work pictured here, called “Missionary Gifts” (1994), consisting of  stacked boxes labeled with things like “English language and names” and “conceptions of wealth.” It would be just another ironic commentary on how modern societies reinterpret the cultural values of the past if it weren’t so graceful in its execution — with each box closed snug and packed primly on top of the next as if by the hands of a Methodist minister himself.

The entire collection is like this — fiercely provocative and funny in a really satisfying, intelligent way. But it also struck me as a deeply personal body of work, one that never strays too far into autobiography to be inaccessible.  One work in the center gallery was particularly haunting, capturing the murky depths of stormy lake where four of the artist’s friends once drowned.

But my favorite remains “A Brief History of Monochromatic Painting.” McCauley believes that the roots of abstraction existed in nature long before artist discovered them. He points this out, convincingly, in a portrait of a polar bear whose multi-hued “white” fur is boxed out to create a mini-abstract portrait of its own.

Or as McCauley says it:

“If not careful, one could be examining the color white with a magnifying glass unaware of the general proximity to the polar bear.”

I love it.

Tucked in one corner of the southeast gallery, almost hidden from plain view, the curators have also displayed one of the more stirring and honest artist’s statements that I’ve read. Mr. McCauley is clearly no fan of the gobbledygook masquerading as erudition that many artists try to pass off as a statement.

While some of the placard phrases in the exhibition come across as a tad pedantic, I can say I’ve rarely felt a visual artist speaking so directly at me through words as well as his art.

TIP: THE MUSEUM IS FREE ON TUESDAYS! I suggest that everyone working near the museum take next Tuesday and visit the exhibition during the lunch break. Who needs food when art can sustain you.