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Charles Mcgee June 4 to September 24, 2011 Teacher’S Guide

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Charles Mcgee June 4 to September 24, 2011 Teacher’S Guide 2 Centuries, 3 Decades, 28 Works by Charles McGee June 4 to September 24, 2011 Teacher’s Guide www.marshallfredericks.org (989) 964-7125 2 Centuries, 3 Decades, 28 Works by Charles McGee The word I would use if asked to portray Charles McGee in a single word is prodigious. Both his personality (character and intellect) and his art (sculpture, painting, drawing, and assemblage) are extraordinary and impres- sive. McGee came to Michigan at age ten from a humble childhood in South Carolina and has lived and worked in Detroit for seventy-seven years. Those first ten years shaped the texture and content of who Charles McGee is to- day. His accomplishments as an artist and a human being, as an educator and a gallery owner, present an ency- clopedic journey from modesty to greatness. At age eighty-five in 2009, Charles McGee celebrated his life’s work with a retrospective exhibition at Eastern Michigan University, a body of work that spanned nearly sixty years. In the exhibition catalogue Energy: Charles McGee at Eighty-five, his collage Celebration (2007) is referred to by exhibition curator Julie R. Myers as “one of his greatest masterpieces”. For the last several months, Charles has worked in his Detroit studio to complete the most recent of his “greatest masterpieces,” Play Patterns II, one of his largest ever three-dimensional pieces (at 10’ x 20’), for the exhibition, 2 Centuries, 3 Decades, 28 Works by Charles McGee. In early 2010, shortly after I invited Charles to exhibit his work at the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, he made his first visit to the museum. When we walked into the larger of the two temporary exhibition galleries, he said “I will create a piece for that wall,” gesturing to the largest flat surface in the gallery. Play Patterns II, a mixed- media collage on enamel, was finished in May 2011, four weeks before the opening of 2 Centuries, 3 Decades, 28 Works by Charles McGee. It is my hope that following the exhibition this historically significant assemblage will find its way to an American museum or private collection. In light of his major retrospective at Eastern Michigan University and the mounting of an abbreviated version of that show at Center Galleries at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit less than two years ago, I wanted the focus of this exhibition to be on the second half of Charles’s career, thus the title 2 Centuries, 3 Decades, 28 Works by Charles McGee. In 1980, Charles McGee was fifty-six years of age. During the last thirty years he has produced thousands of drawings and hundreds of paintings and sculptures; taught adult art classes at the Birming- ham Bloomfield Art Center for eleven years; been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions in this country and abroad; completed seventeen public art commissions; and awarded the first Kresge Foundation Eminent Artist Award in 2009. For this exhibition I selected a range of work in multiple media (assemblage, collage, drawing, painting, sculp- ture, stoneware) from private and public collections and from the artist’s studio, all created in the last three dec- ades. The twenty-eight works in this exhibition represent the exceptional scope of Charles McGee’s oeuvre. Marilyn L. Wheaton Director, Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum 2 Information on the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum Location: The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum is located on the campus of Saginaw Valley State Univer- sity in the Arbury Fine Arts Center, 7400 Bay Rd., University Center, MI 48710. Contact Information: Phone…………..… (989)964-7125 Fax………………… (989)964-7221 Email………………. [email protected] Website………...… www.marshallfredericks.org The Collection: The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum Collection features a unique collection of hundreds of works that span the career of Marshall M. Fredericks (1908-1998), a traditional figurative public sculptor, who remained active in his metro-Detroit studios until days before his death at age 90. He is known nationally and in- ternationally for his monumental figurative sculpture, public memorials, public fountains, portraits, animals and whimsical animal figures. Main Gallery The Main Gallery features a unique collection of hundreds of works that span the career of Marshall M. Fredericks (1908‐1998), a traditional figurative sculptor, who remained active in his metro Detroit studios until days before his death at 90. He is known nationally and internationally for his monumental figurative sculpture, public memori- als, public fountains, portraits, animals and whimsical animal figures. The Main Gallery includes about 200 works, mostly plaster models, which span a 70‐year career of sculpting. The museum holdings include plaster models, cast and carved sculptures, medals, jewelry, miniatures, drawings, photos, site models, molds, armatures, tools, machinery and archival materials. Main Gallery highlights include: Christ on the Cross in Indian River, Michigan; the Fountain of Eternal Life in Cleveland, Ohio; The Expanding Universe Fountain at the State Department in Washing- ton, D.C.; the Freedom of the Human Spirit in Flushing Meadow Park, New York City; the Leaping Gazelle for The Levi Barbour Fountain at Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan; The Spirit of Detroit at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit; and The Ford Empire and Harlequin Reliefs at Ford Auditorium in Detroit. The Sculptor’s Studio The Sculptor’s Studio displays a permanent exhibit of objects and artifacts from Fredericks’ studio. After his death in 1998, his entire collection of archives, artwork, studio tools, equipment and some personal items became part of the museum’s collection. These items are arranged in a sequence that explains the casting process. A large di- dactic panel on the lost‐wax and sand‐casting methods further explains the casting process. Visitors also can view a kiosk of original images of Fredericks’ studio interior and exterior, the Sculpture Garden and an extended version of the video “The Magic of Marshall Fredericks: The Poet Lord Byron.” The Sculptor’s Studio furthers the mission of the museum and fulfills Fredericks’ wish of educating visitors about the process of fine art casting. 3 Temporary Exhibition Galleries The Temporary Exhibition Galleries feature changing exhibitions of national, regional and international artists and showcase works from the museum collection. Its first exhibition was Cranbrook Fundamentals, which opened Octo- ber 11, 2003, and closed March 20, 2004. Past exhibitions are listed below. Contemporary American Sculpture from the Collection of the Flint Institute of Arts (April 30, 2004 to April 30, 2005) Prints by Sculptors: From the Collection of the Flint Institute of Arts (April 30 to August 28, 2004) Visiting Scholar & Artist Series: Paul Rotterdam: Drawings (October 8, 2004, to January 22, 2005), in conjunc- tion with the Dow Visiting Artist Series The Preacher and His Congregation: From the Collection of the Flint Institute of Arts, Photographs by James Per- ry Walker (February 7 to March 19, 2005), in conjunction with Black History Month Marshall M. Fredericks, (1908‐1998), (April 15 to August 28, 2005) The Armature Revealed: From the Collection of the Marshall Fredericks Sculpture Museum (June 10 to Septem- ber 24, 2005) Nature Transformed: Wood Art from the Bohlen Collection (October 14, 2005 to April 30, 2006) Marshall M. Fredericks: Selected Works from the Collection (June 1 to January 19, 2007) Cultural Reflections, Inuit Art from the Collections of the Dennos Museum Center (February 2 to May 19, 2007) Pewabic Pottery: Patronage, Private Residences, Public Buildings, Sacred Spaces, (June 1 to September 29, 2007) David Hostetler: Wood and Bronze Sculptures, (October 12, 2007 to January 26, 2008) Street Sense: A 20 year retrospective of Tyree Guyton and the Heidelberg Project, (Feb. 8 to May 24, 2008) Regional Biennial Juried Sculpture Exhibition, (June 13 to Sept. 20, 2008) Tangents and Waves: The Art of David Barr and Diane Carr, (Oct. 3, 2008 to Jan. 31, 2009) Thayer and Thayer, Paintings and Sculpture, (Feb. 7 to May 29, 2009) The Softness of Iron: Welded Sculptures by Orna Ben-Ami, (June 12 to September 19, 2009) Breaking the Mold: Contemporary Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Sculpture and Textile Extensions: Quilts in a New Context, (October 2, 2009 to January 28, 2010) Sketches to Sculptures: Rendered Reality, Sixty Years with Marshall M. Fredericks, (February 12 to June 12, 2010) Artists Portray Artists: Selections From the Kresge Art Museum (October 1, 2010 to Jan. 29, 2011) Art in Architecture: The Collaborative Spirit of the Interwar Period in Detroit (February 5 to May 28, 2011) Visit our website at www.marshallfredericks.org to view photos and videos of past and current exhibitions. Sculpture Garden School groups can include a Sculpture Garden tour as part of their visit. There are approximately two dozen of Fred- ericks’ sculptures on campus; most of them are close to the museum. Admission: Admission to the Museum is free to walk-in visitors. Tour Information: Museum tours can be scheduled by calling 989-964-7096. Arrangements for tours should be made 4 weeks in advance. 4 What is an Artist’s Statement? Artists write about why they make their artwork. There are many reasons for doing artwork. Some of the reasons and influences of doing their art comes from experiences they have had in life, their culture, where they live, the time period in which they live, people or things that influence them, other artists, art movement styles, things they enjoy seeing, media they like to work with and methods they like to use to make art. Question: Ask your students to write a short statement of why they like to do art. Think of the many rea- sons and influences of why artists make art above. Have them explain why. Charles McGee’s Art Statement is below.
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