January 17 - March 14, 2010
Ralph Borge: A Symbolic Realist and His Circle
A retrospective exhibition by California College of the Arts beloved master professor of painting and drawing, Ralph Borge (1921 - 2009), including a selection of works by some of his most noted former students.
Opening Day Panel Discussion and Reception: Sunday, January 17,
2:00 - 5:00 p.m.
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Although the exhibition is entitled "A symbolic Realist and His Circle," the related term "Magic Realist" is sometimes used to described Ralph Borge. We have invited noted Bay Area art writer,
Robert Taylor, to provide context and history for the terms and the exhibition. ~
Magic Realism by Robert Taylor
Magic Realism is often tied to the art of the 1940s and 1950s, but German critic Franz Roh first used the term in the mid-1920s. He was describing an aspect of the "New Objectivity," a movement reflecting the resignation and cynicism of the period after World War I. "Magic Realism" was revived decades later without a clear-cut definition or an organized movement, but it usually describes an exact, realistic painting technique to make the implausible or fantastic appear convincing. The somber tone of the earlier era could also be felt in Magic Realism. Art historian H.H. Arnason points out that many artists created mysterious scenes through juxtapositions "that are disturbing even when it is difficult to see exactly why."
Artists described as Magic Realists would include the Belgian painter Rene Magritte with his "fantasies of the commonplace," the Italian Giorgio de Chirico, and Americans George Tooker and, at times, Andrew Wyeth. In the midst of World War II, a 1943 exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art attracted much attention with its title alone, "American Realists and Magic Realists." It included paintings by Edward Hopper, Charles Sheeler and Paul Cadmus. One of the show's organizers, art patron and curator Lincoln Kirstein, offered one of the best definitions of the edgy art movement: "Magic realists try to convince us that extraordinary things are possible simply by painting them as if they existed."
In both chronology and technique, Magic Realism fell between Surrealism and Photorealism, and there would be-then and now-variations described as symbolic realism, allegorical realism and social realism. Many artists dismissed the Magic Realist description, including, eventually, Ralph Borge. In an interview, he described the 1955 oil painting "Dreams Lost" as his first in heightened realism, "the Magic Realism type of thing." It's a label he eventually rejected in favor of "social realism." But even that didn't define him, said his wife, Martha Borge. She always wanted to call his work "poetic realism." Borge could confound critics by refusing to fit into their categories. At the same time, he enjoyed creating puzzles to stimulate the imagination of his viewers. Describing one painting-although it could be a large part of his career-he told an interviewer, "I was trying to create a very enigmatic little state."
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IN THE KEITH ROOM
A selection of Ralph Borge's finest landscape paintings, first inspired by his move to Point Reyes Station, have been temporarily installed in the Keith Room.
Paintings by William Keith will return April 17, featuring recent acquisitions and newly restored Keith landscapes, many on public view for the first time.
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