Posted 5:48 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012
[caption id="attachment_10018" align="alignright" width="320" caption="John Ready's "Tree Beads," Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Olbrich Botanic Gardens, Madison. The piece is brass, cement, glass and chain, 25', 2004/2005 Collection of Dale Malner, Madison."]
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Associate Professor of Art John Ready sees his artwork — and other work around him — a little differently now thanks to a sabbatical during the 2010-11 academic year. But the year away from teaching and administrative work was anything but a vacation.
Last year Ready completed an installation project at the John Davis Gallery in Hudson, N.Y., as well as a solo exhibition at the Aylward Gallery at UW-Fox Valley in Menasha. And his long-term exhibition in Milwaukee closed, so he disassembled it and brought it home.
Ready traveled twice to New York City and upstate New York to do visual research at the Metropolitan Museum. He studied 18th and 19th century American landscape paintings and headed to upstate New York to locations geographically related to the paintings at the Met.
From reading and research, Ready became interested in the iconographic history and objectification of American landscape. He turned from his normal sculpture to creating two-dimensional collages based on history and American landscape.
“You can see the collages look to be assembled, which is intentional,” Ready explains. “Collage is, in itself, a process that relies on the use of illusion — as in a constructed image — and reality — as in the use of materials from the real world.”
Ready was inspired by paintings in the American Wing at the Met.
“This collection documents American space, historical language, the fluidity of history and documentation, and the process of making art in relationship to contemporary identity,” he explains. “Getting reacquainted with the paintings of Albert Pinkham Ryder was a pivotal experience.”
Ready says the sabbatical has helped him work with his students back in the Center for the Arts.
“Because the department is constantly working to improve its programs and content areas, this experience has better prepared me to teach drawing and courses related to alternative formats,” he explains. “ It also helps me to demonstrate to students that artists who work in the three dimensional realm do, in fact, create images that stretch beyond traditional definitions of media and process.”
The work helped him as an artist too.
[caption id="attachment_10027" align="alignleft" width="360" caption="John Ready's studio"]
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“This experience has helped me to better understand the depth of the foundation from which I work,” he notes. “Being able to research and think through the historical implications of my own work has given me the opportunity to not only create new images, but come to a better understanding of my content interests and the value structure from which I function.”
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Associate Professor of Art John Ready sees his artwork — and other work around him — a little differently now thanks to a sabbatical during the 2010-11 academic year. But the year away from teaching and administrative work was anything but a vacation.
Last year Ready completed an installation project at the John Davis Gallery in Hudson, N.Y., as well as a solo exhibition at the Aylward Gallery at UW-Fox Valley in Menasha. And his long-term exhibition in Milwaukee closed, so he disassembled it and brought it home.
Ready traveled twice to New York City and upstate New York to do visual research at the Metropolitan Museum. He studied 18th and 19th century American landscape paintings and headed to upstate New York to locations geographically related to the paintings at the Met.
From reading and research, Ready became interested in the iconographic history and objectification of American landscape. He turned from his normal sculpture to creating two-dimensional collages based on history and American landscape.
“You can see the collages look to be assembled, which is intentional,” Ready explains. “Collage is, in itself, a process that relies on the use of illusion — as in a constructed image — and reality — as in the use of materials from the real world.”
Ready was inspired by paintings in the American Wing at the Met.
“This collection documents American space, historical language, the fluidity of history and documentation, and the process of making art in relationship to contemporary identity,” he explains. “Getting reacquainted with the paintings of Albert Pinkham Ryder was a pivotal experience.”
Ready says the sabbatical has helped him work with his students back in the Center for the Arts.
“Because the department is constantly working to improve its programs and content areas, this experience has better prepared me to teach drawing and courses related to alternative formats,” he explains. “ It also helps me to demonstrate to students that artists who work in the three dimensional realm do, in fact, create images that stretch beyond traditional definitions of media and process.”
The work helped him as an artist too.
[caption id="attachment_10027" align="alignleft" width="360" caption="John Ready's studio"][/caption]
“This experience has helped me to better understand the depth of the foundation from which I work,” he notes. “Being able to research and think through the historical implications of my own work has given me the opportunity to not only create new images, but come to a better understanding of my content interests and the value structure from which I function.”
[caption id="attachment_10021" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="UW-L Art Department Chairman John Ready"]
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