Anne Appleby at the Missoula Art Museum
Anne Appleby: A Hymn For The Mother
August 6 2021 - December 20 2021
Observing and responding to her the forest surrounding her home and studio outside of Jefferson City, Montana, artist Anne Appleby distills her perceptions of natural elements as they perpetually alter throughout their life cycles. In this new series of works, Appleby addresses the collective angst we are experiencing, consciously or not, regarding the rapidly changing climate. Through a subtle approach employing various mediums and imagery, the exhibition examines the romantic ideas we hold culturally in relation to the reality and effects of a warming planet. Appleby states “I have spent the last twenty-three years painting the landscape of my Montana home, in a reductive language observing the cyclical nature of trees and plants. I use this language in the exhibition but also explore a traditional style of romantic landscape painting.”
"As an elegy to Mother Earth in face of unprecedented environmental destruction, A Hymn for the Mother may be best understood through the lens of forward-thinking conservation practices and legislation and the development of the environmental movement in Montana. Usually, contemporary art falls on one end of a spectrum while environmental policy and activism lie elsewhere, unrelated, but Appleby manages to create a body of work that bridges this traditional division. This is not to say that Appleby’s work is overtly political. Rather, the environmental movement in Montana works as an armature to support deeper engagement and a better understanding of the artist’s practice and her work." —Brandon Reintjes, senior curator at MAM.
This exhibit is sponsored by The Wren in downtown Missoula and Ruth and Kim Reineking.
RELATED EVENTS:
Friday, September 24 // 5 to 7 PM // Exhibit opening reception
Saturday, September 25 // 1 PM // Gallery talk with the artist
ANNE APPLEBY
A Hymn for the Mother at the Missoula Art Museum
Photo by Slikati Photography
About Anne Appleby
Anne Appleby
Quaking Aspen, 2012
color aquatint with burnishing
image size: 18 x 18”; paper size: 30 ¼ x 29 ¼”
Edition of 20, Artist Proof
Anne Appleby was born in 1954 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and moved to Montana at age 17. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1977 from the University of Montana and embarked on a 15-year apprenticeship with an Ojibwe elder, learning to patiently and deeply observe nature. Appleby would watch and then translate into color the cycles of leaves, stems, buds, fruit, and seeds, transforming nature’s fluid evolution into two-dimensional portraits.
Appleby received her Master of Fine Arts in 1989 from the San Francisco Art Institute and has since exhibited her paintings internationally to high acclaim. She has had solo exhibitions at the Tacoma Art Museum, 2018, the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University, Kansas, 2011, the Museum Ritter, Waldenbuch, Germany, 2010, and the Boise Art Museum, 2000. In 2007 the artist was featured at the Villa e Collezione Panza, Varese, Italy, which commissioned a permanent major painting installation. Her paintings are in the permanent collections of the Albright-Knox Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Denver Museum of Art, the Museo d’ARTE Moderna e Contemporea, and numerous other public and private institutions.
Anne Appleby has received grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the Western Arts Federation, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation; in addition, she is the recipient of the SECA Award from the San Francisco Museum of Art, the David S. McMillan Award from the San Francisco Art Institute, and the Northwest Biennial from the Portland Art Museum.
