Charles McGee, an Eastern Michigan University professor between 1969 and 1987, will be speaking at the Student Center gallery at 5 p.m. today, during the reception for a retrospective gallery of his works entitled Energy: Charles McGee at 85.
It would be a great moment, especially for art students, to see the man who played such an influential part in Detroit art movements.
Julia Myers is the curator of the show, and an avid fan of McGee who has viewed more than 250 pieces of his artwork.
When asked why the gallery was orchestrated in McGee’s honor Myers said, “Mr. McGee has been an extremely important artist in Michigan for years. His art speaks to important issues like the treatment of animals and the community life force.”
The art gallery’s 60 year retrospective of McGee’s art gets inside his mind as depicted in the diversity of artwork he has made throughout his career.
When compiling McGee’s work for the gallery Myers said, “I wanted the different pictures to represent the different phases in his career. I looked for style, quality and the best pictures during each individual phase of his career.”
One of the pictures in the exhibition is named “Time Modules 2,” a highly abstract work of art, which ten people could look at and find ten separate interpretations. The noted work seems to show outer space twisted with a microscopic world so intertwined together they are hard to discern from one another.
“‘Time Modules 2’ seems to show a whole universe of activity including sketches that Mr. McGee did for other works, chopped up, and pasted into a collage. The picture seems to be from great differences as if looking across the universe,” said Myers.
“Composition 7” is another one of McGee’s abstract pieces. Made in 1976, it engages a number of art movements that were contemporary at the time, such as the process and the minimal art movement.
The piece contains several rectangular pieces of wood over a wooden canvas, which is half smooth and half rough. The top is structured with all the wooden pieces lined up perfectly. As you go further to the right of the work you can then see what appears to be the wood rectangles falling into a rougher, less organized abyss that makes up the bottom portion of the canvas, which could symbolize order falling into chaos.
Three words that describe the show are “Energy, Equality and Interdependence,” Myers said.
“Mr. McGee’s exhibition is very inspirational because it communicates a sense of community, harmony and balance in the world. Mr. McGee is an optimistic painter and that is something that we can obviously use in today’s world.”
Energy: Charles McGee at 85 will be displayed at both the University Art Gallery and the Ford Art Gallery until Dec. 19.
