THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501270099
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: REVIEW
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
A TWO-WEEK exhibit at Virginia Wesleyan College of the work of Michigan painter Robert L. Bailey takes on special significance, since the artist's work is beginning to show up all over campus.
Bailey, who is 71 and a 1951 graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, has two major paintings installed in the chapel and one in the humanities building. A fourth painting, the largest yet at 15 feet wide, will be installed next month in a prominent, highly visible site along the library's balcony.
All of these works were donations from the artist, as were many of the works on view in the exhibit on the first floor of the college's library. The college obtained these gifts through William Shealy, professor of religion and Bailey's longtime friend.
A large vertical canvas over the chapel's altar was the first piece installed. It's an adventurous and unusual choice for such a position.
The 1988 painting is abstract, yet a viewer can make out a room in the process of either opening or closing. The walls, floor and ceiling are detached, floating planes. The floor juts toward the viewer like a tongue, drawing you into its space.
The painting's surface suggests many things, including an underwater environment with coral reefs and sea foam. But it also is reminiscent of life forms seen through a microscope, revealed to be forever in process, yet containing some essential structures.
A horizontal work of a similar nature and dated 1985 hangs on an adjacent wall. Here again, there is a sense of air bubbles rising in water. In the context of a house of worship, a viewer might be reminded of apotheosis. Or, at least, the haiku-like, mysterious image might be seen as an aid to meditation.
A white sculptural relief, ``Total Energy,'' is installed in the humanities building's atrium beneath a skylight. This simple, geometric form looks good in the space, whether viewed from the first floor, or at eye level from the second floor balcony.
``Total Energy'' has its roots in cubism, and shares affinities with the abstract wood sculptures by Louise Nevelson. Still, it's a much less interesting work, and reads as more decorative, than either of the chapel paintings.
The painting destined for the library, titled ``Pork Chop Symphony,'' has an heroic appearance typical of so many late modernist painters, such as Robert Motherwell and Adolph Gottlieb. Large, bold, confrontational forms gyrate across the long horizontal work. The palette is loud, in the way so many '60s paintings were.
The exhibit presents lesser works that give some indication of the artist's broad stylistic range. ``The Bug Machine,'' a 1979 painting that is gutsy and childlike, is the most significant painting on view and is the closest kin to ``Pork Chop.'' Here, his brushwork is loose and appealing, with a basically upbeat palette of subdued hues.
There is one very early piece on view, the 1956 ``Table Top Coral Reef,'' a nicely composed modernist still life with bold, lyrical line.
Bailey's experiments with computer-generated images are a surprise. In some, the quality of line brings to mind Etch-A-Sketch. One of the finest, however, ``Chicken or the Egg II,'' shares traits with fine Japanese prints. There is a delicate palette and gradation of tones not seen in the paintings. The feel of his line here is lyrical, in the manner of Paul Klee.
The content of the show, as compact as it is, is very uneven. The high points exist, but a few works, such as a garish, yellow-and-red wall relief and a few dreadful painted vessels, should have been weeded out. MEMO: Art by Robert L. Bailey remains on view through Feb. 9 at Virginia
Wesleyan College, Hofheimer Library, 1584 Wesleyan Drive, Norfolk. Hours
are weekdays, 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday,
2:30 to 10:30 p.m. Free. Call 455-3200 for more information.
ILLUSTRATION: A detail from Robert L. Bailey's ``Pork Chop Symphony,'' which
will hang in the Virginia Wesleyan library.
by CNB