THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 25, 1995 TAG: 9506240022
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
CHARLES SIBLEY is as close to an art patriarch as we have in Hampton Roads. In a way, it feels as though he sacrificed a bigger career in New York to save this area from becoming a visual arts wasteland. We might be hanging velvet Elvises on our walls if it weren't for Sibley.
The folder that sits in the midst of his latest exhibition - on view through July at Norfolk's Art Works Gallery - tells of great promise for a young painter. In 1952, he took part in a Pittsburgh International exhibit alongside such greats as Hans Hofmann, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Georgia O'Keeffe.
Four years later, he was in a National Institute of Arts and Letters exhibit in New York, also among artists now deemed modern masters.
By then, the West Virginia native had moved to Norfolk where he would establish an art department at what is now Old Dominion University.
Four decades since Sibley walked into this region, his mark remains clearly visible. Many of the artists he hired to teach at ODU have stayed, and are pillars of a sort in the art community at large. Many of his own students still are painting and exhibiting here; some of them even dare to mimic Sibley's distinctive style and subject matter.
In 1981, within a year after he retired from ODU, Sibley was honored with a solo show at The Chrysler Museum of Art. Though certainly less prestigious than that, the Art Works Gallery show is full of ambitious, fresh work.
At age 73, the Portsmouth-based Sibley is painting with as much energy and vitality as ever. All of the work was produced since autumn. From all indications, he has maintained a searching attitude, both technically and in regard to his subject matter.
Sibley continues to eschew sentiment in favor of a more honest approach to human conditions and relationships.
Throughout his career, Sibley has gone back and forth between representational and figurative work and abstraction. Here, images of people in environments predominate.
In a number of the works, the focus is on an individual caught in a moment where awareness of the situation seems at a peak. The tone is existential, sometimes darkly so.
In ``Baldy Perdue,'' the title figure sits in his underwear at the edge of his bed. He's a fairly disgusting sight.
He's fat, old and losing his hair. He wears his rhino-thick skin like armor - heavy, uncomfortable, a burden to carry around. His tiny eyes are squinted. His fingers look too thick and squat to be useful.
His aging wife sleeps on the bed beside him, her torso blocked from our view by his girth. The dark background suggests he woke up in middle of the night, and can't get back to sleep. One imagines he is dogged by thoughts of mortality and his deteriorating physique.
In ``Country Club'' (pictured on Page E1) a more complex composition with multiple figures, the eye is drawn to a pink-faced, silver-haired woman who faces the viewer. She looks out graciously, and is the only female shown. Surrounding her are monied men, strolling or drinking.
Here, what's being communicated is less clear. The mixed-media painting on paper brings to mind a work from the permanent collection of The Chrysler Museum - ``The Artists' Wives'' by Tissot, a 19th century painter of society. In that work, a woman turns from her seat at a dinner table to greet the viewer, as if luring them into the festive social scene.
In Sibley's work, the setting is less enticing. While he has not directly satirized upper-crust folks, you sense a criticism on his part. The woman's tired stance - even as she meets us, so to speak, at the door of the image - suggests she has grown jaded in her hostess role. It seems possible she may only now, this late in life, be questioning the values in her advantaged life.
Sibley's depictions suggest the complexity of a person's truth.
A surprising social comment comes in ``Parental Guidance.'' Sibley has painted a video parlor as if it were a sleazy circus sideshow. In the foreground, a father is shown playing a machine with his son. There's no natural light, only the fiery yellow light from the machines on the faces of the players.
Sibley registers amusement at this scene; you can imagine him shaking his head in judgment at this poor use of free time.
Certainly, there is content to Sibley's work. But if the subject were his only consideration, his medium would be illustration.
In the best works, the movement of the composition, his choice of colors, and the emotional tenor of his brush stroke convey content, too.
In Sibley's portrait of an aging jazz pianist, the blocks of color that surround the tuxedoed man suggest modernist painting of the era when jazz was king. But you also can feel the paint pressing down on his slightly bent shoulders.
``Ritual'' also takes a stand, traceable if his technique is studied. The image shows a young primitive girl holding a piglet. In the background are figures of gods and idols.
In this work, Sibley has approached a currently popular subject - rituals of primal cultures - and reminded us that the reality is not so romantic. The pig wriggles with life, its form outlined in a vital shade of purple. The pig stands out, just as anything does at the moment it faces demise.
And ``Sadie's Children'' reveals motherhood to be for the dogs. Sadie looks exhausted and sore from the trio of pups who have been feeding from her chest. No romance here, either.
Not all of the work is so heavy. ``Two Dalmatians'' is delightful in the dog's-eye glimpse of two tail-wagging dalmatians against the red hem and shoes of their human friend.
``Mediterranean Village'' offers a soothing interplay of cubist planes. And ``Reef Breakers,'' a watercolor on paper, is a light-filled landscape with a glorious, arms-open-wide feeling. ILLUSTRATION: Sibley's ``Jazz Bar'' recalls the era when jazz was king, but
you also can feel the paint pressing down on the pianist's
shoulders.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY PAINTER by CNB