THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9609270089
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Art review
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 83 lines
THE FAMILY resemblance can be startling.
Walk into Ann Nicole Gallery in the Greenbrier section of Chesapeake and you might think, at least for a few minutes, that you were looking at an amazing amount of work by one person. A certain feel for landscape stands out - balanced, textural, contemplative.
Then you realize, this is the art of three people - father, mother and son. That's the late printmaker James Kirby; his widow, painter Pat Kirby; and son Ken Kirby, who paints and prints.
``The Kirbys in September'' is the premiere exhibition for Ken Kirby's gallery, which opened three years ago in its current location. Previously, he had a frame shop and gallery in Chesapeake's Parkview Shopping Center.
Give the show some time, and the individual characteristics become apparent. Pretty soon, the differences become more obvious than the similarities. On display are 100-plus works, about equally divided among the trio.
The name James Kirby, who died in 1992 at age 60, is attached to the most introspective works in the show, as well as the ones with the most subtle palette. He began painting, sculpting and printmaking in the 1950s, but within a decade or so found his greatest expression in wood block prints.
He shared traits of simplicity and spareness with the Japanese wood block printers he so admired. The wood block process both influenced, and lent itself to, the stoic, staccato linear quality that seemed to come naturally from him.
The same obsessively repetitive lines in James Kirby's prints also showed up in his large watercolor and gouache paintings. Whatever the medium, he favored quiet, ordered landscapes, rarely peopled.
When he died, James Kirby was assistant planning director for Chesapeake, and had worked in that department since 1963.
Pat and James Kirby met in the 1950s, when both worked for Rand McNally while attending the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1992, Pat recalled going with her husband to see a show of Japanese prints at the Art Institute, and how that gallery visit ``really got him started.''
For decades, he was a respected area artist who exhibited widely at the best galleries.
Pat Kirby was equally admired for her exquisite weavings of intricate landscapes. And then, in the early 1990s, she started to paint.
It's as though something was unleashed. She has a rare ability to craft a naturalistic landscape that also is very expressive and painterly.
Pat Kirby is an avid gardener, which must have heightened her sensitivity to the shapes, textures and varied hues of her favored flora.
While not especially innovative, Pat Kirby's landscapes are not trite. Her outdoor scenes are serious-minded, thoughtful and harmonious. You sense she is embracing - perhaps even wanting to preserve - the peace of our natural environment.
And then there's Ken, who signs his artwork ``Kennety.'' He adopted the signature a decade ago, to avoid being confused or lumped in with his exhibiting parents.
He started making art after leaving home at age 19, he said. He shows paintings and prints of landscapes and quiet outdoor scenes that exhibit some affinity to his parents' vision.
But he also shows pieces, especially from the 1990s, that differ greatly from his parents' more conservative vision. Ken Kirby's work seems to be more aptly reflecting his personality - friendly, outgoing, good-humored.
Ken, 37, is a fan of straightahead jazz, and those urban rhythms are visible in his latest prints - which compositionally have more in common with collages. A strong narrative urge is found in his work, too.
And he's more experimental. Ken is almost entirely self-taught, aside from observing his parents during his childhood. He says he prefers making it up as he goes along. These latest narrative wood block prints are evidence that that path, at times, can produce very fresh results. ILLUSTRATION: ``Summer Woods,'' a wood block print by James Kirby,
is on view in Chesapeake, along with works by his widow and son.
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ON EXHIBIT
What: A show of prints and paintings by James, Pat and Ken Kirby
Where: Ann Nicole Gallery, 1220 Executive Blvd., Chesapeake
When: through Oct. 26
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays, Saturday till 4:30 p.m.
How much: free
Call: 547-2217 by CNB