The Spirit and the Flesh: Contemporary American Realists

October 15 – December 28, 1995

In a century of deep cultural shifts and changes of sensibility, in a time of tremendous technological leaps, at a point of disturbance and concern about our relationship with Nature, at a time of globalization and tribal tensions and disintegration, of multiple quests and styles, it is almost impossible to grasp and formulate a single approach to the understanding of the human condition. Modernity has become a kind of new consciousness and awareness.

The goal of our museum is to provide opportunity and environment which educate and cultivate an appreciation of beauty. Here, art is a medium for the elevation of the spirit above and beyond, yet rooted in, everyday life. To experience a lightening of the spirit, to sense a place of spiritual elevation, where perception and thought are clarified and where feeling itself is intensified — the inner place of transcending and being transparent. A painting by Rembrandt, Monet, or Georgia O’Keeffe, a sculpture of Michelangelo or Bernini: a work by a good artist always inspires this feeling of escape and spiritual elevation. It confirms the almost religious awe toward life. The Spirit and the Flesh: Contemporary American Realists brought together four ardent realist painters — Ben Long, Richard Maury, D. Jeffrey Mims, and Nelson Shanks.

Selected Highlights: