Racine Art Museum presents Beth Van Hoesen. The Observant Eye, an exhibition on view through September 9, 2012.
This traveling exhibition chronicles decades of her realistic images of animals, floral studies, figure drawings, and human portraits. Unique to RAM, this show combines pieces on loan with recent gifts to the museum that support the development of an archive of Van Hoesen prints, color proofs, preparatory studies, and copper plates.
Beth Van Hoesen Maharani, 1988 Etching, aquatint, drypoint, and watercolor; Artist’s Proof, V/V Racine Art Museum, Gift of the E. Mark Adams and Beth Van Hoesen Adams Trust Photography: Jon Bolton, Racine, WI
The exhibition contains 147 works by the artist of which 74 are works the E. Mark Adams and Beth Van Hoesen Adams Trust has recently presented to the Racine Art Museum. With the help of the Trust, as well as Anne Kohs and Associates, the museum acquired 58 color proofs, preparatory studies, and copper plates among the pieces. Not only does this gift strengthen RAM’s holdings of works on paper, it affords the opportunity for a unique, in-depth look at an artist’s process. The show offers numerous examples of Van Hoesen’s work where the life of a print from start-to-finish may be traced through multiple stages and various media. RAM is the only venue on the exhibition’s tour that will showcase these study materials. www.ramart.org