University of New England

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“Into the Present” Presents 13 Art Works from the Astrachan Collection

“Into the Present” is the title of an installation of 13 art works from the Astrachan Collection that are on long-term loan to the University of New England.

Arnold Helbling
Architectonics Green Cell, 2002

This installation of works is at the Parker Pavilion on the University’s Westbrook College Campus, 716 Stevens Ave., Portland.

The Artists
The six artists selected for this installation are Sean Foley, Arnold Helbling, Michael Mazur, Joan Mitchell, John D. Rappleye and Claire Seidl.

“This installation of 13 selections from the Astrachan Collection on long-term loan to the University of New England comprises a dynamic, snap-shot view of some of the trends confronting contemporary, non-figurative art of the twenty-first century,” according to Gary D. Astrachan. “Though spanning two decades, and ranging from internationally renowned artists to younger, emerging artists, these works grapple, each in their own unique way, with the unfinished projects of both modernism and abstract expressionism.”

‘What is Painting?”

“Each of these works,” Astrachan explains, “engages the question, ‘what is painting?’ in the particular terms and techniques of the

John D. Rappleye
Lucy’s Lucky Day, 2000

postmodern epoch in which we live. Unwilling to accept the ‘given’, conventional modalities of representation, or the notion of art as ‘the imitation of nature’, all six of these artists have branched out into new territories in their effort to develop a fitting idiom and vocabulary for the presentation of the as-yet-unknown within the decline of great representational painting. These works move to interrogate, provoke and problematize the activities of reference and representation in their unequivocal exploration of the inner world as a source of psychological value, creative inspiration and meaningful aesthetic experience.”

“We have entered an era that must, for its own survival, embrace the reality of the psyche,” Astrachan says. “Rather than looking to portray recognizable features of the external world, ‘nature’, landscape, or the daily human scene, these works instead resist the pleasures, comfort and solace of representation in their attempt to present the unpresentable, as event. Rather than being about something perhaps familiar, enjoyable, or even beautiful, these pieces seek ‘to impart a stronger sense of the unpresentable’1, in the presentation itself. As works that raise questions, unsettle assumptions, quicken the imagination and stimulate the soul, this art challenges us as viewers to come up with commensurate responses adequate to the task and responsibility of living in a complex world, bounded on all sides by what remains and needs to be discovered and created for the continuing amazement and deepening of our human lives.”

Visit the UNE Art Gallery website for information on other art exhibitions and events.

(Press release issued January 29, 2004)

Two Maine Campuses:
University Campus, Biddeford / Westbrook College Campus, Portland · 207.283.0171