Selections from the Oregon Years Karin Clarke Gallery, July 2011

Selections from the Oregon Years

July 2011

THIS EXHIBITION was designed to run in collaboration with the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art’s exhibition, The Making of David McCosh: Early Paintings, Drawing and Prints, which was devoted primarily to McCosh’s work before he moved to Oregon in 1934.

The works in this show were all made during the years McCosh lived and worked in Oregon, from 1934 until his retirement from painting in 1971. All of the works were selected from the exhibitions that had been presented previously by the Karin Clarke Gallery.

The Red Vest (fig. 15) was included in The Portrait as a Mirror. November Garden (fig. 16) was a part of Collaborations with my Subject. Both are greatly admired paintings that represent the finest work McCosh did in Oregon. Anne in a Red Vest is a beautifully organized, sensitive portrait from his early years in Eugene in the 1930s. November Garden is one of the great paintings of his later years in the 1960s, a dramatic, flowing study of the corn stalks in his backyard garden as winter drew near.

Opposite: Figure 15. The Red Vest (Portrait of Anne Kutka McCosh), 1948 Oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches McCosh Memorial Collection; MMC.0014 Figure 16. November Garden, 1954 Oil on linen, 36 x 40 inches Collection of Margaret Coe