Otis Huband Recent Works
Huband, Pinkie, 2007
Huband, Camp Site, 2011
Huband, Moon Glow, 2011
August 26 - September 17, 2011 William Reaves Fine Art
Huband, Sleeping Figures, 2011
Artist Interview with Otis Huband - Thursday, August 18, 2011 Interview Conducted by Sarah Beth Wilson and Leslie Thompson
Otis Dare Huband was born in Virginia in 1933, and moved to Houston, Texas in 1965 where he currently lives with wife, Anne Huband, and works as an artist. During the 1960s-80s, Huband worked as an art instructor at The Museum School of Fine Arts, Rice University, Art League of Houston, and the University of Houston. Upon his arrival in Houston, Huband bypassed the local gallery scene by choice, instead choosing to concentrate most of his time in his studio creating what now constitutes a vast treasure trove of stellar, abstract compositions rife with lyrical movement and colors that are stunning in their original, fresh approach. In September of 2010, William Reaves Fine Art launched Huband’s first gallery exhibition in over thirty years, featuring a retrospective exhibition of the artist’s work from the 1950s – through 2010.
conducted the following interview with Huband to learn more about his devoted artistic career and dynamic creative process, as witnessed in this exhibition at William Reaves Fine Art. SBW and LT: Where did you receive your art education and how would you characterize its influence on your current work?
OH: I got out of the service in 1955, then immediately enrolled in Virginia Commonwealth. I became disenchanted with this lifestyle and left for California in 1956 with a group of friends. We intended to go to L.A. or San Francisco, but the axel of our car broke in Ventura, so we stayed there and I enrolled at the junior college, which was free at that time. 9. Huband, The Sting, 2011 I went there for a year. My art instructor at Ventura, Bill This year, we invite Houstonians and Texas art lovers to join us in viewing McEnroe, applied for a scholarship for me in Oakland at the college of arts and crafts. This is how my art education began, and where I was introduced an intimate selection of recent work by Huband, fresh out of the studio! All to the Bay area painters. I went back to Virginia Commonwealth after a year, of the works on view in the Gallery Alcove exhibition were created within the past five years. Gallery directors Sarah Beth Wilson and Leslie Thompson where I got my master’s in fine arts, graduating in 1961. I married Anne
Hite Owen in 1961 as well. In 1963, we left Virginia and boarded a boat for Italy. We decided to settle in Perugia where we lived and worked for a year. During this time, I studied art at the Accademia di Bella Arti in Perugia. OH: I would still be in college today if I could afford it. I loved being where everyone was interested in the same stuff. In my opinion, you really learn more from students than instructors. Art is usually a solitary affair; I thought being in that environment, to be with that many people who were that seriously interested in art, made you feel less of an outsider. I can’t say I really learned anything that important in school. Some concepts were shallow. Where I really received my art education, in particular, was in Italy where I stopped in every single church and museum we passed.
earnest and revelatory. I trust my subconscious rather than current fads or theories, or what they taught me in school. I trust only my instincts and materials. I don’t think you have to dismiss the visual aspects of art. Keep it visual. All my decisions are based on visual preferences. SBW and LT: We know that you are an adamant draftsman, with many sketchbooks from over the years showing both representational and abstract figure drawings. How did you transition from focusing your work on a more classical, representational figure to pure abstraction?
OH: Anne and I left Italy and moved to Texas in 1965. My introduction to Texas artists was late. My fascination, up to this point, was with Italian artists, especially those of the Florentine school, Caravaggio, and European artists such as Matisse and Picasso. I have always liked Mattise’s use of color, but I thought he lacked the angst of Picasso. And then Richard Diebenkorn has also impacted my artistic training. I like the richness of his color, along with Willem De Kooning’s use of color. What I’m doing now is combining the concepts of Abstract Expressionism from an aesthetic point of view. The visual work grows out of materials, letting the colors and forms lead you. It’s more 4. Huband, Mountain Pass, 2010
OH: When I was in school at Virginia Commonwealth, taking art history, they spent a lot of time badmouthing Baroque painters, like Rubens. Over the past years traveling to Italy, I find their work among the most fabulous paintings of all. I think if you can learn how to do what they did, you’ve learned something about art, about visual arts in general. That’s why I do the classical drawings. I’m motivated by the human figure, how expressive it is. I try to use it in my current work the way a poet uses materials. I use the figure as a metaphor and simile rather than a literal representation. The Italian word for drawing is disegno (the study of drawing and design as an art form), all of that is a very sophisticated manipulation of two dimensional space - it’s a kind of magic. I think when you draw something, you meditate on it. Good artists never just copy what they see. You
tell about what you know what you’re looking at. Before you can break any rules, you have to know what the rule is. I have a proclivity for judging people by their drawing. Good drawing is a drawing that expresses an almost magical reality, a state of mind. The figure is not just a diagram of a human figure in its parts. If it’s not running and jumping on the page, then it’s not a good drawing.
5. Huband, Nuanced Rebecka, 2010
SBW and LT: We know you are a prolific artist, working in your studio every day. Can you describe to us what a typical day in the studio entails?
OH: It depends what I have to overcome to get into aesthetic thinking. There’s always a certain amount of mule work that has to be done in the studio. I may make stretchers, or sweep…occasionally. Or I’ll start drawing. There’s always something. By the time I’ve sat down to draw, all the banal activities dissipate. Then I can go to the easel and sink into the work. My studio is dark. I have a light on my easel and on my palette. That’s deliberate, because I want everything around me to disappear. That allows me to sink into this super subconscious; the rest of the world disappears. That also has to do with the size of my work. The canvases are stretched out
to my peripheral vision. I find that when I try to do small things, it is just a horrifying experience. SBW and LT: How do you begin your compositions? Discuss your creative process. OH: (In reference to the painting hanging in the current exhibition entitled Nuanced Rebecka) I try to approach a composition subjectively. As I mentioned, the figure is used as a metaphor. I try sometimes not to use a figure. I would like to be all abstract, but I just go with it. When I start a painting I have no idea what will be the end result. I even come up to the canvas at times with my back up to it and draw directly onto the surface so that I can’t see what I am doing. These are all tiny steps based on the visual feeling of a tiny mess. Gradually the painting begins to suggest an image. Visual elements, such as lines, shapes, colors work like stepping stones across the painting. It expands the direction. There are also visual rhymes. I like to play with positive and negative areas. Negative areas are almost more important than positive areas in my work. There’s an ambiguity of spacial manipulation. You have to listen to your impulse. It should come out directly down your arm and onto the canvas with no interruption. OH: I am mostly inspired by old master paintings and frescoes that have beautiful, complicated forms and compositional elements. I think the idea of newness and objects without a past is exciting but can be extremely vulgar. I like the way aged and weathered Italian frescoes in 15th century churches and buildings evoke something without depicting. The “damaged” missing
sections of the fresco expose a part of the building’s foundation – this then becomes part of the composition’s current form. I like tactile feeling. I like to engage all the senses that I can. I use oil sticks in my paintings – a brush rarely ever touches my canvas. I find I can achieve a better sense of texture and calligraphic quality using an oil stick and palette knife. SBW and LT: What artists in Texas have influenced your current work? OH: As I mentioned, my introduction to Texas artists was somewhat late, but I have liked the work of Paul Maxwell, and Charles Schorre. I tend to like the more modernist approach and style. I enjoy Henri Gadbois’s landscapes, however, even though they are representational and naturalistic, they’re formal and clean, but not in an academic sense. I have always liked Jack Boynton’s work, along with Lucas Johnson. And I think Kermit Oliver is a very great artist. I’ve really been so insular in recent years and primarily in my studio - I don’t get out to see shows much. Maybe this has worked out best for my art – kept me focused on my own aesthetic.
Bio: Otis Huband Biographical and Career Highlights • 1933, Born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, currently lives in Houston • 1955-1956, Attends Richmond Professional Institute of the College of William & Mary (now the Virginia Commonwealth University) • 1956-1957, Ventura Junior College, Ventura, CA • 1957-1958, California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, CA • 1958-1961, Virginia Commonwealth University, Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts • 1963-1964, Attends Accademia di Bella Arti, Perugia, Italy • 1967-1971, Art Instructor at Houston Museum School of Fine Arts (now Glassell School) • 1967-1972, Art Instructor at Rice University, summer school for high school students • 1971-1982, Art Instructor at Art League of Houston • 1975, Art Instructor at University of Houston, life drawing Selected Exhibitions • 1956, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, VA • 1960, Erick Schendler Gallery, Richmond, VA • 1964, Circolo di Universita, Perugia, Italy • 1965-1966, The James Bute Gallery, Houston, TX • 1966-1967, Dubose Gallery, Houston, TX • 1966-1970, Erdon Gallery, Houston, TX • 1972-1990, Louisiana Gallery, Houston, TX • 1974, University of Houston, Downtown, Houston, TX
• • •
1976, Ars Longa Gallery, Houston, TX 2010, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, TX University of Houston Faculty Exhibition, Houston, TX
Selected Public Collections • Giacomo Colderone, Perugia, Italy • Mitchell Energy and Development Corporations, Houston, TX • Houston Grand Opera, Rigoletto painting for cover • Merrill Lynch, Exploration & Development Department • Emil Magliocco, Jr. • Numerous private collections
Otis Huband Recent Works Exhibition Checklist
Artist
Title
Date
Medium
Size (Inches)
1. Otis Huband
Camp Site
2011
oil/canvas
57x42 1/2
2. Otis Huband
Hair of the Dog
2009-2011
oil/canvas
57x44 1/4
3. Otis Huband
Moon Glow
2011
oil/canvas
57 1/2x43
4. Otis Huband
Mountain Pass
2010
oil/canvas
56 1/2x40
5. Otis Huband
Nuanced Rebecka
2010
oil/canvas
56 1/4x40
6. Otis Huband
Pinkie
2007
oil/canvas
57x43 1/2
7. Otis Huband
Sleeping Figures
2011
oil/canvas
57x42
8. Otis Huband
The Pool
2011
oil/canvas
69 1/2x43 1/2
9. Otis Huband
The Sting
2011
oil/canvas
69x43
10. Otis Huband
Whisphered Promises
2011
oil/canvas
46x35 3/4
1. Otis Huband Camp Site, 2011 Oil on canvas 57x42 1/2 in.
2. Otis Huband Hair of the Dog, 2009-2011 Oil on canvas 57x44 1/4 in.
3. Otis Huband Moon Glow, 2011 Oil on canvas 57 1/2x43 in.
4. Otis Huband Mountain Pass, 2010 Oil on canvas 56 1/2x40 in.
5. Otis Huband Nuanced Rebecka, 2010 Oil on canvas 56 1/4x40 in.
6. Otis Huband Pinkie, 2007 Oil on canvas 57 x43 1/2 in.
7. Otis Huband Sleeping Figures, 2011 Oil on canvas 57 x42 in.
8. Otis Huband The Pool, 2011 Oil on canvas 69 1/2x43 1/2 in.
9. Otis Huband The Sting, 2011 Oil on canvas 69x43 in.
10. Otis Huband Whispered Promises, 2011 Oil on canvas 46x35 3/4 in.