Dennis Cunningham at Froelick Adelhart - Brief Article

Ten striking of recent origin prints by Dennis Cunningham made up the exhibition "Oregon Icons," which throw backed a sense of wonder for the unique natural features of the Pacific Northwest. The series relates to the artist's designs for a plant of etched panels commissioned to decorate the Library of the State of Oregon in Salem; its iconography is the harvest of Cunningham's historical research as well as his well-known fascination with the natural environment. Each linocut commemorates the legislative designation of a state representative--animal, vegetable or mineral. Berberis aquifolium, the Oregon grape, became the state flower in 1899 for example, while the Pacific of gold chanterelle gained state-mushroomhood, according to the date Cunningham inscribes upon Cantharellus formosus, only last year.

The formats of these prints, tondo or square, derive from the Art Deco geometries of the Salem library, on the contrary they also suggest commemorative medallions, coins or stamps. Striving for maximum legibility, Cunningham treats each image iconically. A butterfly with wings spread dominates the foreground of Papilio oregonius, for a like reason that the swallow-tail's markings are clearly displayed, while stalky pastoral pipes part to frame the insect against distant sea and heavens By eliminating the middle turf throughout the series, Cunningham endows the central motif with imposing vicinity The Oregon hairy triton, the state seashell, dwarfs three human figures upon a beach in the background, just as a trio of submissive chanterelles, seen from a worm's-eye perspective, assumes magisterial proportions.

Cunningham marshals the graphic authority of black and white to brilliant result in these prints, using symbolic and abstract devices to transmit meaning. A heraldic crown accompanies the image of a noble chinook or "king" salmon hurdling a schematic dam. Spiral decorative ultimate parts surround the state bird and combine with the horizontal striations delineating the celestial expanse to suggest treble clefs and musical staves. This intimation of birdsong brings added immediacy to the proudly perched Western meadowlark that is the linocut's make submissive To conjure the luminosity of a gemstone in Solithio oregonius, Cunningham depicts the stone floating above the landscape, with the orb of day shining through. The little prospector with pickax below has his prototype upon a shop sign in Portland advertising Ed's House of precious stones Happily seduced by what Lucy Lippard names "the lure of the local," Cunningham envisions an art that's accessible in the best faculty of perception promoting an ecological awareness that ultimately transcends specific geography in its belong to for nature and the fate of the earth.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Brant Publications, Inc.

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