January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Zuill to headline Winter Exhibition
Charles Zuill, one of Bermuda’s most renowned artists and art teachers, is the headliner for the Bermuda National Gallery’s ‘Winter Exhibitions’ which opens this Friday, with the exhibition ‘Charles Zuill Retrospective: The Science of Art.’
Mr. Zuill turned 70 on Christmas Eve of last year. He said: “It seems impossible that it’s come to this because it seems like it was just last week that I was in university. Someone asked me the other day what it was like to be 70, and I said it’s much like being 20.”
Zuill first became interested in art while in school at Whitney, then a primary and high school.
“When I was at the Whitney 55 years ago, the French teacher did a talk on Vincent van Gogh. I got captured. I really was attracted to art history. It was probably a good thing because I have taught art history most of my teaching career.”
He went on to attend Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts, where he began teaching art soon after he graduated. He says that it was never his intention to become an art teacher, but after being offered the position, enjoyed it so much that he continued in the profession. During his career he also taught at Bermuda College.
Zuill’s pieces in his retrospective show just how profitable his experimentation with his art has been.
One piece, ‘Arable Field’, was painted with mud after a phrase Zuill read while studying for his dissertation. “In connection with my dissertation I read a book by John Ruskin called Elements of Drawing. In it he said that he could make mud glow if allowed to gradate it from light to dark. So I thought, ‘I’m going to try that’. [Arable Field] is result of that. I used Bermuda sands and soils. One of the reasons why I like it so much is because it was the first time I’d tried that style. I didn’t know how to control it and it was a little crude. I liked the end product’s rawness.”
Another ‘experimental’ piece is now one of Zuill’s favourites, ‘West Wight’. The piece is created with sand from the Isle of Wight, using the natural colours of the sand. Zuill painted the background with acrylic paint, and used the sand he collected for the overlay. “All those different colours are different coloured sands from that same place,” he says. “It’s phenomenal.”
The retrospective explores the three main stages of Zuill’s career: ‘The Gray Scale Paintings’ (1968-88), the ‘Soil Paintings’ (from 1988) and the ‘Experimental Paintings’ from recent years.
Laura Gorham, Director of the BNG, said in a press release: “Charles Zuill has been a major influence not only on Bermudian art but in the wider development and promotion of the visual arts in Bermuda.
“We are proud and delighted to honour a true ‘Bermuda original’ with this exhibition, which captures the full range of his extraordinary vision and technical ability. ‘The Science of Art’ is the result of a lifetime’s experimentation by a master alchemist and artist.”
‘Charles Zuill Retrospective: The Science of Art’ opens to the public on January 28 along with exhibitions from the BNG’s Permanent Collections, which are sponsored by Endurance Specialty Insurance Ltd.[[In-content Ad]]
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