Wood Sculpting Exhibition Stops Off in Long Beach
William Hunter is slowly introducing the world to wood sculpting in his first retrospective exhibition of work at the Long Beach Museum of Art.
The seminal American artist demonstrates his emergence as a sculptor with an expansive portfolio that covers over three decades with 70 works from public and private collections across the United States.
Showing Friday, October 6 through Sunday, December 10, 2006, Transforming Vision: The Wood Sculpture of William Hunter, 1970-2005 showcases Hunter’s artistic development over time-from his utilitarian objects consisting of bowls, clocks, pipes, hand mirrors and candle sticks to his exquisite decorative forms in rare and exotic woods.
In another section of the exhibition, Hunter explores a slightly different approach to the work he produced with his wife Marianne, who has gained national prominence as an enamellist and jeweler.
Yet wood sculpting has come a long way during Hunter’s career.
A native of Long Beach who currently lives just south of Los Angeles in Rancho Palos Verdes, Hunter launched into the field of contemporary wood sculpture in its formative stages during the early 1970s.
Expressing the material’s rich character in his early forms only helped Hunter direct a new course for the entire field of contemporary wood sculpture.
As the medium evolved in the 1970s and 1980s from traditional woodturning practices to artistic, experimental inventions, the wood sculptor stood at the forefront of his field.
Today his prominence hasn’t slouched a bit.
Hunter will accept the esteemed Lifetime Achievement Award from the Collectors of Wood Art, a national organization of artists, collectors, scholars and critics, in November.
Transforming Vision will take off on a national tour in 2007 and 2008 after leaving Long Beach in December.
The exhibition moves on to the Oakland Museum of California starting in January for three months and concludes almost two years later at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Mass. Other stops along the way include the Mobile Museum of Art in Mobile, Ala. and the Wood Turning Center in Philadelphia, Pa.
A 128-page, fully illustrated catalogue with an introduction by Long Beach Museum of Art Director Harold B. Nelson and a detailed essay by independent curator Kevin Wallace will complement the Hunter’s wood sculpting retrospective.
Guests can also rent an audio tour produced by the Museum and narrated by Wallace during their visit.
The gallery and store at the Long Beach Museum of Art are open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free every Friday.
