×

Experiences: Worldwide travel influences renowed artist Chuck Olson

This piece by Chuck Olson is titled “Heroic Age/Pawn.”

Artist Chuck Olson insists that his work isn’t abstract, even as some of his painted objects cannot readily be identified. But who’s to argue with the internationally renowned painter who has exhibited in Japan, France, Italy, Germany and New York City.

A professor of art for 40 years and the chairman of the Fine Arts Department at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Olson has brought some of his latest works to an exhibition at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Altoona. “The Influence of Place: Recent Work in Lithography, Collage and Painting by Chuck Olson” shows through June 17.

“I think everything is grounded in the human experience,” said Olson. “It’s not necessarily about having a photographic point of view on everything. That photographic realism is just one way we experience things.

“What I don’t like about the word (abstract) is that people use it … when they don’t really see one particular thing in it. But it comes from something. It comes from experiences. So how can it be abstract?”

Abstract or not, Olson’s work can be found in a dozen museum and university collections — from Osaka, Japan, to Charleston, West Virginia, to Pittsburgh, as well as SAMA-Loretto — and private corporate collections, including Westinghouse, Hilton Hotel, USX and Tokyo Marine. And he has had more than 30 solo exhibitions around the world, and nearly 70 group exhibitions.

SAMA-Altoona coordinator Barbara Hollander said she has wanted to host Olson’s work since she saw it at SAMA-Loretto nearly a decade ago. She said she had expected to see some of his older pieces in the current show, but Olson only brought works created in 2013 or later.

“He had a theme and a plan in his head,” she said. “This show might be as fine as anything you might see in New York. It is excellent. The use of color is unequaled.”

Olson said he doesn’t know how many colors are on his palette.

“I’ve never had that thought,” he said. “I never clean my palette; there’s too much information there, and all kinds of color buildup. I want to look at what was left over and what dried so I can understand how certain colors are made.”

The current SAMA show features 40 of Olson’s work from his personal collection as well as that of the James Gallery in Pittsburgh. They include lithographs on paper, acrylic on panel and canvas, as well as collage “boxes” built on various printed media including newspapers, advertising and posters from Italy and France.

Olson created three large-scale, multi-plate lithographs while working with a master printmaker in Amarillo, Texas. His travels to Bermuda, Rome and the French countryside are evident in his Bermuda, Roma and Tree series.

“The paintings in the show all deal with my reaction to places,” he said.

For years, he has spent summers in southwest France with his French wife, Marie, and their two now-grown children. He teaches at a former monastery there operated by Saint Francis University, and he established a similar art education program in Parma, Italy, 10 years ago.

“I decided a long time ago that I wanted to build a studio and reach out like this, but we all need an anchor,” Olson said. “Saint Francis is the anchor … and everyone wins.”

The university was his first job — and as it turns out, his only one — after he obtained his bachelor’s in art education and master’s in painting from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, not far from where he grew up in a Pittsburgh suburb.

Olson had planned to enter the field of medicine. But his life changed at the age of 14 when his father died suddenly from a congenital heart defect.

“When there’s a catastrophic loss…. you try to make up for it in some way,” he said. “I wanted to do something that was uniquely mine, and I really threw myself into making things.”

He also credits art teachers in high school and at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, as well as his sense of smell.

“I liked the art room better than the bio or chem lab,” he said. “It had better smells, and you were allowed to get your hands dirty. That appealed to me.”

Now 64, Olson has had a studio in downtown Indiana, not far from his home, since his IUP days. He remains prolific, producing 40 to 50 pieces a year, from the 12-inch-square collages to one acrylic that measures 48-by-144 inches.

All of the pieces in the show are for sale, Hollander said.

Olson’s work will be celebrated at two upcoming events, a Wicked Wednesday reception next week and a Lunch a l’Art on April 5. Both require reservations by calling the museum at 946-4464.

————

If you go

What: “The Influence of Place: Recent Work in Lithography, Collage and Painting by Chuck Olson”

Where: Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art-Altoona, 1210 11th Ave.

When: Through June 17. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday

Admission: Free, donations encouraged

More info: www.sama-art.org, 946-4464

Mirror Staff Writer Cherie Hicks is at 949-7030.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $4.39/week.

Subscribe Today