Corbett vs. Dempsey

Art and Nature, courtesy of Ox-Bow

By Lauren Viera: Chicago Tribune / July 23, 2010

Lucky are those who have had the chance - at least once, if not multiple times - to escape the overheated urban hullabaloo of summer in the city for cooler, leafier environs, even if only for a few weeks here and there. Growing up, the fortunate were shipped off to summer camps in forests with lakes, and they were invited to explore what we were missing the rest of the year: earthy smells, starry night skies, the pleasant chirping of birds and the humming of insects, and some time to reflect.

While I've never been, I'm guessing those who've happily marooned themselves at the remote Ox-Bow school of arts for a few weeks enjoy a similarly wonderful experience: the relief of urban escape coupled with a sense of immersion in nature - and expert instruction in visual arts.

The School of the Art Institute-affiliated Ox-Bow celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, and two local galleries have been tapped to feature works from several of the artists who've made their way to that namesake bend in the Kalamazoo River just outside Saugatuck, Mich. Corbett vs. Dempsey was charged with producing "Ox-Bow Centennial: Historic," which features two dozen representations from nearly as many artists, and Roots & Culture Contemporary Art Center took charge of the contemporary artists.

While these modest exhibitions account for only a fraction of the thousands who have taken classes or held residencies at Ox-Bow, it's apparent from a glance around the room - especially at Corbett vs. Dempsey - that the aura of the place is contagious. With the exception of a handful of interiors, the "Historic" works at Corbett vs. Dempsey are all exterior landscapes. And why shouldn't they be? Picturesque Saugatuck is likely as charming now as it was in the 1940s, when newlywed artists Max Kahn and Eleanor Coen were residents. Many of the artists here use watercolors to express their environments, and some, like Seymour Rosofsky's and Ellen Lanyon's, are expertly preserved, as if they were painted this summer.

More than a few Ox-Bow residents and students visited in the midst of becoming household names, and a few are here. Tongue-in-cheek sculptor Claes Oldenburg has a rare lithograph hung in one corner of Corbett vs. Dempsey's exposed-brick loft space, signed in pencil and, says John Corbett, likely done while Oldenburg was a student of Kahn's in 1950 or so. This is the only piece that looks oddly out of place among the lot of leafy landscapes: Oldenburg's messy sketch depicts people instead of nature.

Roots & Culture's "Contemporary Art" exhibition is much more diverse in content. Some of these names are familiar - Melanie Schiff, who has long possessed the capability to capture in her camera lens otherworldly landscapes, and Aspen Mays, whose universe-obsessed themes might have finally been given ample breathing room under the rural Michigan sky. The two old-guard artists here, George Liebert and Betsy Rupprecht, have both taught at Ox-Bow, overseeing the work of many artists featured at Roots & Culture.

While Ox-Bow isn't exactly a summer camp, no doubt it might have had the same allure for some of its residents. Miyoko Ito, the California-born Japanese painter who landed at the Art Institute after a well-traveled past, is typically known for organic edges and subtle color palettes.

But the perfect little lithograph included at Corbett vs. Dempsey is not a landscape, like the others, or even an abstract typical of Ito. It's an illustrated depiction of her room at Ox-Bow in 1949. There is her bed, a pair of pants laid out neatly on it and a pair of shoes just beneath. A single lantern is set on the small desk to the right. And out the window, an incredible view of the natural world is waiting.