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Examining the personal portraiture of James J. Ingwersen

by Elizabeth Shoshany Anderson, Curator, Exhibitions and Collections, Miller Art Museum

 

The artist James J. Ingwersen is known throughout the peninsula and beyond for his startlingly beautiful portraits. Throughout a career that has spanned six decades, Ingwersen has produced thousands of commissioned portraits, some of which you can see hanging in distinguished places such as universities, courthouses, and libraries. Ingwersen painted more than just formal portraits, however. He often painted his friends, family, artists, patrons, and lovers of the arts in Door County, and environmentalists whose work he admired.

In the exhibition Captured Moments: Selected Portraiture by James J. Ingwersen at the Miller Art Museum from July 21 through Sept. 11, 2018, visitors will be able to see a more intimate view of the artist’s life, as many of the works in the exhibition are from the artist’s personal collection.

The title of the exhibition, Captured Moments, alludes to the technique Ingwersen employs for his oil works, called alla prima. This translates from Italian to mean “at first attempt,” but indicates painting with a wet-on-wet technique. With this approach, the artist does not allow layers of paint to dry in between applications, instead working very fast in order to record what they see. Ingwersen uses full strokes of paint that represent the subject in an unencumbered style.

“You can’t linger,” said Ingwersen, “it’s a high concentration way of painting because you are finishing it as you go.”

This method eliminates any extraneous brushstrokes, avoiding an overworked and perfected feel to the painting. This artistic approach translates to Ingwersen’s pastel portraits as well, which feel whole and authentic but not overburdened with detail. “I know colors better than a photograph can show,” said Ingwersen. “I paint what I know.”

This style is evident within the specific body of work presented in the exhibition. The portraits you will see are familiar faces within the Door County art scene, Ingwersen’s family members, his friends, and those who came to sit at his weekly sketch classes, always held at his studio on Sundays. The personal approach is reflected in the informal, loose brushstrokes and casual sitting environments than many of the artist’s more formal commissioned portraits for which he is known.

Ingwersen’s studio is a veritable treasure trove, a rustic farm-style structure filled to the brim with a diverse selection of works. There exist early portraits from the beginning of his career, works created in Door County as well as during winters in Arizona, of anonymous models done as personal studies, and many portraits of dear, close friends and family. Several of the works in the show were borne out of a commissioned work, ones which Ingwersen so enjoyed creating he made another copy for himself after giving the work to the patron. The love of the art, of the craft, and process clearly show in these, as in all the works in the show.

It’s hard to overstate the impact that Ingwersen has had on the arts of Door County. Known throughout the state and beyond for his portraits, including the official portrait of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, he has been held dear by the community since he took up residence just outside of Sister Bay at his homestead. He was close friends with fellow Door County artists Charles Peterson and Gerhard Miller, and there exists several portraits done by the artists of each other. The exhibition will feature Ingwersen’s portraits of Charles Peterson, Peterson’s daughter Sara Peterson, Gerhard Miller, and Gerhard Miller’s wife, Ruth Morton Miller.

Norbert Blei, an author and friend of Ingwersen’s whose portrait is in the exhibition, wrote of the artist:  “He captures people. He holds them dearly in his hand, his mind’s eye, his whole being while slowly rendering them into art. He captures faces, feelings, gestures … a moment in a person’s life, and holds it there, skillfully in line, in composition, in color, giving it a permanence, a reality of unquestionable beauty.”

The works in this exhibition have an almost impressionistic quality to them, an idea of documenting a fleeting time in a person’s life, how someone appeared for a sweet instant. The faces around the exhibition are familiar, known to many of the viewers who will come to see the show, but also familiar in a way due to the artist who created them. The exhibition is deeply personal, unifying a varied grouping of the artist’s work from an impressive career.

Captured Moments features more than three-dozen works spanning six decades, drawn from the collection of the artist, loaned by his friends, and several from the permanent collection of the Miller Art Museum. These works offer a look into the personal world of a well-known artist. Accompanying the exhibition is a book titled James J. Ingwersen: Captured Moments in a Painter’s Life, by the artist’s niece, Karen Davidson Seward, including an introduction by Miller Art Museum Executive Director, Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead.

The exhibition opens July 21, 5-6:30 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

 

The Miller Art Museum, located in the Sturgeon Bay Library at the 107 S. 4th Ave., is open 10 am – 8 pm Monday and 10 am – 5 pm Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is free and the facility is fully accessible. For more information visit millerartmuseum.org.

 

Peninsula Arts and Humanities Alliance, Inc., which contributes Culture Club throughout the summer season, is a coalition of nonprofit organizations whose purpose is to enhance, promote and advocate the arts, humanities and natural sciences in Door County.

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