May 31–Aug. 26, 2012
Canaday Gallery
A major overview of work by acclaimed American painter Jules Olitski comes to the Toledo Museum of Art this spring. Revelation: Major Paintings by Jules Olitski brings together more than 30 significant paintings from public and private collections, highlighting important periods and themes of Olitski’s career.
“This exhibition re-examines Olitski’s entire career, not just the early years that brought him to public attention,” said Brian Kennedy, director of the Museum. Here we can see why he is to be appreciated as one of America’s most outstanding modern painters.”
Born in Russia, Olitski (1922–2007) moved to the United States as a child. He first received international acclaim as a maverick Color Field painter, one of a group of highly regarded artists in the 1950s and 1960s employing intense color in abstract formats as the carrier of emotional meaning. It was a pivotal time for Olitski, whose paintings of that period featured bold colors and flat graphic shapes. He continued to experiment with techniques and processes during the remainder of his career.
“Olitski’s sweeping and grand shapes offered a different type of pictorial drama than that of his many colleagues and led to his experiments with very large fields of near-monochrome color,” Kennedy said. “These often enormous paintings became known as his landmark Spray paintings, which are at once minimal yet complex in their gradations and subtle shifts in hue.”
Later, in his Baroque and High Baroque paintings—so-called because of their lush colors and surfaces—the artist accentuated physicality as an expressive element. Though his paintings were staunchly abstract, he looked to the Old Masters of the Renaissance, the Baroque and the Dutch Gold Age. Olitski was a great admirer of Rembrandt and El Greco and they influenced his work.
In his Late paintings, Olitski introduced abstract forms and shapes that narrates on both spiritually charged and classical themes.
Revelation contains works spanning five decades and is arranged in groupings from each period: Stain, Spray, Baroque, High Baroque, Late paintings. The artist was known to paint through the night, often not ending until daybreak, and lighting in Canaday Gallery for this exhibition evokes the atmosphere in which worked.
The traveling exhibition was organized by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Art historians E. A. Carmean Jr., Alison de Lima Greene and Karen Wilkin curated the show.
Supported in part by 
Opening Event: The White Party
May 31, 6:30–9:30 p.m.
Mesmerizing color and monumental canvases will envelope you at this special opening event for Revelation: Major Paintings by Jules Olitski. Members free, nonmembers $20 at the door. Read more
FREE Hands-on Activities
June 1, 7–9 p.m., Libbey Court
From Sunset to Sunrise: Jules Olitski painted throughout the night from sunset to sunrise. Start a painting in the sculpture garden here at the museum while watching the sunset.
August 19, 2–4 p.m., Libbey Court
Metal Madness! In Olitski’s later paintings entitles the High Baroque Works as seen in the exhibition, Olitski used metallic paints to create a reflective quality to his work. Using metallic paints make your own illuminated interpretations of abstract painting.
FREE Presentations
June 1, 7:30 p.m., Little Theater
Film and Discussion: Jules Olitski: Modern Master
Interviews with friends and peers, as well as rarely seen footage of the artist in his studio, portray the superb achievement of a man driven to make art in this 22-minute documentary. Afterward, meet his wife, daughter, and the curator of Revelation for a discussion of their relationships with the artist.
June 9, 2 p.m., Little Theater
Abstract Art and Jules Olitski
Director Brian Kennedy discusses the history of abstract art, then takes participants on a walking tour of the Jules Olitski exhibition.
July 20, 7:30 p.m., Little Theater
Olitski and Abstract Art in the TMA Collection
Amy Gilman, curator of contemporary art, discusses Jules Olitski’s paintings and their precedents with the Museum’s 20th century collection.
August 10, 7:30 p.m., Little Theater
Jules Olitski and the Old Masters
Although always an abstract painter himself, American artist Jules Olitski (1922–2007) was frequently inspired by Europe’s Old Masters—El Greco (1541–1614) and Rembrandt (1606–1669) were two of his favorites. TMA Mellon Fellow Kate Nesin discusses the relationship between Olitski’s paintings and those by the Museum’s own Old Masters, and what it meant for Olitski, himself, to be named a master of his contemporary moment.
August 17, 7:30 p.m., Little Theater
How Do You Choose Color?
An interior designer, a Jeep color manager, and TMA’s Exhibition Designer, Claude Fixler, discuss how colors are chosen in each of their lines of work.
FREE Performances
June 8, 7 p.m.
June 10, 2 p.m.
Abstract Compositions: Morton Feldman was an influential member of the New York School, a group of composers that collaborated with the Abstract Expressionists during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. Feldman’s music, in particular, is strongly rooted in the aesthetic principles of the movement. During three performances in the Jules Oliski exhibition, Karl Curtis Larson will perform some of Feldman’s compositions.
FREE Family Fun Day: Paint-abulous
June 29, 1–4 p.m., Museum Grounds
Paint away a lazy day of summer with this color filled family event. Let the exhibition Revelation: Major Paintings by Jules Olitski inspire you to explore a variety of color field painting methods, including using spray-on paint and your fingers!