PULLMAN — The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Washington State University is revealing how color and form can be used to answer the big questions.
The Pullman gallery’s current exhibitions “Anish Kapoor: Dissolving Margins” and “Color Outside the Lines” are open to viewers ready to explore greater themes.
Ryan Hardesty, director of the WSU gallery, said curating “Anish Kapoor: Dissolving Margins” took years to complete.
The idea came to Hardesty in 2021 when he became aware that the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation had 67 of Kapoor’s prints in the collection.
The internationally renowned artist is known as a sculptor, most notably for Cloud Gate in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Hardesty said not many are familiar with his expansive printmaking career, and said he saw an opportunity to “break curatorial ground.”
Hardesty had worked with Jordan Schnitzer, founder of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, to expand the collection that represents years of Kapoor’s printmaking.
The exhibition is, in Hardesty’s words, the first retrospective look of his prints over a four-decade period. It includes 153 works of art spanning from the 1980s to last year.
Hardesty said Kapoor is famous for saying, “I have nothing to say about my work,” which lures viewers to instead explore life’s mysteries through his art.
“It provides a portal leading us to … the unseen, the unthought about,” he said. “He thinks about these objects as ways to get past the object. So that we can think about the formation of the universe, the formation of life … these questions.”
Interwoven into the gallery’s space are works from other artists that also hint at a broader picture, in “Color Outside the Lines.”
Maryanna Ramirez, director of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University, said color can be used as a tool of subversion or to highlight the beauty within culture.
The book “Chromophobia” by David Batchelor was Ramirez’s inspiration for the exhibit.
She said the book argues that color is often associated with marginalized groups. Batchelor notices that wealth is indicative of “beige upon beige” while bright, saturated color is seen in communities of color, LGBTQ+ and women.
Ramirez said she felt this in her personal life living in vibrant Miami, with a large Latino population, contrasted to muted Portland, Ore.
The exhibition includes works from 17 artists across cultures all showing how they amplify parts of their identity through color.
Hardesty said getting national and international artwork to the local gallery is representative of the people who make up Pullman.
“We have students, faculty and staff from all over the state, all over the nation, really all over the world,” he said. “I’ve always felt we should have an exhibition program that matches that.”
Schnitzer said he is constantly showing the work in his collections to challenge the belief that art is for “some elitist few.”
“From many people in all of our communities, there’s some that have the attitude that art is for someone else,” he said. “And the fact is that it’s for all of you.”
“Anish Kapoor: Dissolving Margins” and “Color Outside the Lines” can be viewed until March 14 during regular operating hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at the museum located at 1535 NE. Wilson Road in Pullman.
Learn more by visiting museum.wsu.edu.
Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com.