Bellevue Art Museum presents Mary Henry: No Limits, a color-filled mural of geometric shapes that can be seen through November 25th. The 360-degree mural is painted on all five walls of the second floor gallery and provides a rare opportunity for visitors to step inside a work of art. The public has been able to watch the mural come to life as the design was applied to the walls and then through the painting process.
Mary Henry: No Limits embodies the cumulative experiences and beliefs of Henry’s artistic background. Her geometric forms have a universal appeal, which apply to the Constructivist artist’s commitment to total abstraction, while embracing modernity. The mural bridges the gap as it uses the architecture of a new art museum to communicate artistic ideals and methods that began in the 1920s.
Henry explains, I want my work to overpower me, to have a life of its own so that when one of my paintings goes out into the world, it can establish itself with no further help from me.
Bellevue Art Museum commissioned Mary Henry to design a new site-specific painting for the second floor gallery. Henry, who is in her mid 80s, is receiving new recognition for her dedicated and incisive exploration of geometric abstraction and its links to architectural processes. Based on an original drawing, a floor-to-ceiling mural was painted on all five walls of the gallery space. The public was able to watch the mural’s creation in August.
Henry, a Whidbey Island artist, is one of the few Northwest artists whose artistic roots are linked to the American Constructivist movement. She trained with Hungarian painter Laszlo Moholy-Nagy at the new Bauhaus school in Chicago. There she learned how to push through limits of conventional architectural and artistic methods of the time.
Composer John Rahn has created a work of music in response to the painting that will premiere on Thursday evening, September 20th. The musical composition can then be heard at scheduled times in the gallery.
IMAGE
Mary Henry
Bellevue Art Museum Mural, 2001
installation in progress
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