Robert Jessup, painter, Denton
Moderated by Jennifer Casler Price, senior curator of Asian, African, and ancient American art
Throughout his forty-year-long career, Robert Jessup has approached his paintings with an improvisational manipulation of form that leads toward the discovery (or uncovering) of meaningful configurations. In his earlier works, these configurations were representational. Since 2011, the search for meaningful form has gradually led Jessup to painting completely in an abstract style. The desire for the painting to find its own unique presence on the canvas and to settle into a sustained, resonating cord of visual sound has become paramount for the artist.
Jessup received his BFA from the University of Washington, Seattle, and his MBA from the University of Iowa, Iowa City. His work has been exhibited extensively since 1981 and is in numerous private and public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the University of Virginia, Charlottesville; the University of Texas, Austin; and the Dallas Museum of Art. In 2018, after twenty-seven years of teaching, he retired as professor of painting at the University of North Texas, Denton.
What does the art of the past mean to the artist of the present? In this ongoing program, moderated by Kimbell staff, artists and architects discuss works in the museum’s collection, share the special insights of the practicing professional, and relate older art to contemporary artistic concerns, including their own.
The program is free and requires no reservations.
