35 Year Retrospective

Anderson was, and is, an oil man, and anyone who recalls the fate of the American oil industry in the late 1980s understands why financial support for the residency had to be put on hold at that time. Fortunately a second generous benefactor, Ray Graham of Albuquerque, offered a sizable monetary gift to establish a modest endowment fund to help support the program and carry it through its dark times.

Ted Kuykendall

"Untitled" 1987 photograph

45" x 43"

Over the years many works in our permanent collection have come from the artists affiliated with this Program. To commemorate their importance to the Museum, we decided to mount an exhibit Celebrating 36 years of the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program. Our curatorial staff agreed it was important that the residency's founder be invited as guest curator to select the art, and that is how the show came about. Don, with an assist from myself, looked through many paintings, drawings, works on paper, and sculptures to make the final selections.

Yoshiko Kanai

"Home Sweet Home" 1996 mixed media

41"x25"x18"

Paintings outnumber all other mediums chosen for the exhibit, in part because a majority of artists given grants have been painters. The deep visceral appeal of paint itself is an instinctive factor behind the widely varied styles that testify to that medium's mysterious ability to mean, leaving us then to wrestle over the question of just what painting's particular meanings are.

Robert Colescott

"A Letter From Willie" 1987 acylic on canvas

84" X 72"

In a recent conversation with Don, in his sunny Roswell office, I asked how he started the Artist-in-Residence Program:
"I suppose it might have been in the early 1960s that I first had the idea...but at the time I didn't know any artists. I didn't know how to contact them. Eventually I heard about Skowhegan School of Art in Maine, and its summer Artist-in-Residence Program. It was through Skowhegan that I first met Bill Midgette" (later to be, with his family, an Artist-in-Residence in Roswell for two years). "Bill had gone to Skowhegan on scholarships for several summers in the fifties, before college. He helped a lot in organizing the Roswell program...got us going professionally, and made contacts with artists

Luis Jimenez

"Honky Tonk" 1981 lithograph

35" x 50"

About his childhood growing up in Chicago, Anderson said...
"I was a student at the University of Chicago's grammar school, and high school, in the 1920s. As kids we'd roam for hours through the Art Institute's collections. So, from those early times, I'd say that art has always worked on me."

Stuart Arends

"Surfboard" 1982 oil on wood panel

17" x 24"

Did his family encourage an interest in art?
"Not especially...I was always a loner in the family. In college years at Purdue University I majored in engineering. It was the school's main focus. They had no art classes whatever. Somehow I managed to find a few paint supplies in a janitor's area, and got to work making paintings on my own."

Have artists on the Roswell grant influenced him?
"Not so much influenced my painting as my way of looking at, and appreciating, othe painter's works...They analyze what they've done, and what they want to do. And I've come to appreciate what they say. But, seeing their works has influenced me more than their words."

Richard Schaffer

"East 2nd" 1975 oil on canvas

98"x122"

Considering the Artists-in-Residence works in the Roswell Museum's collection, Anderson sees no one dominating style or individual influence. In any case, we're certain our visitors will be delighted to see samplings of the spectrum of work the Program has produced over these thirty-six years.

Wesley Rusnell
Curator of Collections
Roswell Museum and Art Center
Quarterly Bulletin, Winter 2003, Vol. 51, No. 1

Laurel Farrin

"Artesia" 1997 acylic on canvas

76"x66"

OTHER RECENT EXHIBITIONS

additional support provided by

Jerry Williams

"Tell-A-Vision," 1993 mixed media

25"x32"x12"

© 2003 Roswell Artist-in-Residence Foundation. For Personal or Educational Use Only. All rights reserved. All images are the property of the Roswell Museum and Art Center Foundation and may not be reproduced without express written permission.

Copyright © 2002 All Rights Reserved
Page Design: Stephen Fleming

	a retrospective of 35 years of the R o s w e l l artist-in-residence program January 24 thru June 1, 2003 Guest Curator Donald B. Anderson	Wesley Rusnell "Three Grey Nudes" 1972, oil on canvas 60"x84"
		Milton Resnick "Roswell #8," 1971 oil on canvas 80"x132"

	The generosity of long-standing Museum benefactor Don Anderson's brilliant notion to bankroll an Artist-in-Residence program in Roswell first gained expression in 1967. The ten acre site that houses the residency is owned by Don, and over the years his construction company built or installed its more than a dozen structures to serve as houses and studios. For the first twenty years - until the late 1980s - by-and-large it was his funds that provided artists their housing, monthly stipends, and unlimited art materials during yearlong residencies.	Irene Pijoan "House Guest," 1982 oil, pigment on wax & stone 8 5/8"x 4 3/4" x 3"