New Feature!

       This week, we present a brand-new feature to introduce you to the artists of The Rourke, to inspire you with breathtaking artwork, and to transport you to worlds far beyond the view outside your window—making John Scott Postovit and his sometimes otherworldly travelogues in pastel a natural first choice.

Top left, we have "Gamla Stan"; top right, "Bridge at Ross"; bottom, "Akershus."

​       His primary media for the past thirty years have been pastel and charcoal. Over the years, his work has progressed to more detailed and complex representational work. Most of his work is done for specific shows, and the themes vary from show to show, from figurative to historical, mythological to allegorical, and cityscape to landscape. The common thread found throughout these drawings are the intense colors, and many surreal and anachronistic objects thrown into the compositions (such as the parade of zeppelins in "Gamla Stan.")

      John Scott was born in Grand Forks in 1962, and raised in Bismarck and Fargo. He attended the University of North Dakota, and graduated in 1985 with a B.F.A. in Painting and a B.S. in Physics. Since then, he has lived on the east and west coasts, as well as a nine-month spell in Florence, Italy. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited in galleries and museums in various locations across the country, including North Dakota, Minnesota, New Jersey, Washington, and California. To date, his art has appeared in 40 solo shows and 126 group shows. He currently lives in the mountains south of San Francisco, California, where he draws and teaches math and physics.

Virtual Tour Coming Soon!

       The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum is pleased to present Artist + Muse: 24 woodcuts by Charles Beck from the Timothy Murphy Collection, an exhibition of woodcut prints by the late artist Charles Beck (1923 - 2017) from the collection of the late poet Timothy Murphy (1951 - 2018). This exhibit and collection had been on tour through west central Minnesota with the support of the Lake Region Arts Council—and we're proud to bring this collection to you digitally this week. 

       Murphy was an admirer and friend of Beck and derived both enjoyment and inspiration from his friend’s artwork. Murphy’s poem “Snowgeese” references and gives direct attribution to Beck’s iconic landscape of the same name:

        Snowgeese—for Charles Beck

​        The flock is whorled like a translucent shell
        and intricate as the tubing of a horn,
        its embouchure, the soft foot of a snail
        lighting on sand, except the sand is corn,
        chisel sloughed and left to build the soil
        from which indebted farmers have been torn.

        I catch one note—a wild, wayfaring cry
        as snow geese splash into a glacial mere.
        Framed by moraines under a nacreous sky,
        they echo in the chambers of my ear.
        How does an ear rival your artist's eye
        that sees what I can only hope to hear?

Our thanks to the Murphy family for allowing the digital display of this exhibition. 

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Visit therourke.org for more exhibitions and upcoming events.