Artwork Title: Family Reunion

Family Reunion, 1990

Roger Medearis

...He was discharged from the army in 1946 and anxious to resume his art, however, he returned to find stark differences in the tastes and preferences of the art world he had left in 1941. He and his new wife, Margery Schwarz, moved to Connecticut where he built a studio and worked on a new body of work. He opened two shows in New York City in 1949 and 1950 respectfully which were deemed unanimously successful. The second show included a genre painting titled Family Reunion (1950) which was exhibited in the show “American Painting Today 1950-1951” by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After the shows, meager sales began to reflect the reality of the American art market: the Regionalist style was no longer in favor. Instead, the quaint subjects and realist approach of the Regionalists was being marginalized by the growing popularity of Abstract Expressionism. During this time period, Medearis worked tirelessly to recoup his success and briefly experimented with a Surrealist style. After viewing the celebrated work of Jackson Pollock, an earlier student of Benton, at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, he was unable to appreciate the theoretical movement of Pollock’s paintbrush and retired from art. At the age of 30, he left his failing marriage and art career in the Upper East Coast and returned to the Midwest. For over ten years, he neglected his art and pursued a career as a traveling salesman. After finding success in business, he moved to California in 1958. California provided a rich environment of art museums and galleries which inspired him to begin painting again. by 1966, he built a studio and dedicated more time to his art. Again with the help of Benton, Medearis was contacted by Philip Desind of Capricorn Galleries in Maryland. Desind had discovered his work at David David Galleries in Philadelphia while they exhibited Family Reunion (1950). According to Desind, “I couldn’t get that painting out of my mind. For over two months I tried to find some trace of Medearis. I felt this was the work of a young artist and that he might still be living. Then it occurred to me to contact Thomas Hart Benton – the style showed his influence.” A mutually-beneficial relationship formed between Medearis and Desind at Capricorn Galleries. With Desind’s encouragement, Medearis produced more paintings, drawings, lithographs, ceramic sculptures, and bronzes than ever before. At first, he defaulted to Midwestern Regionalism learned from Benton and primarily used egg tempera. Over time, however, his medium transitioned to acrylics and oils and he began to draw inspiration from the California landscape that now surrounded him. At last, his own unique style emerged as he distinguished himself from the great master and teacher, Thomas Hart Benton. In 1976, he married Elizabeth (Betty) Burrall Sterling and moved to San Marino, California where remnants of his final studio still exist today. “Betty changed my life. She pushed me out into the great outdoors. We hiked the high camps of Yosemite, and down into the Havasupai tributary of the Grant Canyon, and roamed the states west of the Rockies.” The scenes of western America became his concluding subject matter, “He was pretty attached to the landscape, and to the change of light,” Betty says, “a few weeks before he died, he was still painting.” Roger Medearis died in July 2001.
Uploaded on Mar 15, 2018 by Suzan Hamer

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