Thomas George - Williams Gallery Exhibit

Williams Gallery - October 23, 1999

An internationally recognized artist, Thomas George amazes us again with a new series of extraordinarily beautiful watercolors and, on a grander scale, a powerful grouping of abstract oils on canvas.

From An internationally recognized artist, Thomas George amazes us again with a new series of extraordinarily beautiful watercolors and, on a grander scale, a powerful grouping of abstract oils on canvas.

Mr. George’s work is based primarily on his observation of nature. Over several decades he has devoted his energy and talent to a search for beauty and it’s underlying structure in art and in life.

With a keen eye, a sympathetic awareness, and indisputable talent, the artist brings to the viewer a unique vision of our surroundings. Now, as we near the end of the 20th century, Tom’s intense involvement with nature continues. These most recent works provide an exciting challenge to the mind and to the emotions.

In discussing his most recent work in this ‘solo’ exhibition George comments on his technique and intent in creating the watercolors and canvases:

"From the beginning mountain landscape, the sea and the sky have been the primary sources for my abstract paintings. The color and structure in these work comes out of studies done directly from nature in places as diverse as Norway, China, and here in the United States. The canvases in this exhibition are a further step along a road fueled by a preoccupation with the natural landscape which for me lengthens and grows with the years".

"The floral watercolors in this show, however, represent something new for me. Their color is in the warm, high range. The forms are strongly defined and there is a dynamism in the painted space which is different from the oil paintings. It is easy to see that these watercolors are grounded in realism. Combined with this, however, is an abstract overlay built into the picture during the painting process this gives the finished work a quality which is at once beautiful and mysterious".

Thomas George was born in New York City in 1918, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1940, and studied in France and Italy after World War II. He has spent many years working in Europe, the Far East, North Africa and the United States, creating his unique interpretation of these surroundings in a variety of media. Of special interest to him have been the 19th and 20th century paintings of Turner, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse, ‘all artists who loved nature and who tried to express in paint the essential structure and light of nature’. Mr. George has gained international recognition as one of the foremost abstract painters of our time.

His work is included in many public and private collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, the Guggenheim, and the Brooklyn Museums in New York; the Tate Gallery, London; The Library Of Congress, Washington, DC; the Museum of Fine Art, Lausanne, Switzerland; the Institute For Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ; the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ; The Princeton Art Museum; Chase Manhattan Bank; AT&T, Ford Motor Company, Chemical Bank, and countless others.

Landscape Turns Inscape

Artful Blogger- A look inside the art world of Greater Princeton - October 24, 2011

From the mountains of China to Norway’s Lofoten Islands, from the sunsets of the American Southwest to gardens in France, England and Japan, Princeton artist Thomas George immersed himself in the beauty and mystery of nature for more than six decades.

From the mountains of China to Norway’s Lofoten Islands, from the sunsets of the American Southwest to gardens in France, England and Japan, Princeton artist Thomas George has immersed himself in the beauty and mystery of nature for more than six decades.

In recent years, Mr. George, 93, has come inside. No longer filling large canvases, he is working smaller, but the theme remains as large as the galaxies he paints.

He calls these newer works interior landscapes, or inscapes. “I have found that moving into a restricted workspace … has conferred real benefits,” he writes in an artist statement. “I have realized that my subconscious and my imagination have, paradoxically, more space in which to work and speak. As I have made the gouaches, I have been recalling such natural phenomena from where they are stored in my subconscious.”

The Princeton Area Community Foundation, together with the Arts Council of Princeton, is presenting “Inscape,” a special exhibit of recent gouache paintings by Mr. George through Oct. 26 in the Taplin Gallery at the Arts Council of Princeton’s Paul Robeson Center for the Arts.

Proceeds from the show will benefit the Thomas George Fund at the Princeton Area Community Foundation, which provides grants each year to support emerging artists in central New Jersey.

”It is a remarkable legacy,” says Community Foundation President Nancy Kieling, “that Thomas George is nurturing young artists with the gift of his own artwork.””When I was young, I was helped by others, including my parents,” says Mr. George. “The G.I. Bill enabled me to study in Italy and France, and my parents were sympathetic to my studying art. I had my career, so I want to help young people.”

He has helped several students thus far, and as of the opening, he’ll continue to help more: Ten of the paintings, priced at $1,200, have already sold.

”I have followed Tom’s work with great admiration over the years, from his monumental alpine landscapes, to his pen and brush, and watercolor works on paper,” says curator Kate Somers. “When Tom invited me over to his studio a couple of years ago to see this new series, I found them to be among the strongest of his entire career. Small in size but possessing an enormous quiet power, I immediately thought that the scale of the Arts Council’s gallery would make a perfect venue for them.”

A Princeton resident since 1969, Mr. George has been generous with his expansive oeuvre, giving to the Princeton University Art Museum, the Hood Art Museum at Dartmouth College, the Arts Council of Princeton, and the Princeton Area Community Foundation. His own success as an artist came from hard work, he says. Mr. George estimates he’s made more than 5,000 paintings in his lifetime, and filled more than 100 sketchbooks.

Born in New York in 1918, Mr. George attended Dartmouth College, and served in the Navy during World War II. He studied art in Paris and Florence, Italy, and has lived and worked abroad for a good part of his life. “Intense visual curiosity” was his impetus. Closer to home, he has spent years making pastel sketches in the Institute for Advanced Study Woods and Marquand Park. The artist has had four retrospective exhibitions, including one at the Princeton University Art Museum in 2005. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Tate Gallery, National Museum of American Art, the Institute for Advanced Study, and many others.

Most of his work is abstract landscape. Whether oil, watercolor, pastel, or pen and ink, his choice of medium is based purely on his feeling for the subject matter. New York contemporary art dealer Betty Parsons taught him what he considers an invaluable lesson: “Don’t paint what you see, paint what you feel.”

Design and pattern in nature have captivated him. “The circle is a big item in my psyche,” he says. He repeats the lines, shapes and colors he loves “until I am wholly myself in my art.” Mr. George describes his art as an obsession. “It’s a very powerful preoccupation, expressing what you want to say about the world.”

For many years, Mr. George lived in what had once been a barn of the Moses Taylor Pyne estate (Drumthwacket) in Princeton, with an expansive studio and exhibition and storage space. After moving to smaller quarters, he has been sticking to smaller works on paper. “I have no way to ventilate the fumes of oil paint,” he says.

Having painted on location for so many years, it is no longer necessary for him to work outdoors. The vision is now in his head, and he can sit in the studio, letting the brush do its magic dance on paper.

”Mountains and sea and sky are my subject matter,” he says. “If you do enough of it, you don’t need to be out there looking at the scene, but inside seeing it … If I listen to my subject, it will tell me how to work.”

”When you get older, your ability to go to the ends of the earth for motifs are limited, so you narrow your vision,” says Mr. George. “Old age is teaching me how to let go and thus achieve a degree of serenity … I believe this movement toward personal peace quite often leaves its mark in an artist’s late work … an image can work itself up from the paper into sight and consciousness.”

Exhibition Celebrates Artist’s Gift to Princeton University Museum

Princeton University News - July 5, 2005

An exhibition celebrating the art of longtime Princeton resident Thomas George will be on view at the University Art Museum from June 25 through Sept. 11.

"In 2003, George gave the museum 37 works spanning a 50-year period so that people interested in his art might find a representative selection of it in one place. Titled “Thomas George: A Retrospective,” the exhibition celebrates that gift, which added significantly to other works by George acquired previously by the museum.

Consisting largely of selections from the permanent collection, together with two sketchbooks and a recent ink-and-wash drawing on loan from the artist, the exhibition covers a wide range of media and techniques.

“The 25 works emphasize both change and continuity in George’s artistic development, and the integral role played by nature in his pursuit of a uniquely abstract language,” said Laura Giles, curator of prints and drawings, who organized the exhibition.

George’s great interest has been landscape -- mountains, sea, sky, trees and gardens -- which he has observed, described and evoked in various locations throughout the world. A Princeton resident since 1969, he has been particularly inspired by the pond at the Institute for Advanced Study. He made more than 100 pastels there between 1984 and 1996.

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated brochure that includes an interview with the artist by writer Richard Trenner and a checklist of the works on view.