Old doesn’t mean irrelevant

Everyone’s saying 50 is the new 30. Does that mean 70 is the new 50? Maybe: As a new show at the Transylvania Arts Council proves, many of the region’s septuagenarian artists are still producing works kindled with skill and creativity.

“Summation II,” mixed-media, by Guntram Gersch.

Coming of Age—A Celebration features the work of 11 artists ages 60 or older. Some of the works are traditional: You have the feeling the artist learned to work in a certain way and has spent many years honing that method. Others project a restless spirit, a perpetual need to find new means of expression.

The smallest works in the exhibit are some of the most impressive. Clara Lawton Smith-Childs, who just celebrated her 92nd birthday, has contributed three small drawings of women. Her skill in depicting personality and gesture with a few seemingly simple lines is remarkable.

There are a number of landscapes, including Renee Williams’ carefully rendered “Ride Down Becky Mountain,” Mary Alice Braukman’s “View From My Studio,” and a moody atmospheric piece by Suzanne Karnatz. Karnatz also has a pastel drawing of a bearded sea captain with a pipe in one hand and a cane in the other.

Virginia Pendergrass has two painterly still lifes in the show, and Tim Murray pays homage to a vanishing mountain tradition with his large “Creek Dogs With Smoke House.” John Allen’s impastoed “Miles” is a dark portrait of the musician—you can feel the beat.

“Young Lady,” watercolor and pen, by Clara Lawton Smith-Childs (age 92).

Augmenting this show is a collection of portraits of Red Hat Club ladies. Three of the participating painters asked the Red Hatters to sit for them, and the results are fascinating. Sharyn Fogel’s “Gossip” shows two of the women engaged in serious conversation: The colors are clear and brilliant, and the brushwork is exceptionally skillful. In Pendergrass’ “Café Rouge,” two women seated at a table draped with a green-checkered cloth enjoy cups of coffee. Williams has created several attractive individual portraits of the ladies, all in their signature red hats.

Meanwhile, at The Upstairs Artspace in Tryon, a show of Guntram Gersch’s works from the 1960s through 2006 gives a wonderfully full picture of this dedicated artist’s oeuvre. It’s a shame that these overviews are such an infrequent occurrence: A few pieces of an artist’s work from a certain period of his or her life can be impressive, but a complete body of work can only be understood in the context of the whole.

A series of works from 1967, executed in gouache on paper, confirm the artist’s sense of color. “Flight” has colors that dance, with black accenting bright jigsaw shapes in reds, yellows, oranges and purples. Simpler shapes—and a somewhat less flamboyant palette—make up a series of smaller drawings from 2006 called “Petrified Thoughts.” In these pieces, the shapes seem to move through a surreal kind of landscape. Between these periods are years of searching. Drawings from the ‘80s are layered: Surface is piled upon surface. The result is never overworked or ponderous, just rich in subtle gradations of rhythmic texture and shape. Movement is carefully choreographed on the page; the chaos is meticulously organized.

The Upstairs has served Western North Carolina well for many years. We can only hope that it continues to thrive and remains true to its illustrious past and its original mission with exhibits like this one.

[Connie Bostic is an Asheville-based painter and writer.]

Coming of Age can be seen at the Transylvania Arts Council Gallery through April 14. (828) 884-2787. The Guntram Gersch retrospective at The Upstairs Artspace in Tryon closes on April 28. (828) 859-2828.