Arts news and views : REVIEW: RIE MUNOZ AT MUSEUM

REVIEW: RIE MUNOZ AT MUSEUM

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Anchorage Daily News

Posted: December 7, 2007 - 10:48 am

'Polar Bear Legend.' Silkscreen by Rie Munoz

By Don Decker
(Published Dec. 2, 2007)

Promotional materials from her galleries praise Rie Muñoz, calling her Alaska's "most popular artist" and Alaska's "most cherished artist." The Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center says she is represented by 150 galleries. No doubt, reproductions of her paintings have been highly successful in terms of sales. She received an honorary doctorate in humanities from the University of Alaska in 1999.

Muñoz has lived in Alaska since 1951, visiting villages and depicting life as she has experienced it. Her approach exploits the properties of water-based casein in a straightforward technique, balancing the white of the page with flat-wash pigments. She describes her method as "expressionism," in that she replaces photo-realism with distortion and exaggeration to project her emotional reactions to what she paints. Unlike abstract expressionists who favor impasto, layering and brush stroke, Muñoz works in flat, even planes of watercolor and some chiaroscuro.

The show consists of 45 original paintings done over the past 30 years, though most are recent. They depict a romantic and idealized version of our state's people, places and legends. In a style best described as illustration, it's picture-book Alaskana, in which people gather under blue skies in pretty clothing - like Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon, without the satire.

In a Muñoz world, dogs run free, barking harmlessly at bears. Even a "scary sea" is pretty. The scenes are light and playful, scripted for feel-good responses. She depicts her vision in a deliberate, consistent and practiced style. The works are planned and controlled, with a minimalist's appreciation for reductionism.

She is an artist who knows what she wants and just does it. Her populist sensibility and adopted technique have changed little over 30 years - perhaps a result of success. There are no benchmarks or detours to be found in the works shown. Her artist's path is straight and narrow.

Unfortunately, the framing is not of museum quality. The colored mats, multiple mats and felt mats with dark wood detract from the presentation. What is the point of four mats of different colors on one small painting? The work should speak for itself.

Muñoz has been very successful commercially, marketing editions of prints, books and promotional materials. Originals are priced at $2,400 to $12,000. Secondary market information posted on Web sites shows long lists of sold-out editions of reproductions. Thousands of reproductions at hundreds of dollars each - well, you can do the math. She was also the recipient this year of a $25,000 Distinguished Artist Award from the Rasmuson Foundation.

The viewer will need to suspend disbelief to appreciate the artistic license taken by Muñoz to represent events. In "Tenakee Medivac," townspeople gather by rough waters to observe the rescue effort as trees blow in the wind. The crew and copter are suspended above as if floating side by side.
Red-orange swirls of paint against a dark sky represent "Northern Lights, Juneau." The town is in daylight.

"Bear in Town" shows everyone coming out to see. The bear spits out berries as six dogs bark nearby. Even the geese are interested. The walkway is white.

In the 1977 painting "Winter Sun, Gambell," the sun is a huge blue and red protrusion in the sky - seemingly enough to fry the local citizenry. Watch out for summer!

A larger, more detailed rendering of "Concert in the Park" shows hundreds of people gathered to perform or listen. Strangely, however, the people in the foreground are upside down, mirroring the folks above. Even a raven lies on its back.

"Daisies" shows a Carnation milk can full of flowers. A tube of yellow paint lies nearby. The small painting is matted three times and framed in gold.

The other paintings are likewise warm and decorative. They have a Grandma Moses quality to them. Muñoz has managed to capture and sustain a popular interest in her work, which adorns so many homes in Alaska and around the country. I tip my hat to her.
If you like your tea with two lumps of sugar, this cup is for you, but I think I'll have a beer.

- Don Decker is an Anchorage artist, teacher and writer.

READERS RESPOND

Don Decker's review of Rie Muñoz certainly piqued my interest as I perused the Sunday paper (Dec. 2). He accuses Muñoz of depicting a "romantic and idealized version of Alaskans and Alaska ... without satire ... pretty ... cartoonlike ... without change for 30 years ..." and being successful. But the most interesting observation in Decker's vitriolic review was of Muñoz's artistic license to defy scale, perspective and even the laws of gravity. I then pulled an invitation off my refrigerator to an art show by Decker called "Works in Progress" opening on Nov. 27, 2005.

My, how things have changed in two years. This postcard depicts an Alaskan, eyes closed, mouth open. His glasses reflect a person in a hood with arms outstretched - Abu Ghraib. In the background are faces in the lower right, including a cartoonlike rendering of Osama bin Laden. There is a large building with a jet aimed at the wall - one of the twin towers, no doubt - and smoke billowing from and adjacent to a person with a hood on and arms outstretched positioned in a very weird way on top of the building. It is as though we are looking straight at the building but down on the presumable Abu Ghraib prisoner. And if we don't get it - because, after all, we are sappy, art-loving Alaskans - the initials WMD are issuing from the yelling man's ear.

Give me a break. Decker's piece is sophomoric, showing a marked lack of technical skill, artistic expression and creativity. Fie on Decker for being guilty of many of things he accuses Muñoz of. I am really tired of his supercilious negativity.

- Chris Campbell, Anchorage

I found the article written by Don Decker regarding the Rie Muñoz exhibit to be disrespectful and extremely narrow-minded. It is obvious that Decker has never been to Tenakee, the village Rie frequently memorializes in her work. He writes: "In a Muñoz world, dogs run free barking harmlessly at bears." In Tenakee the facts are: Big brown bears go into the heart of the village to eat berries before the salmon are in the rivers. The dogs do run free, they notify the citizens where the bears are located by barking and attempt to chase them off. People in town do watch.

I would suggest a little more research into the paintings before commenting. Decker is also very critical of the framing. So does he know who owns the originals or where they came from? They may be privately loaned to the museum for the exhibit. In that case, what does Rie have to do with the framing? Are we discussing the art or the frame? Mr. Decker, the work does speak for itself and tastefully commemorates many events in the lives of small villages of Alaska. If you do not recognize that, then you evidently have spent too much time having your beer!

- Lisa Jacobson, Anchorage

"Barkeep -- another pint of the extra bitter, please."

Sure, Rie's work isn't everyone's cup of tea. But the review left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. It seems like a shame to dismiss a successful 30-year career for being too accessable or creating art with a "populist sensibility." What is the harm in creating art that people enjoy and want to hang in their home?

This review says more about the reviewer than it does about the work being reviewed.

- fsrjl (posted online Dec. 3, 2007)

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